The group is currently at the Metropelago Arcology on Poseidon.  The city looks like a series of interconnected columns rising from the sea, joined by platforms, transit tubes, and the two long landing platforms of Metropelago Starport.  The characters are all at a hotel there, the Sea Haven Starport Hotel and Resort.  The view, aside from the imposing structures of the city, is wide, blue-gray sea in every direction.

They already know, if they want to invest in a starship, this is not the right place.  Some planets have good spaceports where used ships can often be bought cheaply, but this is not one of them.  Even though Poseidon lies along the Main Line in the Epona Sector, a heavily traveled route, this is due to geography.  In Metropelago, landing space is limited and precious.  They do not charge ships to come and go- they want the traffic.  But store a ship here?  That takes up space they do not want to sacrifice, so it is costly.

Lyonesse, further out towards the frontier, is the preferred place.  But fate has left the characters here on Poseidon.  We will assume, for sake of story, that they have met each other.

The characters have been offered another opportunity, though:  service on the Nellie Bly, a ship belonging to a Lilana Najarian, a Documentarian, who researches and produces documentaries from her ship, and needs a few hands to fill out her crew, which is short.

They get a chance to see what they are getting into...

The Nelly Bly had begun life as the Durban, a navy “Utility Corvette” with “rough field landing capabilities”.  These ships were meant to serve a wide variety of functions other than acting as line warships:  they provided survey and research services, rescue and recovery, patrol and law enforcement, field headquarters for ground operations, mobile medical facilities, and more.  Nellie Bly’s whole class was eventually replaced by the Riga class, which was faster and carried more advanced electronic countermeasures, and other features.  The class had never been designed to be profitable in commercial service, but a few found their way into special niche applications.

The ship has six Standard Container Units of cargo capability, but only four can accommodate actual containers.  It can make short and rough field landings and has an FTL speed of 4.8 LY/day.  It has 6 staterooms, a medical bay, lounge/galley, exercise room and sauna, and an office and media production studio.  It also features a long range high capacity communications antenna.  It has a standard airlock and a cargo lock, which connects to the non-container cargo space.  It retains minimal defensive armament, just old leftovers from its military days.

Lilana is not going to stay here long- that parking fee issue.  She intends to get underway soon but for security reasons the destination must remain secret until the crew is signed up and underway.

OCC: in light of the new setup I doing a slight rewrite of my introduction

In the space of about 20 minutes Jackson watched what was left of his career disappear. He had told Dr Abernathy that the board was looking to lower the research budget and the doctor should explain to the board  how their research had increased the efficiency and lowered the cost of the human made parts of the gravitics systems and they could double those results with continued research. Dr Abernathy instead demanded that the board double his budget so he could reverse engineer the Chukat components of the gravitronics system, a task that humanity has been trying to do for about three hundred year. when the board didn't immediately agree to his demands he accused them of being alien collaborators and traitors to humanity and then stormed out.

Jackson wasn't as upset as he could had been, he knew damn well his career was effectively over. While the investigation cleared him of the crime, his wife's involvement put a permanent cloud on his career. Jackson had hoped to get one more year but he  understood that was probably was not going to happen.

The next day he visited his director. The director had been supportive of Jackson, even during the investigation of the heist. He confirmed Jackson's suspicions that Abernathy's dramatics was all the board needed to suspend the research project. The director informed Jackson that there would be other cuts in six weeks and that he should use that time to search for a new job. Jackson nodded, he had already done the math. He  knew that the research project was going to be his last job with the Authority. He thanked the director for his honesty and help.

Jackson sold the house and other assets, including most of the cash part of his severance package and sent the proceeds to his family to help take care of his daughter. While he largely able to deal with the unhappy situation Jackson wondered if his former wife thought what effect her actions had on their daughter, wherever the hell she was.

The next few weeks were spent on a job search that did not yield satisfying results. Jackson used his networking skills to look for any opportunity he could find. His results would find him at the Sea Haven hotel and resort talking with some interesting people .

This diverse group were also looking for opportunities. A couple of them mentioned that they also had ship shares. While buying into a ship could be such an opportunity this planet was not a good place to purchase a ship, they would need to go elsewhere. When one of them mentioned exploration he smiled remembering his days in the scouts. "That could be great if we could make it pay, or at least pay the bills until we can make that lucky discovery."

Their attention soon turned to a possible job offer. After some research, including a tidbit of information provided by one the more quiet of his new associates, Jackson mulled over the options. "Seems that our would-be employer has some interesting questions she is willing to pay for,there are also possible risk. well we are not getting anywhere just sitting around. Shall we contact her and see if the rewards are worth the risk?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:26, Mon 20 Jan 2020.

Charles 'Viper' Delorean was laying in his hotel room and was laughing. Not the happy kind of laugh. After all he had just been robbed blind and it seemed the one conning him even took his underwear. He was laughing because it happened to him. He who knew people so well and had done the same more then once to others in his line of work. All in all it hadn't been to bad she had been hot and they had fun for a couple of days but the pay was a little high and the wench had also snagged his ticket off planet. That was a problem. Oh well time to take a shower and get to work. This was a nice place for a short stay but it wasn't anything to spend another 2 months.

In the end it turned out the hardest part was having his emergency funds wired to the planet to get some gear going. Some Journalist was planning to pay a visit to a few black sites to poke around where one shouldn't and the smart people abandoned ship leaving a spot open for him and a bunch of dupes who seemed to have the impression such a thing was a smart move. Well it was a ticket out of here and that was what he needed now and who knew what future options it might bring. The Dupes seemed like a solid group and they where meeting in the hotels bar. As he joins the others he orders them a round of drinks and relaxes into his chair looking out over the water.

"You really want to know how much they pay for an adventure like this? Think of the fame we will be getting when we dig up this is some elaborate skin trade network or they are just supplying arms to secret military bases."

He laughs swirls his drink around in his glass and empties it before calling the waiter over for a refill.

Lilana is fully aware of two key issues here.

First, it's not like any potential crew members have no other options. Poseidon is a Main Line world (see the maps, the red line is the Main Line, the route that links Earth with the distant Carina frontier- most of Humanity is stretched out along this line). And it's within the Central region, the stretch between Tangaroa and Lyonesse that is heavily populated and heavily traveled.  Ships pass this way constantly- generally, big transports, including the giant liners moving thousands of passengers at a time.

With all those ships there are bound to be crew openings.  So any halfway skilled spacer can find work- the safe, secure, dull work of manning a transport up and down the main line.

Second, she knows she is asking people to endure "above and beyond".  Meandering up and down the Main Line means stopovers at major planets, or at least, the space stations orbiting them.  All the benefits of civilization.. albeit it does taper off after Lyonesse.  And those ships are generally more comfortable as well.  The liners can be bigger than space stations, and better equipped.  Some have beaches!**  But Lilana is asking everyone to endure a much smaller ship, heading off who-knows-where into the frontier.

So, she is willing to offer incentive above "standard pay" for crew with ship crew skills:

Anyone with Engineer, Comms, Pilot, Navigation, Medic, Electronic, or Mechanic 3 would earn 9000 per month.

2 would earn 8000 per month, and 1 would earn 6000 per month.

Having a Jack of All Trades skill would increase the "pay grade" by one.

But as they say in the commercials, "But wait, that's not all!"

The Nellie Bly does not use its full cargo capacity.  Lilana is willing to let her new hired crew use one Shipping Container sized cargo hold for "whatever".  That would be in addition to space to store personal gear, clothing, etc.







**Odd beaches, though- these ships are cylinders and use centrifugal force to simulate gravity.  The ones with large "water features" generally use this not only to give passengers and crew a better environment, but to maintain stable weight distribution by pumping the water around as needed. 

Sanjuro accepts the drink. Free was a good price! He scratches his neck as he ponders the situation.

"I wouldn't count on being famous just yet. Most likely we'll spend our time chasing false leads until her money's gone," he says. "Actually finding something is when the problems would start. People with secrets don't like them getting out. So here's to finding nothing!" He tosses down the drink and plays with his glass.

"Think I'll be doing sensors and comms. She wouldn't have much use for a steward. And you fellows?"

Jackson took a sip from his drink before setting it down. "Thank you."

In regards to fame he quipped "If it is all the same to you I could live without the fame part, beside it usually doesn't pay the bills." Jackson then thought grimly. "especially when you are considered a 'person of interest' for over a month.". Jackson previous experience with the media made him wonder if getting a job with a inquisitive journalist would be a good idea.

As to ship tasks he said. "I have a..little experience with engineering. I certainly hope one of you can fly the ship." 

Looking at the list of jobs that are getting actual pay he mutters something under his breath and then taps at the shipping container part.

"I am more the person that knows where to find these kind of people. Figuring out where we go and what to put in that thing might be how i make some buck from this. Maybe its better to see if she is looking for ship crew or real help in that investigation? I'm not really a blue collar worker but im all in favor of milking the lady dry."

Jackson smiled at Charles' comment regarding cargo, "The trick is finding something profitable that can fit into just one container and having enough funds to buy it."  He looked at Charles before saying "I would prefer keeping it legal,for now." put a definite emphasis on the last two words.

 Jackson switched the subject: "If we at going to the frontier I think we should ask about salvage rights, after all you never know what piece of unclaimed treasure you might find out there.   

Jackson gave the pay subject another thought "The pay rate for just hauling someone around space is not bad, if that was all we were doing. I am also wondering if she planning to have us help in her investigation. If she expects us to put our bodies between her and some bad guys I would like this up front on the table so we can decide if the pay rate is worth the risk."