The past five weeks have been busy...

Over Espiaux, Simon Newell commended the crew on their actions onboard Suzain.  He praised them for saving the remaining survivors and recovering the stricken lab ship.  Furthermore, he notes that Blackfin Shipping has filed for salvage arbitration in the recovery of Suzain and that the crew, as parties to the proceedings, are entitled to a percentage of any settlement forthcoming.  He does caution though, that proceedings may take several months or years to be adjudicated.

Simon graciously agrees that the crew has earned some rest, but he stresses the need to move forward towards the group’s original objective.  As a token of his goodwill, the company hosts a blowout party in a private room of an elite Espiaux restaurant that night.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Given the short time he had to work with, Hayden did a masterful job lining up cargo, while Thera skillfully filled Gypsy Moth’s passenger staterooms.  Danica, Jacques, and the rest of the crew had their hands full arranging for fuel, life support, and spares, getting the passengers aboard and settled, and docking at highport to load cargo, not to mention plotting the ship’s jump.

Doc had the additional task of keeping a certain female Doc happy until the ship left as well.

When the Gypsy Moth broke Espiaux’s orbit only four days after arriving, the entire crew breathed a short sigh of relief.  True, there hadn’t been much chance for shore liberty, but at least there would be some semblance of routine in the near future.  In her cargo holds, Gypsy Moth carried:

10tons Farm Equipment (still aboard from Alsace) – one 10ton combine
40tons Frozen Seafood (Freight) – five 10ton reefer containers
10tons Fish Oil (speculative) – one 10ton tank container
50tons Petrochemical Lubricants (speculative) – sixty two .8ton pallets of four 200L drums per pallet, plus two single drums
8 tons passenger baggage in crates

1ton News Databanks for Gateway Media

P1 - Two high passengers: Detmar Torben and Yuki Kaman, wealthy honeymooners*
P2 – Two high passengers: Candace and Elle Porchier, teenage daughters of Dorothy*
P3 – One high passenger: Dorothy Porchier, writer
P4 – One high passenger: Harlow Porter, law student
P5 – One high passenger: Marya Rapp, Dorothy Porchier’s publicist
P6: - One high passenger: Dr. Cole Vogt, xeno-ethnographer

* - each passage discounted for double occupancy, but still more profitable than carrying singles

Hayden had shied away from speculating in the stereotypical luxury seafood cargoes, especially since the ship’s port hold was largely full of it as freight.  Instead, his commercial senses told him that oils that didn’t naturally occur on Tupolev would be better bets.  Whether for medicinal or industrial use, saltwater fish didn’t live on Tupolev, and the planet didn’t have the technology to synthesize petrochemicals.

The news reports were safely lodged in the magazine adjacent to the dorsal turret.  They wouldn’t bring a lot of revenue, but a few thousand extra credits was a nice return for otherwise unused space.

As for the passengers, well, they each have their stories.

The honeymooners are rarely seen, except for meals.  Detmar is a lean, muscular endurance athlete of moderate professional ability.  His new bride, Yuki, is the youngest daughter of a prominent Espiaux industrialist.

Ms. Porchier is a noted writer of popular, but not particularly literary romance holo-novels.  She is known for overwrought drama, unlikely plot elements, and near pornographic erotica.  Dorothy, her two daughters, and her publicist Marya, are on a publicity tour through Halowon space.  A drama queen, she incessantly harasses Marya with trivial demands and narcissist self-doubts.  She also takes copious notes about the honeymooners, but Detmar becomes angry when Elle jokes that her mother plans to model a new book after the two.

The elder Porchier daughter, though only seventeen, quickly develops a crush on Lance Charpentier.

Harlow Porter is a law student at the top university on Espiaux.  He is on a fellowship to study pre-digital surveillance civil investigation methodologies on Tupolev.

Marya Rapp, quite simply, is a dingbat.  Although she introduces herself as Dorothy’s publicist, she is, in fact, nothing more than her assistant.  If anything, Dorothy’s high maintenance demands and constant drama reinforce Marya’s belief that she is the vital right hand to a great author, rather than the harried aide to a second-rate pulp romance writer.

Dr. Vogt is bringing several minor Aslan artifacts, all in his baggage or his room, for display on loan to museums on Tupolev.  He is just past middle-age, and, for a rather portly academic, takes his reverence for Aslan warrior culture a bit seriously.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gypsy Moth spent precious little time in the Vauclain/Ozawa system, just long enough to refuel on Ozawa and have dinner with an old friend of Hayden’s.  After the staid urbanity of Espiaux, Ozawa strikes you as rustic, yet bustling.

Those of you who have been to Ozawa before are surprised at how much the settlement has grown.  Those of you who haven’t are struck by the town’s dusty, boomtown atmosphere. The planet isn’t much in the way of recreation, giving rise to the joke, “I spent a month on Ozawa…last night.”


The company has tried hard to integrate the settlers from disparate cultures, but the divisions between old-timers and new arrivals, as well as from the different planets and polities are never far below the surface.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 070

Gypsy Moth has emerged from jump space in the Tupolev system.  You have given the port authorities at EKJ downport your estimated time of arrival early on Day 071 and alerted your freight consignees to the imminent arrival of their goods.

All of you, but especially Thera, are looking forward to the departure of your passengers.  Gypsy Moth can seem cramped with ten souls, the additional eight on a five week voyage have been enough to make you long for some elbow room.

OOC: As usual, assumptions on space transit, unless otherwise stated, are that the ship's transponder and active sensors are on and that she's taking the most direct route to the planet.

OOC2: I know at least one player has a contact on Tupolev.  Let me know of any comms to contacts, of anything you want to ask or do w passengers before landing, and also if any of your characters wanted to buy anything on Espiaux or Ozawa.  I'll give people a chance to respond, then we'll move on to planetside.

Hayden had been busy during the trip, helping to deal with Ms. Porchier's and Ms. Rapp's various demands while also attending to the other passenger's needs.  He had taken to offering drinks at most meals, including Mimosas and Beermosas (OJ and weissbier) at breakfast, in an effort to sedate the passengers a bit and give the crew a few moments of peace throughout the day.

"Just one more day…" Hayden lamented at crew breakfast that morning.  "Does anyone know what the bars are like on Tupolev?" he asked his colleagues.

Danica had spent an unusually large amount of time on the bridge.  Which, given the fact that her quarters were located next to the bridge and that in general the crew knew that she effectively lived at the Gypsy Moth's controls, the fact that she spent a noticeable amount of extra time more there was... almost mind-boggling.  Sequestering herself had started less then two days after the Porchier party had arrived; allowing the rest of the crew ample opportunity to correlate the circumstances.  The first week, Dani always seemed to have good reason for her extended vigil.  But by the fourth week, she had pretty much dropped the pretense of having anything extra to do on the bridge.

The month had been very effective in giving her the time to study, Danica had never actually graduated from any college or university having enlisted in the FRA pretty much immediately after coming of age.  And while, she gotten plenty of education in the school of hard knocks and had had more than her fair share of 'life experiences', Dani had never bothered to try to further her formal education until recently.  So, the study time actually did do her a lot of good.

Not that she neglected her crew duties.  Of course, her piloting duties did not require her to leave the bridge - so, not being able to fulfill those was out of the question.  But always the professional, Danica was present for all required functions with the passengers - whether they be requests or dinners or tours.  Such duties were always carried out efficiently and in a minimum amount of time.  And perhaps she was a touch more distant than normal; but then the mirrorshades never came off in public anyways.  So, who could really tell, certainly the passengers wouldn't?

Similar professionalism was also expected of the others in the crew.  And while she didn't necessarily expect anything to develop between Lance and the elder Porchier daughter, Dani did pull him aside at one point early in the trip on to ensure that was the case.  It would not due for him to be 'preoccupied' and the Gypsy Moth's pilot let her fellow Perseus veteran know that in no uncertain terms.

Dani also never missed a crew meal; she was always willing to commiserate.  The tall brunette nodded in eager agreement to Hayden's assessment of the timing.  "Here, here." she intoned a bit too eagerly, holding up her tankard in a mock toast.  It was filled with whatever green, gloppy fluid she had placed in it this time; she called it 'nutritional mix XII', but anyone with any outdoor experience would swear that her 'nutritional mix' series bore an uncanny resemblance in look and consistency (and smell, actually) to pond scum.

Danica could only shrug noncommittally to Hayden's query about Tupolev bars.  "I hear that they carry alcoholic drinks based on locally produced grains." she quipped matter-of-factly, which Dani knew was a generic enough statement to be useless.  But then she only had as much experience (or less) with Tupolev that he did, since her previous stint into Halowon territory had been as a member of his crew - and Hayden knew it.  And since she didn't imbibe alcohol (at least none that any of the other crew had ever seen), it probably wasn't too surprising that she knew very little (and showed no interest in gaining such knowledge) about Tupolev's (or any other planet's) bar scene.  Dani didn't mind going to bars - especially like now, when required to maintain cover.  But she never made it a personal point to go out of her way.

"A whole day?", quipped the Doc, snarling at his coffee as he plopped down at the table.

"Tupolev bars?  Rowdy, but nothing to code home about", he added distractedly, while adding more sweetener to his cup.  "Still, be an improvement over our present company."

(Not surprisingly, Jim hadn't gotten along so well with the older Porchier gang, nor Ms. Rapp, and his relationship with Dr. Vogt had soured after Jim made some disparaging remarks regarding the barbaric silliness of Aslan warriors.)

At Danica's toasting with her ritual morning concoction, Doc added in exasperation, "As ship's doctor, I'm begging you... can you at least cover that - that whatever it is - at the table?  I can't even smell how awful my coffee is with that stench... "

Doc added more sweetener to his cup.

Thera had had plenty of experience at burying her thoughts and feelings while pleasing clients, so the passengers had caused her no great difficulty, but they were still an irritation and she would be glad to be rid of them. Knowing this was the last day was a welcome thought.

She smiled as the Doc commented on Dani's drink. For her own part, she'd perfected several cultural tea-making rituals as part of her 'studies' aboard that yacht, and had become quite partial to a couple of the brews.

"Not sure about the Tupolev bars; I've been here, but I spent most of my time entertaining on that yacht we destroyed." She smiled at the memory - the memory of the destruction, of course.

It was rare that Jacques did more than was necessary with the passengers. Thera and Hayden had a good handle on it all and he didn't mind taking over some ship's duties when Hayden was concocting beverages or simmering some soon-to-be-wonderful meal. Besides, Dani was always spit-n-polish and on top of the bridge ops. Gave the ship a sense of home, the combination of taking care of unending business and the daily awkward yet warm gatherings. Still, it was a bit odd that Jacques was sitting with Dr. Vogt one night, deep in the last few bottles of Alsacian wine, discussing Aslan society and their warrior culture.

He had a lot of fun with the good doctor, correcting his Tahahorol pronunciation, dispelling myths about the size of Aslan feet and regaling the passenger with imitations of the Aslan merchant crew he had encountered so many years ago. He wasn't lying - some would say he was barely embellishing - but he wanted the academic get a sense what it was like to stand face to face with the people who'd made the doctor's little objects. Jim joined them for a bit, poo-pooing Jacques' dramatics and Aslan warriors in general but Doc soon wandered away with half a bottle of wine after Vogt gave him an acerbic remark about "try respecting other, silly cultures." Jacques merely smiled and slid what looked like an old lump of fused aluminum across the table. "A gift for you," he said to Dr. Vogt. "The last remnants of the flux valve repair that fixed that Aslan vessel and avoided an interstellar - nay, an interspecies - war." Jacques was warm enough inside from the wine that he couldn't tell whether the good doctor's confused look was coming from utter appreciation or utter disdain.

The next morning Jacques looked a bit bleary-eyed but his uniform was sharp and his hand steady. He harrumphed in affirmative to Doc's estimation of Tupolev entertainment offerings. His face clouded a bit when Thera mentioned the yacht but his mood was still light. "We should decide on our route before we hit the port. If we want to maintain our cover we should probably take the rimward path through Troy's Rock and Perseus and we get to Consul in five or six weeks depending on port turnarounds. Or we beeline through Wellesley and get there in three or four."

Jim took a drink of his coffee sweetener mix, made a face, then took Jack up on discussing their future route.

"Troy would at least offer some good Svetlana wine [apparently superior to Alsacian in Jim's view].  Or hop through Wellesley claiming a Krim Confed dest - they have some wild scenery on Chelou.  Be consistent with our cover.  Take as long, but throw off anyone looking at our route to Antioch and it avoids Santander..."

Doc trailed off with another drink, absently adding another dose of sweetener.

In reply to Dr. Jim D. Jones (msg # 7):

Yes, the crew remembered Jacques recent drinking session with Dr. Vogt.  All of you, yes even Dani who may have been watching the session with amusement from her perch on the bridge over the ship's security feeds, though of course she would deny it, remember Vogt's response to Jack's comment about the flux valve. The academic huffed, "Well, yes, it may have prevented a war at the time, but that threat disappeared when Captain Pascal signed the alliance with the Sekhai clan in 38.  At least for us Espiauxers anyway." He then uttered an "Aslan war-growl" and announced he had to relieve himself.

A knot still forms in your stomach as you recall his words.  A secret alliance with the barbaric Aslan?  It seems too unlikely, the sort of thing conspiracy theorists would be on about.  Yet, Vogt seemed to believe it.  Or maybe he just wasn't accustomed to people who had actually met Aslan and knew more about them than he did and was trying to one up Jack.

OOC: Ha, found a way to work a rumor in after all.  Thanks for the setup Jacques! ;)

EKJ downport does not really have a good spacer bar, at least not in the estimation of most spacers you know.  Sure, there are restaurants and concessions that serve alcohol, but nowhere worth your time.  Lansing is a moderate size city, and host to several more establishments of varying quality.

Northport, on the other hand, has been a port for much longer and has a rich history of spacer drinking, spacer gossip, and spacer deals being cut in a handful of establishments.  The most famous of those is probably the BBC, or Botany Bay Cafe, founded over a century ago when Botany Bay was still a thriving colony.  Others, like The Flatback, named for a type of fish and also a ridiculously strong house cocktail, and Ring's, are also popular with spacers on ships from rimward and trailing.

These days most of the larger ships and domestic trade dock at EKJ, while the tramps servicing the Wellesley arm and Trinity Cluster are shunted towards Northport.  According to the routing vector from Port Authority, Gypsy Moth is planned for berth 8E, EKJ Downport.

OOC: Ground transport from EKJ to Northport costs about 20Cr.

"I agree avoiding Santander is likely in our best interests," Jacques said to Doc. "That combined with the time we lost chasing Trills, I think we should go through Wellesley. We don't really need the money we might make cobbling together cargos or passengers under our cover. In fact, we're a supposed to be a high-end outfit and we need to go right to the edge of the frontier."

Jacques sipped his espresso and crossed to the cold unit for a glass of juice. "Krim's a good idea if we had the time but the Pathfinder in me wants to get that scout ship... perhaps we could linger here an extra day or two feigning some pavement-pounding then head straight for Antioch under pretense of a VIP passenger or shipment." He downed the juice and turned his attention back to the espresso. "Not exactly subtle, I know..."


[OCC @ Ref: You're welcome! Let me know whenever you need me to blunder into something! ;)]

"The detour with the Suzain cost us at least a month," Dani noted dutifully, agreeing with Jack, "the trail of the Consul grows colder the longer we linger."  She seems to fall squarely on the side of moving towards Antioch at pace.  At the doctor's request, her tankard was cradled closer to her, but she seemed nonplussed at the consistency or smell, partaking of its contents readily.

Dani said nothing about Santander, knowing that their Chief Engineer was from there and that others - Thera, for example - had more experience with that particular planet and its political environment and (in)stability than she did.

As for the pretense of a VIP passenger or shipment, the Moth's pilot shrugged - from the glance that she gave Jack, the pretense part was the important part.  After the Porchier party was safely dropped off, Danica could unequivocally say that having real passengers on board was not her highest priority.  Cover be damned.

"There is that", agreed the Doc to Dani's statement, absently staring into his mug.

Looking up after a moment's introspection [of Chelou's vistas versus the desire to know the fate of the Consul - his attitude made it apparent he held no hope of helping survivors], he added, "Difference a few weeks make, eh?"

He shrugged.  Looked to Hayden and the rest to see if they were all in accord.

"Not like the Suzain deal helped our cover, and be nice to actually get on with the real mission..."

Thera nodded her assent. Her time on the streets of Santander had not been the happiest of her life - not that any of her life had been particularly happy, though maybe that was about to change. Certainly her time aboard the Gypsy Moth could be rated amongst her best. A change of course would upset no fixed plans.

In reply to Thera Santorini (msg # 12):

Gypsy Moth's approach to Tupolev orbit was relatively routine.  As Tupolev grew to fill the ship's large forward window, you were alerted to an imminent "safety" inspection.  the tell-tale arc of fire, common to lower tech worlds where reaction drives have not yet been completely supplanted by gravitic propulsion, made the approach of the Halowon Navy boat easy to spot.

The grey uniformed naval inspectors were colorless and cold, but efficient.  With a minimum of delay the ship was cleared to land at EKJ Downport and only a 250Cr fine for undefined "violations of general safety", to boot.  You allow yourself a rueful smile.  There must have been at least one Espiaux ship that cleared into Halowon space without a fine of some sort, but you haven't heard of any.  Oh well, on the scale of starship operations 250Cr might as well be a formality.

Early morning twilight is giving way to the start of a ten hour daylight cycle when Gypsy Moth, under Dani's expert guidance, gracefully extends her landing gear and suffers them to touch dirt, or reinforced concrete in this case, once again.

The ship is welcomed by the usual retinue of immigration, agriculture, customs, port officials, cargo receivers, the husbanding agent, and so forth.

Local time is 0735.  the freight will be unloaded starting at 1300 local.  The husbanding agent delivers Hayden a message from the consignee of the farm equipment asking for the captain to contact them immediately.

-------------

The following noteworthy news reports arrived while the ship was on her inbound leg:

Gateway News Agency Report
049-5742
Zagorsk, Svetlana
GNA Report

Crown Prince Hospitalized - Crown Prince Orlov, sovereign of the Principality of Svetlana was rushed to St. Marc's Hospital last night after collapsing at a charity dinner in the city of Zagorsk.  The Crown Prince's eldest son, Prince Designate Erich, has reportedly flown to Zagorsk to be near his father.

051 Update: Original reports of food poisoning have been ruled out.  Speculation that the Prince has had a stroke have been categorically denied by Palace spokespersons.  The Prince "is in stable condition but requires rest after a minor medical complication."  The Prince has not been seen in public since the event.

---------------

Gateway News Agency report
067-5742
Lansing, Tupolev
Lansing Evening Inquirer, Hope Cahring

An 800ton patrol frigate of the Svetlanan Royal Navy arrived in orbit over Tupolev yesterday, bringing unexpected news.  Crown Prince Orlov, 68, of Svetlana appears to have suffered a stroke and is incapable of performing his duties as ruler of the most populous polity in the sector.  No information further is forthcoming from the frigate, the Dohnabe. The ship's captain, Captain First Rank Gregory Galkin, insists his ship is on a routine patrol and transport of diplomatic personnel.  Nevertheless, all citizens on Tupolev and throughout the Empire should be justly concerned about the appearance of a large Svetlanan warship arriving with such severe news.

----------------

Gateway News Agency Report
069-5742
Lansing, Tupolev
Lansing Evening Inquirer, editorial

So, the topic of succession can no longer be ignored in our rimward neighbors.  Unlike the arrogant, and incredibly misguided citizens of the so-called Free Republic, Svetlana has had the benefit of stable rulership for three decades.  Sure, The Principality and our empire have not always agreed, on the Principality's meddling in Perseus and refusal to recognize our legitimate territorial claims to Zeitlin, Nestor, and Jung, for example.  The Principality is also hampered by its' hide-bound nobility, but, regardless, our two peoples have much in common.  Foremost among our common traits is a shared respect for the benefits brought by stable political leadership and a professional civil service.  Also, Prince Designate Erich may prove to be more open on certain subjects than his father.  Therefore, though the head of state may change, this paper cautiously welcomes change and urges our government to reach out, welcome the new ruler, should the Crown Prince in fact be unable to rule further, and take the opportunity to draw our two great peoples closer together.  Peace and the future well-being of the sector demand no less.

-----------------

Also, at Tupolev now are:


Berth Ship              Line          Tonnage   Departure   Destination
NPort Artemis           Artemis Line  400       071     Nest-Pers-Sant-Callisto
1E    Tupolev Muse      Halowon Line  400       071 rtn 072 Zhukov (insystem)
2E    Tupolev Jewel     Halowon Line  400       072 rtn 073 Zhukov (insystem)
3E    Ashton Glory      Halowon Line  200       073         Somerset-Halowon
5E    Vernui Nosit      ICE           400       074         Troy’s Rock-Svetlana
7E    Gulf Crown        Piers Trading 200       076         Somerset
Orbit SRNS Dohnabe      Svetlana Navy 800       076         Chelou
Orbit <restricted>      Halowon Navy
6W    <restricted>      Halowon Navy
8W    Boat 012          Halowon Line  30        var         insystem
8W    Boat 005          Halowon Line  30        var         insystem
7W    Boat 016          Halowon Line  30        var         insystem
7W    Boat 017          Halowon Line  30        var         insystem


Scheduled Arrivals are:


Berth Ship               Line          Tonnage   Arrival     Origin
1W    Tupolev EnchantressHalowon Line  400       072 dep 073 Zhukov (insystem)
2W    Zhukov Hope        Halowon Line  400       073 dep 074 Zhukov (insystem)
Orbit Tokugawa           Ozawa         1000      072         Ozawa
04E   SRNS Veter         Svetlana Navy 150       072         Svetlana-Troy’s Rock
03W   Jervis Bay Odyssey Halowon Lines 400       073         Halowon-Somerset
Orbit Attila             Ozawa         1000      077         Halowon

This message was last edited by the GM at 09:14, Sun 17 Mar 2013.

Danica always considered herself more busy when not piloting than when piloting.  There seemed something pure about it.  Sure there were endless checklists and things to monitor and worry about.  And there was navigation and communications to deal with.  But, honestly, to Dani that stuff didn't always feel like work.  Well, it felt like (and was actual) work, just not work - if that makes any sense.

She eased the Gypsy Moth into position and completed the landing without making it look too difficult.  The raven-haired pilot dutifully went through the post-flight and stand-by checklists.  All in anticipation of starting the cycle all over in a couple of days.  Danica admired the display feeds as they slowly died down, going quiet as the bulk of the ship went into standby mode.  The familiar sub-harmonic humm started to fade and the ex-FRA major allowed herself the conceit of listeining to the last few measures of an allemande resonate through the bridge.  It had been written thousands of years ago by an ancient Solomani composer of what is though to be the 'Baroque' period of Terran musical history.  Dani quite identified with the interleaved nature and the measured, but even, temper of the piece.

She made the standard landing and disembarkation announcements, which to be honest would have been a bit of work if not for the checklists, for the sake of the passengers on-board.  Danica knew that crew knew their stuff; so, she was not worried about them doing their jobs or getting hurt.

For her the frenzy of activity during landing was always the calm before the storm.  Once on the ground, the real work began.  Customs official, taxes, brokers, trading forums, schedules, paperwork, stevedores, &c. and the list just went on.  To Dani, all of that was work - all just so that she could fly things, like the Gypsy Moth.

With Hayden occupied with the passengers, Dani accepted the message from the husbanding agent.  She pinged Hayden to let him know that they had received the message.  But, of course, there wasn't really a Captain on Moth per se any more.  It was better than controlled anarchy, of sorts.  Marginally better.  She also pinged Jack since he seemed more at home playing Captain.  But, this wasn't really the fun part of being Captain, necessarily - at least, she expected that the customer would not be happy with the delayed delivery.

Given the open crew structure on the Moth and perceived urgency of the missive, it only makes sense that Dani make the call at this point.  So, Danica made her way back to the bridge and tapped open a commlink to the consignee of the ten tons of farm equipment.  With the light from the tactical displays playing off of her mirrorshades, the thin brunette took a pull from her tankard; all the while drumming the fingers of her other hand on the console and waiting for the call to go through.

Jim entered the bridge, uncharacteristically clean shaven and with a reasonably unwrinkled outfit, Jinx in his arms.

Seeing Dani's impatient tapping, he dumped Jinx down and unconsciously brushed his official shirt, while smugly asking, "Anxious to see the sights?"

Immediately, he adds, in a more concerned tone, "No problem with ditching the passengers is there?"