Chapter 1: Ring of Fire

Fallon nods her head, satisfied. "Not bad at all," she murmurs to herself. She sets her bag down on the small sofa next to the bed and digs out a change of clothes. She was still lightly crusted with salt water from her swim and her hair was stiff. A shower followed by a quick nap seems the best course of action right now. She heads out with her fresh outfit in search of the bathroom.

"Another off-worlder?" Alerio asks, leaning in.

"You didn’t run them all off after that business with that gang of pirates a while back then?"

---

Alerio peels off the mask as soon as she gets into the room. And then she washed her face.

"Better!" she says, drying off.

"Sounds like things might be against us out here. So far, so good. But we haven’t met anyone with too much power yet. Or something to prove…"

"You know what's sad about these filter masks, ladies? Your own breath ricochets back at you." He adds quickly, anticipating the girls' reactions.

"I floss every day! Honest alien! But hell, this isn't bad at all. Can't wait to check out the bed," he says, with a deadpan face.

Seally takes a short shower, her few belongings tossed onto the desk. Mostly rinsing the salt off, she adds a few special ointments to keep her hair looking vibrantly healthy. Dressing up a little, in lawyerly clothing, she comes out to the common room and leans against the crate. "I was mostly joking about sharing a single bachelor. Even with four I kind of wish we'd splurged on the penthouse." She laughs, and adds, "But I'd rather save our funds for the Wayward Wind." She pats the crate affectionately, thinking of her prize.

Deborah tells you its a he, and a handsome one at that. A corporate representative of some sort, here negotiating a mining survey with the Loudermilks (who, incidentally, own the Walton she slips in, indicating her pride of working for the First Citizen). "Everyone knows folks could use the jobs."

---

After everyone has refreshed, Deborah arrives with a message. "Well, aren't you a bunch of important people. Minister Greener was just on the comms. He wants to meet with you at your earliest convenience. He's over at the Palace. Cheryl is working reception today, she'll buzz you right through."

"Looks like souvenir shopping will have to wait." Alerio says, all business. Last time some big wig had sent for her, she’d been kicked off-world. Better than being killed, but just barely.

"It didn’t take long for them to find us." she says flatly. It could be menacing, if said in a certain way.

Fallon is still toweling her hair dry. "He knows who we are already? Maybe it was our all-natural swim at the beach..." she muses, to counteract Alerio's seriousness. "I can be ready to go in five minutes."

"I'm sure you're right Fallon. I mean who wouldn't find that whole scene ... titillating."

Zuni quickly slips out through the door before he gets whacked over the head by three irate ladies. If Deborah hears him, maybe all four.

"There will be no puns in this hotel!" Fallon throws her towel at the rapidly retreating man.

Seally grins, and is glad she fell in with these yahoos. "You're all so much fun. I can see we're going to be bad influences on each other, in all the best ways." She slips past the big crate and gives Alerio and Fallon quick hugs.

When they're ready to go, she straps on her sword and checks out herself in the mirror, mostly making sure her ass looks good in the lawyer suit, and her eye shadow is just dark enough to be mysterious, but not too dark as to be ghoulish.

You make your way through the Central Lake's dusty streets to the Palace, which is a short ways outside the city proper.

The building itself is reasonably impressive, given the surroundings - clusters of fabricated cylindrical buildings that surround and merge with a central tower. You can tell the architect was going for an organic vibe, and the design probably fares well in wind storms. In addition, you note three pulse laser turrets mounted on towers that rise above the palace. You pass through a security checkpoint, and the armed guards wave you through, apparently expecting you. Entering the Palace, you are met with the most dazzling display of Walston prismatic glass sculpture so far:It seems like a lonely place, with quiet, empty halls. It is as if the Palace was built for a much larger kingdom. Your boots echoing on the polished floors as you approach a reception desk, where Cheryl, a middle-aged woman in royal livery, is filing her nails . "Minister Greener is expecting you," the older woman announces without even looking up. "His office is in the basement. I'd walk you down, but my joints have been acting up."

When you find Greener's office, Greener is inside, looking over a ledger. He's wearing a long, dusty field jacket over top of cloth body armor, and his expression is flat and stern.

He sees you and comes over, welcoming you inside. He introduces himself, and gives you a chance to reciprocate."So, travellers, I trust you've enjoyed your stay so far on Walston. What brings you here to our beautiful, little planet?"

Alerio takes the place in in a kind of awkward tourist fashion. She felt at home in the hustle a bustle of a city planet. She felt equally at home in the quiet solitude of a new colony.

But this was neither, and both at once. Like a decimated world reeling from some recent war. Or a failed luxury planet that never took off. She felt out of place.

"It’s a beautiful place." she says, as introduction.

"Alerio." she says, putting a hand to her chest.

"And we’re here for… well, someone else should explain."

Alerio was along for the ride. This wasn’t her ship, exactly!

Fallon falls in love with the Palace. The architecture, the prismatic sand sculptures, the absence of so many people, the cleanliness. It was indeed a type of backwater paradise. It didn't have enough excitement for her to want to live here, but maybe when she was old enough to retire...

She rolls her eyes at Cheryl's attitude and jots down a note for a later article about her experiences here. She also seems like the type to gossip and vent all sorts of information so maybe could be a potential source if they needed to do some digging to learn more about their ship.

Alan Greener is more imposing, and better looking, than she expected. She had imagined a pale, flabby, officious politician, but this man seems in shape, competent, and knowledgeable. He also had a good sense of style. She jots down a few more notes before responding.

"Fallon Verdt, a pleasure to meet you. We are here to recover a stolen ship, the Wayward Wind. We were informed it had been abandoned here so we have come to reclaim it for the proper owners. Sir," she adds. It couldn't hurt to be respectful when making a first impression.

Zuni is only too happy to hug Seally back and agree with her sentiments as they clomp through the streets to the palace. Upon entering...

"Whoa, this place is so ... expansive. Yeah, that's it. My sensitive eyes don't like the collage of color though. It's striking though. I'll give it that," he says in a low voice so that A. Greener can't hear.

Approaching the minister, "Khazuni," he offers using his formal monicker. "Delighted to meet you. As Fallon said, we are here about a missing ship." His expression is neither accusatory nor overly friendly.

Seally is dressed as a lawyer but her diplomatic background is what's on display. She oohs and ahhs with the others when notable things are pointed out to them, and asks light follow up questions about the design. She's in fine form when they meet Mr. Greener.

"Mr. Greener, it is truly a pleasure that you have reached out to us, as my colleagues have stated. Walston is truly beautiful and we look forward to seeing more of it in the coming days. I'm Seally Llewyn of House Llewyn, the rightful owners of the Wayward Wind. We've been sent to retrieve the ship, and as necessary, repair it as best we can locally. Now, we understand that there may be some complexities to our task, and we're excited to work with you and the government to best come to a mutually agreeable relationship."

Zuni could probably take a page from Seally's diplomacy notebook but something about the man rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe it was his authoritarian demeanor or just something he couldn't quite put a finger on. The power he held seemed vast from what they'd heard so far and with power always came corruption in Zuni's experience. He was happy to let Seally carry on.

Zuni is happy to accept the offer of whiskey and is very surprised at the quality. He had the fortune of experiencing many things as a scout, libations being one of them. He knew quality when he met it and this was a very fine full-bodied and smooth whiskey. The first thought that came to mind was contraband. This bottle would have not only been very expensive, it would have been hard to get in his opinion.

He clinks his glass and listens to the man talk but his ears and eyebrows perk up when he unexpectedly mentions geology.

"I have experience as a scout and some hands-on experience with minerals, especially in a cave environment."

Alerio takes the offered drink, and enjoys it for a moment, but then splutters somewhat when there’s mention of a volcanic survey in their near future.

"Survey?" she asks, uselessly.

She’d been attached to some surveys back in the early days of the colony, but those didn’t sound anything like this.

"Seismic Charges? What are those? What exactly do we need to do?"

To Alerio, they sounded… explosive.