288. INSYSTEM, KASDAGA:
We dock quickly and call for outbound cargoes. Though no one has the cash to leave the system, we do find out there is 110 tons of outgoing cargo. We sign up for it and then dock with the station.It's (the station) looking a little better now than it was the last time we came through here. But the Imperial Marines are still apparently running things.
289. DOCKED, HIGHPORT, KASDAGA:
A Major Rick pays us a visit early the next morning (about 0700). He questions Niles (who seems to still be asleep) about why he didn't report in to him, since he's the station commander. Niles hems and haws and says something non committal about waiting for a cargo. He seems to rub this major the wrong way and the Major impounds the ship.Commander Chin (who was watching the whole thing), while she doesn't seem to find this funny, does immediately relieve Niles as captain and mission commander. Next she calls us all out in our pajamas to see if anyone objects. I argue about us buying cargoes but she refuses to let us have the time we need to do that. She is willing to compromise with me so that if we call when we're inbound and there are cargoes available for immediate loading then we can do it. I suppose it's all I'm going to get out of the Ice Commander. I suppose I shouldn't say things like that, she may be psionics too!
She gets the command codes for the ship from Niles (I have a bad feeling about this) and then does some computer magic to get the impound lifted. We drift free and make for the jump point.
IRMAP MUU to KASDAGA: Activities.
Duration 281 to 288.
Jump Space Activities;Peter puts loops of my engine tape all over his room to catch the verminbot.
Artemus finishes up his elaborate trap.
I practice on the range.
Half way through the jump, about 0400, Artemus' alarms go off. He gets up and grabs the stickygun and finds the verminbot floating through the corridor. A stream of adhesive traps it but also gets one of Niles' catbots. His whoop of victory, though, wakes everyone up and Niles insists he free the catbot.
He spends the rest of the jump trying to figure out how to get it open so he can reprogram it for survellience.
280. APPROACHING THE HIGHPORT AT IRMAP MUU:
While we travel back into the planet, Artemus plants listening devices all over the ship. He records a sample of the sound the verminbot makes as it skitters around the ship. Then he starts to write a program which will listen all over the ship for that sound and alert him when it happens. He also links the grav controls into the program so that the computer will shut off gravity to that part of the ship. Clever.I examine the 'transponder' after Commander Chin goes to bed to see if I can figure out if there in anything else in there besides a standard Imperial Navy transponder. No dice. At least it doesn't seem to have any chemical explosives in it. Anyway, I build an open box to act as a tamper in case it does explode.
When we land, Niles, Peter and I go to the stationmaster's office to see about selling our cargo. It seems Peter has some sort of experiment in mind which might get us a better price. He's a little crestfallen when he finds out most transactions are handled over message boards. We sell the high tech goods for Cr 88,000 a ton (a profit but not as much as I was hoping, not that we really need the money but it's nice to stay in practice). We let Peter hatch his plan when we sell the Anagathics.
So we post a message saying we have pharmaceuticals for sale in face-to-face meetings. We set up a meeting with one of the larger corps. A suit and two gorillas show up for the meeting and Peter manages to find out, after touching the suit, that they are willing to go to MCr 2 per ton. But apparently either him or one of the gorillas is a telepath (surprise, Peter is too!) and they try to bluff us. So we walk out after calling their bluff doesn't work.
We send some of the individuals who were interested a message telling them we still have the cargo and what we'd like for it. One of them responds with an offer of MCr 2.5. Niles and I jump at it but Peter is backing away the whole time. Figuring it might be a setup, we arrange a meeting in the lounge outside the stationmaster's office. A slick looking fellow named Mica Deordon shows up with three bodyguards. We bring the Doc who has a sample. They give us the money and as we are fixin' to skedaddle, Mica asks us if we need any cargo. Niles and I talk it over while Peter tries to send a mental message to Niles. Blasting the top of his head off doesn't stop us from asking him what he has available. But my caution (or is it my paranoia) takes over and I just happen to mention that we don't really know where we are heading next since we're on a mission for Imperial Naval Intelligence.
Now THAT cleared the room awfully fast! Okay, so we sold drugs to a mafia kingpin. Big deal!
Commander Chin finally tells us were heading for Kasdaga again. A few more comm messages reveal that no one has anything going that direction and there are no passengers eager to visit that Imperial target practice range! So we lift and head out.
279. INSYSTEM, IRMAP MUU:
While Chin's techs are replacing the transponder, Peter tries unsuccessfully to engage them in conversation to get ANY more info about Chin. What's she like, what's she REALLY doing, etc.Meanwhile, I try to draw her into giving us the avionics and electronics upgrades I figure we need. No dice. She sees through me. Man, she must be psychic or something!
Niles (of course) attempts to resume his 'seduction' again, with about as much luck this time as last time. He goes to her cabin to ask a few questions. ...
Joe "What are you thinking, John?"
Jeff "I've never seen her with her jacket off, what a nice rack!"
(okay, so that was crude, but the timing was funny!)It turns out that Niles had the data cube she was looking for all the time. (knock, knock, "Hello McFly!")
Artemus amuses himself by designing a drink mixing machine but when Niles finds out what he's up to he refuses to be a part of it. Never one to waste his work, Artemus quickly converts his plans and materials into a verminbot trap!
277. GAS GIANT, IRMAP MUU:
As we move in to skim the gas giant, we get a hail telling us to haul to. After much fruitless speculation about our ability to outrun this ship (it has 4G acceleration against our 1G) Niles decides we should haul to.Peter comes up to the bridge looking like death itself and tells us that CDR Chin is on the incoming ship. As it gets closer, Kaga finds out the incoming ship is an Imperial Naval 200 ton Patrol Ship. A gig separates and comes over to dock.
CDR Chin comes aboard and insists on seeing Peter immediately. He's still laying on the couch in the lounge so Niles (in full regalia) escorts her there. He tells her to go away. She reminds him he could be fined for damage of Imperial property (himself). He pulls himself together enough to report. She mentions some information we were supposed to pick up. We all look to Peter but he doesn't know anything about this 'data' either. The information had to do with Imperial ship movements.
She also informs us that Scout Commander Tobias was arrested for treason (yeah!, okay, so I shouldn't have broken out in applause, but I REALLY didn't like that guy!). However, since his activation of our scout status (both the former scouts among us and the ship itself) was unauthorized, the Scout Service is seeking repayment for the services and material they provided for us. I argued with her that Tobias' action has no legal bearing on our status, we were expected to follow orders and that's what we did. She listens carefully and comments but it doesn't seem to affect her.
It turns out that this is because she's going to use this leverage to hijack us yet again, this time for Naval Intelligence. It seems Admiral Shinkiren (remember Copi and Niles' little "encounter") is wanted now for something. The information we were supposed to gather would have told her about his return route so they could intercept and arrest him.
So now, we in our 300 ton merchant, are supposed to 'intercept' the New Justice Fleet (the ones that trashed the station at Kasdaga those months ago). Peachy. She did give us permission not to put up too much of a fight. (thanks!)
On the positive side, she took Bob the scout off our hands and promised to get him to Sylea so they could do the surgery on his eyes. It seems that Bill and Bob had uncovered evidence of Tobias' activities which is why they ended up on Tris in the first place! (wasn't Kaga the one that pointed out that those two had to have pissed off somebody!)
After she called in a couple of techs to change our transponder, it occurred to me that we would get shanghaied again when we got back so I went to talk to her about getting a complete pardon. She 'promised' it would be arranged upon our return. The promise of Naval Intelligence, I wonder how much THAT is worth?
("Yaphet's charms, they're naturally suspicious." Brand, sung to a popular jingle)
UNKUU to IRMAP MUU:
270 to 277. No Log entries.
267. UPPORT, UNKUU:
Niles manages to get 130% for our cargo but can only sell 20% of it. We see 7 military ships refueling at the gas giant when we arrived.("Due to the Arab Embargo, there will be lines at the gas giants for the next year!" Brand)
270. UPPORT, UNKUU:
There aren't any cargoes or passengers of any sort at Unkuu. We leave for Irmap Muu.
SHAR to UNKUU:
260 to 267. No Log entries.
258. UPPORT, SHAR:
Doc, not wanting to be seen by ANYONE, hides in the box. Artemus meets us at the Starport and fills us in on what he found. The only reference he found to the Jovian-Maltese Spitoon was on Kan, 2020. All other references seem to have been mysteriously deleted.We're going to have to get some serious supplies if were going to go to Kan to do any digging around into this. The planet's unpopulated and (not again!) a desert world. Oh, well, maybe we can get to Sylea and look in the library there!.
The bridge doors open and the verminbot is presently seen bounced off the walls. Later it seems to be pink and limping. (the pong balls from his thud gun have a pink filling it seems)
Yaphet "Kaga, don't turn the grav off in the box."
Kaga (muttering something about 'Not know my name!') "Gravity off, hatches closed, lights off." ... "Gravity on high!"48 hours later after we loaded 2 tons Anagathics for Cr 630,000 per ton and 90 tons of high tech goods for Cr 63,000 per ton, we jump to Unkuu.
251. GENKAA to SHAR: [Game administration here]
Skill Increases:Yaphet - gambling 2 (hahahaha Niles!), engineering 4 (maybe we won't have another misjump now!), mechanical 2 (so, the pizza oven fiasco was worth something)
Niles - gambling 1 (ok, so he eventually learns), equestrian 3 (remember the 3 legged camel?)
Doc - medical 7 (he really can fix a dead scout), carousing 2
Peter - carousing 1 (I think it should have been more and they have the holos to prove it!), wheeled vehicles 1 (they way HE drives!)
251. DOWNPORT, GENKAA:
We get 1 passenger bound for Shar, but there aren't any cargoes going that way. Doc doesn't recognize him (surprising in a system with only 400 people).
228. DOWNPORT, GENKAA:
Doc researches SHAR 1821 (his homeworld). He doesn't find much out. Peter just tries to recover (hehe).Later that day they hear about a ship from Duusikiim landing and they hear rumors of that ship having a misjump due to sabotage. Our guys see a couple of that crew at the bar that evening and invite them over. It is the liner's steward and an engineer. Among the passengers were a group of religious fanatics, the one who believe that God is in jump space. They trashed the ship's drive and brought them out of jump space.
Peter "What happened to the rest of them?"
Doc "No, no, no, what happened to the ones that left in jump space? Did they go all 'string-cheesy' or did they get bubbly?"236. CAPITAL, DUUSHIKIIM:
Artemus & Lorraine arrive and visit the AAB library to research the Jovian-Maltese Spittoon.STARPORT, F'RNOW:
Niles goes looking for another catbot. I protest vehemently so he goes looking for a ratbot for his catbot to hunt. I guess I shouldn't have mentioned that the catbots hadn't caught any rodents. We review the reputation of the factory which is making our crystals. Turns out this is "Pratt & Whitney Interstellar". So we call them to check on our order. That evening we visit a good restaurant and a casino.LATE EVENING, "THE GLOBE", DOWNPORT, GENKAA:
Doc & Peter, after an afternoon of zero G parasailing, they revisit the scene of their earlier successes.239. AAB LIBRARY, DUUSIKIIM:
Artemus and Lorraine continue their research.DOWNPORT, F'RNOW:
F'rnow's navy is a sort of mercenary escort service. They hire out to escort huge cargo fleets (hundreds of thousands of tons). Turns out this planet is known for the ships they build. But lately Zenastu Industries has been making serious inroads in the small ship and fighter markets.DOWNPORT, GENKAA:
Peter (very groggy voice) "Doc, are you covered in green Jell-O, too?"
Doc "No, I found the shower?"
Peter "Why do all these empty envelopes say 'hull patching compound'?"DOWNPORT, F'RNOW:
We found haul space for 100 tons. Niles and I both buy 5 tons leaving 90 tons for the ship. That evening we gamble. I make Cr 5K while Niles loses another Cr 10K. I rather generously offered to give him some pointers since only once during all our outings have I ever seen him win. Naturally, he was rather offended. "It's those damn cards!" I told him he should stick to the dice or the roulette wheel.DOWNPORT, GENKAA:
Peter "Come on Doc, I've got this great thing lined up for tonight. And bring your swim suit."
They end up in a rave where the participants are diving into the municipal cisterns through these dark passages. I really think we need to have a talk with that boy!240. DOWNPORT, GENKAA:
The next day a fleet of Imperial ships (6x800 ton close escorts) along with a yacht jump in. (Haven't we been here before?) Laying over here apparently.Peter decides that the Doc needs a day off, Doc's looking a little peaked. The girls come over for a 'cuddle'. "A cozy fire would be nice." (It's a good thing neither of them have the skills to disable the fire suppression system.)
"No, I'm an Imperial Noble, this is an Imperial navel!" (John, drawing a star around his bellybutton with a sharpie)
An Imperial Naval lieutenant named Johnson, comes by to see Niles. He leaves a holocube for Niles. Doc drops the holocube (repeatedly until it 'falls' in the player).
Peter "Wait, its the Captain, his ID is probably in his cabin next to his condoms."247. BOUNTY, DOWNPORT, GENKAA:
Doc "Captain, one of these holocubes is for you."
He gives Niles the one with the silver border.
Niles "What's that other one?"
Looking down ...
Doc "Oh that? That's Tuesday."We sell the cargo for Cr 7680/ton.
Peter finds something crawling under his blanket. He catches it under the blanket but it nearly immediately begins to shred the blanket. He runs to the lounge and tries to smash it against the table. He drops it and it skitters off quickly. Peter hollers for Kaga to shut off the grav. Doc tries to shoot it and nearly peppers Peter with ping pong balls. Niles steps into the hall and his Jinnan Tonnix floats off. He issues the verbal gravity override command Artemus installed all those months ago to return the G. Both of them are describing the creature to Niles at once. "Its a toy for Spot!"
Peter "Wait a minute, our alcoholic captain is convinced his robotic cat is bored and he brings a lethal creature onboard."
"Why was it in my bed?"
Niles "Surely its not the first creature with claws you found in your bed?"
Peter "But I usually invite them in!"
217. INSYSTEM, GENKAA, ABOVE THE PLANE OF THE ECLEPTIC:
Six days later we come out. A signal comes in. Peter makes his comm roll. Small dwarf star, main sequence star, one giant star. We emerge above the plane of the ecliptic.1524 F'rnow is the capital of the federation this system is on the fringe of.
Enroute (6 days in) I figure out the zuchai crystals have shattered. Peter suggests we watch episode 16 Gilligan's Misjump. He thinks someone has sabotaged the jump drive (he watches too much tri-V).
"Just cross out machine gun and write in jump drive."
227. DOWNPORT, GENKAA:
We land at the Downport. Most of the colony is subterranean. Looking for a parts store doesn't yield much success. The Captain goes looking for a cargo. Artemus goes in search of the crystals. Peter, Doc and Todd go out to pick up supplies. I continue to work on the jump drive.REPAIR SHOP, DOWNPORT, GENKAA:
Artemus calls me to tell me that the crystals will cost nearly MCr 4. He goes back to make a deposit of Cr 750,000. The berthing costs are going to rack up quickly, Cr 150/day after the first 4 days for 20 days. Total cost for the crystals will be MCr 1.5.Peter and the Doc visit a bar looking for action. Peter encounters a five member Swedish bikini team/dance troupe that seem to take a shine to him (He rolled 9 on 4d6).
228 DOWNPORT, GENKAA:
The next morning they wake up in a zero G bed.
Doc "Wait a minute, I'll turn the zero G field off."
Peter "Nnoo, tthaatt sswittcchhh isss tthhee vvibrratttinngg bbeddd."
Peter woke up wearing a leather mini-skirt, absolutely clueless concerning the whereabouts of his pants).By the time they recover, the Captain and I have shipped for F'rnow to buy a cargo and check on the crystals ("they're gone f'rnow" Jeff), Artemus and Lorraine have left for Duusikiim to research the Jovian-Maltese Spittoon.
204. IN ORBIT AROUND EORVIN:
Peter calls for landing instructions and receives them. Kaga puts us down.DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
Artemus remains in the ship to deal with the deliver of the haul cargo. Peter & Todd go to see the sights. Captain, Kaga, Natobi, Doc and I go to the hospital to find out about Bill the Scout.HOSPITAL, DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
We ask the receptionist about our companions. One was released, the others are deceased. Their bodies were recycled (that doesn't sound good! "Soylent Green is People"). Bill had a significant hospital bill. It was taken care of by the government. He is now working on Farm 52 (yes, this is next to Area 51). We arrange for official copies of the appropriate records.DOCKING BAY 6, DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
We leave the hospital and return to the ship. Once we get to the Downport, we are intercepted by the police. They arrest Natobi for a bad debt (see what happens when you miss ONE game session!).21 KM. OUTSIDE DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
Peter & Todd have a breakdown. After fixing a flat, they loose the entire wheel. Peter calls the ship and has Artemus patch him through to the rental car agency. "Hello, this is Peter Chapel. You rented us a vehicle and that round thing on the front has fallen off!" They call us for help tracking him. We discover that Peter is the only one who knows how to track a call, since he's the Comm Officer. Peter tells Todd "Go dig a hole, there's fossils out here." Several hours later they get towed back to "civilization."ABOARD THE BOUNTY, DOCKING BAY 6, DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
Niles calls the police about Natodi. The won't tell us about the details of the charges and won't let us talk to him. He does find out that the grav bike was involved in an accident.BOUNTY'S SHUTTLE ENROUTE TO FARM 52:
We take the shuttle out to Farm 52 to see about getting Bill out. After we descend we realize there's no place to land. Niles talks to someone and doesn't get anywhere. We realize that we will have to buy Bill's contract to get his freedom.OUTSIDE DOWNPORT:
Peter gets back eventually.205. EORVIN SECURITY HEADQUARTERS, DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
Niles and Doc go to visit Natobi. He says, "I have to ask?" Niles & Doc manage to convince Natobi that this all part of some intricate plan to infiltrate him into Farm 52 to help rescue Bill the Scout. The guard returns but Natobi doesn't return and doesn't tell them how much he owes. Niles sends the guard after Natobi to find out what the amount is.BILLY JOE JIM BOB'S VEHICLE RENTAL:
Peter has words with the owner about risk and litigation and recompense. He ends up losing his Cr 200 deposit. Adding insult to injury, last evening he had to pay Cr 175 for the towing!EORVIN SECURITY HQ:
The guard returns and tells them that Natobi has found out all he needs to know. So they start looking into getting Bill out. The guard sends them back up to the front desk where they get all the necessary legal forms. After puzzling things out for awhile they decide we need professional help. They return to the ship to call someone and end up talking to someone at "Onkul Legal Services". It costs Cr 150 for them even to look into the matter (damn lawyers are the same on every planet!). They call back a little white later with the numbers.
- Cr 500 fee for processing ,
- Cr 50,000 to buy Bill's contract,
- Cr 150 fee to find out about Natobi (damn right we're going to bill the Scout Service!)
BOUNTY, DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
I spend several hours and manage find out that the isn't squat going onto or off this rock without official approval and they have their own subsidized ships. So there's no speculative cargoes, no haul cargoes or passengers (surely someone wants to leave this wonderful paradise! - okay, so the cold is making me cranky!). We do find out it will take 5 days to get Bill processed and out.206. DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
Lorraine, Peter, Todd and the Doc take the grav truck out to see the geologic formations. Spectacular from what they tell me when they get back.CASINO, DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
Niles and I head out for an evenings relaxation gambling. I get Cr 10K profit. Niles again proves to be an adage maker (you know, the one about the person and his money!). "I don't understand it, last time this planet was good to me." (Niles)DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
Peter goes out pub-crawling. The women he meets seem to think he's with Eorvin Security. He gets shot down several times.BOUNTY, DOCKING BAY 6, DOWNPORT, EORVIN:
The next few days pass quickly and we pick up Bill. He looks almost nothing like the Bill we remember. We take him back to the ship.211. IN ORBIT ABOVE EORVIN:
We depart Eorvin for Ahmed.
195. OUTER ORBIT, AHMED: We're hailed by an SBD almost immediately upon arrival. Two hours later we're boarded by the Ahmed Navy (stop chuckling Kaga!). Peter suddenly realizes that Todd doesn't have any sort of ID. Niles comes to his rescue by saying "Put him in the box." (he REALLY likes saying that!)
Lieutenant Kotkey, Ahmed Navy, requests permission to board Two marines accompany him. They inspect the manifest and then look over the cargo. They ask about our business on Ahmed. Niles tells them we're bound for Eorvin to get "Scout cargo". Raised eyebrows on several people cause Niles to think quickly and he tells them we're picking up two Scouts with their equipment.
DOWNPORT, AHMED:
Land and disperse. We sell our cargo for 300%. Tidy profit. Now we're pretty solvent (to the tune of MCr 8.9).I sell my cargo for 90% so I don't make much but at least I don't lose money. Niles tries to sell Doc's cargo next. He puts it up on the boards and gets an offer of 130%. Something tells him to take it off and he does. Shortly we get a call from a customs sergeant. He tells us he heard the Bounty was offering up controlled substances for sale. Niles meets "Lynn" who has something for sale. For Cr 3,500 he buys the transaction record. (Have you been raped recently?)
STARPORT BAR, DOWNPORT, AHMED:
Drinking in a bar in the starport, Peter tries to get me drunk. A drop dead georgous woman walks in and Peter makes an attempt. She wants to talk to the Captain. She ends up talking to me because I appear to be the least drunk. Peter continues to hit on women in range and after a slap Niles tells him he needs to be more subtle. Peter seems to think subtle means quiet. She refuses quietly. Niles decides to show him how to do it. "Nice shoes" he says. "Lookin' for a party?" she replies and they leave. And she then returns after a half an hour later (less Niles). She hits on Peter when she returns. Peter falls gut of his chair and she leaves. I pick him up and Doc gives him the marker buoy. Peter says "Cool Gravball!" and begins to charge through the bar, knocking over two tables. The buoy bounces all over the floor.The next day Maanir Likaa (the woman from the bar) visits again. The Doc talks to her and she uffers him Cr 50k. She does ask if Peter is available. Doc gives her his medical cabin lock override card.
She tells Peter she's here to "inspect the equipment" (he did pass her a note last night, it must be something about that!) she drops the note and turns up the lights and walks out. Doc completes the transaction and she leaves. We quickly line up 130 tons of freight and 2 passengers ready to depart in 48 hours. (since we probably ought to get out of here now!)
Starport security visits next and asks for the 2nd officer. I talk to the officer and it seems our missing CPT is three berths down. I take the grav platform to retrieve Niles. Who takes the prize for the evening. He was absolutely convince that was 'his' ship and was clutching the landing leg in fear he'd be left and this was all some sort of sick joke we were playing on him. Damn! I should have brought the vid camera!
Forty-eight hours later we lift for Eorvin.
173. EL-AKIM, DOWNPORT, UUGNII: Lunch at the seafood restaurant. Everyone present apparently gorged themselves (while I was out working!).
I found quite a few lucrative speculative cargoes. We end up purchasing 57 tons of consumeables for Cr 41,600 per. Then I set up 70 tons of haul cargo and two middle passengers for travel to Ahmed. I spend the afternoon making arrangements for cargo delivery and passenger arrival for day 175.
CASINO ROYALE, EL-AKIM, DOWNPORT, UUGNII:
That evening, Niles and I hit the casinoes again. I win moderately and Niles (as usual) loses big. <g>CRUISE SHIP OFF EL-AKIM, DOWNPORT, UUGNII:
Meanwhile Peter is putting the moves on Copi (it seems teenage hormones have taken over!). He takes he for a romantic dinner and a moonlight cruise which yields a certain amount of success (regarding accomodations that evening).174. BOUNTY, DOWNPORT, UUGNII:
Copi comes out of Todd's room, followed briefly by Peter. Peter decides that these lunches are deductable, especially since she's an Admiral's daughter. She disappears that morn ing since it was apparent that Niles didn't want to take her any further.OPEN OCEAN OFF EL-AKIM, DOWNPORT, UUGNII:
Peter goes out deep sea fishing with Niles and gets a larger catch, which I cook up with an old family jumbalaya recipe (to moderate success). Peter goes snorkling that afternoon. (the young man doesn't seem to have much patience!)DOWNPORT, UUGNII:
Doc and I head out to arrange some personal speculative cargo, I get 1 ton of High Tech goods at Cr 52k, Doc goes after a cargo of Anagathics and gets 0.01 tons at Cr 5,200.(Jeff "You know what say, sex is like pizza!" Brand "It's better when it's cold?")
175. BOUNTY, DOWNPORT, UUGNII:
Cargo is loaded and passengers embark. We depart this idyllic planet.
172. DOWNPORT, UUGNII: We refuel on the ocean surface. By the time we finish it's 0200 so we crash (well, perhaps given our group history that might not be the best choice of wording!).
("Uugnii is the nyme of the system, has the planet got another name?" "Yeah, Butt Uugnii!")
173. SOMEWHERE ON THE OCEAN SURFACE, DOWNPORT, UUGNII:
The next day we berth at DownPort. Niles and I begin to look for a cargo going to Ahmed."Can I find a nice, safe looking arms dealer?" Artemus. He gets a pair of new weapons and a set of armor. He then looks for navigation software for Lorraine.
Peter and Todd go sight seeing and Peter finds out Todd has agoraphobia. They go looking for the seafood.
Doc goes bow-fishing with little luck, so he joins Peter and Todd for lunch. Nice lunch.
Artemus and Doc find some reference numbers on artifacts like this one (the Jovian spitoon/Maltese widget thingee). The nearest AAB site is 1721 or Sylea. Looks like we've got another project when we recover the dead scouts!
Duration 165 to 172. Jump Space Activities. Artemus: Healing.
Niles: When the jump alarm goes off he announces "My God, we're under attack! Man the battlestations!" (Peter and Todd run in tight little circles!)
Yaphet: Reading up on recent history.
Doc: Drug research.
Peter: Study, study and study (CDR Chin organizes an impressive looking course in Imperial bureaucracy for him!).
164. BOUNTY, DOCKING BAY, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA: Niles begins to research navigation. Artemus investigates a program for Lorraine to navigate.
"I'll take Todd" says Niles. Artemus heads off to investigate the station. Peter gets another delivery from the Tooth Fairy. The Tooth Fairy seemed to be in an incredibly generous mood, 10,000 rounds of generous.
PROMENADE, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
Artemus finds a pawn shop and looks around. The pawn shop doesn't seem to have much in the way of weapons or software. He ends up in a dead end faced off with a gaggle of teenage gang members. One of them breaks away "to ask for a light". As he gets close, the punk demands his wallet. Artemus punches the punk, who falls back but he gets swept from behind. They pummel him pretty hard. He hears a sort of cocking sound and they seam to have the drop. Rather than surrender his weapon, he toasts two kids with the first burst, but the punk with the gun pops him in the ribs. The next couple of bursts don't do much damage but they scatter all the other kids. He gets hit bad with the next two rounds, but doesn't hit much. After another hit he manages to splatter the punk with the gun. The last round from the punk knocks Amtemus out.Peter and I run to rescue him, grabbing our weapons on the way out. Peter calls Marine Security. And Niles falls in the rear. When we get to level three we encounter three Marine Security Teams. One of them stops us but we flash our IDs and continue the search. Rather quickly we find the carnage Artemus has created.
Artemus is alive but unconscious but managed to take out four of them and wound several more. The team medics stabalize him and I ride with them on the ambulance gurney to the infirmary.
INFIRMARY, SECURED AREA, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
Later that day they're done with him and release him to Peter. His weapon was being held as evidence. Peter takes Todd with him but he's savvy enough not to bring him ioto the secured area.BOUNTY, DOCKING BAY, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
When we get back I find a message accepting our price, but there aren't any outgoing cargoes. Peter discusses the situation with Todd, "Captian, we have a problem, the kid has become attached to us!" "Scrape him off with a razor blade!""You're like a poster child for a disease that a patent medicine would cure!" Doc.
Peter endeavours to convince everyone that we should take Todd with us. We eventually give in and consent to take him with us.
165. BOUNTY, DOCKING BAY, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
CDR Chin returns 0400 the next morning. Niles discusses recent events with her and she has words with Peter. Niles rather gleefully points out the turn of events and all Peter's recent activities. She asks for three hours before we jump. Niles gets Natobi up to plot the jump."This is a Naval Intelligence matter, I can't get involved!" Niles.
Seven hours later we jump.
162. IN A HOLDING ORBIT AROUND THE STATION: We notice the station is still heavily damaged. Some repairs have been done but not as much as we might expect, given the amount of time we've been gone.
It was a day long trip, but we refueled immediately rather than wait for the outbound leg. It seems to be safer that way.
Artemus checked on the net for Greg's name. But no dice.
(Guy decides the station on Kain would be what Gerry would design, very "dos-like". A dos-like space station?)
163. KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
Artemus, Peter and I head to the station master's office. The place looks pretty shabby compared to the last visit. There are airlocks on the stairwells and most everybody is still in open vacc suits. The elevators are out of action (no comments from the peanut gallery, Artemus!). Once we get to the 'promenade' we finally see the children. They are relatively gaunt and hollow eyed. Peter befriends one of them (oh great!) to act as a guide.There two Imperial Marines outside the Secured Area. They salute Peter. Interesting! (I wonder what the bwap put on that ID card?) Peter insists on taking the kid in with us much to the chagrin of nearly everyone we run across. We register the cargo with the station and then pop over to QM to see what kind of price we can get. Will take a couple of days to get something from the open market but we have time. Lot of Imperial Navy uniforms around.
SECURED AREA, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
Next we go down to security to see if we can find any reference to Greg. No luck. But then most of the info here kind of ignores the attack. And there aren't enough obits to jive with the number of casualties. Wonder what the word is.Peter takes the kid to the cafeteria to feed him. Bad move it later turns out when the kid spews all over the corridor. Glad Artemus and I weren't in the vicinity.
Peter heads to QM to 'requisition' a few things. (He's taking that ID for all it can get him!) After he gets his toys, the kid spews all that food Peter fed him. He gets a cabin on-station. Artemus and I head back to the ship.
An ensign calls Peter and tells him the CO wants to see him. Peter takes the kid with him (again). She gives him a dressing down about Naval Intelligence bringing their 'operatives' into her secured area. She gives him an hour for him to get them out. (HA!)
PROMENADE, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
Doc takes Artemus and I to look for the package he left in the postal drop (way back when this was actually a nice place to visit!). After breaking a pry bar, I get a torch from the ship. Relatively quickly we find the package and head back to the ship to examine our prize.(Brand, on returning to the ship, "Hi, I got a mail bomb, wanna open it?")
BOUNTY, DOCKING BAY, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
Doc and Artemus rig his waldobot to open it. For the next 30 minutes I amuse myself while they fiddle with it. After he gets the first layer off (which he wrapped it in when he mailed it!), Doc just opens it. He finds some sort of metallic sculpture alien-looking thing. Jovian spitoon/Maltese widget.164. BOUNTY, DOCKING BAY, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
We are awakened by a marine with a delivery for Peter (his toys). He got a sidearm, a longarm, some small long range comms and (chuckle) flak jacket. I remember seeing one of those in a museum in Arlea City!PROMENADE, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
Peter takes the vest back to QM and reqs some ammo. They stop to eat and spot the Tonton Macou (the secret police). Peter gives up and returns to the ship to do another lesson.BOUNTY, DOCKING BAY, KASDAGA STATION, KASDAGA:
Nothing much else happens. Just waiting for a price so we can dump the cargo and lift. CDR. Chin goes out but doesn't come back that evening. Sometime we might find out what she's up to but I doubt it. It turned out that the bwap wasn't dead like we figured. He just decided he had to head back to Sylea. Like, right now! So he recorded orders for Peter and blazed.Doc and Peter decide to defrost Copi. Wonder what Niles will thing when he wakes up out of that drunken stupor he fell into after we lifted from Irurk?
153. HIGHPORT, IRURK: Doc and I look for a cargo of medicine and/or pharmaceuticals. He pursues the idea with amazing vigor. With a little luck we should be able to make a little cash on the misfortunes of Kasdaga (our next stop in the unending quest to retrieve dead bodies or generate more!).
GRAY ESTATES, ARLEA CITY, ARLEA, IRURK: Kaga pilots Niles back to the family estates. Visits with the family. Niles pays him a pretty penny (Cr 1500) but Kaga puts on the show! The family is apparently rather impressed with his accomplishments.
145. (con't) ONSTATION, KAIN STATION, KAIN: (Jeff "that's tantamount to sniffing a dog's ass to find out more about them" when referring to our Scotch)
1400 the meeting ends. Niles takes off after his catbots with a locator. Doc is researching Bwap pharmaceuticals.
Peter practices auto-erotic asphyxiation with his Scout friends.
I visit Paube and get a few transmitters on cargo sleds and Niles' attempt to triangulate on Spots locations ends in disgust.
That evening drinks are on me. Niles finds Spot in the fresher. Water and catbots are a poor mix.
Peter has a comm to meet at 0500 with the Bwap.
Doc scans the comm channels for references to CDR. Chin and the Bwap. The is considerable speculation but nothing substantial. There is a lot of gossip about Peter, however.
146. ONSTATION, KAIN STATION, KAIN:
Peter meets the Bwap the next day. He has arranged for a little training with the local scouts (zero G vacc training). Biff and one of Peter's scout girlfriends are there. Suit drills. 2 hours of them. Including venting the airlock sending him tumbling.Niles heads back to the ship with Spot in tow. I check with Paube to see if they have any cargos heading to Irurk. Artemus paints anything and everything. Niles makes it a point to let him into Engineering and my cabin (thus begins the feud!).
CDR. Chin reports aboard and Niles yet again tries to "engage her in small talk." She comes out of her cabin long enough to ask us who owns the android. Niles, of course, lies his noble a** off!
Peter "The Quicker Picker Upper" Chapel.
The Bwap shows up a little later. Everyone is aboard but Peter. He arrives via vacc suit a little later.
144. ARRIVAL INSYSTEM - KAIN: Peter mans the comm. The Base Commander hails us. Biff sends his regards. Hailed from shuttle. We all, except for Kaga & Artemus, shuttle back to scout base. Shore leave 48-72 hours. Artemus gives me a bill of materials for the target simulator.
ONBASE, KAIN STATION, KAIN:
I visit Paube in the QuarterMaster. Peter looks up their quarters.QM has slowed down, they're caught up on the paperwork. I visit with Paube.
Niles goes to visit the Base Commander's office. Gossip's about the trip, the Base Commander was concerned about the delay. Tells Niles that there were no scouts stationed at Tris. Niles tells him about our journeys. Gives him the ship's log and his personal logs.
QM Paube gives us Cr 9,720 per ton. The Captain opens the ship and scouts descent upon the ship and clean us out in about 3 hours. I work on getting us the material for the shooting range. The catbots (apparently Nile bought another one while we were in Sylea) appear to be missing.
Evening in the bar. Drunken bar patron stands up on a table and begins singing about the captain. It, of course, is Biff. The captain responds well and toasts the station crew. Doc and Peter notice one of the catbots. I also notice where they're pointing and see it. I stand between Niles and it to make sure he doesn't see it. Peter and Niles both hit on women. Niles strikes out but Peter leaves with two women. Artemus sweeps the ship for bugs etc. Peter spends the night in Zero-G sex aerobics with the two scout women.
145. Next morning we get summoned by the Base Commander at 1300. Misc. comments between Doc & I about betting on catbot fights. Niles takes Peter to Biff's favorite airlock. He interrogates Peter about the catbot fights.
Meeting with the Scout Base Commander. Official scout testimony. Tris. Asks us to id all the people in the evacuation of Tris (Kaga, Bill & Bob). Asks us for equipment manifests on the scout equipment from Tris. Also asks us about medical records of Bill & Bob. We give him the autodoc records. Verifies our mission.
JUMP SPACE, ENROUTE BACK TO KAIN: Group Activities:
Build a simulator for target practice.
- Artemus: waldobot modifications (adding weapons to it).
- Yaphet: spetsdot specs.
- Niles: trying to get in CDR. Chin's "good graces".
- Peter: wandering around wide-eyed for about 3 days. Looks at his paperwork (has a scholarship at University of Sylea). Does the Uhura bit at the comm station on the bridge.
- Doc: puts paisley tattoos on Artemus, then removes them.
- Kaga: putters around.
- Chin: stays in her cabin.
- The Bwap: also stays in his cabin.
Day 7 a klaxon goes off and Peter panics.Arrival insystem Kain.
PSIONICS INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF SYLEA, CAPITAL CENTER, SYLEA: Doc, Niles and I trundled off to the University of Sylea for psionics testing. After we arrived on campus, we fill out the forms. Seems there's a KCr 200 fee for testing. I wandered around for an hour looking for student financial aid. They were of little help. Doc & Niles look thru the directory for cheaper testing. Seems everybody thinks they can teach psionics and charge half a starship for it! We gave up on the idea and went back to the ship.
That evening Nile and I went to the casino figuring to win enough cash to take the test (what WERE we drinking?). Anyway he lost about 10K worth of creds and I lost 10K. And the Doc figured money wasn't the way in tries to romance some bimbo. I guess her name was Lora and she worked in the bureaucracy on-planet someplace.
BOUNTY, STARPORT, SYLEA:
The next morning Niles goes looking for cargo. He decides the scouts at Kain need luxury foodstuffs, but he did get a good price (Cr 3,000 for 130 tons) on it. Doc continued to woo the beautiful Lora. I gave up on the psionics idea and decided to find somebody to build the pneumatic dart gun I've had rattling around in my head for about three jumps (no comments >from the peanut gallery, Natobi!). I found somebody but they're going to need detailed schematics. Damn, that's going to take awhile.
CAPITAL CENTER, SYLEA:
Meanwhile, Artemus finds this Arthur fellow the Prof. had been dealing with and makes an appointment. He poked around a little and found out most of Arthur's clients were academics. I still don't know what the joke does but he seemed to make a decent living at it.
Come time for the interview with Arthur and Artemus took Niles and Lorraine with him. He turned out to be a youngish looking fellow. Artemus explained the situation. And Lorraine's presence seemed to be proof that we had at least encountered the Prof. but this weasel doesn't believe a word Artemus said. "Where the devil is Eorvin?" "Not so far as Vland!" (Slime! Maybe we should bring the Prof's decomposing body back and dump it on his desk!) Sir Niles jumped in and put this joker back in his place. He had to sign an affidavit attesting to the Prof's death. Don't know what repercussions that may have but it had to be done. It sure shut that a** up though.
BOUNTY, STARPORT, SYLEA:
While they were out having fun I got a call back at the ship from Naval Intelligence. (You know how I usually answer the comm 'Yeah What?') Well, I popped to and it seemed that they had new orders for us. I reminded them that we were currently on orders but it seems the two mesh. Then this bozo wanted to caution us that Scout ships don't normally take on cargos for personal reasons. I deftly avoided that splinter mine by telling him that the Scout Service normally provided a ship for said missions and since they didn't and we had to pay the bills, we'd be glad to stop taking on cargos when the Scout Service took over our ship payments! Oh, and the mission was to haul three passengers to somewhere down the line between here and Eorvin.
When they get back Niles had some interesting comments ("Gods tits!" "Looking for an atmosphere!").
The cargo arrived the next day. The passengers also arrive. A sharply dressed Navy type, a Bwap and some local farm boy. Not an auspicious looking lot by any means. It was funny though, for a minute Niles was afraid it was the Admiral (you know, as in 'the Admiral's daughter'!). That was nearly worth all the hassle these merschems are going to be. Turns out the navy type was a woman, Commander Chin. So of course Niles is falling all over himself, absolutely certain he'll be in her pants within a jump. Yeah, right. If she does get in his pants she'll likely come out with a souvenir.
Should be an interesting trip this time!
AWAITING CLEARANCE, IN ORBIT, KAIN: 6 days later we enter Kain. The Scout base is an orbital. Don't think I've ever seen a bigger one (an open structure). Kaga gets us squared away with the clearance codes and we dock. Within 15 minutes we're anchored and they're here to shuttle us down.
After we dock I set off to find a good price for the ag products we're hauling - we need to score a major hit here, funds are running down.
ON STATION, KAIN:
Niles meets a drunk scout, Biff. He ends up in the base commander's office (filing a formal complaint in a futile attempt to dump Biff on Natobi. Apparently he tried to bribe the base commander and was tossed out, into the waiting arms of Biff! The base commander gives Biff instructions to show Niles his favorite airlock.
A quick visit to the Quartermaster turns up a pretty good price for our cargo (over a million credits!). Seems the recent traffic (a battle fleet bound for Kasdaga as chance would have it!) has put them a little behind in their paperwork. Being the generous and nefarious soul I am, I offer to help out.
Niles eventually ends up back in the bar. Doc pours drinks for everyone and Biff ends up blurred. Doc rushes everyone to the medbay, "Medical Emergency! Make Way!" Eventually he puts Biff in a cryobay, upside down with an external marker buoy flashing. This new guy seems to have an evil sense of humor!
The next few days pass quietly as I work in QM. Natobi shows up to help and we put him to work (grudgingly) on data entry.
Despite Niles efforts, the base commander does expedite our overhaul and our annual maintenance is take care of. It takes nearly five days to finish however.
Along about day 4 an inbound 800 ton Scout Cruiser shows up with heavy battle damage. We all scramble to offer what help we can and Niles ends up in the docking bay in a queue to get suited up.
He gets stuffed into a suit and shoved into the airlock. Trundling into the ship, he discovers his tug pilot is none other than Biff! Biff has quite a bit of fun at Niles' expense but we see a pretty bit of trick flying. Using the gas giants gravity well, he slingshots around to arrive at the damaged cruiser first.
Using tethers, Niles somehow manages to snag the most seriously wounded crewman after three attempts and they return to the station.
This ship was part of the Kasdaga fleet. They had continued out toward ... Bellicose (1317 Core), where they got hit heavily (they know who did this but no one is talking). It seems Cleon had sent out an edict against engaging the pocket empires near Federation (now Imperial) territory.
The next day the ship is done. We've got 7 week of supplies on board, a full fuel tank and numerous small requests from station personnel for goods from Sylea.
I did manage to get a few weapons for the ship. We've got two hardpoints (had a sandcaster on one) so I got us a 95MJ laser and took a missile launcher (as a spare, but it takes up 6 tons of our hold!). There were no cargoes to be had (not even anything to haul) but perhaps we can get something on Sylea to sell on the way back out.
I can tell already that this four months will stretch out and we should have lots of log entries to back up the delay. I'm still all for sealing the dead scout in a cargo pod and dumping his decomposing body on Tobias' desk!
JUMP SPACE, EN ROUTE TO KAIN: Projects during trip
- Artemus & Natobi - portable Grav override (so we would have the variable grav defense if someone managed to take the bridge from us!).
- Yaphet - study Grav manuals (next time I won't need Artemus' help to get the waldobot fixed, *grumble, grumble*).
- Niles - drinking Jynnon Tonnix (of course, rather like an immutable law of physics!).
- Doc - tinkering with pizza oven (don't ask ME why?, better than getting shot in the belly I guess).
SCOUT BASE COMMANDER TOBIAS' OFFICE, HIGHPORT, ARLEA, IRURK: Tobias - thank us for bringing his scouts back. (4 months from now).
We decide to ask for more time. Tobias refuses and tosses us out. He got rather verbally abusive and I wanted to tell him the next time we stopped to do a favor for a couple of good natured scouts, we wouldn't and they could just DIP (Die In Place!).
Johan meets us outside. Gives us a pass to get reprovisioned at scout bases. Natobi got a rather wicked look in his eye when Johan explained what we could get with this pass.
Calamari was gone when we get back. He left us a message saying he couldn't wait for us and was catching a commercial transport back to Sylea.
STARPORT, AHMED: Okay, while the others tried to figure out why this Julian Swobe had decided to mess with us and if this corp she worked for had a clue, the Captain and I set up a nice little ceremony to discharge Robert what- ever-his-name-is. I engraved a Jynnon Tonnix glass for him with the Imperial Navy seal on one side, the Imperial Marine symbol on the other and the ship name (faked of course) in between. Printed up a pretty discharge certificate, too.
It did sound like she was just out for some quick cash and this big megacorp she worked for, Romer Industries, didn't know us from squat. Artemus looked into it and they damn near run this planet, so I for one didn't want to mess with them.
I picked up the parts to try to fix up the waldobot. Amazing that it survived the fall at all but it's going to take me a little while to get it back in shape.
I did get a little soft on them so instead of shoving them out the airlock, we gave them enough cash to get low passage back to Eorvin. Must be getting weak in my old age!
Went gambling with Niles before we left and made Cr 10K. Not bad but he was somewhat embarrassed since he lost about that much! Don't expect him to admit it though.
JUMP SPACE EN ROUTE TO AHMED: Okay, so I'm forced to admit that it just might be, perhaps, that the Captain and I went a little too far.
After he got Robert what-ever-his-name-is convinced that he had now been pressed into the Imperial Navy we proceeded to indoctrinate him. I took a little left over metal and made a collar for him. Polished it all pretty and everything. Of course the blinking red light may have been slightly disconcerting. That and the small box I gave the Captain with the red light, toggle switch, switch cover and small antenna. And I guess it might have been a little cruel to tell him it was an explosive device!
Of course that wasn't that bad when viewed against what Niles did. What with the 'manservant' business. Although he did learn how to make a Jynnon Tonnix. Pretty damn good one to hear Niles talk.
Interesting point he made to Robert about us being on a covert Navy Intelligence mission and that's why we couldn't wear our uniforms. Especially since I think that's what they used this tub for before we got ahold of it!
JUMP SPACE EN ROUTE TO AHMED: Things got messy on Eorvin. We all need to learn patience. We made a good recce of the house, but time was against us and we had to act quickly. Natobi and I went in through the back while Yaphet watched the front. The boyfriend, Robert, was easily subdued, but we couldn't locate Swobe immediately. When we found her, she took out through the bedroom window. Yaphet had come around the back with the grav truck and left the keys in it. He went after her and eventually managed to capture her. She is in the sickbay now.
The biggest shock was when I found Lorraine. In what appeared to be the utility room, there was a large black bag. Cutting it open, I found Lorraine's body, or so I thought until she opened her eyes and said hello. The green fluid in the hotel room was from Lorraine, she is a bot!
Yaphet is fixing Lorraine up, she is only slightly damaged, but has no idea what happened to the object. Nor does she have any knowledge of what Knudsen thought of the object or his plans. We have examined her for hidden compartments and for cloaked sections of her memory.
I have been through the professor's notes and am convinced that:
The interrogation of Julian Swobe showed that she is a field engineer for a major robotics firm on Ahmed. She appears to have just stumbled across Lorraine and decided to exploit the opportunity. We are in equally awkward positions. I think we can release her on Ahmed with little danger that she will talk. Ditto for Robert, whom Niles has completely and hopelessly confused.
- he was on to something, but not sure if he was drawing the correct conclusions,
- he was over-ambitious and too ready to connect seeming anomalies
- that we have to find his mysterious editor or agent, who is identified as Arthur. Lorraine thinks she knows how to locate him once we reach Sylea.
BOUNTY (bridge): I say, That was a bit of an offense. The local Gendarmie is apparently nothing but a bunch of callous half-wits with no sense of propriety. My title doesn't matter here in deed. Back in the glory days of the Empire, we'd have had that Rapscallion in Thumb-irons. Beaten! And Flogged! And ..And...And Oh, put in the Stocks or something... Oh well, little can be done about it now. We're in flight for Ahmed, and it's off we go.
It's just as well really, we didn't want the local officials to pry to deeply into that "Stolen" Grav-bike anyway, it would be a bit too close perhaps, and I'd rather not have our names posted on all ports as kidnappers. Oh, dear me. Kidnappers. I forgot. We still have that stowaway back in the box. Now that's no good. I suppose we'll have to drop him off on Ahmed, or blow him out an airlock or something. We just can't afford folks who won't pull their share of the load. Need a stout crew, don't you know.
It seems the lads got into a bit of a spot last night, speaking of the crew. They found...ohh...Whatever her name is, the professor's assistant. Of course they had to kick in some doors, and have a great bally firefight in a suburban zone, and drop my waldobot and Greg's grav bike into the street, but they got her back. Turns out she's a robot, didn't you know. I suspected all along, really...I can spot those sorts of things. Have an eye for it you know. So Now I have a personal Companion Bot, and quite the nice one, too. She's a fine addition to my ship.
Well all things seem to be in order, and the jump appears to be going smoothly. Think I'll have a quick Jynnon Tonnix and then Spot and I shall nip off and see that the crew is well. Have to keep the Morale up you know, good for the men to see their captain concerned about them, wot?
Log Out.
Okay - story mode. I think this is how it all went on Eorvin... Niles looked down at his crew in the hold, and the bound man laying on the floor among them, then he strode into the room with all the presence he could muster. "Very well, gentlemen, the local constabulary has been alerted and is in route. Yaphet, Clean the truck. I would like it to be totally spotless."
"I cleaned it last night when we got in."
"Good of you, still it wouldn't hurt to do it again now, would it?"
Yaphet thought about this, and had obviously already come to the conclusion that Niles was just now reaching. "No, it wouldn't."
"Very good then, I'll supervise the loading and we can get out of here." He turned his back to leave.
A voice behind him, he wasn't sure which, being not very good at remembering such things, said "What about him?" and muffled grunt was coughed out as someone 'indicated' the prisoner with a boot toe. Another voice answered "Put him in the box.." as Niles turned back to the crew, then kneeled by the bound man.
The prisoner, Roger or Robert or something like that, some one had mentioned it to Niles a while back, looked scared. And poor. Trashy really, stealing that cute-girl-who-we-feared-was-dead-but-wasn't-because-she wasn't-alive-she's-an-android. Not a good show at all. The prisoner looked scared, as he whimpered "t-t-the box?"
"Why yes, " answered Niles. "all new Crewmen have to visit the box, sort of an initiation, you see."
"I-i-i'm on the Crew?" he replied.
"Why of course! We're what's called a Press Gang, Welcome to the Imperial Navy." His voice became a command, "Get In The Box!" Niles stood and wandered down the hatch out of the ship, leaving the prisoner to the less-than-tender ministering of the crew as the shoved him into the tight, soundproofed smuggling compartment known affectionately as 'the Box.'
He smiled and pointed and blathered and otherwise looked important as the Port staff loaded the various Cargos into his ship for transport to Ahmed. When they were almost finished loading, he noticed the Gray uniform of a local Policeman wandering up, his eyes casting about. Niles caught his eye and strode forward, eager to keep the officer away from the ship. "I say! Jolly great of you to rush right up here after that call of mine, officer."
The officer looked unimpressed, disdainfully appraising this fallen Sylean Noble who was cluttering up his Spaceport. "I'm looking for the Captain of the A.S.S. Bounty. I need to collect a report about a stolen Grav Vehicle."
Niles puffed his chest a bit, "That would be me. Sir Niles Gray, Knight of Arlea, Captain of this ship."
The cop looked underwhelmed. "Very well, what happened then?"
"Well you see, it goes a bit like this, My crew and I went out for a bit of a night on the town you see, Take in some of the local sights, right?" Niles leaned in conspiratorially to nudge the officer lightly, "A little gambling, Women, you know. Anyway, here's us out having a jolly old time, and we come back in a bit of a state. You understand, Shore leave and all that, wot? So we don't see if the bike is there or not. But I get out in the morning, to oversee the loading-- We ship out today, you see--and well, Sink me. There it is, not there."
Niles watched as the officer doodled on his pad rather than take notes. "Okay mister.":
"Sir, or M'lord in a pinch."
The cops eyes narrowed. "Mister. Your title doesn't matter here." Niles saw fit not to press the issue, and left the obviously inferior law agent to stew in his own misconceptions. All Niles was hearing now was blather anyway, the cop wasn't taking notes, there would be no report, the Grav bike wasn't coming back. Niles knew that last bit already, since it had been destroyed when it plummeted out of the back of the Grav Truck and impacted into the street 65 meters below. The cop finished his prattle just as the last of the staff finished loading the ship. Niles thanked him, took his card, and lied about being sure to contact him when they returned, then he turned and marched up into the hold.
Niles hit the button on the bay ramp as he marched into the ship, smiling as he felt the ramp vibrate as it sealed itself shut. "Gentlemen," he announced over the com. "The police have been dealt with, you won't be getting your bike back Greg, so sorry chap, tough luck, we're leaving now, brace for take off." He strode onto the bridge and plopped limply into the Captain's Chair, reaching for the ever-present Jynnon Tonnix that rested on the little console next to him. "Kaga? Best course for Ahmed, lift-off and clear us out of here." He noted his tunic had ridden up when he sat down, and tugged it back into place before finishing the command--"Engage."
ONPLANET, EORVIN: Okay, so maybe it wasn't the best idea to take that guy before Artemus had gotten there. I wonder if I can find anything in the engine room to get that red dye off Natobi's face. At least I had an excuse to leave before JoKay woke up. Of course that didn't stop me from seeing the look in his eyes after Artemus told us who he was, damn!
Got to get the grapples fixed, damn Natobi, somebody needs to give him driving lessons!@##$*
I heard from Artemus that they picked Niles up from the bar and he had really hit if off with the patrons. Apparently he posed for a pic for a pair of tourists. hehe. He did take the local casino for a romp and won Cr 30,000 that evening. Not bad, maybe I should have gone with him.
Have begun calling Natobi "Captain Blur".
Niles found us some cargos to haul, 1x60 ton, 1x40 ton, 2x30 ton, 2x25 tons, 1x20 ton, 3x5 ton. He signed us up for 70 tons of them (for pickup within a week - don't know if we'll make that given Lorraine's disappearance and all!).
This morning we got a email from JoKay with his fee. Can't say I blame him for dumping us, red face and all. Artemus gave him an extra Cr 500 for the trouble. We also got an anonymous note that said if we wanted Lorraine back we had to deposit Cr 400,000 in a bank account. Damn! Now we'll have to go rescue her and get things shot up. Right after I got everything working again!
Artemus found out the message had come from a public terminal on the other side of the city. He, Natobi and I took the grav truck, grav bike and the waldobot to find out more. Once we got to the terminal, Artemus found out the note had been sent under a guest login but the messages both before and after it had been sent by the same id. Natobi managed to find a name to attach to the userid, one Julian Swobe, as well as an address. So we zip over to the seedy part of town (well, okay, maybe just lower middle class) to recon the place. Small house, front/back doors, windows on two sides, two ground vehicles outside. We watched for awhile and then decided Artemus and Natobi would enter quietly from the rear after they went to bed while I covered from the truck in front.
Needless to say, the plan didn't survive contact. It seems they got in all right and went down the hallway to the living room, where they found a drunk bum on the couch sleeping in front of the vid. But they called for backup and as I was driving around to the rear, Natobi got hit with a shotgun blast through the hallway wall. It put him down and Artemus went back into the hall. I parked the truck next to the door and came rolling through it. When Artemus went through the bedroom door, she had gone out the window. So I turned and tried to kick the back door down. And got a blast in the chest for my trouble. After I kicked the door off it's hinges, she was standing in the grav truck door pointing that damned shotgun at me. I cut loose a burst and dove out the door. Just as she drove the truck up and away, I caught ahold of the stanchion.
Now the James Bond part starts. I climbed up the bed of the truck without her noticing me. I thought I aimed carefully and only sent a couple of rounds through the window into her arm. She passed out and her hand pushed the stick over. Hanging on for dear life, the truck rolling over, I punched through the window to try to grab control. The grav bike and the waldobot decided to let gravity win and plummet out of the back, but not before smashing me on the knee. The left one again (I just had that new one put on before we left Arlea!).
Pumped full of adrenaline, I shoved her to the other side of the cab and grabbed the stick. As I turned us around I saw flashing lights and I commed Artemus and the ground team to get ready to haul ass. I got back quick and everybody, including Lorraine (the only one without a sick look on her face), hopped in. We blazed out of there but Artemus caught sight of the grav bike and the waldobot. With all the damn work I put into that thing it didn't take him much to convince him we should pick it up. The thing was looking pretty grim but I think I can fix it up again.
We got back to the ship and got things cleaned up and collapsed. The next morning everyone wanted to know what had happened so we had to fill them in on the details. Turns out Lorraine is an android (a pretty sophisticated one at that). Had to plug a coolant leak but she was none the worse for the ordeal. Would have liked to see Artemus' face when, having thought she was dead and cold, she opened her eyes and said "Nice to see you."
But the best lines went to Niles. I figured that we should report the grav bike stolen in case the cools found it. But when we called they said "We'll send an office to take a report." Oops. So we have to stash this Robert fellow. Niles tells him "We're what's called a press gang, ... Welcome to the Imperial Navy, ... Get in the box!"
STARPORT, EORVIN: ***** Transcript edit or missing *****
***** Please check with master archives in main computer *****
Anonymous Library Terminal Area on EORVIN:
- No security here. I was hoping for cameras, but nothing visible to let us see what the suspect looked like.
- The ransom note was definitely sent from this terminal. The ID was spoofed.
- The previous user of the terminal was a woman named Julian Swobe. The time is too close for anyone else to have sent the ransom note.
EORVIN, via COMM: Oh, Bully! What a day this has been. Here I go, spending the day making contacts, which of course requires me to deal with all manner of lower class folks. I wouldn't mind so terrible much save that none of these heathens new what decent intoxicants are...Not that I would use them mind you, I mean all these Jynnon Tonnix, those are to keep me healthy, stops blood parasites don't you know. Kept me hale enough when the rest of the men had that wretched flu.
So there I was in this seedy little bar, while Yaphet laid about in a hotel room with his face all scarlet. Ah well that will teach us to use private investigators. Anyway, these wonderful people from the core start talking to me, wondering what an Arlean Noble is doing out in the backwater Styx. Honestly, as though these people had never heard of Slumming. Really, it stuns me where people get their ideas.
But I did well enough, Networking out from that bar to a little Casino, where I used some of my hard earned credits to finance a little white marble on a spinning board. I seemed to do fairly well, as well, coming out of there with twice what I took in, amid the scowls of some of the other patrons. Ah well, one of the benefits of class, after all, is the need to spend wantonly and, oh hello Spot, my dear, how are you this evening? Yessss? How's my my little Snuggiewugglie, Hmmm? Yessss. How's daddy's precious little, oh bother...Log recorder off.
LORRAINE'S HOTEL ROOM, EORVIN:
- Hotel staff appears to be unaware of Lorraine's disappearance. This seems unlikely but have no explanation. No one has tried to clean up the mess in the room.
- It would be simple to leave the building unobserved. There is little foot traffic in the hall and there is a door opening out onto a parking lot screened from the street.
- Someone has turned this room over pretty thoroughly, but not professionally. There is not enough missing to indicate that Lorraine left voluntarily.
- There are curious green stains on the sheets. Am taking sample and will analyze, but am fairly certain it is hydraulic fluid of some type. A droid of some type was almost certainly involved. Lorraine's behavior has been pretty curious - could she be a companion bot? It seems unlikely, but no one has ever seen her eat, and she didn't get sick.
- Am collecting the papers and tapes that are left here. There is no sign of the spongiform object. Was Lorraine kidnapped along with the object?
JUMP SPACE, LIGA KA to EORVIN: I don't know when I've ever been that sick. It was even worse than the last time I got my knee smashed. We were in jump space, three days out of Liga Ka bound for Eorvin. We had stopped at Liga to get supplies. We were down to eating the sludge from the fusion stills we still hadn't managed to unload!
Anyway, we hunted a few local herd beasts to get a little fresh meat. It was tough to get through those damn hides. After I dulled three knives I finally broke out a fusion welder. Of course it toasted the meat a little but it cut through those suckers like butter! Anyway we had a good feed (as paw would say). But there must have been something in that meat. Not long after that we all (all except for Lorraine) got sick as vorns.
I don't remember much about the rest of the trip but I do remember flashing lights and warning horns. After I collected what little of my wits that weren't high as a kite, I realized that it was the jump indicator. We were coming out of jump space without a pilot (nothing new for us in my opinion - smashing up MY ship!). Natobi did get us down without a hitch, though.
The sword poker got up long enough to meet the DR they sent and then I remember waking up in a hospital bed. They tell me it was four days later and I was the luckiest of us. I got back to the engine room and found an ungodly mess. Seems someone was hanging some sort of rail system from the ceiling and had done something to two of the fusion stills. Another still was modified into some sort of oven-type thingy. If I ever catch who did it ...
EDITOR'S NOTE: It is the opinion of the group that Yaphet had attempted to built a pizza oven out of one of the fusion stills. His success with this endeavor remains in question. The railing system he apparently installed on the ceiling of the engine room appears to be an attempt to collide two fusion still together. We are still uncertain what he hoped to accomplish with this.
INSYSTEM Liga Ka/Primary Planet unnamed - Aelph1 Kagushii: Kagushii here, powering up Ship's Boat.
Natobi: Roger. Ready for undock.
Yaphet: Yaphet to Bridge, I'm ready in the port airlock. Powering down airlock gravity fields.
Kagushii: Kagushii to Bridge, Ready for Undock. Sequence commencing.
Yaphet: Yaphet to Bridge, All checks complete. Commencing Lock Cycle - switching to suit comm
Natobi: Bridge to Yaphet, Do you need me to maneuver.
Yaphet: Negative Bridge, you've maneuvered quite enough already. If you maneuver one more time...
Kagushii: Kagushii to Bridge, Sorry to cut in. Yaphet, I'm disengaged and maneuvering to Z +50meters Bounty.
Yaphet: He broke my ship!!!
Kagushii: I noticed - my grapples are okay though.
Yaphet: Damnit. Why don't you get out here and help me haul track down those grapples - they're probably freefloating by now
Natobi: Bridge to Yaphet, Negative - sensors indicate no active objects nearby aside from you & Kag.
Yaphet: Going under the hull...
Yaphet: JeezGod Natobi, you bloody well bent to of the grapples back against the hull. Out gassing from three grapples - I assume I've lost all hydraulics on three of them.
Yaphet: Target object's surface is shiny - there's a lot of reflected light down here.
Niles: Bridge to Yaphet, How long until we can get those grapples repaired.
Yaphet: Keep yer panties on... I'm still moving over there.
Kagushii: Boat to Bridge, Vectoring for a better view. 45 seconds to +20, +0, -10 meters.
Niles: As the Captain of this ship!...
Natobi: The Captain's comm is experiencing technical difficulties.
Yaphet: Tell the "Captain" that it's going to be a couple days before those grapples are any good.
Natobi: Bridge to Yaphet, Can you think of any other way over.
Yaphet: The old fashioned way. Gimble, cable, and amazing Zero-G acrobatics.
Niles: May..<STATIC> it s<STATIC>..
Yaphet: Tell me he didn't straighten his shirt when he said that.
Natobi: What do you need from the stores - I'll have Artemus bring it to the lock...
INSYSTEM Liga Ka/Primary Planet unnamed - Aelph1 Kagushii: Yaphet, are you sure you want to make that jump? It looks like a tricky leap, and it's got one hell of a wobble from my view.
Yaphet: I can make it.
Kagushii: Standing by.
Yaphet: Yaphet to Bridge, commencing to board.
Kagushii: Yaphet, you're coming down...
Yaphet: 10 meters to touch, 5... and <UGH>.Natobi: Yaphet, Report!.
Yaphet: Wooowooowooooow!!!
Kagushii: Kagushii to Bridge, Yaphet touched surface, magnetic grapple apparently didn't hold. He'd been spun out on the end of that tether.
Yaphet: Natobi, don't EVEN move that ship!
Kagushii: Cable is cycling over ship's hull, about to go positive Zee
Yaphet: Ooohoohhhohhhooooh! It's accelerating!Kagushii: He's cycled full around the hull once Natobi - I won't be able to dock because that cable is laid across the grapples.
Natobi: Where's the estimated impact?
Yaphet: How about when!!!.
Natobi: Okay then, when?
Yaphet: About nu...
Natobi: I've lost suit signal - Kag, can you see him?
Kagushii: That is one tough sonofabitch! He's down, signaling he's okay. Hand-crawling towards port lock.Kagushii: He's entering the lock now.
Yaphet: Direct Comm. That surface is covering in ice! Gotta be at least 10 cm thick!
Natobi: Are you okay?
Yaphet: Tell Artemus to get some muscle relaxants handy...
Kagushii: Yaphet, while you're pulling in that cable I'm going to vector around the edge of this beast.
Yaphet: Sounds good. With that wobble and ice, we're only going to be able to dock on the cylinder's short axis.
Niles: Doesn't anybody listen to the Cap<STATIC>..
Natobi: Sorry guys, there must be one hell of a bug in our comm system. Can you take a look when you get back Kag?
Kagushii: Bug! There's no... oh, yeah. Sure, I'll look when I get back. Prepare for sensor relay, active short-range EMS.
Natobi: Ready.
SYSTEM ENTRY, LIGA KA
- Entry 0.000
- FlightPlan Course - Aelph3 (Gas Giant)
- Entry +2.746
- Course Correction
- Entry +6.215
- Orbital Insertion of Aelph3
- Entry +6.345
- Begin Atmosphere Skimming
- Entry +14.370
- Fuel Scoops Closed, resume low orbit, begin fuel processing
- Entry +15.744
- FlightPlan Course - Aelph1 (Primary Planet, Single Moon)
- Entry +29.855
- Long Range Scan reports objects at L4 & L5 points, primary satellite orbit.
- Entry +34.123
- Final Approach to L4, primary satellite orbit
- Entry +34.235
- Flight Record Terminated - Natobi
 |
Aelph 1: Liga Ka/Core 1019
|
JUMP SPACE, OUTBOUND FROM TRIS: We had a tremendous fight at the pyramid. We found a mosaic in the "temple" indicating an entrance to the pyramid. Forcing our way in, we temporarily lost Yaphet and Niles down a passage. Although we knew they went downhill, we kept hearing their voices up another set of tunnels. Reckoning that they the tunnels connected, we left Kag to work on the stone blocking the passage to Yaphet and Niles and proceeded up the other tunnel.
Working our way up a very steep passage, Knudsen, Calamari, Massandi, Yaphet, Lotta and I passed numerous semi-detached columns or atlantides in the shape of what - humanoid squids, spiders, what? We also noted gutters down either side of the passages as we climbed our way up. We reached a second passage, almost a n extended landing that seemed to terminate in a wall, but which had gutters underneath. Kag joined us and we broke through the wall and found a door. Inside was a most remarkable chamber. circular (20 m diameter) with a large opening in the center (5 m). This connected to Yaphet and Niles location. We passed a rope to Yaphet and got the two of them up.
The ceiling of the chamber was supported by more columns of the type we had seen in the passages. The ceiling was domed with a strange object at the very top. Knudsen was very interested in this. Kag went back down the passage for equipment, but before he could return, a hoard a natives came up the passage. Niles engaged several with his sword. Yaphet, Calamari, and I held the door with our guns. Niles and Yaphet were both hors de combat before it was all over, and I had a flesh wound. We evacuated Yaphet on Gary's grav bike and got everyone else out of there.
Everyone else was for getting out of there as quickly as possible. The professor wanted a sample of the object at the top of the chamber we had been in. After everything we had been through, it seemed a shame to go away without it. I convinced Gary to go back in with the grav bike. He drove and an rode on the back. Hovering directly underneath, I was able to cut out a sample about 30 cm on each side. The material was spongy and shed a lot of water - Gary and I were soaked to the skin before we got through.
We don't have equipment on the ship to analyze the spongiform object, as Knudsen calls it. We will probably have to return to Sylea to get a proper analysis. It will be fascinating to see that analysis.
ORBITAL INSERTION, TRIS: I'm glad we're off that planet!
Yaphet and Niles were effectively out for the count, so I sent in Gary on a real slow run with a grav bike to see if he could lift out Yaphet. Word from Lotta was that he'd been shot through several times and was unconscious. Nothing appeared immediately fatal, but we needed to evacuate immediately.
While I waited outside in the grav truck, I got ahold of Natobi and had him hover the Bounty. He called me back in a frantic haste saying I was being watched, and as I turned back he'd moved the ship to hover off the edge of the pyramid field. I saw a dun-colored figure in the distance, and saw movement. Natobi shouted something into the comm when I saw the entire area around the figure explode into a dust storm. Natobi related the figure was about to fire on my position, so he fired off a sandcaster round with immediate dispersion.
When we'd loaded everyone back into the truck, I had the Bounty come over to 1000 meter altitude and open the cargo door so I could bring in the truck at relative safety. We got Yaphet into the auto-doc immediately, and Niles laid on a bed with a med-kit strapped to his thigh. Niles, amazingly enough, was still ambulatory, although when he hit the cot, he was gone.
45 minutes later, we were back at the scout outpost, with night falling relatively rapidly. It appears as though the natives have a quite effective communication system, as the locals around the outpost were ready and armed to give us a go. We scrambled Bill and Bob on board while Calimari and Artemus laid down suppressing fire. We got some of the scout's stuff on board, and we have video of the attack from the outpost. Don't know if they'll think too highly of us running off with their crewmen, but I think otherwise they'd have died there to the natives.
PYRAMID SITE (Local pilgrimage), TRIS: I heard something down the corridors after receiving a squelch from an outside transmission. I slid down the middle corridor to the landing, only to see a crew of natives climbing up the lines we left in place.
They grunted at me as they past, and I heard another transmission from Greg outside the pyramid - something about pilgrimage. They didn't bother me as I slipped outside the pyramid and called to Gary to bring the grav truck within reach. After I hit the deck, grunting at Gary for the kind and generous warning about the natives arriving here, I programmed in a quick call for the Waldobot to rendezvous with us outside the pyramid entrance.
Something sounding like a keening began from inside the pyramid. I shouted at Gary to do something about the PA to cover the sound from the growing crowds outside the pyramid, when the keening just kind of stopped. A short second later, I heard in the distance hollow retort of a pistol shot.
The waldobot arrived on location, so I sat in it's arms and had it run me down the shaft. At the bottom, a couple natives were brandishing nasty weapons up the corridor towards my buddies, so I pulled my pistol and shot two of them with Blur at point blank. The two dropped and slid into the depths of the pyramid, so I reholstered the pistol. More natives were out of immediate view, so I started popping pitons with the butt of my shotgun. The large stone block seems to have slipped down some more, so I don't expect it will take many before that handy plug isn't in the way anymore. As I was popping them out, I heard more gunfire from up the corridors, including the periodic ricochet.
In a single moment of silence, I'm quite sure I heard Niles bellowing >from up there "Get off my blade you savage!". I opened the comm line at my belt to duplex transmit to hear the rush of the natives at the top of the hallways. "They're comin' through this time" Yaphet shouted, as I heard a howl of exertion from the natives as they surged upwards once again.
PYRAMID SITE (Yaphet & Niles recovered), TRIS: Kirpichin!
Lotta and Knutsen were working on taking pictures of some copper door that was half rotted away, and the vertical shaft led right into that room. This is all above the stone that slid downward into place, and that we pinned in place with pitons. There's this long hallway going up at the usual (for here) 53 degree angle, columns along it, ending in this room with this big old copper door.
Once we made it past that door (Knutsen demanded lots of pictures before we opened the door - it crumbled in the attempt), we dropped a rope right down to Yaphet and Niles and brought them on up with a winch. I've never seen Niles so soaked and pruned.
We've got them out now, and the images around here look really odd. Like some very stylized spider or angel thing, maybe (you'd better be stretching reality a lot) some guy in a vacuum suit with a stylized set of tubing emanating from his helmet.
PYRAMID SITE (Inside), TRIS: The mosaic showed a stairs leading up the back of the pyramid, so Artemus started trekking around behind the pyramid to see what's there. Maybe about 15 meters up the Artemus found some sort of entrance. Yaphet was sure he could do something with it, and brought his air-blaster to remove the sand >from the cracks. He pushed on the block, felt it creak, and called to Niles for help. So Niles gets up there, his one hand bandages (like he's going to do good there).
When Yaphet got Niles to push, though, he did something right because that massive stone block just pivoted right down. He and Niles disappeared in a rush of steam from inside the pyramid. When we got in there, all we found we a slick slope downward and leading to a stone block in a downward sloping passage.
Lotta, Artemus, and I got down to the block and started poking around. I got a hydraulic press pinned to the stone and set into the floor to try and lift it. It suddenly started shifting, so we had Greg yank our butts out along the rope to which we were all attached. Lotta lost her grip and sprained her ankle, I made it to the top, and we lost Artemus somewhere early in the pull.
When we get back down to the slab, it's obviously slid back and down. I get up top of it and cut a small segment out to see if I can reach Yaphet and Niles with the comm. I drop a 5 cm plug down into somewhere and steam comes rushing out from the humidity differential. I do get through to the ungrateful gobrats, but they're some 120 meters across and down.
I start feeding cable down to them and Yaphet climbed up some amount until it became apparent the vertical shaft he's in has four symmetrical sloped tunnels coming into it at the same level. Yaphet swears it's a water reclamation tunnel .. if he's on with this, then there could be three other entrances to this place.
PYRAMID SITE, TRIS: The smoke is clearing now. All crew was recalled to the pyramid site, dumping the first orbital run after one pass. Apparently they found what they expected at the base of the pyramids - an entrance - and equipment was needed to clear the way.
There were some bats or flying lizards of some form perched in there, and they lit a flare to smoke them out. Unfortunately, it ignited some of the guano left inside, and between the ammonia and smoke, it was unpassable. Lars (Prof. Knutsen) says the mosaic he expected is back there.
PYRAMID SITE, TRIS: There are three pyramids, one large and two smaller ones. We haven't much data to go on. They are approximately 1200 km NE of the so-called "port". Library data tells us only that:
The pyramids of Tris were constructed by the early ancestors of the present inhabitants. Society declined and only oral traditions remain. There is no firm dating.We're going to try opening up an entrance to what looks like some kind of mortuary temple attached to the main pyramid. Knudsen is impatient and we are all excited. Also a little tense. We don't know how the local natives will react. We may have to get in and out of the pyramid fast. We're all going armed.
PYRAMID SITE, TRIS: Pyramid site, 1200 km east by northeast of Starport.
I located a granite slab, maybe 300 meters wide and 200 meters long to land the shuttle and set up an encampment nearby. As we dropped down to surface, I kept an IR scan running and watched campfires in the local ruins getting extinguished. I helped get them unloaded and the base set up with perimeter sensors until I received an emergency comm from the ship.
Apparently Niles has decided to try riding on one of the local beasts of burdens - something described as a three legged lizard about the size and bearing of a terran camel. Word from Yaphet is he got schnockered on local booze, cut his hand up to feed the survival still, and slapped a fragment of hull patch over his palm. Now he's vaguely unconscious and staying with his new beast-critter-friend while the Ship begins an orbital IR scan of the northern hemisphere. As I was leaving to pick up Niles, Artemus and Greg were heading to the pyramid base with Dr. Knutsen.
TOUCHDOWN, TRIS: Somebody in the Scout Service is being seriously punished. I don't even want to know why these two poor bastards got stuck on the backwater dust-bowl, but Bob and Bill have done it. We woke them up on approach to planet, and let me tell you how happy these guys were to hear from us - and that we had water.
We touched down maybe three or four hours before dusk. The call of water lured Bill & Bob out into the sun to make it to our ship from their plascrete base. Bob hit the shower, stayed in there for maybe 2 hours, so we chatted with Bill.
The natives are apparently of Tekundu decent, not native to this planet. They have a matriarchal society, and the private space around a person is something like two meters. They also apparently have a strong religious class, who rules/guides in the absence of women. After dusk, we met with the local religious leader, asked about the pyramid sites for Dr. Knudsen's investigations, and asked him about trading the survival stills. He was really happy to get one as a gift, and we "shared water" - something of serious significance here. He assured us that as long as we didn't destroy the Pyramids (sacred to the locals) and shared what information we retrieved, we were welcome to look about and seriously investigate.
Trade around here seems to go for blown glass and "yellow sand", the yellow sand we haven't a clue about. This religious leader - Baalbaki is his name - assured us he'd bring some to us to look over for value. Since we got the "all clear" >from Baalbaki, we're picking up and preparing to shuttle the Professor and his crew to the pyramid to begin investigation. We'll be leaving Niles, Lotta, and Yaphet to continue the trade discussions.
INSYSTEM TRIS: Our hold is full of techy goods from Sylea, which we're hoping to sell off to the nomad inhabitants of Tris while the Professor is checking out his site. No doubt we'll have little trouble locating the inhabitants - the word on Sylea at high port was there is a standard landing pad where they always trade, and they're always hungry for goods. From what I've heard some of the more powerful potentates have off-world accounts and amazing underground palaces in this barren place.
I haven't yet figured if there's a way to make money purchasing any local raw materials, so I think standard freight will have to haul us to the next port. Please, hope it isn't Stin! We won't get a bloody thing heading that way.
- Size: 11,200 km
- Type: Rocky Body
- Gravity: 0.62 Standard G
- Orbital Distance: 1 AU >
- Orbital Eccentricity: 0.05
- Year: 0.89 Standard Year, 230.56 world days
- Day: 34.07 Standard Hours
- Axial Tilt: 24 degrees
- Atmosphere: Standard
- Hydrographics: 0%
- Seismic Stress Factor: 5.07
- Base Temperature: 20¡C
- Per hex latitude: 7¡
- Population: 50,000
- Matriarchal Society
- VOICE RECORD: Artemus Vogel
 |
TRIS: Marpi Ka/Core 0919
|
STARPORT, ARLEA: This is a pretty peculiar ship. We've found three secret compartments - a small one on the bridge, probably for a pistol - a bigger one in the cargo bay with traces of packing compounds from an arms shipment - and a third one, we've nicknamed it the box - that must be for smuggling people, though it's pretty spartan.
Previously, this ship was owned by a small Vilani corporation named Nagamichi, possibly a front for intelligence operations. The only serious bidder against us for the ship, we've named it the Bounty, was an odd character - Professor Lars Knudsen. Now that the paperwork is taken care of, looks like Knudsen will be our first charter.
Knudsen - I should have recognized the name - is an archaeologist with joint appointments at the Universities of Dolchinor and Sylea, and a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. For all that, he is a controversial figure. He has maintained through a long series of books that the Vilani were not the first space faring race. He has based this on observations drawn from copper amulets, mosaics, and murals from sites throughout the sub-sector.
Knudsen has two companions, Lorraine Massandi - Knudsen's student and companion - and Heinrich Calimari - an off-worlder with a dubious aura. Calimari is well armed and appears to know how to use the weapons. My hunch is he may have been a special operations officer or maybe an intelligence operative. I've seen the kind before. Knudsen introduced him as a financial backer and knowledgeable amateur - I'm skeptical on both counts.
| ®1996, 1997. Traveller is a registered trademark of
Far Future Enterprises.
All rights reserved. Portions of this material are Copyright ©1977-1997 Far Future Enterprises. |
Joseph Heck
(joe@mu.org)
21 August 2000http://traveller.mu.org/game/ledger.html