In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg #353):

As he wrote, Coporal Neveaux made a non-committal noise.

"Uh-hmm. What is your relationship was to Mr. Lindon?"

"We are good friends.  He asked us to see that his effects were sent to his offworld family if possible.  He was ill and didn't expect to live much longer."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg #355):

The Gendarme had dark eyes, dark skin, a shaved head and mustache. He looked at Ken with alert eyes.

"I thought, ah, Miss Morozova said she was next of kin when obtaining his effects? No matter, the nurse confirmed there was nothing of value there.

"Probably right, once they get the rot that bad it's practically over. Contact me through the police dispatch in Government House in a few days, if we find out anything from his last address then I'll let you know."

With that, he politely tipped his hat and he left with his partner, getting into a white Gendarme jeep parked in front of Emergency.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:01, Mon 28 May 2012.

Ken nodded.  "Thank you officer." He gets the man's name just in case and turns back to the others after the police leave.  "Well, that was a bust.  It seems that more people than just us are interested in Old Lin and what he can say about the earlier Messandi expedition."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg #357):

"well what ever Lin wrote in the book of his, someone wants it a lot."
Blake looks around, to see if he spies anyone taking exceptional notice of us.

"I think its best if we moved off, and got started as soon as possible.  They may think that we have that ledger and may take a swipe at us."

Blake looks back at the others, and asks, "Well what was in in?  Anything helpful, or just ramblings of a old drunkard?"

"Let's head back to the hotel and review the journal and map together."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg #359):

The Gendarmes left. The group at the hospital were free to leave themselves.

So far, no one had gotten a good look at the book, which was in the hotel safe. Lorain had talked to Lin a while, mostly to verify that he had known her father, but she hadn't had a chance to examine it closely herself. (It remained locked in the room safe.)

"Right, that makes sense," said Linus.

"The local knowledge would have been useful, we'll just have to hope Old Lin was good at keeping records."

In reply to Linus Spruance (msg #361):

We may want to skip out of town ASAP.  If they were watching Lin, then they know he talk to you blokes. I'd rather be out there, armed, then in here with to many folks about.

How soon, can we get our gear, and start on this search?

Ken shook his head. "I think we have another couple of days to get our gear together before we can head out.  We can ask Kelso to hurry things up." He starts walking back to the hospital entrance.  "Let's get a cab and head back to the hotel now.  We need to read that book and map."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg #363):

After a short taxi ride, they were back at the hotel.

Ken pays the cabby and heads up to their room.  He'll seek out Loraine;  "Old Lin was beaten up and killed.  He said something about Adlyara and then said that Kalamanaru planned it all."  Ken frowned; "We should have a good look at that diary.  It can't be a coincidence that he was attacked soon after he started talking to us about your father's expedition.  The bar tender was acting very suspiciously and may have tipped someone off."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg #365):

Lorain was working in her room. There was no air conditioning, so a ceiling fan rotated at high speed. She had a glass of iced tea in her hand, invited Ken in.

"My God! Killed? Yes, I'll tell Juan we are more interested in leaving earlier, even if it costs more."

"Now, let's look at the diary. I haven't had a chance to look at it further yet." They got the papers out of the safe. They were weather-beaten, and even chewed by insects.

Unfortunately, while the beginning and end was still legible, water had damaged the middle part. Therefore they didn't learn too much, because Lin recorded his arrival on Mirayn and then Val Preszar and some of the preparations for the trip, and then he was ill and sometimes delirious towards the end.

From what they could tell from the odd legible page, the middle part of the book seemed to contain Lin's observations of Messandi, speculations on who was bankrolling the expedition and why. As well, the descriptions of where they went were partial at best, which might have contained why Messandi thought they were important.

The map was still legible, it charts a course up the Nahahnir river, ending at the village of "Adlayra".

Some more tantalising details was a scrawled passage: "... Trail of Stone... lake..." and later, "... Prof says is a landing str...".

There is another name, that of a native or perhaps a place: "Sanalaysa"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:41, Thu 31 May 2012.

In reply to Lorain Messandi (msg #366):

Ken looked over Loraine's shoulder, making room for whoever else wanted to examine things.  "Let's take pictures of all of this just in case it is lost or stolen."

He mulls over the information.  "Well, it seems that we should head toward this village identified on the map as a start.  It's in the direction we want to go anyway so there is no time lost."

"Sanalaysa...  we should see what we can find out about that name and the name of the village.  Do either show on our existing maps?"

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg #367):

Neva listened and looked at what was being discussed.  "I might have a camera in my pack.  Can't remember.  Used to have them when on stakeout.  I'll go check.  Kinda weird though.  The middle section is the one that we want probably the most and that's the part that isn't readable.  Although with a camera we might be able to run a program  to see if the computers can fill in the blanks.  Ever did crosswords?  That type of thing."

The expedition's portable computer had scanning capabilities, and Lorain quickly uploaded the documents.

"We have a program to analyse and decipher text and damaged documents, and the scan was using different sensors. Usually we'd use it for archaeological purposes. I can run it, see what happens."

They checked the databse, there was no listing for either "Adlayra" or "Sanalaysa".

After a few minutes, the computer chirped. Text, badly garbled and incoherent, spilled out. "Sometimes it does this. I'll run it again, see if there's anything different. It just may be too damaged."

"Can anyone think of anything that we need before we start out?" asked Linus. A former storeman in the Navy, equiping people was getting on for second nature for him!

"Weapons and personal survival gear for everyone Linus.  Everyone should have a short range comm on them tuned to the same channels in case we are separated." 

Ken tried to hold his disappointment about their inability to read the most interesting part of the diary.  "There is the description of a 'Trail of Stone' and a lake and what seems to be the suggestion that the professor thought the trail was a landing strip.  We can look for a lake with a 'trail of stone' to see if we are on the right track."

"Right. Enough survivial gear for at least a day in everyone's personal loadout. And comms..." He wandered off, muttering to himself.

Want to find a surplus store, or the like. Some kind of multi-pocket vest/jacket (think Swiss army combats, they reckoned to stow enough for 24 hours in your pockets...), and comms gear for everyone. Survival tins (firestarter, fishing gear, snare gear, water purification tabs...) and trail rations...

Neva had hoped that the computer would have been able to fill in the missing information but then it had done it's best and until they got to the area they wouldn't know how accurate the imaging was.

Neva got out her camera that she had always kept on hand from the "old" days and asked if she could take the pix.

"Let me snap those pix if I could.  I usually keep the camera with me so we can refer to it and perhaps have a back up in case the books and diary get further damaged."

Ken nodded to Neva.  "Go ahead and record what you can Neva.  I want to make sure we don't lose access to the information."

He glances over at Linus;  "Whistles also if you don't already have them on the list Linus.  I know our pilots had whistles for night rescue work."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg #374):

Neva nodded.  "Ok.  When you're ready just hand it over and I"ll start recording it.  I really think we should have it in two different places just as a precaution."

In reply to Neva Alexovna Morozova (msg #375):

Neva does her own recording, to back up the scan that's saved on the expedition computer. Lorain offers to burn a holodisk recording for anyone who wants one.

The rest of the evening is spent looking over the journal. Juan is informed via telephone that the schedule for supplying will be sped up. He thinks they can have it done by in a week but it will cost more.

The next few days

Over the next week, Juan was able to assemble the following supplies and personnel:

8 Tents (Cr2000)
1 Electronics Set (Cr3000)
1 Mechanical Set (Cr1500)
1 Carpentry Set (Cr500)
10 Cold Light Lanterns (Cr400)
1 Chain Saw (Cr750)
1 Medical Kit (Cr1500)
2 LR Commo Sets (1200)
1 MR Commo (Cr500)
50kg Misc. Survival Gear (rope, mess kits, packs, etc.) (Cr1000)
Canned Food, 4000 units - 2 tons - 400x person/days (Cr40,000)
Dehydrated Food (14000 units - 1/2 ton - 1400/per/day (Cr50,000)
Canned Water, 1 ton (Cr10,000)
4 Filtration/Distillation units (Cr500)

Fuel: 2000L, 2 tons - @8000km range - Cr1000
Misc Gear - 100 rounds shotgun ammo for Linus Cr100

Weapons/Ammo:

7 Revolvers + 126 rounds Cr1470
3 Shotguns (7/rd pump) + 210 rounds Cr660
4 SMGs + 40 mags Cr2800
2 Scoped Carbines + 20 mags Cr1600
7 Machetes/scabbards Cr875

He's also able to put together a crew on short notice:

3 Hunters/Guides (Juan himself plus Hal Lewis, Fatima Kelendrin, each has a scoped rifle/revolver/machete) Cr150 ea. per week.

4 Licened GEV pilots (Ross Carnam, Harmon Jael, Jaime Crain, Harve Cohen, all w/autopistols/blade) Cr100 ea. per week.

7 Support Personnel (1 commo operator, 1 medic, 5 guards/stevedores) Cr75 ea. per week.

Note: All salaries three weeks advance.

Ken hands the documents over to Neva with a smile.  "You can be our scribe then Neva."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg #377):

For the first time since she had been with the group Neva laughed.  It was a husky but honest laugh and it felt good to do it.  When she could get her breath back Neva shook her head.  "If you know my handwriting you wouldn't say that.  Of course with a recorder and computer I can do it.  Actually I can do it either way but you have chances of reading it if I use a computer."  She grinned again and tried to suppress the chuckles that were still trying to surface after being suppressed for so long.