Session 8 (26 May 2023)

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

Date: 076-5600

Time: 0900

Travellers: Ada Hunger (dour navigator), Torka Jax (virtuous computer expert), Griff Kodiak (explosives enthusiast), and Jacobe Kyman (pilot and gambler)

Returned safely from your leaflet-dropping mission, you write up a brief log report that outlines your effort to disseminate information about political tolerance without getting into too many details, and then catch a few winks before the morning watch begins.

Captain Jarumi appears and reviews the week's events, noting the unfortunate lack of cargo and the absence of high passage travellers for the journey to Dal Hallen. She assigns pre-liftoff tasks for the pilot, navigator, gunner, and security officer: you perform these with consummate ease, earning her admiration and praise. With cargo stowed and low passengers tucked into their cryopods, you engage the M-drive and head for the system's gas giant to collect hydrogen and refine it into fuel. A few days later, tanks full, you fire the J-drive.

Approaching a gas giant to refuel.

During the week in transit, you spent time in training and, in off-hours, socialize in the crew lounge. As was the case during your previous weeks in jump, Jarumi spends most of her time in her quarters. When she emerges to carry out routine ship's business, she is invariably polite and professional, but always distant. As you grow closer as a crew, you can't help but speculate about her remoteness. You look into the ship's logs to see what you can learn about her past. From the available data, you can see that she took possession of the ship on Ras Tennol (Far Home 2315) about a year ago and has been working her way rimward ever since, following (mostly) the main star lane known as the Void Edge. You also note a fairly high rate of crew turnover — nothing sinister (and no fatalities, until Sakamoto's demise on board the derelict mining ship), but evidence of a lack of continuity in operations. Reading between the lines (and without access to concrete financial details), you get the sense that the ship hasn't been turning a huge profit and possibly has been running at a loss. Perhaps there are deep pockets keeping the Dejah Thoris afloat? Is Captain Jarumi running from something or someone? Or is there some greater purpose in her flight toward the Great Rift to rimward? You resolve to make further discreet inquiries about your mysterious captain once you arrive at a world with decent Library Data resources.

Customs officer at the Dal
Hallen highport.

You emerge from jumpspace in the Gurada-Dal Hallen system (Far Home 1428) on 086-5600 and are able to refuel without incident at the nearest of three gas giants in the system. A few days later the Dejah Thoris is decelerating on approach to the Dal Hallen class-A highport. As luck would have it, your vessel is selected for a random in-person customs inspection. As the customs launch approaches, Jarumi advises everyone to stay on the bridge and let her handle the officials. Curious to see how she manages this situation, you clandestinely activate the ship's comms to listen in (while also ensuring this activation is not recorded in any logs). Jarumi greets the customs officer at the airlock dressed in clothes that underline her high status. Their exchange is polite but tense — you observe Jarumi deploying both her social clout and a sizeable bribe to convince the reluctant official to forego the inspection. It very nearly doesn't go her way, but in the end the launch departs without insisting on an inspection. Jarumi reappears on the bridge in her captain's fatigues and nonchalantly informs you that the officials changed their minds. 

You dock at the highport, a space station in geosynchronous orbit above the downport planetside. Here, you divest yourselves of your freight and the low berth passengers. Emboldened, perhaps, by the smooth trip as much as by recent evidence of the captain's resources, Kodiak suggests to Jarumi that an increase in the crew's salaries is warranted. Jarumi takes the suggestions seriously — adding, however, that the likelihood of higher wages is directly proportional the crew's success at scrounging up trade opportunities and lucrative contracts.

The ship will be in berth at the highport for six days. Torka Jax has family planetside, potentially a boon to any efforts to gather information about the world. How will you spend your time here? What patrons will you find? What cargo might you seek? How will you respond to the deepening mystery surrounding your captain? Have you finally left the troubles of Merant behind, or will they catch up to you here?

Date: 089-5600

Time: 1000

Location: Dal Hallen class-A highport (Far Home 1428)