Ken nodded and passed a handful of 20 CR notes to the man.  "Thank you Kal."  He left the explanations to Linus.

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 336):

Kal pocket the credits. "My pleasure, my pleasure. Now, would you like to come back with me to the office, we can continue our discussion there?" He sounded like he was hopeful but trying to play it cool.

"I'll be in touch," said Linus. "I am still looking around, not quite decided which part of town I want to open up in. Thank you very much for your time showing us around, much appreciated."

Ken went around behind the bar and took the object down from the wall and wrapped it in a rag or whatever might be handy.  "Thanks Kal."

Moly's not the only metal in the universe Kal, these things take time.  The basic infrastructure is here, its a matter of what else is hidden out there.  How easy is it to deal with the union & the mining companies ??

Blake will take the time to stop the air raft & do some hovering scenic phototaking.  Then back to town.  Any chance of digging out those old newsie reports & such ??

The scout in Blake will have him digging thru the historical mineral resource scans & such.  Any mention of Raiders locations & such ??  Recalibrating the ship scanners would take awhile too, have to know what to look for though.

In reply to Blake Renfield (msg # 340):

They concluded their business. Kal admitted he knew only a little about the mining industry, and he'd not really heard about any Sky Raiders in this part of the woods. He wasn't an expert on the Sky Raiders, either.

Meanwhile, Stanley got a warning about not flying within town limits. But that was all. They were able to vacate the premises relatively soon, and joined him in the alley. All that remained was the flight back to Varnov's Landing.

In reply to GM (msg # 341):

"Well, that was fun! And cold. Let's get out of here."

Jaxxon cruised to the edge of town, then gained altitude to climb over the mountains and head back towards the Starport.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:58, Sat 14 Dec 2013.

Ken climbed in the raft and turned up the heat.  "Damn straight.  Good work everyone.  Linus that was a great gambit with the realtor."  Once they were out of town and airborne he pulled out the artifact to examine.

"Nice work yourself, Ken," said Linus. He rummaged around and found some fresh-baked cookies he'd stashed before he left, and offered them around.

Ken took a cookie or two.  "Well, at least we got the silly thing.  The payout will help keep our enterprise afloat for a little while longer.  If we can keep getting the odd job from Lorain it may float us through this depression."  He offered around the object for examination.

The air/raft and grav bike make it back to the Starport in one piece, flying out just as a snow system was moving in. Maintenance was about half done. They laboured for another day to complete the engine overhaul. Blake tried to get the mineral reports about the mountains but found many of the assay records were kept private. Another problem was that the ship was a commercial one, and not well-suited for mining exploration. It had basic sensors (radar, lidar, etc.) but lacked the specific detection gear for geological exploration (primarily densitometers and MAD sensors).

The next day, they were ready for liftoff.

Ken showed the crew the artifact and then locks it away in the ships safe.  He lends a hand as best he can with the maintenance to help speed things up.

"Ok, ready?  Let's take stations and prepare to lift off.  I'd prefer to get back to Alzenzi as soon as possible."

The takeoff went without incident. Within minutes the combination of anti-grav and grav thrusters punched the ship through several cloud layers and finally, the planet's atmospheric envelope. The sky outside turned from upper-atmosphere blue to starry black. Within hours they were approaching the Jump point.

In reply to GM (msg # 348):

At the Navigator's station, Mariel calculated the course from Nomael to Alzenei.

"2 Parsec Jump laid in for Alzenei. All systems are green, Blake. We are go for Jumpspace insertion."

No passengers, no cargo ??  Maybe next time they can bring along a geology grad student or two ...

Blake checks the instruments, sniffs the air & crosses his fingers that no parts were leftover after the overhaul ...  Punch it Marial.

Ken pokes his head into the bridge after they clear the atmosphere.  "All good?  Let's get home then." He goes back to the lounge and brings out the artifact and lays it on the table.  "Now what do you guys think this thing signifies?"

The artefact was a hexagonal plate. The one they found on Mirayn was similar, except it had a second plate form-joined to the bottom to form a 2-piece breast plate.

The markings were similar: four spheres of differing sizes from smallest to largest in descending order, Vilani script on the back. But the materials were of inferior quality; instead of a solid gold and iridium alloy this was plated, there is large raised gemstone that is missing. The script looked blurred and sloppy, compared to the oroginal.

It's almost like it was a shoddy copy.

Linus came in with a pot of coffee and some cream cakes.

"All crew, this is your navigator. Standby for Jumpspace insertion on my mark. The Christmas tree is green, capacitors at 100% energy load. J minus 30 seconds... 20 seconds... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Mark."

Mariel engaged the J-drive. The engines used the burst of power to convert hydrogen into exotic particles. These particles opened the wormhole through Jumpspace and maintained a bubble around the ship to protect it. They dropped/folded out of realspace and were on their way.

"We're in."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:55, Sat 21 Dec 2013.

Can the ship's computer provide a translation of the Vilani writing ??  It could be a bit dodgy, until someone who really knows this stuff looks it over.  "Kilroy was here" may not go over well with our re-po job ...

Ken shakes his head as he examines the artifact.  "It looks like a cheap knock off of one of the originals.  I hope we didn't come all this way for a fake."  Still he takes careful pictures of the thing for his own records.  "I can't read Vilani to even begin with translating that thing.  We may need to wait for Lorain."

In reply to Blake Renfield (msg # 355):

The computer couldn't translate it. The script was in Vilani but the words were unintelligible. It was the same with the authenticated Sky Raider artefact.

Ken shook his head. "It must be in the language of the Sky Raiders.  We'll need Lorain to decipher that."

"Unless it's a copy of a real artefact that someone saw or found? Besides, I don't recall that Lorrain actually decyiphered the script. They were just working on it when we left."

Ken considered.  "You may be right Jaxxon.  At least an added bit of information on the artifact may help with deciphering the script.  I'd think a larger batch of samples could only help."