Lost and Found

While the rest of the Crew were handling the negotiations after Katelyn was allowed to speak to Gerhard, she was left awake in medbay under Abe’s guard. For a moment, Abe could feel a “presence” in his head; he assumed it was Katelyn, believed to be a psi, and warned her to stay out of his head.

Meanwhile, the Crew briefly deliberated, and continued to negotiate with Gerhard over the commlink for the release of Jones in exchange for the release of Katelyn and the handover of the OSD—by this point, they had all but given up on preventing the arms-smuggler from ending up with the data, whatever it was; they were unwilling to risk the life of their fellow crewmember by making waves. The Crew required the exchange take place at the landing pad, planning to have the ship warmed up and ready to bolt as soon as the exchange took place (and have the ship’s weapons as insurance against a betrayal). Gerhard balked at the idea, saying he could never get Jones, technically a kidnap victim, past security; Ella asked to speak to Jones, and ordered Jones to play along. Gerhard still didn’t trust the Crew to play nice, however, and they all ended up settling on a public place, a popular shopping mall in the startown, during the local lunch hour, a few hours hence.

The Crew prepared for the worst, planning to go armed and armored; Haank and Buck purchased proper holdout holsters for their sidearms. Abe filled in Katelyn on the situation and extracted a promise to behave herself; she seemed to agree there would be no benefit in her making trouble. As the time for the meeting approached, the Crew piled into the air/raft, and headed into town.

At the mall, they made their way to the food court and spotted Gerhard’s representative (from the earlier meeting at the warehouse), along with another man they didn’t recognize but presumed to be Gerhard. Jones, however, was not present; already, things were starting to look bad. Abe was keeping a discreet watch on Katelyn when he happened to notice a flash of recognition cross her face as she spotted someone at a different table; unable to alert the others at the time, he kept an eye to that area for signs of trouble. The Crew approached the table and seated themselves. Ella asked where Jones was, and Gerhard said that he was nearby, to be released on confirmation of the OSD data, which he then demanded to see. Ella balked at handing over the data with nothing to show for it, but Gerhard produced a datapad and slid it across the table to her, telling her to pull up the files archive and show him. She did so, and although Gerhard tried to hide his excitement, Haank and Abe both noticed the subtle change in demeanor. Now satisfied, Gerhard signaled his lieutenant to bring forth the hostage; Jones was led into view, apparently unharmed. Ella passed the datapad and OSD back to Gerhard, and Jones was released. The business concluded, Gerhard dismissed himself, and he and his associates left the food court, and went on their way. All’s well that ends well, right?

But it wasn’t over.

There was some talk of getting a bite to eat, but Ella was in a hurry to get back to the ship—now they had competition for whatever-it-was (and they still had no idea what), and they would have to hurry to get to it first. As the Crew left the food court environs, someone spotted a couple of guys get up (from the corner Abe had been observing) and start following them, one with a backpack over his shoulder. Rather than guess what they might be up to, or try to lose them in the crowd, Abe turned around and walked directly toward them, waving—they pretended to be doing something else, and did not respond. The Crew continued to leave, and the two strangers followed again. This time, as the Crew cleared the front doors to the mall, they tried to duck around the corner to surprise their shadows, but mostly failed to get ’round in time; Buck and Jones did not join the ambush effort, but made a beeline for the parked air/raft, to get it started. Again, the Crew confronted the men, asking what was in the bag. Again, the men pretended to not be tailing them. The Crew made a quick pace toward the air/raft, and climbed aboard (after a quick check for tampering); as they settled into the vehicle, the two men started running to catch them up, the backpack now off the one’s shoulder and in-hand. Air/rafts are rather slow, and Haank was certain the men would catch them up, so he climbed back out to brazenly confront them and forcefully discourage their continued pursuit. One of them immediately pulled a silenced pistol and fired, striking Haank in the torso (not squarely enough to ever penetrate his monocrys-weave), while the other threw the bag into the open-topped vehicle, landing in Abe’s lap—thinking quickly, Abe threw the bag back at the men. Haank’s sidearm was out in a flash, and everyone else in the vehicle lept out, guns ready; the two men exercised the “better part of valor” and fled as fast as they could. The Crew did not pursue or engage; they just got back in the vehicle and made best speed back to the ship (Abe and Buck both had to choke back their curiosity regarding the bag’s contents).

Back at the ship, they immediately set about getting the ship ready, and departed Porozlo space at the first opportunity. Gileden, the system containing the mystery coordinates on the OSD, was not specifically mentioned in their filed flight-plan, though it was a known necessary stopping point for any jump-2 craft headed for Kinorb (and/or eventually Regina)—the “omission” wouldn’t fool any pursuer for long. A few hours later, the CV Spinward Star entered jumpspace bound for Gileden, putting that whole mess behind them.

Seven days later, without incident, they emerged from jumpspace at the far reaches of the Gileden system. They identified the closest set of coordinates from the OSD, and started working their way down the list, visiting the coordinates and scanning for whatever might be there. At the first, nothing. At the second, they found three cargo containers tethered together, floating at a Lagrange point; they used the air/raft to tow them aboard, waiting to open them on the way to the next set of coordinates; they turned out to contain military weapons and hardware dating back to the War, one container of which was marked with the symbol of the Zhodani Empire, and contained Zhodani gear. The third coordinates yielded nothing. A total of four days after arrival, they reached the fourth coordinates, and were quite surprised to find a massive Zhodani war vessel of some unknown class, powered down and appearing totally empty—this had to be what the OSD was hiding. It was an awe-inspiring sight. Buck was convinced he could get the power back on, and there was talk of maybe moving the ship to a different location, so anyone else looking for her at the OSD’s coordinates would not find her there.

Sam maneuvered the Spinward Star into the spacious landing bay at the rear of the craft, and the Crew disembarked. After securing their own vessel, manually, as best they could, they forced the closest airlock open and, cautiously as they knew how, proceeded inside…

Notes

• The “scan” incident actually occurred last session, but it fit the narrative better here
• We had really painted ourselves into a corner with the whole “hostage” thing, and in the end, we left Porozlo having achieved nothing at all, but having given away the secret data to who-knows-whom. Our previous Traveller characters would have little issue with double-crossing someone, or doing something illegal, but this group keeps running into problems—proving that Honesty truly is a “disadvantage.” In the end, no harm was done, except that we have a new competitor for the “treasure”
• It had been nine sessions since this party had fired a shot; it took a bit to recall how it all worked 😛
• Although two of the characters have the Disadvantage, Curiosity, I think some of the players have it worse—had a hard time leaving that bag behind without taking a peek