Duty Roster:

Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus (Gigermann)
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood (Rigil Kent)
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg (CommJunkee)

Restricted Space

In the evening of the day the Crew settled the matter with the outlaws at the abandoned mine, they met at dinner with Elijah Patterson to discuss the Black Star and Valerie Vaskor, and what he might have uncovered regarding their comings and goings in the month-or-so they visited here. He explained that the Black Star had been undergoing repairs requiring parts that had to be shipped in, grounding them for an extended period waiting for them to arrive. Afterward, they continued on rimward, their next declared destination, Tureded. Before leaving, they took on a freight consignment on behalf of a local businessman—Elijah provided contact information at the Crew’s request.

On the following day, as Buck drove Abe to the hospital for his day’s volunteer-work, they stopped first at the aforementioned businessman’s residence, and were welcomed. The man had a mining business that had dried up here, and had been in the process of relocating his operation to Tureded, piece by piece, over the last year. He met with Captain Adric Mason at dinner seven months ago to agree on terms of shipment of some mining machinery to Tureded for him. His recollection was that the captain was an odd fellow, never taking off his gloves, it seemed, for fear of local germs or whatnot; and he had a wandering eye, taking a lascivious interest in the waitress. The businessman had 28 tons of gear remaining to be shipped still, and Buck and Abe suggested that the Spinward Star might take it; he gladly agreed to meet with Ella, and sent a gift of a bottle of good wine with them.

That evening, Ella met at dinner with the businessman, along with Haank to work out the details; they all agreed to the standard rate, and shook hands on it. The next day, the freight was loaded aboard the Spinward Star, and payment was made up-front. Meanwhile, the Crew managed to find a buyer for most of their remaining load of surplus military gear salvaged from the Gileden system—mostly the vehicles and parts—for a healthy sum, turning what should have been a loss into a quite profitable stop.

As he had promised when they arrived, Haank took Elijah’s granddaughter, Kaylii, on a comprehensive tour of the ship, answering her many knowledgeable questions. She was disappointed she couldn’t leave with them, but she produced a small soapstone carving of herself, carved by her grandfather, and asked that it be taken aboard, so she could travel with them in spirit; Haank agreed without hesitation, and helped Kaylii hang the carving on the bridge with a nice view through the windscreen. Loaded, fueled, and paid, the Spinward Star took to the black once again, bound for Tureded.

Six days in jumpspace passed without incident, and the ship exited jumpspace, and entered the busy, tightly-controlled traffic pattern approaching the Tureded highport. Sam confidently refused a port-guide and docked manually; he had to jink the ship to avoid some work-craft outside the assigned berth, and scraped the ship against the entry, doing no real damage but to his own pride—though the port authority rep made a bit of obligatory fuss over the mishap. The cargo was then unloaded via the station’s automated handlers—as locally mandated. On completion, Haank took some pictures of the view of the berth with Kaylii’s carving, and planned to do so everywhere they went, sending the pics back to her on Pirema as he found opportunity. Local law aboard the station was as restrictive as orbital control, so shore-leave here would be unarmed and unarmored. Despite the vulnerability, most of the crew went ashore, separating to do whatever business they had in mind.

• Abe wandered the station’s halls, exploring. In a crowded market area, he noticed his pocket had been picked, and confronted the thief, politely demanding the return of his property. The thief, of a species Abe had not before encountered, returned Abe’s property without a fuss and cautioned him to be more wary. Intrigued, Abe offered to buy the thief dinner at a place of his choosing; the thief agreed, choosing an establishment with “outdoor” seating. Over the meal, Abe questioned the thief regarding his species: he was a Sparrial, called Rolemnarla, and he answered freely, with strangely accented Galanglic, regarding his people and their culture. Something caught the Sparrial’s attention, and he “spoke into Abe’s mind”; to Abe’s shock, he was able to respond likewise, and immediately recalled his experience aboard the Unconquerable, and his strange reaction to being psychically scanned by an awakening Zhodani officer. Rolemnarla offered to help Abe develop this ability, but had to cut their conversation short, and bolted from the restaurant. Some moments later, as Abe was paying for the meal, a couple of officious-looking “government agents” arrived at the entrance, looking for someone—Abe didn’t remain to find out who or what they might have been searching for, but returned to the ship.
• Ella also went exploring the station, and eventually found herself at a salon, getting her hair cut and styled, and engaging in small talk with the four-armed female humanoid stylist. During the process, Ella brought up Valerie Vaskor, showing the stylist her picture—she recognized the girl, having also cut her hair when she visited the station some months ago.
• Buck made a few calls and hit the streets, looking for a potential buyer for the remainder of their salvaged weapons; Tureded Prime, outside the Imperial starport, was a lawless, dangerous backwater, and the locals would surely have a use for some surplus military gear. He worked his way through the less-scrupulous areas of the station and found such a person, and they arranged to meet at the ship later to inspect the cargo.

Haank, Sam and Sae found a mostly-automated, middle-class pub, with available wi-fi connection, and settled into a corner-booth with some drinks. Thereat, Sae found himself being bullied by an alpha Vargr and his fellows, establishing dominance over “their territory”—Sae stood his ground, but took a hard punch that knocked him back, injuring his face and his resolve. The alpha downed Sae’s drink and smugly returned to his table. As Haank promised to back his play, Sae threw the empty glass at the alpha. Haank walked calmly to the other table and explained that a drink was owed his friend; the alpha stood, and the two glowered at each other. Haank reached down and grabbed the alpha’s drink; the alpha grabbed Haank’s hand. As Sam and Sae positioned themselves in opposition to the other Vargr at the table, Haank took the glass in his free hand and drank from it, maintaining eye contact with his opponent—and the fight was on. In moments, two of the Vargr had been wrestled to the ground, and Haank had taken a hard hit to the jaw after struggling to reverse the alpha’s hold, just before the alpha collapsed into an unconscious heap, having been flanked by Sae and injected with a knockout drug via hidden stinger implant. With their leader down, the remaining pack ceased fighting, and carried their unconscious fellow out of the pub. The Crew paid their bills and left shortly thereafter, to return to the ship and see to their injuries.

Some hours later, everyone had returned to the ship. Abe tended the bar-fight injuries, and chastised the participants, but made no mention of his encounter with Rolemnarla. Everyone made inevitable comment regarding the Captain’s new hairdo. Later, on schedule, Buck’s middleman arrived at the berth, and was allowed to inspect the surplus military goods, under Haank’s supervision. Satisfied with the condition of the cargo and its price, the middleman revealed the catch: it would need to be delivered dirtside—at high risk of being swindled, hijacked, or worse.

Notes

• The search for Valerie Vaskor began here
• Commerce between Pirema and Tureded, both low-population backwaters, was virtually nil. But between the business being moved and a lucky roll (a “3” on Haank’s part) finding a buyer for the surplus, the trip turned a tidy profit in spite of it. Once again, that “consolation prize” we were left with after our misadventure aboard the Unconquerable saved us
• Sam’s piloting skill is high enough that he can’t fail but for a crit. How many times can he roll a crit fail on a Piloting check? At least once more. Somehow, the shit-hot pilot always looks like a noob 😛
• This session followed the release of GURPS Aliens: Sparrials, so the appearance of a Sparrial in the campaign was no surprise, but Abe’s player had been suggesting that his character needed a proper “Yoda” to unlock his latent psi abilities to the point he could excuse improving them—and violá!
• There was a fair bit of time wasted posting image-suggestions of Ella’s new haircut, all variations on a “mohawk” theme
• Haank is a fairly competent melée fighter, and had a pretty solid plan for schooling the alpha Vargr, but the dice absolutely abandoned him—could barely roll less than 14-15 the whole time; pretty much everything he tried failed. After going back to the ship, he ended up studying the video of the confrontation over and over trying to figure out where it all went wrong
• When the GM explained that the Crew would have to go to the surface to deliver the weapon-cargo, where he had already described as the “Wild West,” with people getting robbed/hijacked all the time, he referenced “Patience/Whitefall” (which portends a deal-gone-wrong to anyone who has watched Firefly)—we’ll be expecting trouble