Chapter 2: The Wayward Wind

A lot of people turn up to Startown to wish you well on your way to the stars. The whole planet seems to take the day off in order to accommodate saying goodbye to you, and the day feels like a festival despite the dark ash clouds still hanging in the sky. Floodlights are set up; there's a band. Simi takes a scan of the four of you (and Zuzu!) in front of the Wayward Wind to put in a new exhibit in the Museum of Sand.

Not a single Barvinner is absent. Greener is there, and people are congratulating him on him anticipating the situation. Gino is there, too, telling everyone how his truck played a pivotal role in the Rescue of Barvinn - "Not a scratch, folks! Not a scratch! She can outrun a volcano!". On a more awkward note, two of Zuni's five prospective brides show up, one of them even in a wedding dress, hoping to sway Zuni to stay on Walston, or maybe take her with him.

The band, as if on cue, plays an old Terran classic.

Oh, I met him there in a border town
He vowed we'd never part
Tho' he tried his best to settle down
Now I'm alone with a broken heart

Oh, the wayward wind is a restless wind
A restless wind that yearns to wander
And he was born the next of kin
The next of kin to the wayward wind



The crew boards with their passengers. Fallon, acting Chief Medical Officer, helps get folks into their low berth cryopods. Alerio and Seally set up in engineering to deal with plotting and executing the jump. Zuni takes his place at the helm, and fires up the Wayward Wind's M-Drive. By himself, he's a pretty good pilot, but with these enhanced controls, he feels like an Imperial fighter ace. The crowds wave and cheer enthusiastically, while the brides wipe tears from their eyes.



Seally is busy with the Jump calculations, working with Goldie to plot a course through Jump space. To get to Elixabeth, she needs to first chart a path to the Datrillian system.Alerio prepares the ship's Jump drive using Seally's charted course. As she diverts power to the J-Drive, the lights dim across the whole ship.

"Last chance!" Alerio says, through gritted teeth and smiling. She nudges Zuni, and points to the would-be bride, and waves. A second later, and she’s moved on to waving at somewhere else in the crowd.

It felt good to have her gun slung back over her shoulder. They hadn’t needed it, but some things shouldn’t be parted with too regularly.

---

"Alright. Moment of truth." she says, wiping a bead of sweat off her forehead.

"Lets give these folks a little confidence that they’ll get there in one piece!" she says, looking down at Zuzu!

Fallon helps the passengers and is secretly happy how much of the process is automated. It makes like she knows much more than she actually does. Once everyone is stored away, she heads back to the bridge where the action is.

"All right, off to the next adventure! I trust you to get us there Zuni. I wonder if the next planet will also have a lovely beach with clothing optional," she muses loudly, seeing if she can make Zuni blush.

Taking all the bride teasing in his stride it seemed that Zuni no longer blushed. His matchmaking stint with the vargr granny saw to that. His cheeks had reddened so often that he became desensitized. Or at least that's what he hoped.

"Now Fallon, you know that I'm more than up to the task of getting us to our destination safely. As to the beaches, well we can only hope."

Delighting in the sensitivity of the ship's controls, he tried a few light maneuvers but not enough to knock anyone off their feet. He beamed with delight and looked forward to their next chapter.

Seally welcomes the passengers in and personally makes sure they're comfortable and know which berth had been assigned to them. She checks off them as they enter, using her mobile comm like a checklist.

She chats with them lightly, too, but as soon as they're settled she heads to the bridge to lay in their final flight plan. She struggles a little with Goldie's interface, but manages to work it all out. When she's done, she locks the course in for Zuni to use.

She leans back rubbing her scalp, nerves showing.

"You'll be fine Sealy, relax. Haven't we stared death in the eye and prevailed?" he asks chuckling. "Isn't that from something? I didn't make it up."

Zuni double checks the course, and declares it good.

"Right. Who wants some coffee, or what feels like coffee?"

As Alerio tries to project the Jump field, she finds the old drive's defects to be punishingly difficult to work around. As she struggles to get a stable jump field, the lights on the ship flicker in protest. Fortunately, Seally's fifth-dimensional Jump equations provide Alerio enough tolerance to find a workaround (mostly by giving it a big thump on the top with a hydrospanner). As the Jump field solidifies and the bubble fills with liquid hydrogen, Alerio eases open Jump space, and Zuni takes you in. Just before you enter, the Wayward Wind seals all the hatches to prevent the crew and its passengers from accidentally glimpsing Jump space. Some things human minds just cannot comprehend.Once you've entered Jump space, you are completely disconnected from the rest of the universe for an entire week. Starship life definitely keeps you busy; from tending to your passengers' needs, maintenance routines, physical exercise, and honing your adventuring skills, it is impossible to get bored.

You get to know your passengers a bit, and learn a bit about the universe from their perspective:

Alexa Rozzario: A representative of Ling Standard Products sent to negotiate mining rights with The First Citizen on Walston. She claims they never met with her, and the whole Loudermilk family was on a retreat in an undisclosed location. She thinks that's bullshit and they just didn't want to talk to her. "It's getting harder and harder to find people willing to talk to anyone with Imperial connections out here. It's crazy; the people want the jobs that LSP can bring. This planet could become something big!" She's given up for now and is returning to Elixabeth for reassignment. "Datrillion is a great example of wasted potential - they could become the gateway to this sector. But their starport has seen no progress in three years. Investors want in - why don't these people want to get rich?"

Rroerrgh: A young adult Vargr who refuses to take an Anglic name and bristles every time anyone mispronounces it. He has worked since he was 14 to raise the funds necessary to depart Walston, and begin his journey to reunite with his civilization. He considers the Vargr of Walston to be completely disconnected from their heritage, and longs to see the six moons of Hiigara and join a true Vargr raiding band. He has a grudging respect for the crew the Wayward Wind, however, on account of your excellent heroics in Barvinn, and that is why he selected your vessel to travel on. "It is a good ship, but your armaments are pathetic. A warrior with a rusty sword commands no respect."

Naushtee Ashtara: A grandmother who came to visit her youngest daughter in Walston for the better part of a year, who just had twins. She's returning to her life on Elixabeth and leaves with a heavy heart. "That's some brave thing you did on Walston," she commends you.

Horace Symon: Horace, a human cyborg, is heading to Elixabeth to buy parts for the Walston aging submarine farming fleet and get a full checkup on his cybernetics. Most of the planet's foodstuffs are grown and harvested underwater, it seems. A lot of the freight you're carrying is his, and he is looking to trade it for parts. He's all business, and the only emotion he ever shows in anxiety. He's worried about arriving on time, especially since the initial Jump was not smooth. "I'm not paying for any rainbow trout that spoil in your cargo hold on account of avoidable delays! It's in my contract!"After the week ends, you exit Jump space and enter the Datrillian system. Even though the Wayward Wind is equipped with artificial natural light and virtual windows, it always feels good to raise the shutters and see real space again. You have enough fuel to make the next Jump to Elixabeth, but you'll be on empty when you get there.

Looking at your fuel gauge, you see you have enough hydrogen for one more Jump.

Some Options:
* Just skip Datrillian and keep on going to Elixabeth. You'll arrive with no Jump fuel, so you'll have to refuel there before you can jump again.
* You can refuel in gas giant Datrillian Prime, but sensors indicate it is experiencing especially strong storms across the entirety of the planet. Refuelling will be risky, but free.
* You can go to Datrillian itself, one of many moons orbiting Datrillian Prime. There is a single, domed city there, and plenty of oceans to extract hydrogen from. It is protocol to contact the Datrillian space controllers to ask for permission and a flight path first.


Datrillian City

Seally reviews the ships logs with Zuni as they fly closer to Datrillian. She calls the other crewwomen to join them.

"Fallon, from what you heard, Captain Dreks might have passed through here. Now I know we don't have a lot of extra time before our cargo gets fishy, so we need to jump for Elixabeth soon, but how about we refuel in the ocean, and maybe we can do a little investigating on the side. Might be we learn something, might be we don't."

Alerio tries not to get into it with the young Vargr. She’d seen dozens of scrubs like him get recruited into gangs back when she was on a task force to clean up the streets. All bark and no bite, until they did bite. And then Alerio bit back.

What would an untested kid know about a warrior’s respect…

She wants to ask, but busies herself with getting more familiar with this J-Drive.

When called to the meeting, she stands with her arms folded, rag thrown over her shoulder, and listens to the brains figure out the next step.

Fallon helps Seally with the passengers during the trip, hearing their stories, answering their questions, fulfilling their requests as best she is able.

To Alexa Rozzario: "Perhaps there are better things that money? Or perhaps they don't want to be taken advantage of by the rich and powerful?"

To Rroerrgh: "We aren't warriors. Does a wise woman or the village elder command no respect without armaments?"

To Naushtee Ashtara: "Thank you for your kind words. I would like to think others would do the same if they were in our position."

To Horace Symon: "Well lucky for us all delays were unavoidable," she smiles.

Once she has finished with the passengers she regroups with Seally. "Sounds like a great idea. Shouldn't take more than evening to get enough information to at least see if Dreks came though here and when."

Naturally, a wisecrack about the beaches of Datrillian is made by Zuni but his jokester demeanor becomes instantly serious when he sees the meteorological data which elicits a long and loud whistle. Shaking his head, brow furrowed with concern he knows an important decision must be made.

"Free fuel ..., " he says, one palm raised as if literally weighing the options in his hand, "but nasty weather, and we have the captain to find, or skip Datrillain and head straight to Elixabeth," he says, the other hand raised palm up but slightly higher.

He had learned the subtle nuances of piloting the ship by now but he wasn't super confident about handling it in high winds.

"What do we think? It's hard to turn down free fuel but then again it won't be much use if we are all dead, buffeted around like so many tin cans."

As the crew discusses their options, your comms light up. An automated message plays out in an artificial male voice, and is repeated in many languages:

All Imperial craft looking to refuel in this system, be warned that Datrillian Prime is experiencing global storms and is off-limits for refueling. You may request a flight plan for orbit around Datrillian where we will place you in a cue. A cutter from the surface will dock with you to supply fuel. Please check the current rates and have payment methods ready. Estimated wait time is 18 hours.

Datrillian craft and guests of the King of Datrillian, please present your ship ID and you will be provided with a flight plan to Datrillian City.

You notice that the price of fuel is 200% of standard rates. The comm channel is two-way, and you can transmit your response if you wish. Because your ship's registration has just been reset, and you haven't visited any Imperial ports yet, the Wayward Wind is not registered as an Imperial vessel.

Taking a look at your sensors, you see there are more than thirty ships in orbit around Datrillian waiting for refuelling. Most are small tramp freighters and a few scout type-s ships, the kind of ships that only have a Jump-1 drive and need to refuel after every jump. A single dilapidated fuel cutter appears to be the only craft providing fuel, which explains the bottleneck.You do notice a familiar ship in orbit - the Autumn Gold, Captain Keller's ship that brought you to Walston from the Imperial Space.

"Agh, fuck me sideways. That's bull shit."

Zuni let's out a loud exasperated sigh and turns to the crew.

"Now what?"

"I don’t suppose your family name can get us a scoop?" Alerio says, raised eyebrow at Seally.

"If not, I say we jump now and offload the fish!"

Seally shakes her head. "I agree. Let's get gone. This place is being shaked down and we look genetically engineered turkeys with triple sized breasts."

She starts looking at the others, Fallon and Zuni. "What say you? If we jump in Elixabeth and things are rough, we'll have to pay the piper then."

"I'm inclined to agree." This was serious stuff and no time for joking around. Still, Seally's joke about triple-sized breasts suggested a very comical visual and it was hard to remain expressionless.

Are we all agreed then?"

Alerio nods.

"I’ll get us ready to move!" she says, turning on a heel to leave. She stops suddenly then, and returns.

"Should we… tell someone about this? Is this against some law or code or treaty?"

"We're not contracted to spend credits here. I'll lay in our course for Elixabeth. Zuni, can you move us back into empty space?" They all know that the ship can only safely jump when it is more than one hundred diameters distant from any object large than the ship. Luckily they haven't ventured too close to the planets from where they jumped in.

Seally sits comfortably at her station in the bridge, and walks herself through the mad mathematics of J-space navigation. Luckily she can chew gum and talk at the same time. "Hey, I named our AI Goldie in the moment, but do you ladies want to pick something else?"

Zuni takes you out of Datrillian's gravity well. You dim the ship's lights, enter Seally's equation, close the hatches, and enter Jump space. This time, things go smoother, as Alerio is getting to know the Wayward Winds quirks and quarks.

The journey to Elixabeth is smooth. The passengers are getting to know each other and bonding. Rroerrgh continued to be a stick-in-the-mud at first, but he took a strong liking to Zuzu, which lead him into conversations with Naushtee. Naushtee reveals she used to be an officer in the Imperial Navy herself, and regales him with tales of battle from the Fourth Frontier War. She was there at the Battle of the Two Suns, where the Imperium smashed the Zhodani navy 31 years ago. At the end of the journey, she presents Rroerrgh with a red scarf she knit over the course of the voyage. "Remember this, young warrior - always wear a hat and a scarf on a cold day."

Alexa bristles at what she saw at Datrillian. "I bet Trexalon ships don't have to wait in the queue. I wonder how much the TTC paid the King of Datrillian to bottleneck Imperial shipping? People think the Imperium is the bad guy, but this is just going to raise prices on things people need to survive! Trexalon can't supply everything."

In response to Alerio's question about whether this breaks some kind of treaty, she explains: "I'm sure Datrillian claims these are 'safety Regulations' or something. Even if it does, the Imperium can't appear to be meddling in the internal affairs of independent worlds, that'll just play into Trexalon's propaganda."

Horace continues to fret about his fish, even though everything is progressing smoothly. He spends hours in the cargo bay, checking the pH and temperature levels. You do find out he's an excellent Jom'bak player, a Vargr game of chance and strategy. He defeats Rroerrgh 3-0, which is the only socializing he does over the trip.

"Much better," Zuni says, leaning back in his seat and stretching his batch with a satisfied grunt as they enter Jump space. "Nice job, ladies."

The journey wasn't boring. Zuni sought out Rroerrgh and had many long conversations with him that took up a lot of his free time which he didn't mind. The Varg was young, petulant, and arrogant and Zuni liked to think he'd be able to soften that a bit by telling his own tales of adventures along with his many mistakes. Zuni had learned important life lessons from those disastrous decisions and hoped that Rroerrgh would look upon him as a mentor as he saw something of himself in the youth.

He also thought about what Alexa Rozzario had said and wondered if he could one day put his diplomatic chops to good use with the problems on Datrillian, the independents, and the Imperium.

Naturally, he was drawn to Naushtee Ashtara. She reminded him of Barvinn and his matchmaking activities. He enjoyed being around motherly figures he came to realize.

As for Horace, the human cyborg was just plain annoying but Zuni tried to smooth out his anxiety seeing as he's a big customer.

Alerio brings the Wayward Wind out of Jumpspace into the Elixabeth system. This system is buzzing with activity. Hundreds of ships, both Imperial and independent, are coming and going. There is a ton of chatter on the public comms, and you see the system is being patrolled by a 3000 DTon cruiser. It's an old but proud and respected class of warship. Alexa comments on the Imperial presence here: "Elixabeth used to be under the yolk of Forine. Things got real ugly as the Elixabethans fought for independence - massacres, and worse. The Imperium sent in a peacekeeping force and saved a lot of lives. That was over a hundred years ago, but to this day, Elixabeth is a stalwart friend to the Imperium."

As you approach Elixabeth, you see Starlight Beacon, Elixabeth's famous orbital starport, one of the finest in the sector. It's design is a work of art, and a testament to the talent of the Elixabethan engineers and artisans.As the Wayward Wind makes its way to dock at Starlight Beacon, you get a priority message coming in from a Type-T Imperial patrol ship. This kind of ship is very common throughout the Imperium: fast, armed to the teeth, and meant to keep the peace in the trade lanes. The ship is twice the size of the Wayward Wind and just as fast. You see that they have locked in an intercept course. Their message: "Wayward Wind, your vessel is wanted for multiple violations of Imperial law. Power down all non-essential systems and prepare to be boarded."

Seally spent much of the time trying to convince Zuzu to sleep on the foot of her bed, and chatting with the passengers. That is, what time she isn't studying up on leadership techniques.

She's not a stalwart friend of the Imperium, despite her in depth Imperium training, but that's only because the Llewyn family closely guards a kind of rebelliousness that is necessary to explain their somewhat lawless yet entirely secret brushes with criminality. Still, she can't help but take pride in the sleep cruiser that safeguards Elixabeth space, up until the fast mover hails them.

Seally laughs. "Guess we should have stocked up on fuel, we could have jumped." She lounges in her station on the bridge, double checking their fuel reserves.

On a private comm channel to Fallon and Alerio, and Zuni who is sitting right near her, "Okay, we have documentation regarding the history of the Wayward Wind, let's not panic. Zuni, try and fly casual, and comply with their orders. I'll meet the boarding party at the airlock."

She replies: Imperium patrol craft, this is Seally Llewyn of House Llewyn. We are complying with your orders, and are ready to receive you on board. I'll meet your representatives at the airlock. I'm transmitting on a subchannel our documentation proving our claim to ownership of this vessel as of three weeks ago.

As she proceeds with that plan, she asks Fallon and Alerio for their thoughts on the private comm. "I've bought us a few minutes. Fight, flight, or roll over?"

"Fly casual she says. Ok give me a minute to change into something more comfortable," he says with a straight face as he starts to get up from his chair, then sits back down.

"I think we should let them board and explain everything and presume they are reasonable. They could always verify our story with Walston although that would take a while. I don't think we'd survive running or fighting."

Fallon spent most of her socializing time with Naushtee. The other members were more abrasive, foolhardy, or single-minded. Naushtee was old, she had experience. Fallon asks her stories of her childhood, what it was like growing up during certain solar-system changing events, folktales on Walston, and of course gossip.

When not socializing, Fallon read up on Elixabeth, its history, cultures, and peoples. She also kept up to date on tabloid news, a hard habit to break from her entertainment reporting days, even though she doesn't find the entertainment culture particularly compelling. Still, old habits die hard and gossip is gossip.

When they are hailed by the Imperium ship, she agrees with Zuni. "Running or fighting will just make us look guilty of something. We have every right to be here and if we have some kind of warrant because of those gerkheads who stole it, better to get the situation cleared up now rather than later. I'll go with you to greet them, Seally."

"We have a ship full of witnesses that can attest to our story. It’d be foolish to try anything else." she hesitates a moment then, before continuing.

"Plus… this is a nice ship and all… but that thing would have us meeting the vacuum in about three seconds."

"My thoughts, too, just don't want to make decisions for us without talking it through. I'll go give them the guided tour. Zuni, you best hide that dodgy sock on the floor of your cabin," she jests.

That gets her thinking, "Fallon, Alerio, do you want to canvas our passengers, make sure if they're carrying contraband, we find a place to stash it?"

She doesn't suspect that's the case, but heads for the airlock.

"Yes, Aliero but they have a vested interest in being witnesses to a tale. I'm not sure the powers that be would be convinced, but it's something for sure."

Zuni throws a playful side eye at Seally and smirks. "I never would have thought to check the passengers for illicit substances. That's a good idea. I'll help." He figures it's a good way to work on and improve his reconnaissance skills. If anyone is carrying something they shouldn't be, they might not be forthcoming with the truth.

The patrol ship siddles up beside yours, belly to belly. A docking tube extends and the airlock seals confirm a good connection. However, twenty long minutes pass before anyone comes over. You suspect they may be confirming your documents. You are, of course, certain in the veracity of these documents.

The crew confirm with the passengers that everything is on the up and up with their cargo as you are about to be boarded, and none have anything to declare. Horace seems anxious, but no more than usual, and everyone seems cooperative.

When the air locks finally open, you are reminded of the weirdness of artificial gravity, as the decks of the ship's are at 90 degrees, and you feel momentarily like you're in an MC Esher drawing. But this is nothing new to the three marines who board your ship. They are armed with both sidearm and cutlas and dressed in light battle armor, but their weapons are stowed and helmets open.

The leader, Sergent Chen, introduces herself to Dame Seally first, and then to any others who are present. She comes across as professional and pleasant. The other two men stand at ease behind her with stern looks on their faces.

"Thank you for your cooperation. Everything checks out on your paperwork. The Wayward Wind's previous owners engaged in illegal piracy and smuggling throughout this subsector for the last six years, so you might find suffer from mistaken identity in this subsector. We're updating our records and will push the change out on the X-Boat network so you don't get hassled every time you come out of Jump Space, but that will take time. In the meantime, I suggest caution when entering a new system."

"We've read your logs about the situation on Walston and appreciate you sharing that information with us."

"So, what brings you four parsecs to Elixabeth?"

Fallon relaxes as everything seems to be on the up and up. "Thank you for the advice. We are tracking down the previous owners. They left our ship much the worse for wear and damaged its reputation just as badly. We heard some rumors they might be somewhere in this system. Until then we are looking for odd jobs to help pay for repairs."

"Six years?!" Alerio let’s slip. Somehow, that information had eluded her until now. Then she quietens herself, apologizing for the interruption.

"Exactly. Passengers that need transport, that sort of thing." she adds. She rubs Zuzu, to break the tension she felt in these situations. He was beginning to fatten up nicely after a few weeks of steady meals. She looks up at the three, trying to get the measure of them.

"Don’t suppose there’s anything like that for us here?" she chances.

Seally is always a little on guard around authority figures, especially police and military. Is that her families healthy distrust of the powers of the law? Yes, yes it is.

"Sergeant Chen, you're just lovely for updating your records. We'll be wanting to make some headway on the repairs at port here, I'm sure you cringed when you saw the state of the ship in your scans, and hopefully get the ID updated in the Imperium databases."

As they walk around the ship, the inside thankfully looking top notch thanks to the Walston folk, she gets an idea.

"Is there any way to get a data dump on those pirate activities? I'd be happy to put in a formal request to your command. We understand that the captain was one Salvor Dreks, and we'd like to hunt him down, make him answer for his crimes. Would there be a bounty on him by any chance?"

Sargeant Chen responds to each of the crews' queries in a calm and professional manner, although you notice a slight delay in her responses sometimes. Is she receiving messages from a higher up through her helmet's comms?

To Fallon: "Those rumours are true, Dreks and his crew were detained here at Starlight Beacon. Unfortunately, some external accomplices blasted them out of his holding cell, and they escaped station authorities. His current whereabouts are unknown. When we saw his old ship enter the system, we hoped to get a lead from it."

To Alerio: "Some honest freight hauling, I respect that. These frontier worlds would be far worse off without people like you. Going to take a while to fix your ship up on that kind of income, though."

To Seally: "Sorry, Dame. You'll have to visit an Imperial member world to register the ship. In the meantime, you'll show up on scans as an independently operated vessel. Like most things in the Imperium, there'll be some red tape to cut through; hopefully they'll fast track you on account of your station."

"There's a reward out for Dreks, for sure, as well as other top pirates in the sector. Check in with the constabulary office in Starlight Beacon, they'll give you all the details on current bounties. Probably available on the planetary network as well."

There's another one of those pauses, then.

"Yeah, I think we can get you the data you're asking about. But maybe you can help us, too. We'd like to go over the Wayward Wind with a fine-toothed comb, see if there's any evidence we might use to locate Dreks or other pirates. Won't take more than three hours, and we can do it while you're taking care of your cargo. Sound like a deal?"

Zuni immediately clues into the fact that Sergent Chen is most likely receiving prompts from someone higher up in the command chain. This leads him to believe that she is not acting with much autonomy if any so if the crew wanted to ask questions that might be a little too probing there was a good possibility of a dead end there. From the details of Dreks' escape, it was clear that security wasn't buttoned up at Starlight Beacon or it was too easy to infiltrate the guard units. Zuni figured someone knew where Dreks was, but who?

In the meantime, they would go over the ship as the sergeant requested. He doubted the data would yield anything of use since it would have been analyzed already by the Imperium but perhaps something could have been missed and Sealy's idea was a good one.

"Sergent Chen, as two of the crew have already alluded to, we could use some work here. Something that would utilize our talents while the ship is undergoing repairs. Do you know of anything that would fit the bill?"

Then after she responds, Zuni will say, while looking to the crew, "If the others have no objection I think we have a deal. We will go over the ship in exchange for the data dump.'"

Alerio clears her throat, as Zuni gets caught up in the art of the deal.

"Ahem… I think it’s them that will be searching the ship. Not us. Is that right?"

She looks at the captain.

"Good thing you picked up those socks, isn’t it? That would have been embarrassing!"

Seally wonders about the hidden files in the computer core that they haven't decrypted yet and purposefully doesn't look at Fallon as she says, "That sounds like a good deal to us. The interior of the ship was completely restored by the thankful and gracious people of Walston but they weren't able to handle some of the more technological issues that we had. We had to overwrite the computer memory with our own software, so I don't know what evidence will be available. Still, if we can get Dreks brought to bear for his crimes, then maybe we'll be able to show our silhouette freely around here, someday."

She makes a note to help Fallon remove those modules, or at least mask them better.

The two other men burst into activity on a holographically projected interface from their forearms.

"Understood. We appreciate your assistance in this matter, Dame," and then to the others "Citizens."

"We will arrange a berth for the Wayward Wind. Once you land, we will let you clear out your cargo and passengers. We will need three hours."

"Regarding the data dump on Piracy in this system, I will refer you to the office of Commander Isaac Foster, deputy commander of anti-piracy in Subsector 268. Arrangements have been made. Good day."

The marines leave, their ship undocks, and waits to escorts you to your launch bay at the orbital starport.

Seally jumps into action. "Alright Zuni, you're cradling us in the station."

"Fallon, remember that scruffy bit of memory in the core? I don't want them seizing that for crypto analysis on a datamining expedition. Let's remove the damaged segments, and make it look like they've been gone for awhile. Let's even add the missing module part numbers to our wish list too."

"Fast thinking. Let's take a look at those cores then."

Making her way to the memory modules, she makes an inventory, noting the damaged ones they will remove and adding them to the list. She takes slightly longer than needed as she is nervous about screwing this up and procrastinates a bit. Her palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. She takes a deep breath, cracks her knuckles, and sets to work.

"I'm on it, Seally." Zuni does exactly that but slowly, buying what time he can for Fallon so she can remove the memory modules. "Ready for escort," he says through the comm to the marine escort after what he deems to be an appropriate passage of time.

Fallon heads to the computer's physical location, housed behind the bridge on the starboard side. Once at the back wall of the bridge, she opens an iris hatch, revealing the Wayward Wind's command computer.The central core pulls out over a meter, revealing an intricate network of positronic memory cores wired into an iridium crystalline matrix. It takes a while, but she manages to identify and remove the damaged core. It isn't much bigger than a shotgun shell, but it is surprisingly heavy for its size, probably due to the amount of platinum and iridium.

Goldie chimes in: "The core is mildly radioactive. Up to 24 hours of exposure is considered safe, but you may want to find a shielded container for it."Once in the launch bay, Acting Medical Officer Fallon oversees waking your low berth passengers, and everything goes smoothly. A small army of droids attends to your cargo and mail, who whisk them away on maglev sleds. Your passengers make their way into Starlight Beacon and go their separate ways into the universe, with thanks. Horace pays you the full amount for the freight without any complaint, which is about as close to a thank you as you'll ever get from him.The naval search team arrives right on time. They're dressed in military vacc suits and have additional specialized equipment. They request that you put Zuzu in his crate and leave the ship while they do their job.

Earlier...

After they removed the damaged memory core, Seally briefly thought on the object add if she was a smuggler. Since its was radioactive, they wouldn't likely get it through any reasonably competent security.

["Alerio, do you know where you can hide this, in the J-engine perhaps, that it won't be detected or found?"

She leaves that in Alerio's expert hands.

At Starlight Beacon...

Seally suggests the others go have fun, see what sights they can. She'll babysit the Wayward Wind and then when the security team is done, go see Commander Isaac Foster, deputy commander of anti-piracy in Subsector 26.

If she can, she'll keep Zuzu with her on a leash, close to the docking bay.

Alerio had been over this place with a fine tooth comb back planetside, and even more so since they’d started to fly.

She grumbles at the responsibility, but thinks she can hide it somewhere that the security team won’t look for it.

---

"Drink?" she asks the others, more than ready to numb the nerves and the thoughts for the few hours.

"Gratefully," Fallon smiles. Her stomach was still unsettled from the stress of the boarding even though logically she knew she had nothing to fear. And what better way to settle nerves than alcohol? "Maybe we can even teach the bartender our new drink we made? Start a trend, make a name for ourselves through drinks," she laughs.

Alerio laughs a little then, lightening her mood.

"You think it’s been perfected enough for distribution. We don’t want our name attached to swill. And trust me… there’s a lot of swill out there!"

"Give me any drink. I'm not fussy."

Zuni's blood pressure often shot up just from the sight of a uniform belonging to any policing authority. It harkened back to his early days as a drifter and his occasional bouts with the law. His nerves needed settling and he looked forward to that warm feeling making it's way down to his belly.

"You know ladies, we might be able to really do that. Make some creds, and a name for ourselves. It could happen. Maybe we will become so famous we'll be offered free drinks for life."

"Famous for doing what?" Alerio asks; good natured.

To Alerio’s mind, if they wanted free drinks, they should settle down where they saved a town from a volcano. If they wanted credits, they’d have to ferry passengers from system to system.

Free drinks and credits rarely came together, unfortunately.

"Famous for designing a superlative cocktail? I don't know, I'm letting off steam. Use your imagination." Twisting his lips to the side he realizes his idea sounds silly. "It sounded like a fun idea. Anyway, I'm hungry and probably shouldn't drink too much on an empty stomach. What's good around here for eats I wonder?"

Five minutes after sitting in the hallway outside the private berth, she's already texting the crew.

I'm already bored. Zuzu is just staring at stuff. Bring me back a Klexian faux-fish wrap with extra sprouts, mm'k?

They're all out.
Zuni texts back giggling. "Seriously though, Klexian faux-fish sounds disgusting," he says to the ladies, his lips curling with disgust.

Vanilla synth-kale smoothie with lab grown pineapple-flavoured tofu?

Last years fad drink, sure, but this was far from the Ritzy core. No one would find out she desperately wanted one.

Reading Seally's message makes Fallon want to hurl.
"Kale and tofu? Might as well cut out your tongue if you hate it so much." A shudder runs through her as she imagines liquid kale and tofu coating her tongue. "I need a drink just to get this imaginary drink flavor outta my head," she tells the others.

"Yes but the pineapple, Fallon. Who doesn't love that?"

Zuni licks his lips at a memory from long ago. He was on a job and someone had the real fruit. Claimed he grew it on a hydroponic farm.

Fallon ignores the space vigilantes and approaches the greasy crew. "I've never heard people so passionate about the affairs of a ship before. Care to fill me in on the story?"

Alerio makes a face as the messages are read aloud to her.

With an irreverent sigh, she jokes:

"They say money can’t buy taste."

Something still burned in Alerio when it came to being a lawbringer.

"I like the sound of that!" she responds with a full throat when she hears of plans to take piracy head on. Usually, they tried dissuade civvies from tangling with the rough type, but like they said… no one else was out here!

"Who are these pirates? I can teach some of your crew to fire a weapon, if you think you’ll ever need to get close to them. The force had us equipped with old sluggers, if it’s any good."

Seally enters a little behind the others, and sits at a table. She whispers to Alerio, "Great job, they didn't find it," and gives her an appreciative squeeze on the arm.

Sitting with Fallon she sees a look in the investigators eyes, as she watches the greasy haired crew. "They talking smack about our ship? How do we make that work for us, rather than against us?"

"Easy. The first rule of investigation is to let them talk and reveal as much as possible about what they know while you reveal as little as possible. Never lie if you can help it, just answer in a way that leaves them satisfied while technically being true," she whispers. "For example, if they ask who you are, you can say you're just a tourist looking for a drink. Stuff like that."

"Great. Similar rules as for diplomatic negotiations. You want to be the femme fatale distracting them or the sharp eyed observer?"

Seally is really interested in hearing these WW stories so they know what damage needs to be repaired.

"Speaking of repairs," she awkwardly seques, "any thoughts on what we get done here?"

Alerio chats with the JSI crew, who clearly have a lot of enthusiasm for and confidence in this organization. Their leader introduces himself as Commander Godfrey Albright.



"Welcome aboard! We'll give you an officer rank and uniform while you're with us. Who'd you fight with and where? The troops would love to hear some real battle stories!"

"Who are these pirates? Oh, they're some nasty pieces of work. Murderers, rapists - and worst of all, they are against the very notion of progress! Any Imperial registered ship or any ship carrying Imperial cargo is fair game, although some of them will prey on their own people if it's easy pickings."

"Some are Sword Worlders who didn't want to stop fighting The Imperium after the Fifth Frontier War ended. Knaves like Captain Agnar of the Barden and Captain Ødger of the Visund."

"Others are misguided 'freedom' fighters from this subsector, who would rather die than live under the Imperial sunburst. Captain Hawkens of the Bloodhawk is cut from this cloth."

"And others still are simply greedy psychopaths who get off on causing pain and suffering. Captain Dreks is the worst of these. Can you imagine it, the Navy had him imprisoned right here on this starport and somehow he got away!"

"Once we get our crews and ships ready, we'll start by patrolling and protecting key systems. As we gain experience and equipment, we'll go on the offense and go after their refueling bases and strongholds."

"Folks like you are vital to this effort! And if you like what you see, we could always use more hands on deck."

Zuni, for once keeps his trap shut and observes the ladies as well as the patrons in the bar, catching what snippets of conversation he can. His ears perk up at the vigilante's recruitment spiel and for a brief moment he thinks about it, especially when Alerio gets excited, but then comes to his senses.

When the boisterous greasers mention The Wayward Wind he thinks them being here is some good luck and nods at Fallon's strategy.

"I think we should invite them over and ply them with booze." he says to Seally.

Fallon, Seally, and Zuni launch their coordinated strategy. Zuni orders the drinks, while Seally and Fallon bring the greasy boys to the yard with their friendly demeanours.

The three large, greasy humans turn out to be traders from the Sword Worlds, a small, space-faring empire just outside the Imperium. It has been at war with the Imperium many times, and although it has never defeated the Imperium, it remains free with borders unchanged in hundreds of years.



"We do not usually talk to women about these matters. But, we are many parsecs from the Sword Worlds, and you have a chaperone. Besides, you are better company than Grangrok!" They burst into laughter at the expense of their friend.

"The Wayward Wind was a raiding ship, owned by the legendary Captain Dreks. He has fought against Imperial encroachment in this subsector for many years and has scores of kills to his name. It is said the Wayward Wind was like silent death; Dreks could sneak up on a convoy and leave it a smoking ruin before the escort could fire a single shot."

"If these words shock you, then know this: the Imperium should stay within its borders if it does not want to be slaughtered like sheep. It has thousands of worlds and countless riches, but it will never be satisfied. We want none of its endless hunger and lack of honour here."

Fallon takes a few sips of her drink while the fellow talks. When he's finished she says, "This Captain Dreks sounds like quite the man. Seems strange he would abandon such a capable ship as the Wayward Wind. I hope nothing bad has befallen him?" She takes another sip, watching his reaction.

Fallon spreads her hand, ignoring the insults. "I had just assumed that such a capable man wouldn't lose such an impressive ship so it had to have been abandoned. Where did he get this ship from?"

Seally pets the arm of the prettiest of the Sword World trader men, leaning against him, as Fallon directs the conversation. She 'oohs' and 'ahhs' at each of the exploits of the legendary Captain Dreks. "The Sword Worlds sound like a remarkable place, a crucible in which the weak are burned away and only the strong prosper. Why would you ever leave such a paradise?"

Zuni's mouth is slightly ajar, ready to lay into the trader and let him know how he feels about the loud man's insults toward the woman, but he thinks better of it and listens, slowly uncurling the fist that had formed under the table. Gritting his teeth at Seally's fake fawning he forces himself to answer the sword trader.

"I'm sure we are all interested in the tales of the Calabandr, aren't we ladies?" Meanwhile he takes in all the trader had said about Captain Dreks. Let him keep on talking....

Fallon smiles. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind that. In my experience, large guns are compensation for tiny pistols in men's pants. Our 'chaperone' wouldn't mind a very tiny gun, indeed." She takes a sip of her drink why looking at the men with large, innocent eyes.

Seally grins at the clever slight. She had longed to elevate Zuni in their eyes, but anticipated there was more information you squeeze from the loud men first. Fallon's journalistic instincts were likely telling her that this conversation was about to shift into a waste of time.

Further, Seally knows, defending Zuni is far more important than getting scraps from these louts. Both for her friend's sake, and for the Wayward Wind's reputation.

She let's go of the pretty lout and leans and looks away, as if bored with their boorishness.

Alerio cradles a drink, as the pirate-hunter gives her the hard sell. Nodding along, making mental note of names and points of origin, she wrinkles her nose at the mention of Sword Worlders.

She had wanted to be admitted to the academy, but they rejected her. ‘Service rendered by way of lineage’ was the baloney they’d responded with. Her family had fought against the Sword Worlds before.

"Speaking of which…"

She feels the knife in her boot. It hadn’t seen use in a while, but it looks like tensions were hotting up with the rest of her crew. He jerks her head for the pirate-hunter to follow.

"Your boys know how to fight yet? You might earn your stripes right here."

Fallon's retort goes a long way toward dissipating Zuni's rising anger at the arrogant pricks. Seally's shift in body language almost makes hm chuckle and then he realizes a laugh actually is totally appropriate considering the dressing down the loudmouths were getting.

With a shit eating grin he cackles while his eyes say don't mess with me, assholes.

The Sword Worlder takes the insults to his manhood poorly, predictably. He pushes himself to his feet, and points an a using finger at Zuni.

"You let your harlots rattle their tongues? I shall wipe that grin from your face!"Meanwhile, Alerio tries to manipulate the JSI into intervening with the Sword Worlders.

"Surely, this is more the domain if the constabulary...?" he says, hesitantly.

"Harlots?" Seally says, and grips the pommel of her static blade sword.

She tempers her voice, seeks that affable tone that mollifies bullies, and asks politely, "Do you care to rephrase that, sir?"

Fallon pretends to be an innocent women but she is secretly preparing to sucker punch this big oaf with her stunfist.

"Pirates won’t sort themselves out." she says, pushing off from the bar and striding towards the growing scrum!

Thorkell bats aside Fallon's stunfist with his knee. "Treacherous wenches!"Meanwhile, Alerio almost has Albright engaged in the fight, but he decides against it. "I would gladly give them a good walloping, but it's not my jurisdiction, you see. I'll fetch the constables right away." And with that, the small group of JSI officers begin to scurry toward the exit.

In retrospect, it was probably the 'wenches' snipe that had Seally's blade out and slashing.

The Static Blade, a symbol of her house, a gift from a beloved great uncle for her efforts to safeguard House Llewyn when she discovers an embezzler. "Every good sword has a name. Find hers."

She was trained in this weapon more than any other, and while it was overkill for a bar fight, she was provoked.

Thorkell is left speechless as Seally produces the finest blade he's ever fought against. The static blade is no more deterred by his armor than by paper, and he shrieks as it cuts his flesh: "Fucking kill that bitch!"

While Thorkell clutches his wound, his two pals advance, drawing long hunting knives. The first comes at Zuni, slashing like a psycho with his tongue hanging out. Zuni holds his own and avoids every cut, though it's close.

The second comes at Fallon, eyeing her lecherously. Though adrenaline takes over, she isn't fast enough and the thug strikes her arm hard enough to break through her lightly armored shirt.

Seeing things rapidly escalate, even as she crosses the bar, Alerio breaks into a run!

To say that Zuni's ire rises would be an understatement. When Fallon gets slashed, he sees red and pulls out his laser pistol, aiming at the jerk. "You bastard!" Zuni shouts as he trains the weapon on the bully and squeezes the trigger.

Zuni's pistol discharges and blasts Thorkell right in the chest, just as he was about to draw his sword. He stands still for a moment, smoke wafting from the hole in his armour, then falls backward.

The few other patrons in the bar suddenly start to run for the exits, including Albright and the JSI squad.

"We yield!" cry the Sword World lackeys. Their knives clatter to the floor as they reach for their fallen boss, dragging his unconscious form toward the rear exit. "We ... don't want any more trouble."

One arm bleeding, Fallon hugs Zuni with the other. "Thank you! Oh my stars that was stupid, but thank you!" she breathes in his ear. Pulling away, she says to the others, "Our best bet is to stay put and argue self-defense. They drew first blood so maybe that will help our case. Alerio, you weren't involved in time so you can make yourself scarce and save yourself some unnecessary heat." Fallon looks for a cloth napkin to wrap around her sliced arm.

Fallon's breath in his ear at any other time would have been delightful. Instead, Zuni was consumed with guilt. She got hurt because of him and his temper. He risked the entire group. True it was provoked but there were other ways....

"Here take this," he says sheepishly as he grabs a napkin that looks unused from a nearby empty table. "It looks clean."

As he tends to Fallon he realizes he has a problem. I think I have to go make myself scarce. I used that pistol and if the patrons didn't see it, the droid cameras surely did. Or maybe I need a disguise. I don't think pleading our case will help me with this weapon here. Any ideas ladies? Ruin the video footage maybe?"

Seally shakes the blood off her blade, satisfied that it's clean, resheathes it.

"That's exciting!" she says, her breath short from the sudden rush of adrenaline that accompanies the violence.

"Let me check the penalties quickly for carrying a prohibited weapon. Sees if we need to get Zuni scarce." She uses her portable computer to access the station regulations, downloads them, and then searches the local copy for weapon offenses.

Seally finds out that Elixabeth is listed as having a "moderate" law level, but this is a fairly serious offense. Probably a steep fine at a minimum, plus up to a years' time served on the planet's penal colony.

"Bad news Zuni. Could be real prison time for using that pistol. I suggest you apply pressure to the wounds and hope he pulls through. The attempt alone might buy you sympathy with the magistrate."

Alerio screeches to a halt.

"Give me that!" she demands of Zuni. She rifles through her jacket quickly, hands starting to shake.

"Quick!" she says, as she finds her identification. She pulls out her old badge, and shines it up.

"You don’t know me. When the uniforms show up, I’ll say I took him out defending some citizens. The boys in blue might look a little kinder on one of their own."

"That doesn't solve the problem with video evidence. Anything that doesn't involve submitting yourself will be useless unless you destroy the evidence. Not to mention the witnesses." Fallon finishes tying the napkin around her arm. She finds a glass of water to wash some of the blood off the rest of her.

"A couple of uniforms walking a beat aren’t going to bust their asses hunting down whoever shot some jerk off Sword Worlder, believe me."

She looks to the entrance. It was a half lie. They wouldn’t care about the Sword Worlder. But the weapon…

"Chances are, we could walk right out of here and no one would raise an eyebrow. I don’t think dive bars like this would make much money if they were cooperating with police."

"We could get rid of the evidence. Anyone interested in doing that?" He looks at the man with disgust when Seally mentions helping him. "I'm not touching that ass Seally. He can die for all I care. Maybe we should make a run for it. I don't know what the best course of action is and I'm really sorry for putting us in this situation."

Seally uses her portable computer to hack the droids and corrupt the footage. She doesnt have time to spoof the Sword Worlds shooting their own guy, so settles with eliminating direct recordings involving Zuni and his gun.

"Let me see what I can do..."

Fallon looks over her shoulder, suggesting she puts two squiggles before dropping the hash table. "Right, right. Let's try this!

Seally and Fallon get to work on deleting the footage of the event, as well as any evidence of them committing this act. Seally climbs up onto the statue and inserts a datajack directly into the brain of the system. It takes a while to bypass security, but the two of them are confident they've accomplished the task once they're done. They even locate an off-site backup server and upload the changes.

As they complete the task, anyone posted as a lookout spots a group of five station security guards approaching. They are approaching, armour-clad and weapons drawn.

"We’ve got company!" Alerio says, having come in from outside. She had stashed the pistol two streets over, and then come back to keep watch.

"If you’re just about done, it’s time to move!"

Zuni paced feeling guilty and useless while the two ladies worked until Alerio came in with the bad news, "Shit. Girls, hurry. We need to skedaddle like yesterday. There's a back exit we can leave from."

"Ship?" she asks, as they stand as a four, by the back exit.

"Just to be safe? But we need fuel, and repairs."

Fuel, more than repairs, Alerio thought.

The crew dashes out the back exit and tried to make themselves look scarce. With the security detail so close, they try to disappear before heading back to the Wayward Wind.

Fallon's quick thinking takes you all down through the Cogs - the lower levels of a starport, made for maintenance and the transport of goods. You hitch a ride on a cargo conveyor to the backside of the station, then circle back to the private docking ring. Stepping through customs feels dicey, but they don't give you any hassle. Doesn't seem they've tagged you leaving the bar - probably still wasting their time running the security footage you scrubbed.Once back on the Wayward Wind, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Zuzu is very happy to see you all, and Goldie materializes with a formal greeting, and awaits commands.

With fresh fuel and time to let their heartrates settle, Seally goes back to reviewing the repair logs. The damage is so extensive, and the ship is veritably crippled in so many ways, she can't help but fret over what repairs they should embark on first. She doesn't know what the others feel is the most important either.

The hull microfractures, and the general system disrepair are both worrisome, but not dire.

The missing hardpoint is something they could get fixed, which would give them robust defenses, but that would chew up most of their resources.

The M-Drive is what most concerns her, but the total cost could be astronomical, easily five times what they can scrounge.

The J-Drive has a similar concern, and a similar cost. They simply can't afford to address those now.

The Holographic Hull, however, seems like something they could manage.

During their flight, Seally gathers the other three (and ZuZu) into the lounge for signature cocktails. "I think we need to hideout from the longarm of the law, so Forine might be the best bet. If we can get a birth in the station, and not get chased off prematurely," she elbows Zuni playfully, "I think we could get the Holographic Hull fixed, and maybe the turret as well. That would tap us out. Or we could fly as we are and save up to repair the M- or J-Drive. What do you think?"

When they escaped the authorities and Elixabeth was finally behind them, Zuni gave the crew the space equivalent of high fives, all around.
"That was some exctiment, huh? I do regret losing my pistol though. I feel kind of naked without it."

Later when they all meet for drinks, Zuni listens carefully to Seally's proposal. Thank the stars you didn't say Dawnworld, Seally! I think I would have been forced to leave you lovely ladies to fend for yourselves. Anyway, I don't think we should fly as we are. But those are big ifs. I promise to behave but will we get a berth?"

When Zuni mentions he feels naked without his pistol, Fallon gives him a grin and wiggles her eyebrows teasingly.

Once in the lounge, she can't feel help but feel disappointed at the lack of enthusiasm for Dawnworld. "Oh sure, who wouldn't want to spend time in a brutal and oppressive mining colony instead of a paradise planet? I bet the travel agencies are tired of booking so many trips to Forine. I think Forine's tourism slogan is 'Come for the ship repairs, stay for the shrapnel lungs!'"

"We also lose the benefit of the Lleywn name out there." Alerio says with a furrowed brow.

"Back at the bar, before it all went to shit, I was talking to a crew. They said that piracy is on the rise out here. Sword Worlders, too. If someone puts two and two together, they could be looking for us."

Alerio sighs, and leans into the repair logs.

"What I’m saying is that we might need weapons more than we think…"

With the course plotted for Forine, the crew dims the lights, shutters all viewports, and prepares for jump. Seally's jump equation is sufficient for the task, and Alerio easily opens the way. You settle in for the week-long journey.This week in Jump space is much quieter than the last two weeks, with no passengers or cargo to manage. You have plenty of time to pursue your studies. Zuzu loves this time in jump space, since he's the most entertaining thing aboard the ship and gets lots of attention. Fallon attends to her wound from the scrap with the Sword Worlders, and everything heals up nicely. It probably won't even leave a scar.When the week is up, Alerio brings the ship out of Jump space, and you arrive in the Forine system. A vast asteroid belt is arrayed before you, covered in a vast mining operations. Once an asteroid is hollowed out of minerals, it is converted into a factory complex. Some complexes are consist of many asteroids banded together. According to the library data on Forine, over 3 billion sophonts live and work in this belt.



A variety of ships stream in and out of the system, hauling out manufactured goods and mineral wealth, and hauling in food, water, and other essentials. Within the system, there are many prospecting operations scattered throughout the belt. Some operations of made up of many specialized vessels working together, while others consist of a single ship operations hopping from rock to rock in search of a valuable claim. Shuttles criss-cross the belt, taking passengers across the system.



At one of the largest asteroids in the system is the Forine Starport. You can tell it is overloaded by the cloud of orbiting ships waiting to access it.


As you are approaching, you catch a priority message on comms - a distress signal. It's coming from a Type R merchant freighter near your position, a ship about twice as large as the Wayward Wind. It looks like it was on it's way to jump.

This is Type R Merchant Astrogirl, calling anyone... Mayday ... mayday ... armed passengers attempting to hijack the vessel. They've taken life support controls ... innocent families are on board ... please help! This is Type R Merchant Astrogirl, calling anyone... Mayday ...

Zuni smiles at Fallon. It was all in good fun.

"You are probably right Aliero. I don't particularly want to meet up with any more Sword Worlders."

Later he calls up whatever info he can find on their destination, looking for mining output, popular trading items, fuel depots and the like. "Let me see what I can find out about Forine. It might not be so bad. Sorry. Fallon. I know you were jonesing for Dawnworld."

When the ship finally approaches the starport, Zuni whistles. "Heck, that's a busy place." But then he catches the Mayday. "Uh oh. Everyone see this?"

"Oh wow, that's crazy. Fallon, Alerio, I want to rescue that merchantman, are you with me? If so, prepare for boarding, grab your weapons and meet me at the main hatch."

She claps Zuni on the shoulder. "We're up big boy, tell them to let us dock and helps on the way. Unless the girls come up with a good reason not too, of course. Then, grab your stuff and run for the airlock."

Not waiting for an answer, she leaves it to the others to agree, but rushes for her cabin and grabs her sword and other weapons.

Fallon turns to Alerio. "If we survive this, I'm gonna need some combat training. I knew journalism could be a dangerous profession but I didn't expect to be so much fighting." Fallon dashes to her quarters to grab her meager weapons.

"I can probably help you with that Fallon. Contact sports are my specialty." After a large pregnant pause and a shit-eating grin he adds, "Karate and the like."

Then he gets down to business. "Ok, let's be heroes."

Zuni alerts Astrogirl and prepares to dock. "Uh ... ladies? Can I borrow a weapon? Or maybe someone has a wrench?"

Seally hands Zuni her flechette pistol as they wait by the airlock. She shows her the usage of it, the safety and the 20-round magazine. "It's quiet, which is why I like it, and not likely to punch through hulls."

"Thanks, Seally. You might be a lifesaver." He listens to the quick lesson while they wait. "Ok. Sounds good. Let's smash some hijackers."

He sounds like he is making light of the situation but in reality, he is thinking about what they might be confronted with and how best to deal with the possibilities that might erupt.

"Ummm, aren't you going to pilot us to dock with the merchant freighter?" Seally asks, wondering who is controlling the craft.

"Or are you leaving that to Goldie? Also, should we pick another name for her? Goldie was just an immediate thought."

"Of course Goldie is on the job. Do you think so little of me?"

Zuni feigns being hurt. "Yeah another name that fits better is a good idea. How about Hal? You know, from that old relic of a movie."

Goldie swiftly sidles the Wayward Wind up to the Astrogirl, and patches Seally and Zuni's comms into the channel with the Astrogirl's bridge crew.The Astrogirl's crew tries to give you some idea as to what to expect. The ship's life support has been disabled, and the hijackers are threatening to blow the airlock and let the air out of the ship if the crew doesn't open the reinforced blast doors to the bridge and surrender the ship. They are armed with autopistols and stole vacc suits from the ship's locker. There are probably two teams; one on the main level, messing with the power plant to disable the life support systems, and another team waiting for the bridge to open the blast doors.Goldie helpfully displays a hologram of a standard Type R deck plans while you wait for the airlock to cycle (the red arrow indicates the airlock location). Beyond the airlock, Goldie will only be available via comms.



The magnetic bolts clang loudly as your docking ring secures to the Astrogirl. The airlock door opens to reveal the industrial interior of the Astrogirl. An automated message is playing over the ship's intercom: "This is a code red - all passengers, please lock yourselves in your cabin and remain calm. This is a code red ..."


Interior hallway of the Astrogirl

You are currently on the rear end of the upper deck, and have access to lifts going to the lower deck and to the launch above (a separate shuttle). A long hall 27m in length has doors that branch off to the left and right - these are the passenger quarters. The doors are all locked and show no sign of forced entry. At the end of the hall is an iris hatch that separates the ship's crew area (and the bridge) from the passenger area. The hatch is closed and has scorch marks across its surface, indicating forced entry has likely occurred. There is likely some amount of hostiles beyond that door.

"On a scale of one to ten, how bad of an idea would it be to split up? I think I should head down to the deck below and try to restore life support systems. That will relieve some pressure when it comes to time."

Alerio nods when Seally asks if she’s in, and spins on her heel to go get suited and booted.

While they’re being brought in, she makes her way to the docking hatch, with her H.A.R.C ready to go.

"On a scale of one to ten? Maybe a six." she says, stern faced now that combat was on the cards. She wants to make the others feel safe, but she knows that things can get hairy. She’d been on this side of a breach one too many times back in the day.

"Keep your heads down. If you see something, call it out and I’ll light them up.

Are we taking prisoners?"

Seally looks at the long hallway to a bridge. "We have a long shot to the bridge, after that, could be close fighting, sword work, or if they have cover, guns. I'll go that way. Life support I don't know."

When Alerio asks about prisoners, she says, "Only if they surrender and its safe to bind them. They're going to kill everyone, we can't let them get a chance to light that fuse."

"I don't think any of us should be alone. Let's do this in pairs. I can go with Seally or Fallon. The hallway does look long, maybe too long. "On the other hand maybe we need all the support we can get if we can get past that door into the bridge. Did they say how many are in a team? It's not like we are going to be surprising them."

Zuni takes off his comm device and hands it to Fallon. "You should have this."

"Besides blowing some Sword Worlder away in a bar… any of you been in a firefight?" Alerio asks as warning.

"Back on the squad, we’d split up and breach all the time. But those guys lived this stuff.

You quietly contact the bridge crew. They say they aren't 100% sure, but they can confirm least 4 total active shooters split between the two teams.

"Two and two, if we get the drop, then we could manage this. Let's go. Zuni and I will take the bridge, Alerio and Fallon take the guys fucking with life support. Keep in contact, call for backup if you need it, keeping us safe is job one."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's do this." Fallon pulls out her revolver and heads to the life support system on the deck below.

Zuni reattaches his comm and then makes his way down the corridor, stopping to hide behind the recessed areas by the passenger quarters. As he gets closer he wonders how they will get through the door. A grenade would do double duty as a distraction and a way in but they didn't have any.

"Hey Seally?" he calls back. Any ideas how to breach the door?"

"We just ask the bridge crew to open the outer door when we're ready. That's a great distraction, too. Well done, Zuni!"

Team 1 (Alerio & Fallon)

You take the lift to the cargo hold on deck 1. The doors open up to a full, cavernous hold full of cargo containers of varying sizes. A crewman is lying face down in a pool of blood at the base of a stack of crates, a handgun of some kind still in his hand. In the corner, you see an empty grav loader, an antigrav platform used to move crates and crate stacks.

There's a lot of crates between you and the power plant room where the hijackers likely are hacking the life support systems.



Team 2 (Seally & Zuni)

You make your way up to the hatch that separates the passenger quarters from the crew quarters beyond. The burn marks you saw from the other end of the hallway are from forced entry - looks like the hijackers blew open the access panel and hot wired the lock to release, then wired the lock shut again. The bridge crew tells you they can't access it; the hijackers must have shorted the remote connection.

Team 2 (Zuni & Seally)

Seally draws her sword and activates the electric field. "This thing will cut through armor, so maybe it will slice through a door, even if that's a little slower. I'll try and cut the locks, then we can force our way in."

She examines the doorway and tries to recall how it works so she can open it quickly by disabling the analog of hinges without carving a woman sized hole in it.

"Any idea of where to cut?"

Fallon sneaks quietly from crate to crate. She's seen a few spy films in her day, and not to mention that being an investigative journalist sometimes requires a little bit of stealth.

"Me? No, not really but, maybe? Let me take a closer look."

With Zuni's help in identifying the lock position, she makes a couple practice swings, tracing where she'll cut, and then attacks the door.

"Have you ever fired that thing?" Alerio whispers, as they make their descent.

When she sees the dead body, she grimaces. But it’s time for business, so she simply stoops and lets the gun from the dead crewman’s hand. She stuffs it into her pocket, just in case she needs a secondary, and then checks the man’s vitals quickly.

She nods to Fallon, and advances as she would if this was a bust. Careful, close and watching the angles.

"Yes..." she whispers back. "...but I've never hit a target with it."

Seally informs the bridge crew via comm she's about to breach the outer door. She immediately withdraws the blade from the structure and flings the door open.

She steps inside and to the left, clearing a a line of sight for Zuni and the flechette pistol.

She slides forward (Heron on Wet Ice) and slashes cross-body the thug on the left side.

"Here goes!" Zuni whispers as he rushes in, taking advantage of the door being blown open as a distraction. Finding the nearest hijacker, he aims his flechette and squeezes the trigger.

"I have." Alerio responds, badassly.

When they set eyes on their target, she hunches down, ready to outline their plan. She’s aware that they have little time.

"You think they’d come out of there if I gave them something to shoot at? Give you a chance to get behind them."

"I think if we contact the ship's crew and have them unlock the door suddenly, it might surprise them enough to get a shot or two in."

"We’ll need to get in there before they have a chance to close it up again."

Alerio had vision of a spray of fire, followed by a desperate dash to wrestle control of the room away from them.

"Same trick won’t work twice! Do it!"

Team Two (Seally & Zuni)
As the door opens, Seally and Zuni charge in, catching the hijackers off their guard. The first thug proves his agility, leaning back at the last second to avoid Seally's graceful Heron on Wet Ice. The second does not prove so agile; Zuni advances and with a quiet thwip, Zuni puts a projectile clean through the hijacker's torso while he wrestles his gun from his holster, spraying blood on the blast door behind him.

Seally's dance partner leaps back from the bridge doors, frees his autopistol, and attempts a panicked shot in her direction, but Seally ducks just in time and the bullet ends up in the wall instead. Zuni's bleeding target stumbles backward into the wall and braces himself as he opens fire in a wild, undisciplined arc, narrowly missing.

Team One (Alerio & Fallon)
Alerio and Fallon move around the containers to approach the engineering bay from along the wall and out of view of the windows. They coordinate with the bridge, who eagerly open the door on their command. Alerio and Fallon rush in, guns blazing!

Seally knows she can't let him get a clean shot, she's dead to rights so close, and her first blow should have been the equalizer. Now, as he regains his balance, she flicks the static blade and twists her grip. Body coiled like a spring, she steps close, ready to parry the next shot and executing Falcon Plucks the Trout, a quick stabbing blow to the collar.

Focusing on just aiming as straight as she can, Fallon aims her revolver at the second hijacker and pulls the trigger.

Zuni doesn't have much time to admire his pistol work, but damn! he's good. Seally's target is too feisty for Zuni's liking. The hijacker he shot seems awfully bloody so he aims at Sealy's attacker instead. Another light squeeze of the trigger and this time he aims for the person's head.

Alerio shoulders her rifle as she rounds the corner. Trained, fluid motions from years of training. Her laser sight searches for a target and then she pulls the trigger, and sends shots raining down from her H.A.C.R.

Team Two (Seally & Zuni)
The hijacker manages to turn out of the way of Seally's stab in an impressive display of athleticism, probably fuelled by the pure adrenaline that comes when a person starts stabbing you with a static blade. The blade is so close that thin tendrils of electricity arc out from the blade and harmlessly caress the hijacker's vacc suit.

Zuni likewise has trouble. The pistol's air compressor makes another quiet but deadly thwip as it launches its metal dart, but the hijacker ducks just at the right moment, and the dart impales the wall instead.

The two hijackers return fire! Seally's mark keeps backing up and manages to tag her in the shoulder (12 damage - 4 armour = 8 damage). Zuni gets shot as well, although her armor soaks up most of it. (8 damage - 5 armour = 3 damage.

Seally feels the impact, and knows she's bloodied. She's close now. One good shot and she's done for. It's a close fight, and she turns with the impact, spins and lunges forward in a straight attack designed to impale him on her blade.

"That'll teach me to be cocky, God dammit!" Zuni's adrenaline lessens the pain but his anger makes him shake a little. Inhaling deeply, he steadies himself and aims at the target he wounded when they first entered. Sealy's life could depend on him killing the bastard.

Team One (Alerio & Fallon)
Alerio and Fallon move around the containers to approach the engineering bay from along the wall and out of view of the windows. They coordinate with the bridge, who eagerly open the door on their command. Alerio and Fallon rush in, guns blazing!Alerio and Fallon storm into the engineering bay and open fire - Fallon's one bullet and Alerio's hail of fire. The gunshots fill the cavernous cargo bay with thunderous noise - the loud pop of Fallon's revolver and the thunderous "FRRRRRRAK" of Alerio's H.R.A.C. It's hard to know who hit what, but both men collapse into a bloody heap. The one that is still alive tosses his gun away and weakly raises his hands, calling out "I surrender!" between pained groans.

Behind the men, the engineering console is spattered with blood and has a few bullet holes in it. Sparks shoot out of it intermittently. Fortunately, none of the bullets hit the power plant itself.

Seally cries out, her fears playing out. Will I die here? Is this my fate?

She swipes awkwardly at the remaining hijacker, and then stumbles away and back behind Zuni for cover.

"Seally, No."

She'll be okay. She has to be!

The last one standing is Zuni's target now. He wears fury in his eye as he steadies himself once again for a killing shot or damn near it. Aiming for the hijacker's helmet, he takes a breath, holds it, and depresses the trigger.

Zuni's flechette projectile slams into the last hijacker's shoulder, sending him spinning into the lift door. He throws his gun away and puts one hand up in the air and clutches his wound with the other hand. "Fuck, fuck! Don't shoot!"

Zuni races over to the downed hijacker, grabs him by the shoulder of his suit, and hoists him up roughly. "You're lucky I don't shoot you in the head and finish you off!"

"Ladies. I got a live one," he says over the comm.

Zuni yanks out a piece of rope from his survival kit and attempts to tie the hijacker's hands with it after which he will let him drop to the floor. Then he gets the man's gun and only then does he tend to Seally if the hijacker is subdued. Presuming the hijacker is in rough shape and under control....

Kneeling next to Seally he asks, "What can I do? I don't have any medical supplies. There might be something around here I can find."

Seally is standing there, holding her bloody suit. "Let's get inside, and collect our reward. Maybe they have a med station. Go see to Fallon and Alerio, I'll watch this turkey."

Alerio advances on the downed goon, bloodlust up and all business. She sticks the barrel of her gun right up against the guys chest, and stands painfully on his ankle.

"Assholes like you have the universe gone to shit!" she spits, through gritted teeth.

"Sounds like someone else is alive upstairs. So why do we need you?" she says, threatening the main, but giving him the opportunity to plead his case.

"I'm not leaving you here alone to bleed out all over the floor. I'll nose around here for a medkit but I'm not going far, especially with this idiot nearby. But before I do that we should staunch the flow of blood. Where exactly are you injured and how badly are you bleeding?"

Zuni had mostly been a loner in most of his previous adventures but this time there were others to consider. It was new, terrifying, and exciting at the same time. He felt an almost overwhelming responsibility to his girls.

"Go see to the others, I'm fine." Seally takes an autopistol from the dead guy as she fills in the bridge crew by comm. "The two attempting to break into the bridge have been neutralized. Waiting on confirmation from the team investigating life support."

On their private channel, "Fallon, Alerio, do you need assistance? Zuni is free to provide backup."

"Alright, I'll stop hovering and go see what's going on with the other two as long as you think you'll be ok. They haven't answered so I'm off."

One more quick glance around, including for any first kits, and Zuni is off to see the others heading toward the lift and down to their location.

Seally watches him going off, to rescue their friends who aren't answering the comms. They could be lying dead and dying. A wave of nausea and dizziness hits her and she falls to her knees. Blood loss? Shock?

She knocks weakly on the bridge door, and triggers the comm badge to the bridge. "This is Seally Llewyn from the Wayward Wind. I'm in desperate need of medical attention. Is there a first aid kit on the bridge? Please help me!"

The bridge opens the blast door and three human men come out, each not much older than 20. Thin and tall, typical of belter systems, where people grow up in low artificial gravity. One secures the remaining hijacker, while the other two tend to Seally's injuries, fetching a medical kit and med scanner from the ship's locker."Yeah, this is pretty bad," one says to the other. "She needs to get to a hospital."

The other turns to you "Hell of a thing to charge armed gunmen with a sword. Are all of you Imperials this bold?" He probably recognizes your accent. You'd think he was flirting with you if the situation wasn't so serious. Probably just trying to lighten the mood.

The other interrupts the bedside manner banter. "You got Credits? We can call for a medical ship to dock with your ship, but it's going to cost you."

"Whoa, easy now, Alerio. We don't want to be murders." She gently takes Alerio's arm and lowers it so it's not aiming directly at the injured hijacker. When she hears Seally's query she responds, "Yeah, all clear down here. Seems like we all got the drop on them in one swift strike. How did things go up there?"

Zuni heads for Fallon and Alerio, taking the closest lift at the front of the ship. When he opens the doors, he finds the body of a crewman, slumped in the corner, dead. She is unarmed, and was shot in the back.

Zuni exits the lift and, remembering the floor plan Golide showed him, makes his way to the aft section of the fully loaded cargo bay. There he finds Fallon and Alerio with the situation well in hand.

Zuni rushes to the back of the cargo bay not knowing what to expect and is much relieved to see the girls alive and well.

"Hello ladies, thank the fucking stars. I saw that dead crewman back there and thought the worst. Am I glad to see you both and in one piece with no obvious signs of blood on either of you. But it isn't all good news. Seally is hurt bad and could use a medic. We should get back there. Oh, we have a prisoner too. Not sure you got my message about that."

"Shit! Is there a first aid kit? We need to stabilize her and get her to a doctor. Let's bring this one up with us." She says to Alerio about their own captive.

"I didn't find one, but I was pretty frazzled and worried about you ladies too." Zuni roughly grabs the captive, pointing the flechette at his helmet. "Leave me with this one and you go hurry back to Seally."

The crew member patching Seally's wounds sees the confused look on her face after mentioning Credits. His face contorts into a faux wounded expression. "Look, I'm not trying to shake you down, it's just that hospital ships are expensive, is all. If you can't afford it, you would waste precious time. Public clinics are shit here, don't even bother. If you aren't liquid right now, then I suggest putting yourself into a low berth and have your crew jump you to Elixabeth, or maybe Tarkine. My name's Jona, by the way. Those are my brothers, Enric and Karalt."

Enric and Karalt give you nods. They are preparing to leave, now that the other hijacker is secured. "We're going to go see if the captain survived, or Shaw." They don't sound hopeful. Turning to the hijacker, Enric says "If they're dead, we're tossing you out an airlock."

"Oh shit, I should probably tell the passengers the threat has been neutralized," Jona decides. "I'll be back."

Jona disappears into the bridge, makes a brief announcement and informs the passengers they're to stay in their cabins a little while longer. When he returns, he explains "It wouldn't do for a passenger to stumble upon a dead body." There's an awkward pause, and then he continues. "Hey, we never properly thanked you. You didn't have to stick your neck out, but you did."

In the engineering bay, Fallon finds an emergency med kit and attends to the hijacker's wounds, stripping off his vacc suit. He struggles a bit at first, but doesn't have much fight left in him. His face is full of shame and regret.The two bridge crew members arrive shortly, introducing themselves as Enric and Karalt and expressing their gratitude. But, they seem perplexed about your treating the wounded hijacker. "We're just going to toss these bastards out an airlock; not much point in treating their boo boos."

Fallon looks at them. "A medic's first duty is to save lives," she lies. She's no medic, just has some first aid training. But she at least wanted to hear the story of what these hijackers were trying to achieve here. "Don't you even want to know their motivations?" She turns to the hijacker as she finishes dressing his wounds. "Speak quickly, maybe you can prevent yourself a trip out the airlock."

Alerio watches over proceedings, her firearm still ready and willing to let loose if anything looks funny.

She’s square jawed and broad shouldered. It would help the four of them, if one seemed a little off and not afraid of a little trouble.

Karalt seems too young for this cynical take, but he doesn't hesitate to share it. "Take your pick: they're junkies or criminals, probably both. Now they're murders too, if they weren't already. Forine is full of this trash. The Sector Compliance Bureau will just execute them anyway, but that'll bring inspections and shit we can't afford down our throats."
"I know a buyer in Milargo. I'll give you his name if you get me out of here. He'll give you a few million credits minimum for a ship like this. Set you up for life."

Zuni's eyebrows shoot up when the hijacker mentions a few million credits. Lowering his flechette he says, "Yeah? Tell us more."

Hope dawns on the hijacker's hardened features. "He buys ships, no questions asked. Doesn't deal with strangers though, you'd need an invitation. I can get you in."

His eyes dart over at the lightly armed Enric and Karalt, and then glances at Alerio's H.A.R.C.

"This ship right here, with a full cargo hold and passenger berths. Three MegaCredits, minimum."

Seally sits quietly, trying not to literally die, and then asks, "Jona, you know we didn't come here just because we're angels. We are, but we're also looking to make some coin. What sort of reward do you think the Astrogirl would offer us? Do you think the passengers would take up a collection? Afterall, without us, you'd likely be on your way to systems unknown, followed by scrapping this wonderful ship, theft of everything this side of vacuum, and dare I say, slavery and death for you and the passengers?"

Fallon's face falls in disappointment. "So all of this was just stealing a ship to make some quick credits? You're even dumber than I thought if you couldn't even think of a lie to make yourself sound like not an asshole. Ok, Alerio, you may shoot him now." Fallons steps back so she doesn't get splattered.

Zuni also gets clear of any potential flying brain matter, agreeing with Fallon's assessment and looking forward to the idiot hijacker's response. That's if he can manage to speak at all before Aliero kills him. He changes his mind though, at least for a little bit.

"Wait. Girls, we're already wanted. What do you think about a life as rich pirates?"

"You absolutely deserve a reward, but the Astrogirl is owned by Nguyen Manufacturing and Logistics Ltd. My brothers and I are just operators. We make a whopping Cr500/month split between the three of us. You probably want to talk to the owner for the kind of compensation you're looking for - Savine Nguyen."

"How about this - we'll write up a report about your boarding operation, send it back to HQ, and see if I can get you an appointment with Savine. How does that sound?"

Seally smiles at the crewmen. She knows what it's like to employ people you trust. "Please do so, and we'll meet up with Savine Nguyen. In the meanwhile, we'll go back to our ship, the Wayward Wind. I need to get to a hospital ship. If you could flag one for us, we'll intercept them and see if they can keep me alive a little longer." She struggles a bit, and then asks, "Help me to the airlock?"

On the comm with the WW crew, she says, "Headed back to the ship. Need to get to a med ship pronto."

Jona does as you asks. Once you're back in the Wayward Wind, Zuzu comes running up to you. He can sense something's wrong, and is especially affectionate and protective of his human.

Jona sends you the coordinates of the closest medical ship, and gets you a comms uplink to contact them. Looking at the ship on screen, it looks like they converted and old Imperial Type M Space Liner and scrapped its Jump Drive. A receptionist informs you that they're all full up for weeks to come, but for an emergency fee, you can get in today: a mere Cr25,000. Jona also CC's you on the communication back to Nguyen Manufacturing and Logistics, Ltd. You get coordinates for the HQ, a relatively minor asteroid on the far side of the systems. They get back to you with an official, if terse, notice of appreciation and give you an appointment in two days' time.

Seally does her best to negotiate a good price for emergency care. She lays it on about good Samaritans trying to rescue a ship and passengers with no promise of reward.

(Insert batting eyelashes here)

As it turns out, the government does have a Cr2500 subsidy for Travellers injured while responding to distress calls within the system. The receptionist sends you the appropriate forms. It also includes an advertisement for a local armory called Guardian Arms & Armor that claims to specialize in "personal protection and self defense supplies for a dangerous galaxy," although pursuing their catalogue, you see their wares include all sorts of military hardware. They have an office and storefront in the belt on one of the larger asteroids, and they also offer free deliver within the system via shuttle for any order over Cr5000.

Alerio smokes the last two pirates herself.

"If I’m going to kill someone, I’m going to kill them. That way I know it’s done right."

Alerio was hard, deep down. The force hardens you. Seeing all that misery stiffens your soul. And then to be run out of town. Life as a colonist is hard. Forces your body to be strong and rigid. She didn’t like it about herself.

But systems were full of scum like this. If it wasn’t them, it would have been her. Doing it herself was at least… human, in a way. Responsible, at least.
Spacing someone was like trying to commit the act without all the guilt. Mechanical. Cold. Separate.

Once she’s back on the Wayward, she tosses her credits onto the table. The swipe containing all 50,000.

"Assholes. Let’s just pay em and get her patched up."

Fallon can't help but jump at the sudden bangs of gunfire. Then she's relieved she stepped back as blood and brain matter splatter the floor and wall. "I don't envy the person who has to clean that up," she mutters as she looks away feeling slightly nauseous. With that taken care of she heads to check on Seally.

Zuni was no stranger to death, either witnessing it or doing the nasty deed. Still, he flinched reflexively at the emotionless execution even though he knew Aliero was a tough cookie. It was sort of surreal but it was the right choice. Two less scum in the galaxy.

"Yeah, coordinates are set. Let's get Sealy to that ship. Are we interested in anything from the catalog? After Sealy is patched up, it's on to Nguyen Manufacturing and Logistics, Ltd?"

She croaks, "Armor, perhaps? If we're going to be rescuing ungrateful strangers as a hobby?"

Her attempt at humor may not shine through her wan pallor of approaching death.

"Comms. Medical. I’m sure we can find things that we didn’t know we needed." Alerio says, not wanting to replicate needing something and not having one handy again.

She tosses the two pistols she removed from the hijackers onto the table.

"Maybe we need to have some heavier stuff on-hand, too."

Fallon smiles at Sally's dark humor. She nods, "Yeah, that might not be a bad idea. But you should save your voice. We don't want any more blood filling up those beautiful lungs now do we?" She smiles.

Alerio turns on Seally then, too.

"I know you’re family is big on the…" she waves a hand about at her saber "… sword stuff. But do me a favor, would you? Next time, just shoot the guy with a damn shotgun."

Zuni forces a chuckle but really he's worried about the woman. Time is of the essence here and he is kicking himself for having wasted time. If she didn't make it, he'd never forgive himself.

"Ok. Armor, better weapons, comms and medical supplies. Make sense to me."

Zuni disengages the docking clamps and sets a course for the medical ship, and Seally transfers the fee from the company account en route. Fortunately, the Wayward Wind is as swift as they come, and they reach their destination in an hour. Zuzu doesn't leave Seally's side the entire time.

The medical ship is surrounded by a small cluster of shuttles and other ships. You note that two of the shuttles are armed and seem to be providing security. Even the medical ship is studded with multiple pulse laser turrets. Zuni docks with the ship and medical staff are waiting at the airlock with a grav chair. You have to fight to keep Zuzu from coming with Seally.

The interior of the ship glows with bright blue light, and the smell of antiseptic vapour is everywhere. They rush Seally to an operating table, where they activate neural anaesthetics. During the procedure, Seally is awake but feels nothing.



During the surgery, a man in a suit takes a moment to upsell you. "If you've ever considered augmentation, now's a great time since we already have the hood open, so to speak. If your line of work is dangerous, you might be interested in a Muscular Bridging procedure, or Subdermal Armor construction? Maybe an Internal Auto-Injector in case help isn't around next time?"

The whole procedure takes two hours (longer if she decides to purchase augmentations), and afterwards, Seally is taken to a special cryo chamber, where she is put into a medically-induced coma and hooked up to a number of systems. They administer Slow, a drug that accelerates a body's metabolism to allow a person to undergo a month of healing in a single day. Seally will be unaware of the passage of time, and will be out of commission for the next 24 hours.

"Welcome back, Seally. You had us worried there for a minute. Do you know we had to fight tooth and paw to keep Zuzu from following you right onto the operating table? Such a loyal pup. You're very lucky."

Zuni is truly relieved to see her alive and well and gives her an affectionate gentle squeeze on the shoulder.

Seally passes on the augmentations, she wants to save up every credit for ship repairs.

"Thanks Zuni. I'll see you and the girls in a day."

Alerio tosses some scrap paper down onto the table for the other two to look at. Scrawled on it are several of the things she wants to get shipped over before Seally wakes up:

"Alright, I’ve put together a list."

Life Support Mask. 1000cr
Electronic Binoculars. 750cr
Mobile Comms. 150cr x ?
Medkits. 125cr x ?
Trauma Pack. 750cr

"It’s not everything. And well, I don’t know what’s available. I also… was wondering about some of these. For this place…" she waves her hands around the ship. She pulls another piece of paper and presents it.

"Make it feel more homey…"

Autochef. 200cr
Hair Styler. 800cr
Environment Replicator. 2000cr
Holographic Play Table. 750cr

"Figured Seally might like at least some of that… when she wakes up, I mean. Oh!"

And finally, a last:

"And, well… this is for me."

Sniper Rifle. 700cr
Ammo. ?cr

Zuni isn't much for shopping. Never liked it and decided to leave that to the women. Still, he was interested in the shopping list and had a gander. Nodding his agreement with the more practical items, indeed some were necessities, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow or two at a few things on the list.

"Hair styler? Play table? Can we afford such ... toys?"

"You tell me." Alerio says with a shrug.

"We’ve been in jump for, what… a month total since the volcano? You enjoy our company that much, Hot Shot?"

Hot Shot, an affectionate name, but also a chiding reminder of how Zuni had them jump after he shot that Sword Worlder.

Zuni hangs his head in shame, his lips tight with tension. She was right of course. He had let them down with his rash behavior. For once no smartass retort was in the making.

He opened his mouth to say something nice but thought better of it because no matter what he said, it would sound wrong. Instead, he fixes his eyes uncomfortably on the list wondering how he can make it up to all of them.