Monday, 095-1114: Evening:
Another Day's End
Earliest of the crew to be done with the funeral, they let Aali change out of her dress clothes, then returned her to her cell for continued incarceration. By 7pm, Sekea had dinner at the Order house. After eating, Sekea asked the staff about his pistols and was told the staff were looking for micro-gyrostabilizers that could be mounted on his pistols. He was also given a concept image what his snub pistol would look like. That left him the rest of his evening to plan. Considering his options, Sekea returned to the suite to find himself alone, so he went back to reviewing the computer files. Sekea planned to ask Colinne for help with the files because he didn't have the skills to dig deeper into them and fake the settings that made them work. He also wanted to talk to Mikah too. But neither had gotten back yet.
Mikah decided to have dinner at the Order house before enjoying a massage. She'd also turned her comms off so she could relax a bit. By 8pm, she had less of her evening left to decide what to do with? Instead of returning to the suite, Mikah decided to find a corner table and sip at drinks. Thanks to her Vermene detail, she was often looked at from a distance, but not joined by the other Order members or visitors. She eventually spent Cr 25 on drinks through the evening before finally returning to the suite.
Done testing their modified battledress suits, or in Rol's case, examining the finished work on them, Zimzod and Jocelynn had stowed the suits in their staterooms. While at the berth, a man arrived from the Order house, to return her knives to her. He also told her they needed her to spend time on the range with the Las-Slug pistol so they could customize it to her grip and use. After that, the three returned to the suite to find Sekea working at a computer terminal on something. Jocelynn moved to a table in the suite's common space and started checking out her knives. Jocelynn's specific Vermene detail were quietly playing wall flowers while observing the space, and asked them to sit with her. She then asked to see their public credentials so she didn't have to ask their names. Stil, she really did want to examine their ID's too.
With the two sitting at the table, Jocelynn asked them both how much they knew about the situation and the bounty? The Human didn't respond visually and the Vargr canted his head to the right slightly. His ears also came up in a sign of canine alertness. They both said they actually knew little at all about the bounty. They had been told the crew had a MCr 300 price on their heads, and that Tukera Corporate wanted them protected. Jocelynn nodded and then said that coverage would end when they left for the Lanth system. She then asked if the two had any contacts in the Lanth system she could look up or coordinate with?
Considering her question, one of the agents reminded Jocelynn she was only seeing the immediate and active members of their team. What they saw of the "visible detail" were two agents each per crew member. That was enhanced with more members who created a "defensive fog" around the crew. What they didn't see were the intelligence, surveillance and other specialty teams that handled intelligence, advanced checks and more. There were also Vermene assets who did in-depth intelligence and investigation for everything Tukera did in-system, and for whom covering their detail's needs were just part of the job. And, all this was handled free of charge because Tukera wanted them safe to help them. So, Jocelynn was told they'd have to talk to Tukera and Vermene in Lanth if they wanted that level of help there. And, it wouldn't come cheap.
After discussing that and getting her answers, Jocelynn showed the Vermene agents her knives and asked what they thought? They gave the knives a professional once-over. Nodding, the agents said the knives would do the job, but didn't make any further comments. Of course, they tended to use corporate gear that, while effective, were stamped out and custom designed for them by their management-dictated designers and suppliers. So, the custom gear of someone they were protected was good to be aware of but often vastly different from what they used themselves.
While Rol relaxed and recovered from his "field trip" and having pushed himself hard to check out the battledress modifications, Zimzod called Mikah to see what she was doing? Deciding the honeymoon was certainly over as she saw Zimzod's ID on her comms and rolled her eyes, Mikah answered to ask what he wanted? When Zimzod said he wanted to know what was up and what she was doing, Mikah flatly told him she was having a drink. Nodding, he asked when she was coming back to the suite and she told him, "When I damn well please." Zimzod said, "Well, be that way" and decided to give her space. So, they cut the call and Zimzod decided to watch the news with Rol.
Mora (AA99AC7-F 2 Hi In Cp G 112 Im M5 V) Date: 046-1114
In a statement certain to affect a number of the Sector's markets, Justice Lady Dame Trearba Elgo handed down the
findings of the Sector's High Court regarding charges against BSG Biosoft and officers of that corporation. In
the court's findings, the actions of BSG Biosoft and their officers disregarded sophont health and safety regarding
research and advancement. This finding leaves the corporation liable to the recognized costs and losses of the
survivors of the late Semdem Althuara.
Spacer Althuara, who died at age 47, had been employed by Hortalez et Cie as a skip tracer when he was last employed.
While the survivors and family of the deceased did not argue Mr. Althuara had indulged in Bio-electronic augments to
improve his reactions and capabilities in his role, their case claimed BSG Biosoft enabled his use of their products,
which led to his demise. Key factors supporting the claim include controversial data exposing the fact Biosoft
executives actually paid the late spacer to accept experimental augments even after he could no longer perform in his
paid role.
In the corporation's defense, lawyers argued key evidence had no provable chain of custody, nor could those submissions
be certified as unmodified. One striking piece of the prosecution's covertly acquired vid shows one of said executives
signing the late Althuara to accept an augment days before he passed away. Despite the claims made by the defense, and
the extremely successful firm Tenkiminnen, Wuaqiocert and Bicechuor, the High Court found the evidence credible and
admissible. Per Imperial law, the corporation will be allowed a period of five months to gather data for, and submit
an appeal. At the same time, successor charges have been placed against those officers and staff of the corporation
this decision states were liable for the acts. As this trial winds down, trials based on those new charges are just
now beginning. 
Tureded (C465540-9 Ag Ni G 614 Im M3 V) Date: 036-1114
After the live-fire incident between Spinward Development Corporation ships and Vermene gunships in-system, Subsector
Admiral Onhin Vanpua said she had met with Planetary Navy Admiral Alchelmi Rilshaev. Both formations pooled resources
to create a security flotilla supervising operational space near Tureded's main stations serving the port upgrade. At
the same time, an Imperial Naval patrol that had entered the system moved to secure those Vermene ships at fault for
opening fire. At the same time, a task force mandated by the system Marquis, Baron Vaan Praygo moved to prevent
interaction with any of the Spinward Development Corp. ships currently isolated and under investigation. Responding
to that act, Admiral Daannuur Ikuur Khurkaar(Imperial Navy, Retired) sent a protest to the Subsector Senate asking for
relief on behalf of SDC.
Marquis Baron Vaan Praygo had also sent official statements to the Subsector Senate. He worked with a teams under
Planetary President Irsha Gashsi Lakishu, who'd called in the minister in his cabinet managing their primary system
station. The President's military officers ordered their assets to also secure all Spinward Development Corp. assets
in-system. While the officers from the Vermene ships were also taken into custody, Tukera asked to handle their
punishment. Refusing that, the Marquis was happy to let the Tureded system's Justice Ministry deal with those
deliberations. At the same time, the Imperial Legate and naval command backed the Marquis until things settled. The
Marquis made it clear he wanted to both hold the SDC assets in-system "frozen in place" and to cost that corporation
as much as he could in violated schedules and operations.
As the situation in the Tureded system escalates, authorities in the Ghandi system have confirmed corporate offices
here in Ghandi have received orders from both SDC and Tukera to isolate and limit interaction with their opposing
corporate entities. Both corporate units in-system seem to have taken a conservative stance according to observers.
However naval observers note the locally assigned Vermene craft have a higher level of readiness. TAS observers have
tracked this stance and made certain their connections within naval units are alert to changes in the situation. Along
side this tension, Count Kybe Sokne announced a number of security measures to reduce the chance of what he called a
wild fire incident in Ghandi system.
First, and given the structure of Ghandi's system government, the Count stated that any commercial ship which made use
of ship-to-ship weapons would be seized and later auctioned with all contents aboard! TAS added that such actions would
cover what is left of such a vessel of the ship's crew attempted to defend themselves from, or flee, the system's law
enforcement or military assets. When asked if the Imperial Navy would support such actions, Admiral Irsiismi only said
he would order his command to come to the aid of any Planetary or Subsector navy craft or position which came under fire.
Not to mention responding to defend any innocent civilians brought under fire. This reported adds that there would
likely be no survivors if any craft took any Imperial Naval crew or asset under fire. Intentionally or accidentally.
Ghandi (B211455-A N Ni Ic G 303 Im F8 V M3 D) Date: 094-1114
As released previously, Sir Dovid Fensane, of the TAS reporting staff, had been granted an interview by the Lady Aadshur
Kurdig Maur Ishnush Agka on the subject of the IMV Upgrade, the King George and events in the Tremous Dex system after the
liner had emerged from misjump. Initially, Lady Agka had discussed the excitement and expectations on boarding the liner in
the Lanth system. it was noted by this reported that the emotions Lady Agka now mentioned were not reflected in Her
Ladyship's eyes, given the moderating experiences she'd suffered since that day. Still, she described, as many who survive
a misjump do, the wonderful events before a wave of sickness and other effects washed over the liner and those aboard.
Lady Agka then spent some time answering questions on the continually worsening conditions aboard the liner, which can be
seen in the full text of this report.
The next part of the interview covered questions about Her ladyship's experiences as she was captured by pirates from the
Tremous Dex system who'd boarded the King George intent on looting and, per Her Ladyship's experiences, slaving. This writer
thanks Her Ladyship for her forthright response to very personal experiences as she and others were captured by those they
thought were rescuers. Groups of survivors were herded off the dying liner and eventually split into batches and forced
from one ship to another as their circumstances became more clear. From Holiday-1114, Lady Agka and a handful of women who
had worked for the liner had fallen into the hands of a man known to be a pirate by the Imperial Navy only by the name
"Simljan". Sir Fensane then added that this pirate had led a four-ship flotilla at the time of Lady Agka's capture and she
remained in pirate hands until the 53rd day of the year.
During her incarceration, Lady Agka hid her noble identity while she and the other women held with her were raped and suffered
other horrific treatments. Her Ladyship was also able to testify to the capture and removal of other groups of passengers and
liner employees onto other ships, and could not easily say where any of those she encountered ended up. During her time as a
captive, she realized a "change of command" had occurred when a man who'd been a lesser lieutenant of Simljan seemed to take full
charge and she was dragged aboard yet another ship along with the ladies. This had been done in some haste and the conversation
she'd overheard suggested some danger and that they were in fact fleeing the space. Sir Fensane felt this coincided with the
arrival of either Imperial or Ardeni forces and suspected the latter.
While such details were normally not shared with prisoners aboard any craft, Lady Agka assumed that had been when the ship she
was held aboard, the Rumen, had made its jump from Tremous Dex to the Denotam system. From the start, it appeared to Lady Agka
that things had not gone well for the pirate crew. Her Ladyship had only later learned they had tried to lie their way into
Imperial space claiming to be a merchanter crew fleeing the Tremous Dex system. Her Ladyship then discussed being concerned
when someone in a suit of battledress entered their compartment. Especially since the battledress suit was not properly marked
up and regimented as would have been that of a proper Imperial trooper. Still, that had been when she met Dame Jocelynn Guerrek,
who secured the prisoners against any further harm. She later met Lady Mikah and managed to spend some time with Lady Mikah's
crew before formally chartering their ship to bring her back to the Lanth system.
Having spent considerable time with Lady Mikah and her crew, Lady Agka could only describe them as an unusual set of "unique
persons" in her experience. having chosen to spend time with the crew on Denotam, instead of renting a hotel suite, Lady Agka
described them as hardly family and often fractious. Not hard drinkers and certainly professionals who could come together in
a scrap. Lady Agka found their strange links to members of the Imperial High Nobility of note, and did admit to being in at
least two meetings with Arch Duke Norris. One of which included Prince Lucan! And Her Ladyship's comments on the stories she
was told of their adventures were as uniquely surprising as the crew themselves. Still, on many details of those stories, Lady
Agka chose to keep to the honor of conversations she didn't consider public. She did admit that she was glad Lady Mikah and her
people had come to both Tremous Dex and Denotam when they had. And, from her experiences watching Lady Mikah with the pirate
crew of the Rumen. she would advise that Lady Mikah was no one you wanted to deal with after you'd crossed her.
Mora (AA99AC7-F 2 Hi In Cp G 112 Im M5 V) Date: 047-1114
Executives from the mega-corporations General Products and Astroburgers have been called into the sector court due to
investigations of their new Gen-Mod Protein snack offering sold under the name "Sentient Snacks". These claimed snacks have
created quite a reaction as they hit test markets in the Spinward Markets. The items claimed as healthy protein are sub-micro-
genetically engineered groat stem cells implanted with modified nanodrugs and bio-reactive components to create small living
entities with basic consciousness! Originally developed as novelty items for the ultra-wealthy, 'Sentient Snacks' represent
a disturbing fusion of biotechnology and culinary indulgence!
Each snack has the appearance of a miniature humanoid or animal-shaped morsel, roughly the size of a large appetizer. They
possess rudimentary intelligence, basic sensory capabilities and the ability to communicate through simple speech, text messages
or radio transmissions. The latter two thanks to generic miniature electronics in a pouch separate from the snacks themselves.
The snacks are programmed with an odd quirk so they actually find being consumed pleasurable. A twisted bit of coding that is
supposed to make the entire experience less traumatic for both parties involved.
Despite their small size, the creatures exhibit remarkable survival capabilities. They require no traditional life support,
can process toxins, and have enhanced sensory abilities. Some are reported to have even developed rudimentary cooking skills,
leading to the surreal sight of a sentient food item trying to prepare and season itself for optimal consumption. The snacks
often display personality quirks, like cracking jokes while being prepared for serving, or making reservations for themselves
to be served. Or making elaborate escape plans that usually end with them walking directly back to the kitchen. Their existence
raises uncomfortable ethical questions about consciousness, consumption, and the lengths to which technology can blur the lines
between food and life.
Most of the systems in which they are being tested have banned their production or sale, while black market demand remains high
among collectors and those with...unusual appetites. The reaction to this sudden and mostly horrific product has shot the
investigations clear to the Sector Courts. An initial decision handed down on an emergency basis has banned all sales of the
product and authorized investigators from the Imperial Ministry of Justice to cross lines of local jurisdiction to act against
organizations or individuals violating the ban. Both the leadership of Astroburgers and General Products within the Spinward
Marches have agreed to submit to the court's ban until the case has been dealt with.
After 9pm, Aiden, Fesic and Colinne started returning from the Order house after the techs measured and tested the use of their weapons so they could be sculpted for custom use. Colinne would return the next day to let them test her use of her gauss pistol, Aiden his sniper rifle and Jocelynn her LasSlug pistol. Those three were back in the suite by 9:30, and relaxed with the rest of the crew. Fesic was horrified and outraged by the idea of 'sentient snacks', but there was no testing of them in the system or even in the subsector. Along with that, it seemed the courts and many governments where they were being released agreed with Fesic. Indeed, almost everywhere they'd been released, the news had said they seemed to face immediate and total bans pending the actions of the Sector courts.
With most of the crew returning, while Mikah was still drinking at the Order house, Aiden suggested they do stent training or play poker. Colinne said she was up for stent training and Rol agreed to take part in that. Fesic and Sekea were still within their week of recovery and couldn't use their stents until the 99th day of the year. Still, the others with stents took part while Sekea waited for Mikah to get back from the Order house. When she did, he asked if they should try fire with fire in fighting the bounties on their head. Hearing the question, Mikah told Sekea to speak to Rol about his idea because she'd put him in charge of dealing with the bounty and all issues related to it.
When Jocelynn also stepped up to talk, Mikah asked what she needed? Jocelynn asked if she could see the data they had from the Stepozhevaci files? Jocelynn thanked Mikah when she passed her a link to where the files were on the ship's computer. Jocelynn also said she had an idea, and planned to comb through those data and find references to who Stepozhevac's friends and allies were? Mikah waived her forward and told her to enjoy herself before she went to her bedroom and went to sleep.
When Jocelynn connected to the ship's computer and looked at the data, she was reminded this was an image from the personal computer of a national leader. The files didn't have neat labels drawing her eye to exactly what she wanted. She could see a good number of the directories were likely filled with personal data that wasn't official. Despite that, the personal files could easily have notes about official events, connections with friends from other worlds or nations or other random data. All she could confirm in the moment was that there was a lot of data. Jocelynn could see she faced a massive amount of work.
Considering the challenge, Jocelynn decided she'd have to section the files into groups and then break down each to see what would or not have any data. She regretted she didn't have the mad skills Colinne would have to set up a data mining engine. While those wouldn't work quickly, they would dig deep and give guidance where to look. Jocelynn planned to do what she could with her skills, until she found something she had to ask Colinne to help with. Jocelynn knew she'd have to explain to Rol what she was doing, since Mikah put him in charge of the investigation. But he was involved in the stent practice Jocelynn had not joined in on. Jocelynn planned to spend the next week finding some direction where to look?
While Jocelynn worked, she not only looked to see if Rol was available but noticed Sekea was also looking at Rol. Deciding to connect dots, Jocelynn got Sekea's attention and told him about Mikah's Stepozhevaci computer files. They then talked about the Councilor from which Mikah got the files from and jumped to a number of conclusions. Jocelynn first suggested "that" Councilor had been the one to put the bounty on that. In fact, Mikah had stolen the files back in 1112, and the nation of Stepozhevac hadn't collapsed until late 1113. That meant the Councilor who set up the bounty "could have been" the same man Mikah had saved and robbed. Or any of the other Councilors.
Jocelynn also suggested the Councilor who'd set them up had died after doing that. But they had no information if that Councilor had 'escaped with their retirement fund' or not? They had no data on anything. That meant the Councilor could actually still be managing the bounty, or have asked a friend or ally to handle it. Because of that, Jocelynn had to work to refine her assumptions before continuing. Still, the stent practice ended while they talked and Rol was available so Jocelynn explained the files from Mikah and what she planned to do with the data. As he listened to her, Rol remembered the computer and files, and that they'd supposedly turned that all over to IRIS on Rhylanor. Which meant they'd lied to IRIS...
Reacting to Jocelynn's words, Rol first tried to remind her and Sekea that the files were "very old", but he was wrong. The files were only nearly two years old, and quite valid in an interstellar universe where events often took years to communicate. Added to that, they had been valid enough for Colinne to locate accounts to drain of MCr 500 for the ship, not to mention other funds sent to charities, within the last months. Despite the fact those funds were listed in the ship's account, the actual financial transfers had likely only reached banks in the Rhylanor subsector. That said, Rol knew the files could be as helpful in finding something out as they could be in getting them all shot by IRIS.
Still on the local level, Rol knew Colinne had to deal with the data needs for Tukera. He accepted that Jocelynn had a very good idea. And he looked forward to have a list of people and groups they could check out. But he suggested Jocelynn wait until the next day to talk to Colinne about getting help. He hoped that was the sort of thing she could simply write up a data search engine that would eat the hand comp data and spit out lists telling them where to look for what they wanted. That would speed things up incredibly. Done with what Jocelynn wanted, Rol turned to see what Sekea wanted?
Sekea wanted to know if they could fight fire with fire? He then suggested they post a reward or put out a contract on any surviving Stepozhevaci government officials and their allies. The answer he got to that suggestion was that they couldn't simply put out a hit on tens of thousands of people. They had to know who the proper target was in order to put a hit out without creating even more enemies. Sekea changed directions, suggesting they offer a bounty to anyone who could help them find who was offering the bounty on them? Sadly, that ignored the fact that 90% of any system where that offer was sent would respond with mostly fake responses. And the only way they could check each lead would be to travel world to world investigating every lead...until they went bankrupt or died of old age. Since his suggestion couldn't come with an "honesty clause", it was useless until they had more information and could sharpen the scope down to a few targets.
Stepping in, Fesic suggested they reach out to their allies and see if they could offer help, which led to a discussion of what allies they had? Duke Luis of Lunion was a friend of their but even an x-mail explaining the situation wouldn't get to that system for five weeks. By then, if their plans continued, they'd not only have left Ghandi for Lanth, but be in the Sonthert system. And, while they could hide there for a period of time, they couldn't stay there without food and drinks. They did have the Orders of Chivalry they belonged to, and could put the word out they were hunting to find out who was hold the bounty against them. The problem was that the attacks were coming at them "now" and any of the methods they talked about would take longer periods of time to return to them. None of them would stop the attacks "now". Or, give them any direction to help them shut things down.
They also had friends in the D'Ganzio system government who were also the managers of all InstellArms operations in the sector. That system was only two weeks away, so they could reach out to them "now" and possibly hear back from them on Lanth. That still wouldn't get the word out to the rest of the sector any faster, but InstellArms did have their own network. The question would be if the corporation would get involved if it turned out the holder of the bounty was a bigger customer than they were? Fesic pointed out that the distance didn't matter because the bounty had been spread far and wide, but that ignored that the attacks had already started and would continue to happen until they could send out proof the bounty had been canceled.
That meant finding the bounty holder, killing them and then doing interviews with TAS to prove what they said. With lots of flashy bloody violent videos with baddies admitting they did it and then screaming as their body parts started flying. Happily for Fesic, he had a back-up plan to get a name and face change before spending the rest of his life in Kuki's bed. But Fesic was in favor of spreading the word to those they hoped they could trust to try and seek out those holding their bounty. But he didn't support a general call out to anyone offering to pay them for leads that would likely only be fake.
Rol also spoke up, saying Sekea's idea might work after they'd already cut down the target list from "everyone" to a short list they could identify. Especially when their huge ship's funds account couldn't be freely emptied for that. He was reminded they didn't have a naval depot they could pull into for repairs and had to pay for work done. Even a small thing like a fuel purification plant had cost the ship over a million credits, with jump systems costing many millions. Sekea learned their ship's funds had other uses a Naval Captain wasn't used to. Rol said he felt it would be better to find some interstellar investigative service they could trust rather than asking everyone in the universe. He also agreed to working with the nobility and Order houses to the extent they could be trusted. Even a percentage of the nobility could be counted on to simply trap and kill them for the reward.
When Sekea suggested they offer a reward to investigative companies, Rol corrected him saying, "That's called hiring them. You don't reward someone that you're paying to do their job." Rol also pointed out they should wait until Jocelynn did her work with the computer data to narrow down the field before they simply wasted their money. So, he said they'd have to put Sekea's idea on the back burner until they had a lot better idea who to ask about. Rol also mentioned to Fesic that a lot of the people who might be friendly to them were only friendly because they found the crew useful. So, they didn't have a large number of friends that would stand up for them on the grand scale.
Tuesday, 096-1114: Secrets, Sales And Potential Profits Zimzod and Mikah were both awakened by alarms they'd set in their crons. The 96th day of the calendar was special for them. It would also be special for the rest of the crew except a number of them hadn't been crew back in Rhylanor and others had forgotten the date. In their defense, this day had been so far in the future at the time. But that day would see the auction for the late Sir Brian's collection of antique books on Rhylanor. If there hadn't been any legal issues blocking it. Since Rhylanor was five jumps away, and they'd planned to jump to Lanth in the next week, they could expect to receive an x-mail with the results of the auction in a month. Mikah woke with a smile because she expected a huge payday when she got the x-mail.
When she woke, Colinne planned to share breakfast with the others and then go to the Order house to let them test her while she fired her new gauss pistol. She figured she'd do that after eating. Aiden also figured he'd eat then go test his sniper rifle at the Order house. Jocelynn wanted to continue digging into the comp-data through the morning then go to the Order house to let them test her firing her Las-Slug pistol. After eating and before diving into the data, she also wanted to call the broker.
When she did call the broker, she told him they had 31.3 dTons of cargo space to fill and wanted to haul speculative cargo. The broker flashed her a number of cargoes he was working with agents on. He flashed her the list to let her see what was on offer: Type Tons Available Base Price Purchase DM Common Manufactured Goods 70 20,000 40%(Cr 8,000 Ea) Common Raw Materials 240 5,000 50%(Cr 2,500) Common Ore 220 1,000 70%(Cr 700) Vehicles 60 15,000 40%(Cr 6,000) Common Consumables 140 500 50%(250) Crystals & Gems 10 20,000 80%(16,000) Luxury Consumables 30 20,000 110%(22,000) Petrochemicals 40 10,000 90%(9,000) Radioactives 6 1,000,000 70%(700,000)
Not waiting days while researching to confirm the deal, Jocelynn jumped on both the shipment of Radioactives and Crystals and Gems. Cr 4,620,000 for the six tons of Radioactives and Cr 176,000 for the ten tons of Crystals and Gems. After the paperwork was done, despite the fact it was all computer work and only retained the ancient description, Jocelynn set up to have the cargos delivered in two days. On the 98th day of the year. That left Jocelynn with 17.3 dTons of cargo space to fill. Despite the fact none of the goods on offer would "pay their bills", the Radioactives would, so she could just add to their profits if she bought the right things. And they're expenses in the Ghandi system were estimated as Cr 73,458 before they made any profit at all.
Looking into what else to fill their cargo bay with, Jocelynn asked what kind of vehicles the lot were, because she knew Lanth was mostly a water-world, and there was a limit to what might sell there. She was told the load were high-end grav cars! Because terrain and bodies of water wouldn't matter to those, Jocelynn realized they just might sell to wealthy residents on the world. So, they were worth considering. Still, Jocelynn wanted to consider what to fill the bay with before she made another buy. Done with the broker, Jocelynn returned to mining the hand-comp data until it was time for her to leave for the Order house.
While he ate breakfast and looked forward to calling Kuki to make plans, he got a message from InstellArms. Per previous instructions for other deliveries, they were setting up to deliver his training suit to the ship's cargo bay. That meant they had to notify him about the deliver in the event he wanted to be there to receive it. Fesic suggested he and Aiden work together to learn zero-g, but Aiden told Fesic he had to go to the Order house to have them take the measure to customize his sniper rifle. Nodding, Fesic then said he'd use the ship's cargo bay, because it was free, and asked if anyone else would go with him to help him learn? Zimzod decided he'd help and see if he could work with Fesic to learn about gaining and maintaining stability.
Mikah decided she wanted to go to the Order house, and spend another day relaxing. She chose to have another massage and spend some time sipping drinks and kicking back. Jocelynn said they should eventually meet for lunch and Mikah said to look for her in one of the Order house's lounges. Mikah would eventually pay Cr 40 for the meal and massage. She also turned her comms off to make sure she was able to relax. Because the massage wouldn't last until lunch, Mikah also had the Order house pick up her gauss rifle, so she could spend time on a rented range. As they talked and ate breakfast, Mikah also decided to stop and visit Aali before going to the Order house. In the brig, Aali worked through her own personal physical work out before using her stent to check out what she could.
When Mikah arrived at the brig, Aali seemed in good spirits and Mikah joked she'd send coloring books or other distractions if Aali wanted. Mikah even joked about sending a masseuse from the Order house and then decided to do that. Aali admitted to looking forward to how the station security people would react to the action? While they did that in the brig before Mikah left for the Order house, Rol got into his physical therapy. He planned to do that for the morning while taking breaks to recover and check the station-net to look for investigation firms with an interstellar scope. Rol ended up having less than two hours total to check for those services while he spent both the morning and afternoon in PT.
What Rol mostly hoped was that he could get an investigation team who could first get more from the links than he and his crew could. He then hoped they could carry the investigation to the system from which it came to Ghandi and carry the ball further. Because he knew the station already had the response network links, he also looked for someone who he could hire to work with station officials to get that data and who also advertised that they worked with the IISS to get information too. Rol did come up with the firm, "Saesaarke and Kudaagi Investigations", who were both well reviewed and highly rated. When Rol called and asked, he was told they wanted a retainer of Cr 1,000 each week along with expenses. They also wanted Cr 10,000 if they concluded the case in the client's favor. The firm also promised a basic analysis of the links once they are recovered.
Happy with what he found for the local investigation, Rol called S&K I and signed up with them from his own funds. He also set an "if needed" payment of Cr 250 to have any reports sent to himself on Lanth, Via IIS X-Mail, if the investigation didn't finish up before they lifted. He paid Cr 1,000 for the one week, figuring he could add more if they stayed in Ghandi longer. While he did that, Sekea had eaten breakfast and then gone to the Order house to rent a range and get some shooting practice in with his gauss rifle. Since he wanted to talk to Colinne and she had to spend four hours with the techs, he figured he'd spend hours on the range then share lunch with her. Sekea eventually paid for 500 rounds of gauss needles over the practice, and paid, Cr 375.
After shifting to the port, and making their way to the ship, Zimzod and Fesic got things set up in the cargo bay. Most of the work was to make sure things were secured and wouldn't drift into their way or such. Instead of throwing Fesic around, Zimzod decided to seriously train him and got started with exercises like maintaining a position and maintaining stability. At times, Fesic felt like he was playing a statue, but he saw how difficult just trying to hold a position was. It also hyper-focused his attention on how much he could he thrown off by even the move of his fingers. Then, when he tried to react to that, his next movements would throw him from 'gently drifting' into a wild and uncontrollable spinning ball of chaos. That was the first thing he had to learn to control.
The more he worked with Fesic, the more Fesic saw that even the most incidental moves caused issues. And that didn't even address actually trying to move from place to place. The idea of the lesson was so subtle it surprised Fesic that Zimzod understood the idea so well. Especially since Fesic knew Mikah was so much more skilled in zero-g movement and combat. Everyone knew the lack of skill Aiden and Fesic had while moving without gravity put the entire crew at risk. Not only because the two of them made easy targets, but also because they were slowed, or risked losing people with critical skills. So, the teaching suits were welcomed tech.
When it came time for lunch, Mikah watched for Jocelynn, who had gotten done on the test range with her Las-Slug weapon testing. During the morning she'd enjoyed the massage and time spend on the range, spending Cr 250, before relaxing and sipping on her drinks. Mikah had met or chatted with a few people, but, like the previous day, the Vermene detail cut down on that. Not that her detail didn't start spawning rumors about what she was involved in? Mikah also started hearing some hints of that. The rumors she mostly heard whispers of, from those who knew who she was, suggested she and her crew had been put under some sort of restrictions because of their actions on station. Another rumor suggested she'd sold her ship to Tukera, and the entire crew had also signed some kind of unannounced contracts with the megacorporation. But, Mikah wanted to relax so she wasn't diving into the rumors.
At the brig, Aali had been relaxing and studying her stent work when "the show" began. Every member of the station's security team was outraged by the idea a prisoner would be treated to a massage! Especially one who had murdered a number of the station's security team and wasn't being spaced for it. After a dispute raged for nearly twenty minutes, a Tukera executive reached out to a station executive who confirmed there were no restrictions to providing a prisoner with a massage or other treatments. That was largely because no one had ever thought such restrictions heeded to be made. It was very clear station security weren't happy, but having Aali treated also hurting the crew's public reputation. There were also whispers to the media that the Imperial nobility were part of the problem, and not the solution. Mikah decided to shrug that off since they'd be leaving for Lanth soon enough. The Marquis and Count had other thoughts.
When Jocelynn arrived, Mikah asked what she wanted to talk about? Jocelynn told her about the work she was, admittedly, just starting and what she was seeing so far. While Mikah was told the lock-defeating software was in the files, she hadn't really looked into it until the day she started looking and found the financial directory. So, Mikah still had no idea just how much data was hidden there? The files had come from the personal device of a national leader. That meant there were large amounts of both personal and national files. And, from what Jocelynn could see, "everything" was there. From files she assumed were black projects, to situational management to family data, etc... Mikah wished her luck finding details and said they'd buy her a lot of gauze.
When they were done eating, Jocelynn checked with an attendant and was told what range she needed to report to so she could have her new pistol customized. After eating with Jocelynn, Mikah went to the house concierge and asked about museums in the area. When she said she was open to any museums that wasn't "the average", they recommended she visit Ghandi's "Museum of Bad Art". Mikah, who'd never heard of such a thing, stopped and considered that was odd enough to be interesting. So, she got the directions and she and her security detail went off to check out what the art experts in the Ghandi system felt was "bad" art.
In her cell, Aali had been working on using her stent in ways she hadn't been able to before. One option she had was to try and connect through the network to the ship and their engineering androids. That was because she still had a job to do even though she was in lock up. Because she had the box from Tukera, she could do her job through the 'droids if she could connect with them. That had also been something she could only do by using a direct network link to the ship. Now, she had to find a way to identify and maneuver connections through the station's network to "find" the ship. If she could do that, she could connect to the 'droids. She could have used Colinne's connection with her to tie into the ship. But Colinne was out of the suite doing other things and that cut her connection off.
During his morning, Aiden had gone out to let the Order house techs test and customize his new sniper rifle. One thing that testing showed up was that Aiden was absolutely not a sniper. Reflecting back on the shooting situation at the mansion on Regina, Aiden realized just how lucky he'd gotten. And, how lucky the crew had been that he'd managed to make the shots he had. But on the range with the targets and cameras, they could see Aiden could never truly claim he was qualified for that role, except in desperation. Still, he finished up with the work and then had lunch before asking the concierge about a portable music synthesizer.
Aiden had always been interested in some sort of portable system he could use to play music. So, he figured a trade cross roads like Ghandi should have something available that fit his interest. When they said they'd do their research and get back to him on that, Aiden then asked for help or direction looking for a stent wafer that might help him artificially use any level of zero-g skill while he was learning with his teaching suit. The staffers knew that would be a case of "has any vendor on station started advertising that they had such a thing? Especially since stent wafer tech wasn't highly common on-station. So, members of their team started sweeping through new updates and advertising from the large number of shops and organizations on station.
The public shopping and gathering spaces on-station were wide or narrow and threaded their way through much of the station's residential, systems, business and other sections. One of the issues with searching the concourses of any station is that they are so large and fully packed that it takes weeks or months to really explore a station. Where Aiden and his crew are often not in a location that long, and also very often doing other things, searching even one concourse alone takes hours. When the team came back to him, after an hour, they suggested other concourses where musical instruments and electronics were generally sold. And, sadly, the places where "musical instruments" were sold didn't much coincide with the "self-help and development" shops that might carry stent wafers. The only good news for Aiden is that searching for what he wanted would get him out of the chairs he was slowly letting swallow him whole.
There were some lists of specific shop names, but not because they knew those places sold what Aiden wanted. They were there because they had a reputation of selling the avant garde or unusual stock. That suggested a strategy of wandering the concourses in which those shops were found, so both sweep that area and eventually reach one or more of those shops. So, he could kill two grotes with one shot. Concerned about security, Aiden showed the recommendations to his Vermene people and asked if there were any places they felt were dangerous? Since the locations were all generic shopping spaces, they had no issues with any of the spots. They were also able to bounce those to their linked intelligence teams, so they could do a deeper dive into the spaces.
Checking the data, Aiden saw they'd recommended nine concourses on which he might find a vendor who might have stent wafers. And, if he found one who did, he'd have to check their stock to see if anyone had wafers with the skills he wanted? After looking the recommended locations over, Aiden decided to spend his afternoon trying to fully cover two of the concourses before returning to the suite for dinner. While he did that and lit off on his plans, Sekea had finished his weapons practice and handed his rifle to the house staff to clean and return to their suite while he went to meet Colinne for lunch. Colinne's new gauss pistol had to be sculpted to be customized for her, and would then be returned to her in a few days.
When they connected, Sekea wanted to find a secure place where they could eat and talk freely. When he asked, Sekea was told they could have a server care for them in one of the Order house's private meeting rooms. Those were available at no or little cost to Knights of the Order, so he got them a free room and they placed their orders. That done, Sekea explained that he wanted to look into forging or spoofing computer records and needed her help because his computer skills were minimal. Because she was the crew's computer expert, he wondered if she could help him try to do what he hoped for. Colinne said she could help but reminded Sekea there were other things she should be doing. Especially working on the project for Tukera, since she hadn't done anything more on that because of her time on the range.
Still, Sekea did have her connect to the ship and the data on the ship from trade and official transactions the last time the ship was in the Lanth system. At the time, neither of them had been on the ship or part of the crew, so they had to work to figure out what had been happening during that visit? After spending some time on that, Sekea also mentioned that he remembered being told there was an actual Zhodani weapons dealer on station. Since Colinne had bought a Zhodani gauss rifle from a scavenger in the Denotam system, he asked if she had any interest in checking out the shop? Sekea wasn't certain if there were any specific things Colinne might need for the rifle she had? Or, if she'd be interested in other gear or weapons? When she said she was interested, Sekea suggested they go back to the ship first, so they could grab psi-shields from the ship's locker.
Nearing four in the afternoon, while Rol was working either at his rehab or investigation, his comms began to buzz. When he answered, he learned it was someone from Saesaarke and Kudaagi Investigations. The caller said they'd had a team member that had a connection to someone in the station's data management offices. That person had managed to talk their way into getting the three-network links from the station computer systems. So, they had managed to get the three links Rol was paying them to get for him. When they sent him the data, they knew the message header would have the data the IIS attached to it "and" the routing information. That would include fields Rol couldn't read.
Looking the three messages over, Rol realized the data in the headers had data that only the IIS agents or those trained in the messages could decode. The messages were clear and openly said they were bound for the Ghandi system. But, he couldn't see which systems they came from? The rest of the data was either not present or encoded by the Scout x-mail network. Rol asked for copies of all the data the investigators got from the station and they handed all that over to him. Rol saved that to talk about with the others later. Rol also paid them the pending Cr 9,000 for completing the job[along with the Cr 1,000 retainer] and sent an extra Cr 1,000 as a tip for their fast work.
Before the line was cut, Rol was given the name and comms code for the tech in the station offices, because they were willing to sell Rol more information based on how valuable it was to him and his crew. So, Rol realized he now had a mole in the station's data management team. Rol thanked the investigator and stored that man's information in case they developed other data needs now that they had the ISS links. The big question was who among the crew could decode the data in the links? Rol wanted to know how much data they'd get from the links? Because they believed those had to eventually lead back to someone who would pay any future would-be killers. Of course, there could even "not" be any money or anyone doing anything other than paying for x-messages. While Rol and the crew hadn't considered it, the easiest way to get someone killed was to lie, and promise a huge amount of cash for something they never intended to pay for. Then, the "We killed them" link would lead to... Nowhere.
Having returned to the ship, Sekea and Colinne made their way into the ship's locker, where Mikah had one of the standard psi-shields for each member of the crew. The jeweled shields were locked in the ship's safe but he didn't need those. They each grabbed a shield from the locker and were driven off to the shop by their security detail. What they found was half-selling venue and half-behind the scenes living space for the owner of the shop. It turned out the man, who had fled the Zhodani Consulate and gotten himself legal papers to live in the Ghandi system, relied on his connections and those he could help out. Because of that, he and his connections relied on getting to gear before firms like InstellArms. Specializing in Zhodani equipment, the shop owner relied on the 'cashe' of him having lived and been raised in the Consulate to draw in business. He also seemed to use that as an excuse for his high prices.
Wandering through his shop, the main thing that struck both Sekea and Colinne was the different artistic basis between Imperial and Zhodani design work. The types of lines and curves that were used by the two societies were visibly different so the curve of a tool or weapon would be visually distinct even where any device would still follow the rules of "Form follows Function". So, a pistol or rifle would still have the grip, magazine port, barrel, chamber, etc.. But, the artistic aesthetic would be vastly different between the two cultures. In the end, the Zhodani aesthetic was more "rounded and based on curve than similar Imperial designs.
Both Sekea and Colinne also knew the Imperium had the edge over the Zhodani where it came to tech. Military or civilian, Imperial technology had mostly platued at the tech code, 'Fifteen' while the Zhodani often reached only 'Fourteen'. While both governments had some salient or break-through items, those were generally rare to find. Still, the average Imperial snub pistol or similar weapon was often just a notch above a Zhodani version. The other issue a gear owner would face is finding proper maintenance and support outside the society that created and used it. Of course, there was heavy trade in souvenirs or collectable items. There were even weapon users who sought after chemical slug throwers because they "sounded" different when fired. Though that could, of course, backfire too.
Another issue the pair saw was that the man had very little "top of the line" tech level 14 gear. While he had a lot to sell, it was lower tech kit. So, the only reason to buy any of what he had were the stories. People could put things on display and say, "This was captured from the Zhodani." The most important thing that pushed on both of them was that they had a Zhodani officer's combat armor which had to have a story. The problem was that they didn't know that story. They knew the suit had a computer that they had, as yet, not tried to crack to check if there was any information. But, if they wanted to sell it for the most Credits, they had to do what they could to crack the computer and get that story.
While there was not much there to really look at, and nothing that impressed the two, they did treat it as a sort of commercial museum. Standing in front of a display of the few gauss rifles they had, Colinne noted one wasn't functional. The others were old. Still, the prices were just a bit shy of outrageous only because they'd been made in Zhodani arms factories and "dropped" and scavenged from battlefields in the Imperium. Ironically, while they looked at the weapons, a sales clerk stepped up to try and pump the fact they were of Zhodani make when Colinne snickered, "Just like mine." with a thin smile on her face. When that got the kid stuck on what to say next, Colinne finished him by pointing to the broken rifle and saying, "But, unlike that one, mine works just fine." So, the kid left them to browse on their own.
Before leaving the shop, Sekea wondered if they should show the shop owner an image of the Zhodani armor they'd gotten from InstellArms. While Colinne suggested they not tell the man, Sekea decided to step up and show him an image of the armor suit. The man was impressed at their find and asked a few questions which Sekea couldn't answer. Because of that, he asked if they were the sellers and Sekea told him they had a crew member in charge of that. So, he asked and they gave him Jocelynn's contact information. The Zhodani man said he'd reach out to her. After that, the two returned to the suite.
On a range in the Order house, Jocelynn had been shooting targets and getting measured when her comms began to buzz. She was ready to blow it off until she looked and saw it was the broker calling her! Telling the techs she had to take the call, Jocelynn asked, "What you got for me?" The man said he had a buyer for the two pressure tents that had fallen out of InstellArms' warehouse. He was up front the tents were worth around Cr 2,000 each, and then said he had a buyer at Cr 1,500 each. That meant they'd get 75% of the "new" value if they accepted the offer. Shrugging because they'd gotten the tent's for free, Jocelynn accepted the offer. That pleased the broker because he got a cut off the deal too. That also meant they lost Cr 300 to the broker, and netted Cr 2,700.
Searching, Gaming And Training After the massage, Aali had little she could do except use her stent and Tukera's comms box to explore the station's public network. She was still limited in that activity, because she had no visual displays with which to see anything. Because of that, Aali also worked on trying to visualize data in her mind. Something she'd not yet achieved at all. She kept at that up to and after having her dinner. While she did manage to locate and internalize a number of music streaming networks, Aali couldn't control those because she couldn't see what she was doing. The closest she got to visualizing any of the data were items she'd actually seen with her eyes. Apparently, the memory of what she'd seen allowed some level of very fuzzy and less than accurate images to start forming while she worked at it. She eventually realized she had to stop or risk a serious headache.
Done eating his lunch, Aiden went to wander as much of two concourses the concierge had recommended. The pattern Aiden got used to was that one of his detail agents would enter any shop first. That let his lead man make sure the shop was safe for Aiden to browse and would be easy to manage if he spent any time searching or buying. In one of the shops Aiden decided to enter, the shop keeper and his assistants appeared to react with fear. They started closing shelf protectors designed to keep products from drifting free if the gravity was cut. The keeper himself was moving from expensive display to display locking the access panels "just in case". While they worked, they kept glancing back at Aiden or his security with eyes apparently wide in fear!
Confused, Aiden calmly asked the shop keeper, "Is there a problem?" and the man very quickly responded, "No! No! No! no problem. Just let us know what you need and we'll take care of you. Just, no shooting." While he was not panicked, he was certainly reacting as if a crime boss or lieutenant of some kind had walked in. Sadly, Aiden didn't notice that or realize what the situation he'd walked into meant? Trying to calm things, Aiden said, "No worries. I just want to ask some questions and pick your brains for local information if you have any." Of course, the wording suggested he might think the shop keeper had no brains, which increased the man's concern even more.
Still, the shop keeper must have realized he had to try to de-escalate no matter what happened. So, he took a few breaths and turned to ask Aiden how they could help him while the other shop staffers hid behind counters. While Aiden told them he was looking for neural stent wafers with skill imprints, the shop keeper slowly got himself calmer by stages and realized there might not be a shooting. Of course, Aiden was completely unaware that when someone with enough power to casually stroll the station with armed bodyguards and without any legal reaction, it sends the locals messages. Messages Aiden missed while they read from the situation.
The man told Aiden he wasn't aware that anyone he was familiar with had what Aiden wanted. He did suggest a few shop names on various concourses, and one of the shops mentioned was also on a concourse the Order house concierge had suggested. Thanking the man for his help, Aiden looked around the shop, which sold kitsch electronics. Scanning the shelves, Aiden saw a module that could jack into his cron and add two terabytes of data storage to the device. Because it was simply a "clip on" module, Aiden also knew it could also easily fall off his cron. Still unaware of the dynamic in the shop, Aiden was playing 'the diplomatic shopper and bought the module for Cr 20.
With things having settled down, the other shop workers were re-opening displays. The better news for Aiden was that the man didn't recognize him at all when he took Aiden's Ident to pay for the module. Aiden also tipped the man Cr 5 and thanked him for the recommendation. When Aiden left the shop with his purchase, he planned on working to finish that concourse and see if he found what he wanted? If not, he'd go to the concourse the shop keeper and concierge had mentioned and look for the shop the man had named as he browsed the space. Sadly, after spending the rest of the afternoon searching, Aiden didn't find any sign of what he hoped for. So, he returned to the suite for dinner with nothing more than the memory module.
Fesic and Zimzod had gone to the ship to practice zero-g work in the cargo bay. They finished that up to have lunch, so Fesic wouldn't over-exhaust himself, and then called for a food delivery. After spending Cr 30 each and eating, Fesic stowed his teaching suit and considered calling Kuki to see if he could link up with her? At the same time, he still had to hit the range for four hours both with his accelerator rifle and snub pistol. Weighing things he had to do with those he'd like to, Fesic chose work over fun. So Fesic set up to spend the afternoon letting the Order house techs measure his use of his rifle. With Fesic doing that, Zimzod tried to call Mikah but her comms were off. So, he only got a voicemail.
With nothing demanding his attention, Zimzod connected to the station-web to look for any schools selling short-term classes. Like he'd done in previous systems, he'd book a class in gunnery and ship's lasers. Zimzod's search showed three schools that looked worth checking out. The first school he checked into seemed to be experts providing the sort of "packaged program" many starship crews looked for. The product they offered wasn't the individualized training Zimzod wanted, nor was it specialized to what he wanted. Zimzod saw the other two claimed to be "high end" academies.
Looking into the reputations and reviews, Zimzod saw both schools had healthy "Full certification" courses as well as ad hoc and even vocational training. The Vo-tech classes were also generally available with limited virtual instruction and sim-work. Checking deeper, into the reviews, Zimzod found the Nakish Khagi Academy had a much better reputation than the Diish Urdege school. Because of that, Zimzod checked with the Nakish Khagi offices. He found he could sign up for a half-day class for Cr 600 and two full day classes for Cr 1,100 each, for a total of Cr 2,700. After booking the class, Zimzod had his detail transfer him to the campus for preparation and his class. Because the classes were vocational in nature, a lot of it would be 'hands on', and that would accelerate evaluation of his existing skills.
When Aiden got back to the suite from having dinner on a concourse for Cr 30, Aiden suggested they play poker. Mikah and Rol said they'd play and Jocelynn joined after realizing that socializing with the security detail was "less than normal". She had first wondered if they'd be taken care of for things like meals but realized they were. They simply didn't eat in front of the client and may well have done so on a different schedule than those they protected. That way, they'd not be distracted while on the job. That decided, Jocelynn chose to join the poker game. While Colinne joined the forming game, Sekea didn't feel like playing poker. Zimzod also chose not to play and decided to do stent practice while Sekea watched vids and relaxed.
Over the evening, the crew played and the big winner eventually was Mikah. Rol also won, but didn't do as well as Mikah had. Jocelynn had largely held her own coming in a bit short while Aiden lost a bit and Colinne was the big loser. In the end, Mikah was ahead Cr 400 and Rol up Cr 200 while Jocelynn lost Cr 80, Aiden lost Cr 220 and Colinne was the big loser at Cr 300. While they played, Rol told the others he'd gotten the three-network links they knew of which any potential assassins might use to report killing them. Mikah nodded and said, "Follow it up" because she'd assigned him to lead them in hunting down those who'd put a bounty on them. Discussions of that were interrupted when both Colinne and Aiden got calls from InstellArms, saying their combat armor suits had been delivered to their ship's berth and the berth crew put them in the ships' cargo bay.
When evening came, Fesic was done on the range and decided to call Kuki and see if he could convince her to meet for dinner and drinks? When she connected, he found she wasn't thrilled about the continued need for the security detail. Fesic tried to joke that she'd never be safer in her life but the joke fell flat. Especially since anyone with a basic intelligence would know the Vermene people where there to protect him and would do that while leaving her behind. Still, she did enjoy spending time with him and knew he'd be leaving the system soon, so there was interest. While they talked, Fesic sweetened the pot by offering to take Kuki out to a romantic restaurant for dinner. When she agreed with that, Fesic had a shower to wash off the cordite scent before he had his detail ride him over to pick her up. The meal cost him Cr 90, and the Vermene team did their best to be unobtrusive.
While they talked, Fesic said he had to spend four hours more the next day at the Order house. But he also remembered the geologic tour Colinne had taken and suggested he take her out for a day to enjoy that. Like so many who live close to attractions, Kuki admitted she'd never taken the tour before. So, they agreed to have dinner and drinks - with the detail for company. Then, they planned to meet up the next morning for the tour and he'd shift the firing range for his snub pistol to the next day. For the rest of the 96th day, they went back to her place and snuggled while his security did their best to give the two space. Fesic then returned to the suite for the night. Along the ride, Fesic went to book tickets that turned out to be Cr 5,000 a person. When he was talking to the agent, the Vermene team leader told him it wouldn't just be him and the lady. Fesic was told he had to consider both his immediate security and five more team members that would provide 'border coverage' and a combat force, if needed. So, Fesic had to pay for nine, not two. That came out to Cr 45,000.
Wednesday, 097-1114: Seeking Adventure And Discovery As the crew woke and got to their tasks, Fesic had called the Order house to re-schedule finishing his weapons testing. So, he and his detail were off to pickup Kuki for breakfast and head to one of the station's smaller ports. Zimzod was off for a full day of classes on his gunnery skills. Aiden and Colinne also had to decide when they'd go to the ship to move their combat armor suits, but there was no hard scheduled time when they had to do that. Having given the broker the evening to speak with the party buying the pressurized tents, Jocelynn called them while eating lunch to set up the pickup. The two agreed the pickup would be made the next day when the cargoes were delivered to the ship. In the brig, Aali worked through her own personal physical work out again, before working on her stent.
After picking up Kuki and arriving at the smaller port on the station, from which their tour would leave, they checked in and got ready for their day. The good news was that the size of his party was that they'd get a compartment assigned to them. The bad news was they would "all" be in the same compartment. And, it wasn't configurable, so they had to fit in as they could. Included in the deal were two scheduled meals and a third meal they could have at any point, because many of those on the tour didn't eat on the same schedules.
Aiden started his morning doing gear maintenance and gave Colinne and anyone else time to do what they wanted before he asked them who wanted to go to the ship with him? There, he planned to move his combat armor into his stateroom. After that was done, Aiden planned to grab a foil pack for lunch from the ship's stores and then return to browsing the concourse looking for a zero-g stent wafer. So, he'd not be back to the suite until dinner time. Colinne felt she needed to decompress before continuing to work on the Tukera project so she went to the ship to move her armor after breakfast and then went to visit a museum of the history of the Ghandi system for the rest of the day. When she said she'd do that, Mikah said it sounded fun and joined her. Sekea also said he'd join them, but before they left, Rol asked Colinne if she had any experience with decoding x-boat messages.
What Rol really wanted was the origination code explained, because he knew all three messages had the destination code: Ghandi. Colinne did tell them all the codes were fairly basic, and there wasn't much data in them. When he bounced the links to Colinne, Mikah suggested she teach him how to read the link. When they looked at her, Mikah continued, "If they're pretty straight forward, you can show him how to read them." When Colinne said it would just take a few minutes and led them to a terminal, Rol thanked her because he didn't know how to read them. When he said that, Colinne told him, "You're not supposed to. You're just a dumb marine." with a straight face.
After the laughs settled down, Colinne did a search and showed Rol a publicly available screen of data showing where someone or group had posted simple code definitions. The first field said the link was for a "response" message. Pointing to the "Response Code", Colinne showed Rol where the messages came from and would return to. Two of the messages had come to Ghandi from the Lanth system and one had come from Dinomn, so that was where responses would be sent to. She also showed them all three messages had arrived in those two systems via x-boats. That meant the only way they could get more information on the links was to investigate in the ISS X-boat offices there. She could also tell them the messages had "propogation" addressing, so they'd been routed to the next system out as an automated step, depending on what the original sender paid. With that, Mikah, Colinne and Sekea left Rol to his puzzle, because she'd assigned him to handle it.
As Rol dug in, a new question would be why two messages had come to Ghandi from Lanth? Looking closer at those two messages, he realized they had different message ID's. That meant the messages had to have arrived in Lanth on separate X-boats. So they came to Lanth via different routes, then to Ghandi on the same x-boat. The next question was why the same message had been sent on two routes? And how did they both end up arriving on Lanth at the same time, to be sent to Ghandi? Rol next pulled up the charts for the systems and x-boat routes and work on the possible message routes in between PT. An added question Rol face was if any of the governments in the part of space they were looking at were possibly friends of the Stepozhevaci?
That sparked the realization the messages didn't just show up in Ghandi. Based on what they'd been told by the Station and IRIS, it reinforced the fact the message was being delivered to "job" and other boards in every system to which it was delivered. It meant the bounty was public on "every world" it was delivered to! So, where they had said publicly they planned to leave Ghandi for Lanth, it meant people could be waiting for them to arrive in that system. Not just on the world, but in the space around the world. And that begged the question if they should skip Lanth altogether, hand Maur back her KCr 10 and tell her to hire another ship? Or even hire another ship for her and give them the cash? Because she may well not be safe with them if they emerged from jump to face gunships waiting for them.
Calling Mikah, to update her and Colinne on what he'd learned, she suggested they consider skipping Lanth and making their way to Lunion, where she had a fief. While she first suggested hiding out there for a period of time, she also realized that would eventually draw in an army of killers and wanna be's. And, regardless if they organized or not, the number of bad guys would eventually be too large for them to stop and the fief could become a trap. Even if Duke Luis got his people involved. And while he liked them, his job was to protect and grow projects on and the people of Lunion. So, he might not even be able to step in. The system's actual government would also have to decide to get involved or not. Leaving the rest of the puzzle to Rol, Mikah told him she'd call Maur and ask the woman to dinner, to explain the situation and make those decisions.
Jocelynn decided to take the day and do things she'd been ignoring. She told the others she'd be spending the morning in her bedroom doing meditation. Of course, she would actually be working on her psi, even though Colinne was off doing something else. Then, after lunch, she'd practice with her stent. She eventually knew Rol was working on something but didn't think it was important because Mikah had left him behind to handle it. So, she wasn't concerned about not helping, but was in the suite in case he needed help with his physical therapy.
Wednesday, 097-1114: Where everyone is at the end of the session: Mikah, Colinne and Sekea: Visiting a musieum of natural history of the Ghandi system Aali: In detention in station security Jocelynn and Rol: In the suite until dinner working on thier interests Aiden: Browsing the concourses for a stent wafer with zero-g combat skills until dinner Fesic: With Kuki on an "into the evening" overflight tour of Ghandi's geology Zimzod: Training in gunnery school until he returns to the suite for dinner
_________________________________________________________________________ Next: Pending