Chapter 1: Five pair of fists and a pair of clamps

You all meet at docking ring C position 21 the next day. There she is. The Sycorax II. Your home for the next months
While Derek inspects the ship from the outside, Adonis gains access with the command key from Eddie's leather case.

Derek's visual inspection already reveals that this ship is not in mint condition. Along the portside some pretty big holes in the hull have been crudely patched with armor plates. They are bolted and welded to the hull and although this work seems to have been done professionally you are not sure if the hull could withstand a weapon's hit to the portside. The other parts of the hull look much better although Derek can clearly see that this ship was in use for quite a long time without an overhaul

When Adonis heads inside the first thing that he notices is the quite high humidity and temperature. While the interior of West V, except from the gardens, is rather cool and dry the interior of this ship is hot and damp. Droplets of sweat immediatly form on Adonis' forehead.
The engine is running in stand by mode but it seems as if there is nothing stopping you from turning it up into ready mode.

Derek checks the maintenance logs meanwhile. He discovers that the ship has been in use since about two months ago.
When he opens the entries they are, unfortunatly, in a foreign language that is definitly not human. So the ship was definitly maintained, but Derek can't tell to which extent.

Adonis heads to the bridge. Four seats are there. Two are in front of consoles. Adonis takes a seat and activates the console with the command key.

An information screen lights up


Sycorax II. Welcome.

Status check:
Engine: 96% ready -- Coolant change is due in -14 months
Power grid: 100% ready
Manoeuvre drive: 100% ready -- Fuel level: 100%
Hyper drive: 100% ready -- Exotic matter level: 100%
Life support: 98% ready -- Please change water filters no. 1, 3, 4
Structural integrity: 87% -- Warning: Rooms 2a, 3 and 4a NOT vacuum tight. Entry to these rooms is locked when in spaceflight. Please see maintenance log for further information
Avionics: 100% ready
Communications: 100% ready
Defensive weapons: 100% ready
Sensor array: 100% ready
-------------------------------------------------------
Flight readiness check complete



A standard piloting interface pops up next. The two consoles on the bridge also allow access to communications and sensors. In order to use the turret one has to man it on Deck 1.

Feel free to explore the ship. If you want to know anything in detail post what you want to inspect and add an appropriate roll. Most technical issues will require the appropriate repair roll while a visual inspection of something will be an investigation roll. Not all flaws that this ship potentially has are apparent now. E.g. The extent to which the portside hull is damaged is unknown without further inspection.
Of course there is nothing stopping you from just starting the ship and hoping that no issues come up.
If you need any help just asks

Derek is not surprised at the state of the ship as he has seen many like this before. He does go in and check out the medical station and claims room 4B as his own figuring it would place him by the medical station in case of emergency.

He checks to see if the medical station is stocked and if need be go and pick up medical supplies to make it fully functional.

Dotty walks into the hanger at position 21 of docking ring C pulling her large wheelie boy suitcase with a variety of other, mostly hard shelled, cases attached to it. Over her one shoulder she has a large garment bag and in the other hand she's carrying a stainless coffee mug. She's dressed, much like she was before in a long sleeved grey and red hoodie, black cargo pants, combat boots and gloves. She stops at the entrance to the hanger and stands there a moment her mouth agape. Spotting Adonis and Derek heading to the ship she runs after them her luggage in tow.

"Wow, it sure is fancy," she says to neither of them in particular when she catches up. "I ain't never been on a starship before," she shrugs, "well awake and on a starship before. All three times before this I traveled luggage class in one of them liquid filled sleep berths. Those are not fun to wake up in let me tell you, like really freaky."

She follows Adonis and Derek up the ramp, her wheelie boy rattles and bumps on the metal plating, "Do I call ya captain or skipper?" She asks looking at Adonis, "Astrid said to make sure I knew what to address you by so I don't get keel hauled. I dunno what that is but it don't sound pleasant. What about you?" She looks at Derek and his medical bag, "Doc, Number 1? What do you prefer?"

Dotty blinks at the interior lights and looks around, "I was expecting something, I dunno bigger? I mean ain't complaining but on Le Bateau d'Amour, the ship definitely seemed bigger."

Dotty puts her bags in a corner of the crew common area and starts to explore the ship.

Dani arrives with her duffel bag and tool kit, and immediately heads for the machine and engine areas to get a good look at how sad this old girl actually is.

Derek finds the medical supplies to be reasonably stocked. Some not very important things are missing and the 'Use before'-date of some of the medicines lies a few months in the past but otherwise the medical station is reasonably ready for treating a medical emergency. Any complicated medical procedure will be difficult to do though.

Dani examines the engine. At some places the engine show small signs of leakage and it is clear that it wasn't completely overhauled in a long time.
Then she goes to the engineering control panel and pulls up a the latest engine status report. The coolant change has been due since 14 months ago but otherwise it seems to be fine. A coolant change is a maintainence task that's often defered by ship engineers. She can't really say if the engine will break down in the near future but for now it is running smoothly.

Dotty wanders through the ship, and inspects everything. In the common room are four lockers, each containing two enviro-suits that allow the crew to exit the ship in space or an unsafe atmosphere. They seem to be pretty new but they are the most basic model with only one layer and no propulsion system. So if you are the exit the ship in space you better be tethered to it and you better don't get shot while wearing it.
Dotty takes the cargo lift to deck three. A few crates are in one corner, containing supplies for the flight.
Near the cargo ramp is the replacement satellite. Dotty is no technician but the only way that the current satellite relay is worse off than the replacement is if it's completely destroyed. Dotty notices a golden plate at the side. It contains the registration number and the owner of the satellite. Or better said: It once had this information on it because they've been filed off.
Oh wow Eddie. A stolen satellite relay. If you stole it why didn't you take a newer one? I hope this here even survives the trip to our destination Dotty thinks
She continues her walkabout on deck 1.
At the back is something like a garage which contains a packed rubber boat tied to the floor. The garage could contain a larger boat or even a small all-terrain vehicle so it looks rather funny to find such a small boat here.
The crew rooms all look the same except for 2a which has "DON'T OPN WHEN VACUUM!" crudly painted on it with white paint. She looks inside and sees that in this room is at an position where armor plates were bolted to the hull. Just as she want to leave the room she sees something shimmering below the bed. She ducks down and picks up a small gold colored figurine. It resembles a lizard with six legs. It holds on to a branch with four of its legs and raises the other two in the air.

You all notice that it is very hot and humid onboard the ship.

Adonis loosens the collar of his shirt and looks for anything that indicates environmental controls. If the outside is cool and dry and the inside his warm and wet then there must be some sort of environmental activity going on.

Dani finds and toggles shipwide. "Hey guys. Engineering report. This bucket is in a least as good a shape as the dumpster she got tossed into. She won't kill us on her own as far as I can see. Least not any time soon."

"Dani," Dotty coms back, "I'm in a stateroom on the upper deck and I can see out into the hanger through the wall. That's not good right?"

Dotty pockets the figurine and reactivates the coms. "Oh hey, anyone know why is there a rubber raft in the upper hanger and why it feels like a sauna in here? This much humidity can not be good for the electronics."

After a lot of fumbling around Adonis finally finds the ship's climate controls. It is set to the 'Vizaar'-setting. Unfotunately there is now 'Human' environment setting. After a few attempts Adonis discovers a default-maintenance mode. As soon as Adonis changed the settings to this mode the fans in the air-ducts of the ship begin to turn and cool air streams into the ship.

Dotty recognizes the figurine as the depiction of a Vizaar, an alien race. Probably the last crew had at least a few Vizaar onboard. This would explain the climate onboard the ship.

Raven enters the ship, not at all sure she should be there. Was she really going to put most of her work on hold for nothing but curiosity? It wasn't too late to back out. No one here was relying on her being here. But she'd kick herself forever if she'd had a chance to examine that artifact and didn't. And maybe they could use some comms assistance during the trip.

After taking a quick look around the ship, she heads to deck one and puts her bag down in 2f. She definitely feels more like a passenger and doesn't think she should take any of the larger rooms. She then heads back to the main deck, thinking she'd check out the storage lockers behind the bridge and possibly the sensors and communication systems.

Dotty moves her bags into 2e. She throws her main bags on the bed, hangs her packsack from the desk chair, places the small gold statue on the desk and hangs her garment bag up in the wardrobe.

Dani responds to Dotty, "Well... just don't go in there."

She gives very little thought to quarters. She's slept nestled amidst machines and in ductwork enough times to not mind it. If someone points out a berth to her, she'll use it. Her concern is more with going over the Satellite in the cargo bay at present.

Dotty grabs the bright orange Millwakita case and heads in search of Dani. Finding her in the cargo hold looking at the satellite, Dotty walks over with a large grin on her face and the hard shelled Millwakita case in her hand.

"Careful wit that," Dotty says to Dani, "I don't know nothin' about nothin' but I do know that thing is hot as hell."

"Stolen, it's stolen. Eddie boosted it from somewhere, you'd think he could have picked a better one. That one's a piece of crap."
Dotty holds the Millwakita case up for Dani to see, "Oh, hey! I gotcha a present Doll. A little somethin' somethin' as an embarkation gift, I know typically you get someone wine or a fruit basket when they go on a cruise but I heard you might be in the market for some zero-G tools." Dotty winks.

After he has solved the climate dilemma and familiarized himself with the piloting controls Adonis grabs his gear and steps over to the captain's cabin to stow everything. He hardly notices the size or the appointments. He plans to spend most of his awake time on the bridge.

Raven checks the locker room. The door to the lockers also has a warning written on to not open it when the ship is in a vacuum.
Unfortunatly the lockers are almost empty. Some litter is on the floor and Raven finds a booklet in a language that's definitly not human.
After that she sits down besides Adonis and begins to work with the communications and sensory console. Surprisingly she understands the handling of the console nearly immediatly. The ship is equipped with a short range as well as a hyperroom communications system. Both look pretty standard.
The sensors on the other hand are surprisingly advanced. Raven can cycle through a lot of different bandwiths of electromagnetic waves. There are also tools to create three-dimensional maps from the sensor data. If she had to assign an animal to that ship it'd be a hound. This ship was equipped to find something... or someone.

If Raven wants to she can try to decipher the book with a language check

While Raven investigates the communications system Dani has a look at the satellite.
She quickly realizes that this satellite is not built to be a hyperroom communications relay. It looks more like a survey satellite commonly used to map newly found worlds. A hyperroom communications module was fixed to the satellite instead of the short range communicator.
Unfortunatly the hyperroom relay with its power supply is much bigger and so the hull of the satellite was cut open at several places to make room for it.
Surprisingly this work seems to have been well done. It looks like the frankenstein's monster of spacecraft but it boots normally, everything is fixated so that no connections can come loose and the important parts have been shielded with steel sheets. Whoever did this knew what he was doing.

Dani smiles brightly at Dotty. "This will make all the difference when whatever we're really doing goes off the rails!" She spontaneously hugs the other girl before starting to hum something as she wanders off to look at the hull patches, pausing at the hatchway. "Oh yeah. When you see the Cap'n, tell him we're probably stealing a planet or something." She resumes humming and wandering off.

Derek finished going round the ship making a final inspection. When he runs into dotty and Dani in the engine room.

You asked what to call me. It is "stitches" at least that was my nickname in the military. , he says to Dotty.

To Dani he says, "How are things in here? It looks like we're functional but that is not saying much as I think that you will be busy. I figured I offer my service was I am rated on maintenance on small equipment. So unless someone is injured I can help you with that while you can concentrate on the bigger stuff."

Dotty stiffens and inhales sharply as Dani hugs her, she pulls her head to one side awkwardly as if trying to keep some distance between them then she relaxes and returns the embrace.

"You shouldn’t touch me Dani," Dotty says quietly, cadence and accent in her speech replaced with something more formal and proper. "I’m sweet but I’m poison. Toxic, it’s hard to explain."

Dorothea steps back and holds up her gloved hands. Yellow sad faced emoticons and broken purple hearts float across her mechanical eyes, "Sorry, I don’t want to hurt you."

A forced smile crosses her lips, "I’ll keep an eye open for the skipper."

She looks over at Derek and winks the gangster mol cadence returning to her speech, "Stitches it is doll face."

"Curious. This ship seems designed for scouting or recovery," Raven tells Adonis, "definitely meant for locating something that may be hard to find. This is one of the most advanced sensor arrays I've ever seen. Not the kind of tech I'd think would be needed for the 'straightforward' mission we're being sent on."

She frowns a little, thinking about what they'd been told earlier in the day as she idly flips open the booklet she found to see if she could read any of it.