Traveller: Session 27

 

This session was run on April 27, 2023.

 

019-1118

 

After parting ways with Chakraborty, they decided to look for more work until the slot for the Prismatic Ray opened up at the depot. Two possible jobs caught their eye:

 

1.     Abigail Bullet: A woman looking to get off the planet without anyone noticing. Offering 25,000 Cr.

2.     Torvald Dent: A drive systems engineer looking to test a new, high efficiency, thrust drive design. He needs a crew to run his Scout Type S while he performs the test. 10,000 Cr. for three days of work.

 

They did a quick background check on Dent and learned that he was an engineer and, until recently, had been employed by Tukera Lines. They found some mention of an intellectual property lawsuit filed by Tukera at the time his employment ended, but it appeared that it was settled out of court.

 

Zarf, M’han, and Arenui contacted Abigail and she gave them the address of a fish processing plant where fish brought in from Twinsong were prepared for use on Last Exit. Per her instructions, they waited till after dark to head over. M’had tried to make sure that they were not being followed but found it difficult to keep track of everyone in the heavy crowds.

 

When they arrived at the fish processing plant, they found the side door unlocked. They slipped into the building and were surprised to see what looked like a woman swimming in the large tank in the center of the room. It turned out that Abigail was a Luriani, an aquatic branch of Humaniti. She explained that she had done quite well at the local casino and the owners had accused her of cheating. At one point, they took her into the back room and beat her badly. She managed to escape when the guards were distracted, but she knew they were still looking for her. She was sure that the local police were in the pocket of Fat Tony, the gangster that ran the casino. The fact that she was Luriani complicated things. While the Luriani breath air, they cannot comfortably live out of the water for more than a few days. She would need a small tank to survive the week-long trip through jumpspace. Zarf felt confident that they could build one and they took her back to the ship.

 

020-1118

 

First thing in the morning, M’han and Zarf went out to get the supplies they needed to build the tank. They decided to split up and have Zarf get what they needed from the hardware store while M’han went to the aquarium store to get the necessary filters and pumps. Shortly after they left, Zarf noticed someone seemed to be following him. He got a look at the man, who was wearing a black rollneck sweater, in a shop window and realized that he had seen them last night while they were walking home from the fish processing plant as well.

 

Zarf ducked into a convenient noodle shop, Pho Shizzle, and saw the man in the rollneck keep walking. Five minutes later, rollneck came back down the street and went into the Sky Castle restaurant across the street. Zarf called Aryanna, who came out to the noodle shop and sat across from him. After a few minutes, Aryanna decided that she recognized one of the customers in the noodle shop but could not place him. They decided to reach out to M’han, who came back from the aquarium store and walked into the Sky Castle. As he entered the restaurant, came out. M’han attempted to bump into him but missed. Aryanna managed to get a picture of rollneck and sent it to Arenui.

 

Back on the ship, Arenui showed the picture to Abigail, and she identified it as one of the gangsters. The man Aryanna recognized in the noodle shop got up and followed rollneck as he walked away. Aryanna took a picture of him and sent it to Arenui, who identified him as one of the cops from the station. Aryanna headed back to the ship while Zarf and M’han followed noodle bar and rollneck.

 

After six blocks, the noodle cop veered off and stopped following rollneck. Zarf and M’han decided to stick with rollneck and followed him until he went into the casino. After a brief pause, they followed him in. Once inside, they were almost immediately intercepted by some heavies who asked what they were doing there. M’han tried to convince them that he just needed to use the bathroom, but they did not buy it and escorted them out of the building.

 

They returned to the Prismatic Ray and worked on the tank for the rest of the evening.

 

021-1118

 

The next morning, Zarf, Hal, Marven, Aryanna, and M’han headed to the Hollow Ranger for the job with Torvald Dent. Arenui decided to stay with Abigail on the Prismatic Ray to stand guard an “work on some pottery.”

 

The Hollow Ranger was a Scout Type S that had been modified to carry an oversized sublight drive and extra instrumentation by removing the jump drive. They departed around 0930 and Torvald seemed happy with their progress until a severe radiation leak alarm sounded at 2100. A quick diagnostic check revealed that the leak was coming from a fitting inside the reactor and would certainly kill them all before they could get back to Last Exit. Zarf suited up and went into the reactor. He spent the next three hours carefully repairing the leak.

 

022-1118

 

Marven took over piloting duties while M’han manned the sensors for the day. Aryanna provided radiation treatment to Zarf while he rested.

 

023-1118

 

They reached the gas giant in the early hours of the morning and before they could begin their reverse trip, they received a Signal GK from a ship in orbit. They identified it as a 800 ton Zhodani ship, the Ayman Bahamdan. The treaties that ended the Fifth Frontier war allowed for both the Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate to grant each other’s’ ships passage through their space for trade and academic pursuits. The treaties also applied the requirement to honor Signal GK’s and other emergency signals. The ship was not under power, its orbit was decaying rapidly, and they were bound by law to help.

 

After a quick analysis, they decided that, while it might be possible for them to pull the ship into a more stable orbit, they ran a real chance of making things worse in the attempt. They decided it was best to go aboard and see if they could do anything to rescue the passengers or correct the ships orbit.