Chapter 1: Little Girl Lost

Sophia makes the call and within moments, the port authorities are on the scene. There is a tense moment when the authorities ask for licenses for their weapons, but they produce the appropriate documents and are sent on their way with an admonishment not to threaten law-abiding citizens. The group quickly disperses into the night. Rayshel seems to have slept through the affair. There are no further interruptions.

In the morning, the remainder of your cargo is loaded and your passengers arrive. The ten non-frozen passengers are:
1) Xinyi Jiang and her 5-year old son Peng. They are traveling as far as Antelles for pleasure. She is pleasant, while her son is very shy.
2) Tirto Cahya Hardja, businessman heading for Gadlolinia. He is gruff, but polite.
3) Gayge Aevum, young man out to see the universe and going to Antelles. He is very talkative.
4) Jahlea Harper, expectant mother heading for Gadlolina. First-time off-world.
5) Dariox Gabrelyan, serious-looking individual heading to Quiri. Keeps to himself and is very quiet.
6) Alezand Umarov, xenoscientist going to Gadlolina. He is polite and respectful.
7) Zimeon Schönberger, annoying nobleman going to Quiri. Complains constantly.
8) Briya Speropoulos, holovid star traveling to Antelles. She is (unsuccessfully) trying to stay out of the limelight.
9) Jezper McDonald, young man heading for Quiri. He seems very nervous and jumpy.
10) Lorlea Orszekhie, very attractive young woman. She seems to be at ease.

Carlos carefully studies the passengers as they board...

...but none of them set off any mental alarms.

The journey begins. While the ship is proceeding to the 100-diameter distance, I'll need someone to do the Astrogation for the jump (with a -1 DM for jump distance). This is an Easy (4+) check that takes 1d6 x 10 minutes (EDU applies). If it fails, you will have to run the calculations again, with the same modifiers and the same amount of time required.

Sophia makes the necessary calculations and the ship prepares for jump. In the finest tradition, the lights are dimmed (known as jump-dimming*) and the ship slides into jump space. For the next week, you are all alone.

It is customary for the ship’s captain to contribute Cr10 from every low passage towards a lottery in which each low passenger randomly guesses how many will survive the trip. If the winner is among the dead, the captain collects the prize. The lottery is administered by a ship’s steward. You have 20 low-passengers, so the pot would be Cr200.

During the trip, several of your passengers are quite active, moving about the passenger area and spending as much time as possible out of their rooms. On the 3rd day, Dariox Gabrelyan approaches Aleksis. "What can you tell me about Jezper McDonald? He's on your passenger manifest."

*Jump-dimming is a tradition that goes back to the early days of FTL travel. Jump drives use a lot of power and in the early days, it was necessary to shut down all non-essential systems before making the jump. Though it is no longer necessary in most cases, ships pay homage to that era by dimming their lights as they go into jump space.

When no answer seems to be forthcoming from Aleksis, the man moves on. For the next few hours, you notice him skulking about in the passenger area, keeping largely to himself.

Sylvia is spending her time watching old space telenovelas and channel surfing. She has no idea about the passengers.

The man scowls at Carlos. "What do you know about the passenger named Jezper McDonald?" he asks bluntly.

"My name is Gabrelyan. I'm a skip tracer. That man owes a significant debt and is trying to escape without paying it. I tracked him to your ship and found out that he booked passage to Quiri. I'm concerned that he may be dangerous, particularly if cornered."