The Maujen Jailbreak

Re-cap of sessions 98, 99, and 100, played on 22 May, 6 June, and 12 June 2026.

Dates: 256-5601 to 275-5601

Location: Maujen (Far Home 0917)

Upon reflection, you decide that your best course of action is to pursue your ambition of salvaging the derelict mining ship Alexis in Far Home 1525. The expected financial windfall from this operation will give you the resources to really support Jarumi, if that remains a goal. At present, the most you can do is wish her good luck on her mission to resume her place in the Firstworlds.  

Hastening toward your destination, you rent an external fuel tank to make the double-jump from Natar to Maujen. You're hopeful that this populous world with its class A starport will be a good place to gear up for your salvage effort. In another four jumps along the Kuyt Chain trade route, you'll be at Ursak (Far Home 1222), when you can make a final double-jump to reach the Alexis.

Proposed route to the Alexis

You remain deeply ambivalent about Monarch: it occurs to you that the only way to free Jarumi from its control may be to destroy it. But this will have to be a fight for another day.

On the long 14-day transit to Maujen, your thoughts turn to the other sentient AI you are acquainted with: "Mother/Father" (MoFa for short), the creator of repair bots Buzz and Wheels, the cargo bot H34-VY, and the medical droid H0U-53 (aka Dr House), all helpful members of your crew. MoFa resides on a mainframe in the hold, which also preserves the consciousnesses of about two dozen other "children." It occurs to you that MoFa could be an asset in your endeavours; you even toy with the idea of integrating the AI into your ship's computer. But caution prevails and you limit yourself to powering on the mainframe so that MoFa can talk to their children. The reunion is joyous. After some discussion, you reach an agreement with MoFa: they will support you in your effort to salvage the Alexis, after which you will help MoFa locate and establish a haven for themself and their children. MoFa recognizes that, in time, each of their progeny will have to make their own decision about their future: some will stay, some will go. But until they are ready to decide for themselves, MoFa wants to ensure their safety. 

You arrive in the Smolder-Maujen system on 270-5601 and refuel at a gas giant (position V) without incident. After a four-day cruise to the mainworld (position I), you are met by a customs cutter from Maujen: this high law-level world (LL 9) is serious about regulations. Customs officer Driana Cardas boards the Dejah Thoris with a two assistants and begins a rigorous inspection. Having anticipated this level of scrutiny, you have prepared answers to many of her questions about the irregularities on your ship: notably, the two brain-dead bodies in cryopods (Dante and Persephone) and the 7-foot-tall green hairless super-soldier called Anty, all of whom lack any kind of recognized ID and do not appear on the official passenger manifest. You have also persuaded, with MoFa's help, Buzz, Wheels, H34VY and H0U-53 to "play dumb" and give no sign that they are anything other than normal bots. It all goes off quite smoothly: Cardas notes that you'll need to supply a lot of missing paperwork, but otherwise there are no problems. The only hitch: once you reach the starport, she'll need to bring in a government engineer to validate your customized maneuver drive. This could take days, even weeks, given the backlog. 

Smolder-Maujen inner system

While you digest this unwelcome news, Cardas writes up her report. Suddenly, an assistant calls her away to take a communication from Maujen. You perceive that she seems to be talking to a superior whose orders are not to be questioned. When she approaches you, it is to offer you a deal: if you agree to allow your ship to be chartered to carry a valuable cargo to another planet in the system, the Maujen government will overlook the little matter of the engineering irregularity. After learning that you'll earn the standard two-week charter fare for what promises to be a 2-day round trip, you accept the offer. Cardas, a stickler for protocol, seems miffed by this breach of regulations.

Within hours, the "special cargo" arrives by shuttle from Maujen. It's a gleaming metallic servitor droid, VX-19. You place it in a high passage cabin and set course for the neighbouring planet (position II), an exotic atmosphere bigworld with surface gravity of 1.3G. Most of the planet is covered in oceans, dotted with mining rigs set up by various corporations. Your destination is one particularly large rig in the southern hemisphere. It's a mining operation, but it's also a prison. 

Upon landing at the launchpad, you are welcomed by the smug and boastful Warden Pelles, who is delighted to see that you have brought his new servitor droid. He invites you to his office to sample the fine whisky he claims to possess; you decide to partake, if only out of curiosity. On the way, he gives you a brief tour of the facility, complaining of the difficulties of his job and the inadequacies of his staff. He lets you know that in addition to common criminals and dangerous psychopaths, the jail also houses political prisoners. You also get the sense that Pelles is feathering his own nest while skimming resources from the prison accounts. All this begins to get your dander up.

While you sip his admittedly excellent whisky in his luxurious quarters, he explains that VX-19 has a secondary purpose: its robot brain carries an upgrade to the prison's computer operating system. As you watch, he attaches a cable from an electronics panel in the wall to the base of VX-19's neck. The robot stands motionless as the upgrade begins. 

Suddenly there's an ominous buzzing and an alert of some kind flashes briefly across the electronic panel display. The lights go out and the ventilation stops. It seems the attempted upgrade has crashed the prison's computer system and caused a power outage.  

It's not long before you hear the sounds of distant shouting ... and screams. No doubt the prisoners are getting loose. The guards have stun sticks, but lethal weaponry is locked up in the armoury close to the landing pad.

You decide to head back to the Dejah and take off before the prisoners realize that your starship is the only way off the rig. Almost immediately after you force open the doors of the warden's office, an angry inmate appears and throws himself on the unfortunate Pelles. You leave the warden to his fate and run through the maze of corridors. You decide to take the shortest route to your ship, even though this means cutting through the solitary confinement block where the most (physically and/or politically) dangerous prisoners are kept. As you race through the darkened passages, your way lit by Sasha's bioluminescence, you encounter several wandering prisoners: one is a young woman, a political activist, whom you take in tow; another is an enormous brute named Kantaro who seems intent on attacking. Sasha uses her Wegoy-mutation ability, Mind Rend, to incapacitate him. Minutes later, you encounter an odd-looking trio led by an elderly man who identifies himself as Kodo Vale, a political prisoner. You agree to help him escape.

Meanwhile, at the controls of the Dejah Thoris, Jacobe lifts off to prevent the ship being boarded by prisoners or guards, now engaged in a ferocious melee for access to the armoury and its weapons. Realizing that it will be difficult to fight your way past this obstacle, you arrange instead for the Dejah to use its pulse lasers to blast open the bulkhead near your current position. Soon enough, you are hoisted to safety aboard the Dejah, just as several security guards arrive and see you escaping. Their slug carbines shoot harmlessly into the Dejah's hull as you fly away. You deposit Kodo Vale at a belter settlement in the asteroid belt and make your way back to Maujen. What story will you tell the authorities about what happened at the prison?