Session 28 (1 December 2023)

Location: in the vicinity of Ossobo, the larger of two main sequence red stars in a binary system (Far Home 0928)

Date: 161–5600

Travellers: Ada Windsor (navigator), Sasha Danlami (comms), Torka Jax (security), Griff Kodiak (gunner), Nogudnyk (steward) 

NPC: Maximilian Stana, Captain Marika Covrig

Stana's ship is about an hour away and you're not sure if he intends to pay you, detain you, or destroy you. You decide that discretion is the better part of valour. Happily, having factored in the possibility that you might wish to depart immediately, you had prepared a jump plot to Kuyt (Far Home 0728), whose class-A starport facilities you envisage taking advantage of. You dash off a communication to Wood, instructing him to deposit your payment in a bank in Bathur's Edge; you'll be able to collect the funds at a future date, although it may take weeks or months to effectuate any secure transfer. Having cash in hand would be preferable, but you don't want to risk letting Stana's missile and laser turrets get any closer.

There's just one problem: Captain Covrig. Although her customary rigid military discipline initially rubbed many many of you the wrong way, over the past two weeks she's proven a useful and dependable ally and has even learned to relax a bit. It was in large part because of the trust you'd earned with her that you were able to conceal your schemes surrounding the pathogen and the displacement device from her. She believes you acted in good faith to help the Sath and knows nothing about the pathogen, having remained on the ship while you were busy on the surface. Now, she expects to return to Duke Norlande and report on the mission. But you have no intention of rendezvousing with an 800-ton warship commanded by a man you're persuaded would like nothing more than to vaporize you.

Every minute you delay, Stana's missiles get closer. You realize you have two options: jump to Kuyt, taking Covrig with you; or put her in a spacesuit and shove her out an airlock before engaging the jump drive. Either way, it's an unavoidably awkward breach of trust with someone you've grown to like.

Marika Covrig has the drop on you.

You opt for the latter course of action: at least this way, Covrig won't be burdened with the knowledge of your destination. Former navy captain Torka Jax volunteers to do the persuading; Sasha, also ex-navy, comes along as backup. You find Covrig in her stateroom, packing for the transfer. You explain your concerns about Stana; she acknowledges them but is confident that her status as the duke's agent will keep you safe. She moves to open a channel to Stana's ship; Sasha knocks the communicator out of her hand. Tensions flare: Jax reaches for the hilt of his sword (it has a stun setting) but Covrig is faster. You find yourself staring at the business end of her laser pistol.

Covrig watches the
Dejah Thoris depart.

It's a standoff: she doesn't want to shoot you, but you refuse to back down. You redouble your efforts to persuade her of your need to flee and, finally, she relents. (It helps that she knows of Stana's reputation for ruthlessness.) She puts down the pistol and sticks out her chin to make an easy target for your fist: this plan is only going to work if it looks like she offered resistance. Sasha's sorely tempted, but in the end you help her into a spacesuit before Jax stuns her with his sword. Attaching a beacon to her vacc suit, you flush her out the airlock and radio the incoming ship to pick her up. Then, you jump. What insults and imprecations Stana emits, you know not.

During the week that follows, Ada instructs her shipmates in the basics of piloting — enough that each of you acquires the rudiments of handling spacecraft. It's a crucial skill for the crew of a small trader like the Dejah Thoris. During your off-hours, you visit with each other and exhibit the ways you've decorated your individual staterooms. They range from the tidy (Torka and Sasha) to the cluttered (Nogudnyk), from the intentionally spartan (Ada) to the downright hazardous (Griff).

On 169–5600, you dock at the orbital station around Kuyt (Far Home 0728). Your plan is to get the Dejah Thoris outfitted with a disposable external fuel tank so that you can jump two parsecs spinward, jettison the tank, and immediately jump another two parsecs to reach Goyaren (Far Home 0328). You're in luck: it can be done in two days, thanks to the excellent facilities here. The downside is that you're low on cash and the ship's monthly expenses are due on 170-5600. Time to take a job.

The bartender at Kuyt station's most popular watering hole claims to have two contacts for your consideration. One is for a job that requires getting your hands dirty for the benefit of people of questionable ethics; you guess he's talking about the surgical application of violence in some form or another. The other involves working for some kind of tree-hugging environmentalist group. It pays, he says, "six figures."

You choose the latter. When you learn that the contact is Dr Binyavanga Eromosele, Sasha volunteers to take the lead in making the connection: Dr Eromosele is an esteemed biologist specializing in the study of the kringula, a winged creature that inhabits the low-gravity of Kuyt. Sasha's own published research — which Eromosele has read, it turns out! — also involves animal behaviour.

Dr Eromosele

When you meet, the biologist quickly gets down to business. She's working with an organization called SPAWK: the Society for the Preservation of the Air Whales of Kuyt. The whales are gargantuan, majestic flying creatures that live permanently in the upper atmosphere of the planet. Long hunted for glands from which an exquisite perfume can be manufactured, they are currently protected by law. Unfortunately, poaching is rampant, and Kuyt's government is doing nothing to enforce the regulations. Eromosele has observed that kringula populations are steadily growing and infers that it's because the air whales, who prey upon the human-sized birds, are declining in number. She needs more data to convince the politicians to take action. Specifically, she wants to attach tracking devices to several air whales to better study their migrations and habits. The problem, she explains, is that the air whales are wary of small craft and, to boot, can be very dangerous: they have been known to destroy large air/rafts and other vehicles. (She shows you video footage of such a disaster captured by a SPAWK operative who managed to get hired onto a poaching crew.)

Fortunately, Eromosele believes she has devised a solution. She's acquired two grav belts — experimental tech of a kind that's rare in this system — that will allow the wearers to fly at speeds up to 300 km/h. To avoid spooking the air whales, she has crafted winged vacc suits that resemble kringula at a distance: good enough, hopefully, to fool the air whales. One flyer can serve as a lure, while the other gets close to the giant creature to attach a datapad-sized tracker to the soft flesh in the folds behind its eye. (The exterior of the whales is, otherwise, incredibly tough and resistant to any kind of puncturing.) A support team in an air/raft should remain fairly close by, in case of accident. Kuyt may be low gravity (0.22 G), but it's still a long way to fall...

Thanks to the support of SPAWK, she can pay Cr100,000 if you can tag three whales. (You do not fail to observe that this is the absolute minimum covered by the term "six figures".) It's dangerous work — she couldn't get funding for this from the University of Kuyt because the ethics board would never approve activity that's so hazardous to the researchers. And, of course, if actual poachers show up, things could get complicated indeed. You push for a higher payout, and she compromises: if you can tag four space whales, she'll throw in one of the grav belts.

You accept the job. For some, it's the environmental ethics that appeal; for others, it's the prospect of flying like Superman. Whatever the reason, your course is clear. You have 24 hours to plan and train and rest, and then you'll be soaring above the clouds in search of the air whales of Kuyt.

Image credits: all images created by AI Comic Factory.