Session 6 (5 May 2023)

Location: On board the Dejah Thoris, moored at the Class-D starport on Merant (Far Home 1427)

Date: 075-5600

Time: 0800

Travellers: Dr Fomstep, Ada Windsor, Sasha Danlami, Erhardt Hecker, Torka Jax

The search for credits continues. Sadly, no speculative trading opportunities materialize, although some interesting ideas are tossed about: bottles of local spirits, or samples of local game meat? A mere six tons of bulk cargo are secured, as are a half-dozen low passengers. Without payment for the Muuna job, it looks like this stop on Merant is going to put the Dejah Thoris deeply into the red (Hecker has done the math). Its 49-ton cargo hold will be mostly empty when you lift off for Dal Hallen. It's some consolation that at least the fridge will be well-stocked: Sasha went hunting and came home with some fresh game that you will be able to enjoy during the coming week in jumpspace.

You ponder the unknowns piling up concerning the Muuna contract. Who was spying on Lantho's place? What happened to Braxton Kader?  The local newspapers in Kherty publish reports of fighting in the mountains of eastern Vhenja, but it's mostly official press releases by the regime: no journalists have been allowed in the area. Sympathetic Khertians are concerned — a good number are adherents of the Church of the Purple Sun, as are many of the separatists in neighbouring Vhenja — but no one wants to go to war over this.

One question, at least, is answered. You are able to ping Ada's missing personal communicator: it appears to be sitting only several hundred meters away, in a locally-run electronics shop on the main concourse of the starport! Suspicious of what this might mean, you concoct a plan to surveil the location and, possibly, retrieve the device. Sasha and Jax saunter through the concourse, pretending to be casual offworlders shopping for local goods. The shop, Oz Racine's Electronics, is a hole-in-the-wall establishment fronted by a counter; a dizzying array of gadgets of all tech levels, quality, and design crowd its shelves. You notice that someone appears to be watching the place: a bald man reading a newspaper. Ada, peering through the cams, confirms it: it's Baldy from the grocery van. He does not react to your presence.

You take action. Rapping on the counter, Jax gets the attention of the diminutive Oz Racine. Presenting Oz with the threat of reporting them for selling stolen goods, you demand the return of Ada's communicator. Oz caves quickly, stammering that they had received the device in good faith from an associate, trusting that it was clear of complications. You warn Oz against future actions of this sort, but sweeten the encounter by leaving Cr500 in the frightened tech's delicate hands. Later, you see them shuttering their shop early. 

You connect the retrieved communicator to your handheld computer and access its directory. As far as you can tell, the device's digital security was bypassed, allowing someone to read files from memory, but there doesn't appear to be anything fishy about its current programs. 

Meanwhile, Dr Fomstep has been busy in the medbay, isolating complex organic compounds from the plants that were harvested yesterday. Add a bit of this and that, heat then cool, spin it the centrifuge, and hey presto! there's a small batch of potent psychedelics. The chemistry looks sound, but how to know for sure? Ada volunteers to test the results. She has a great trip. Looks like Dr Fomstep hit a home run. This is quality stuff, worthy of the most decadent aristos on the most hedonistic pleasure planet in the sector. The only question is, do you really want to try selling this stuff somewhere? And when are you going to tell Captain Jarumi about these experiments?

Speaking of whom: Jarumi's been scarce, holed up in her spacious quarters, it seems. As usual.

The Khertian evening newspapers (scanned by someone at the starport) get beamed in. A headline catches your eye: it seems that some captured separatists from the skirmishing at Muuna are to be transported to a prison further west. Might Braxton Kader be among them? What will you do — cut your losses and seek your fortunes in another system, or double down on helping the separatists who owe you money?

Time: 1600