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Duty Roster:
Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus (Gigermann)
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg
Missing Persons
The Crew did not stay long on Yori V. They spent a day dropping off the company men they had rescued or recovered, turning over the surviving insurgents they had captured, making official statements, signing non-disclosure agreements, and destroying recordings of their “visit” to the now-destroyed Ancients site on Yori IIn. Once paid for their delivery (which didn’t quite occur) and officially exonerated of any wrongdoing, the ship was fueled, and the Spinward Star soon jumped out for Regina, leaving Yori and the unpleasant business thereat behind them.
The Spinward Star arrived insystem at Regina without incident, and was met there with large amounts of vessel traffic of all shapes and sizes, civilian and military, as befitted the sector’s capital. Haank, in particular, had been looking forward to the arrival here, as Regina was his homeworld; he made contact with his family as soon as they were within range. The ship was cleared for approach to the Regina downport, and set down at Bay A312 after another hour or so navigating traffic patterns. Once cleared for entry by customs officials, Ella officially released the Crew for a week of liberty, after which they would decide where to go next.
- Ella spent the week going to live poetry readings, and otherwise trying to forget the ship, and her experiences on it of late
- Sam went on a week-long pub-crawl; he got merrily smashed, and met many interesting folk that were soon forgotten in an alcohol-induced blur
- Buck spent the week doing post-jump engine maintenance at a leisurely pace
- Haank went home to his family farm and spent the week with his mother and father there, and ran a few errands (like applying for a brokers’ license for Regina)
A couple of days into their liberty, Haank’s mother had invited an old family friend of theirs to visit, Richard Vaskor. As they had the opportunity to talk, Richard revealed to Haank that he was searching for his missing daughter, Valerie (whom Haank had babysitted for in his youth before he had gone hitchhiking). She had dropped out of medical school to go hitchhiking the sector, taking working-passage on tramp freighters here and there, and had been communicating regularly until eight months ago, after which there had been no word. Her last communication was from Echiste: she had been picked up by a free trader, the Black Star, as their medical officer, and they were headed rimward down the Spinward Mains. Richard had reported her missing to the authorities, but they had given up for lack of any usable leads. Haank spoke to Ella, then the others, and they agreed to look for the missing girl, or news of what had become of her. Richard offered to pay for the Crew’s services; Haank initially refused, but at Richard’s insistence, Ella agreed to the offer. Haank took copies of all the communications Richard had with Valerie since she had left, and the Crew started researching.
The Crew’s research revealed that there wasn’t much information to be had. The Black Star was an old Beowulf-class free trader with a sad history of rotten luck with its former owners, the parents of the current captain, Adric Mason. That curse continued under Adric’s command in the form of a couple of deaths, both low-berth failures—no wrongdoing was ever alleged. Besides that, Adric had a bit of a “revolving door” with regard to his crew, Valerie being among his latest hires, picked up at Rech, where she had been stranded after her previous venture. The jump-1 drives on the Black Star restricted it to the Mains, which left only a couple of possible destinations from Valerie’s last transmission on Echiste, and meant that the Spinward Star should be easily able to catch her up. The Crew plotted the quickest route to Pirema, the most-likely choice, and Haank found some freight and a passenger bound for Kkirka, which would be their first stop on the way.
At the end of their shore-leave, the Spinward Star was fueled up, loaded up, and ready to go. They broke orbit, and jumped out immediately for Wypoc, an Amber Zone, so they wouldn’t be staying longer than they had to—they refueled at a gas giant and continued on to Kkirka without delay.
The Spinward Star arrived in the Kkirka system, and they set down at the mainworld’s downport. With a population of only 1200, they didn’t expect much. Sam made straight for the local pub and started schmoozing with locals and transients alike, backed up by Buck, and joined hours later by Haank, after he finished offloading their freight. A local human woman, who worked at the port, took a shine to Sam, and invited him to spend the night with her—he accepted. The next morning, Sam returned to the ship with a smile on his face, and some new information: a year past (a couple of months before the hiring of Valerie), the Black Star was here on Kkirka advertising for a new crew position, which was odd, in that the candidate eventually chosen was the least experienced among the applicants, a woman, of no obvious attributes that would suggest a reason for the decision.
Notes
- This was a fill-in one-shot game, due to some absences; Sae and Abe were playerless for this session
- Back when we purchased the ship, we had no real plan where to go from there, so we decided to head for Regina—not too far, Haank’s homeworld, and a wealthy stop. Now that we’d arrived, we needed a new plan—we didn’t exactly come up with one, except that it will now obviously include chasing down the Black Star
- Our short-term plan is to get to Pirema, find out whatever we can, and circle back to Regina, picking up freight jobs where we can along the way. We’re pretty flush with cash right now, but we’ve been bleeding it out with each jump where we haven’t taken on cargo. Of course, whatever information we find on Pirema could lead us elsewhere…
- Sam is beginning to settle into his new role as “getter of information”—though he’ll still have to compete with Abe for “ship’s tomcat”
