15 Apr 2173 (1622-D Apishat)

My first task once we arrive in Apishal was to determine what to do with all the life-support equipment used on the return trip for the survivors.  The Captain had me analyze it for useable parts.  I was able to salvage 70% of it for our own use.  The rest we scraped.

Almost forgot, payday (the 10^th) was during the transit.  Don’t mean much when you have nothing to spend the money on.

One of the things I realized on the Altair station was how much I need to learn Vilani.  Once we had leave in system I went shopping for a Vilani teaching program/device for Terrans.  Boy, did I pick the wrong system to try that in.  The spaceport was barren of anything helpful, and that was putting it nicely.  I was able to pickup a Terran to Vilani dictionary.  I am currently driving my staff nuts putting Post-It notes all over my Engine Room in order to teach myself Vilani.

While on the planet, the Captain took Daniel to meet with one of the survivors from Altair.  He was the lead scientist from the station.  Funny thing these Vilani, they did not look like they were too upset when we turned over the bodies from the station.  Frigid lot they are.  They also apparently did not want the cargo we were sent to deliver to Altair back either.  It was mostly basic supplies and foodstuffs.  Turns out the survivor will be with us a little longer.  He wants a ride to Zaggisi (1523-B).

18 Apr 2173 — 25 Apr 2173: Transit from 1622-D Apishat to 1523-B Zaggisi

Spent most of the transit covering Engineering in Post-It notes… damn it’s fun bugging my staff.  Besides, it is good for them to learn the tongue of where we will be spending the next year or so.

Zaggisi was everything Apishal was not.  It was a huge industrialized planet and friendly (for Vilani) to boot.  While in port we met the crew of a 200 ton Hero-class Free Trader called the Reaver.  She was a Terran vessel and was headed back home to Nusku.  They agreed to carry letters and small packages back to Nusku, and into the Terran mail system, when they head back.  It took a couple of days, but the crew put together their stuff and the Reaver left for Nusku two days later.

On the Vilani learning front, I was able to get a program while here.  It will work a lot better than the Post-Its, but not as fun.  I will still use the Post-Its for a while.

Remi and I got to spend some “dude” time while on Zaggisi.  We actually went fishing one afternoon.  I caught 7 decent size fish, but Remi caught a near-record size fish.  Remi actually took a class later that day on how to prepare it according to local cuisine.  I gave a couple of my larger fish to the crew of the Reaver as a “thank you” for taking our mail.

I worked on Jenny II for a few hours while here.  I even took her for a spin around the spaceport.  She rides real well.  However, she does have a weird little “tick” at 1200 rpm that I have to find.  I do not think it’s serious, but it bugs me that it’s there.

Time to go back to work.  It looks like we have a new client.  He wants to transport his children, ahead of himself, and cargo (a full hold!) to 1222-A Dingir.  Apperently he is in bad with some local hoods because the crew is all cloak-and-dagger getting the kids aboard.  The client did not want to handle the transfer to the starport for fear of a leak and attack on the kids.  We did see some shady characters during the transfer, but they could not follow us into the starport.  Just to be sure, I checked the cargo for any potential problem prior to takeoff.

28 Apr 2173 — 05 May 2173: Transit from 1523-B Zaggisi to 1324-C Shulgi

The transit was uneventful but I cannot say the same for the arrival.  As soon as we arrived in system, we detected a 100 ton scout class ship near the arrival point.  While this is not abnormal, his rapid acceleration to our arrival point was.  It became crystal clear what his intentions were as soon as his radio message arrived.  His demands were simple, “Hand over the children”.  Well, that was not going to happen.

The Captain decided to play along with their demands while we formulated a plan.  This I can tell you, they picked on the wrong people that day.  Being that I had a background in blockade running, I had extensive training and experience in counter-boarding operations. We set about formulating a plan based on lulling them into thinking we are an easy target, which isn’t hard considering we are unarmed and they have at least one turret.

They approached us from above and docked with our upper hatch to their lower hatch.  This prevented them from threatening us with their turret while they were docked.  It also let us see them form our portholes while they could not see us, amateurs.  As soon as they docked, Mr. Remi (who was hiding in the Air Raft bay) went EVA and approached their ship from the rear.  While we delayed the boarding party he approached their turret and placed a C4 charge (which I had built during the approach) under the central barrel hinge.  He then made his way back to the rear of the ship.

While he was doing this, the crew setup an ambush near the airlock exits.  We split the crew into two ambush points, one hear Sickbay and the other near the Engineering Workshop.  We also sealed the door at the end of the stores area so they could not get to Engineering from the airlock area.  Mr. Remi positioned himself near the Port engine and fired a grenade launcher into the main combustion chamber housing.  The grenades wound not damage the ship, but they would cause enough damage to the injector pups and fuel sensors thereby guaranteeing that the engine would need to go to a shipyard in order to get fixed.  Mr. Remi was knocked off his footing when he fired, but he had a lanyard and was ok.  At the same time he fired on the engine, I set off the turret charge remotely.  This made sure that they could not use the turret against us.

With the enemy ship disabled, the boarding party started the attack with smoke grenades.  I called engineering and had them do a rapid decompression to have the air evacuated.  We had already made sure the passengers were in rescue balls before the enemy came on board.  When they cam up through he airlock, we opened fire.  They did not stand a chance.  They never got a chance to make an effective and coordinated attack.  We took out 3 of them and captured one.  On the way back to the Air Raft bay Mr. Remi fired a grenade into the enemy transfer tube and into the chest of an enemy boarder.  Needless to say the tube was put out of action and the last thing Mr. Remi saw was the enemy ship leaking atmosphere as he came aboard our ship.  We did not suffer any injuries and were able to dislodge the enemy ship using a high-g roll that tore off the docking clamps.  I will have to fix that once we get to Dingir.  We secured the prisoner in the sickbay till we could decide what to do with him.

We did a gas giant refuel and got the hell out of there ASAP.

06 May 2173 — 12 May 2173: Transit from 1324-C Shulgi to 1222-A Dingir

Payday on transit again… WOOT!!

I spent some time in transit working on ways to help defend the internals of the ship in case we ever get boarded again.  I will make a proposal to the captain as soon as I have the cost estimates done.  I want to make some Passenger Isolation Doors and add some Low Births for injured crew and prisoners.