Session Four

The day started off with the doors in Captain's quarters not working, trapping him inside. As a result, Scruffy wound up doing the piloting for their appointment with Watari and Michi Transport. Andromeda, Gable, and Averyn stayed behind on the ring to do some shopping.

While ED1-50N and Scruffy worked on finishing the Needle Drive install, Morgan and Watari spoke with Valeri and arranged for them to pick her up in two days after Watari fetched her from her location, after which they will transport her to meet with DIB Agent Novacek.

Scruffy pulls Watari aside and asks him if he has any contacts for future trade contracts. Watari tells him he will reach out for them.

With the Needle Drive install finished, the ship returns to port.

Several messages arrive that morning for the ship and crew.

• One for Gable from their mother Adrienne Dagrun
• Johanna Wizaya from the Heart of Cethalara again about refugee supplies.
• Leon Richardson from the Red Crescent about refugee supplies.
• Stoyan Deliivanov from Quilling Engineering to transport his team and equipment to Centerra Station
• James Cineus looking for transport and a team to help him extract someone from Centerra Station
• Imanta Buile looking to hire someone to go get her kids from Centerra Station
• One for Scruffy from someone named Eileen at Razor Exchange responding to his inquiry.

While the group discusses the messages, a couple of news stories about Centerra Station are playing.

Gable sends a quick mother to their mother, letting her know they're fine. The rest of the group sent off messages to their families as well, though no one disclosed where they were or what they were up to.

Scruffy replies back to Eileen, and she sends him the location of a cafe on the ring to meet. The group calls back Stoyan, James and Imanta to get more information on their jobs, but does not commit to any of them.

Later that day, Scruffy, Averyn and Andromeda go to the cafe to meet Eileen. Gable comes along, too, but remains in the transport station, just in case. Once inside they discover that Eileen is E1L-33N, an engineering droid similar to ED1-50N. E1L-33N asks them questions about the ship, then says she may be able to arrange jobs for them. Scruffy tells her the ship has the means for carrying “clandestine cargo.” She says she will get back to them. The group returns to the ship.

Ten minutes before the ship was to depart for their rendevous with Watari to pickup Valeri, Dr. Bohler of St. Alexis Hospital called Averyn to inform her that Vycter had woken from his coma, and was asking about his children. Averyn thanked her and asked he to pass along the children that his kids were fine and being reunited with their mother.

En route to the rendezvous point, Gable picked up three other ships on an intercept course. One of them was expected - Watari's tugboat, the other two were not. Both were Luminous Class Traders. One was not actually on an intercept course, just a nearby one. The other one, however, was not only on an intercept course, but was running with no transponder, and appeared to be heavily armed. Morgan opened up a tight beam to Watari, and the two pilots re calculated their courses to make an intercept harder for the vessel. That worked for a short time, until it started a hard burn.

Just after this unidentified ship changed its course and started a hard intercept burn, two Cethalaran Orbital Defense cutters began a pursuit of it, ordering it to identify itself. When it became apparent it wasn't going to be able to catch the Cosmic Crow or the Michi Transport tug, the ship turned and made a hard burn to the Theta Thread, and went FTL towards Drorospo.

Gable got some sensor readings off the ship, including its thermal signature and the hint that it may have had a rail gun mounted, but was unable to get the ship's EM drive signature.

The ship docking with Watari went smoothly, and Valeri transferred to the Crow to the delight of her children. Scruffy tunred the ship back towards Cethalara, and they called Agent Novacek to inform him they were bringing Valeri in. He gave them coordinates to a private DIB dock. Tsaru expresses a bit of concern over docking there, given his ex-con status and the recent news reports out of Centerra Station.

Upon arrival at the DIB dock, Tsaru hides in the smuggling compartment, while the crew hands off Valeri and her kids to Agent Novacek. Novacek is accompanied by six Directorate Marines in full kit, which gives the group pause for a moment. The handoff goes over smoothly, with the sole exception of the thank you document Novacek gave the group having a clause stating he can recall them “to Directorate duty at any time.”

The ship leaves the DIB dock and returns to its rented berth on the ring. Shortly after arriving, E1L-33N contacts Scruffy, and says she can arrange some contracts for runs to Dorax, which is on the Delta Thread. This prompts the crew to have the Needle Drive tuned to Delta. ED1-50N starts up on the tuning, and estimates it will take five weeks.

The crew reaches out to Stoyan Deliivanov from Quilling Engineering to transport his team and equipment to Centerra Station. He agrees to pay them 35KCr for a 3G burn to the station. They also reach out to James Cineus and agree to help him extract someone from the station. He pays 20KCr up front, and promises another 40KCr upon completion of the job. They also agree to run 18 dTons worth of relief supplies for the Heart of Cethalara at the standard in system rate of 500Cr/ton, for 9KCr.

After loading their cargo and passengers, the Cosmic Crow departs the Cethalaran Orbital Ring at 1400 GMT, and begins a 3g burn to Centerra Station. Shortly after their departure, the ship's bank account is finally in the black as the escrowed funds are deposited.

Burn to Centerra Station. At a 3g burn, everyone is confined to crash couches, except for some short relief and meal breaks.

Arrive at Centerra Station at approx 0600 GMT. Quilling Engineering off loads their equipment, as does the Heart of Cethalara. James Cineus gathers the crew at his container, opening it to reveal a plethora of weapons and other equipment, and invites those who will be traveling with him to arm themselves.

End Session

Session Date: 15 Jan 2023