Ken settles in and pours himself a beer after offering the others refreshments from the very well stocked bar.  He hoists his glass.  "To our mission!"

Linus came out of the galley with some fresh-baked cookies.

"Old Naval tradition for lifting ship," he says, passing them around.

Blake declines the beer, but cookies & milk !!  This job just keeps getting better & better.

Ken takes the cookies and eats a couple with evident relish.  "Beer and cookies, excellent.  Had I known of this naval tradition I would have changed services."  He chuckles.  "Thank you Linus, I'd imagine you have something special in store for our first meal in jump space as well."

"Roast chicken with mash and fresh vegetables. Ice-cream to follow, with summer berries... fresh ones I got just before we raised ship," said Linus.

Ken smiled.  "I'm glad we have exercise equipment aboard the ship.  Otherwise eating like that would have me fattened nicely."  He finished his cookies. "Good work Linus."

Neva grinned and ate her cookies with delightful relish.  "I agree with you Ken.  I can see that my exercise routine will have to be ramped up to counter act all the good food.  Roast chicken?  Oh yummm."

They left the main world and its orbiting moon, ships, satellites, and space stations behind. At 100 diameters out, the Jump drive converted tons of liquid hydrogen into exotic particles lasting only picoseconds. Long enough to "fold" normal space to form a temporary wormhole entrance around the ship. Depending on the mathematics, particle configuration and engine Jump capacity the wormhole could be up to 6 parsecs long in realspace. However long it would collapse in approximately 1 Earth week depositing the ship at its end point.

Six Months Later...

148-1108

They found themselves back on Alzenei. Cargo transport among the Free Suns had been a disaster as war raged 2 sectors over. The Zhodani didn't invade the Imperial client state, but they didn't need to. Economic warfare strangled trade as embargoes were enacted around the Free Suns. Corsairs slipped across the border from Zhodani client space; some were commerce raiders, some were privateers, while others were simply opportunistic pirates. Expensive repairs ate up the ship's operating fund until it was zeroed out, as did exorbitant customs and duties levied on the ship in their unprofitable excursions outside the Free Suns.

At least Linus got word that the proceeds from the sale of his bar had been forwarded to the Institute. And as the wormhole collapsed and deposited them 100 diameters from Alzenei, there was a message waiting for them on Interplanetary Net:

CALL LORRAIN AT THE INSTITUTE ASAP! GOOD NEWS!

"Could do with good news, all the trouble we've had!  Maybe signing on with you crew had brought Olly bad luck!"

In reply to Oliver Oliphant Oksasaellllozae (msg # 94):

Neva blew raspberries at Olly's comment about bad luck.  "We're good luck.  You're still alive.  Just think of what could have happened to you otherwise."

She grinned and went back to studying her engineering.

In reply to Neva Alexovna Morozova (msg # 95):

"Yes, Olly remembers how lucky he felt when your where pointing guns at him in his own engine room.  Keep your fruit noises till we are turned inside out in jump space cos we run out of money for good maintenance!"

In reply to Oliver Oliphant Oksasaellllozae (msg # 96):

Neva grinned, knowing that Olly had a point but he actually wasn't that hard to work with.  "But I didn't shoot you and besides, you made up for it with that cleaning job you gave me as my first assignment."

Ken shrugged at the comments.  "It's a crappy time to be out trying to break into the trading business.  At least we didn't get hijacked or destroyed by raiders.  Anyway, there is still hope." He brightens up at the message from Lorain for a couple of reasons.  "It's Lorain, maybe she has a job for us."

He calls on the comm to her number:  "Lorain, this is Ken.  We're back in the system."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 98):

The call went through, but there was a hiss of static and interference, as well as a couple seconds comm delay.

"To make a long story short, we decided to run the patterns of the Sky Raider artefacts and markings through the database. It took a long time, but we got a hit. Unexpected place, too, a bar in the Nomael system has what looks to be a genuine Sky Raider artefact on the wall as an art piece. I know you guys are pretty broke and I'm sorry things didn't work out better, but I think I can swing a Cr15000 operating fund to keep you afloat to go retrieve it."

At that point they were hailed by a Customs modular cutter, wanting to board for inspection. It had been based on Alzenei's airless moon and directed them into a lunar orbit.

"I'll put the kettle on..." said Linus. His long-standing habit was to play host to anyone wishing to conduct inspections, serving them tea and cakes and generally making nice... an old habit from the bar days, he found it worked better than being hostile and wary around officials.

In reply to Linus Spruance (msg # 100):

"Keep them out of my tea, then.  Customs agents can drink coffee," commented Walker.

In reply to Thomas Walker (msg # 101):

The cutter escorted them into a cislunar orbit and then docked. A good portion of the Free Suns defence fleet were also in the neighbourhood, mainly ex-Imperial surplus hulls or licenc-built designs too obsolete for service anywhere else but here beyond the frontier.

Unlike usual, the customs agents performed a thorough job. As they are not carrying anything, they scour the rest of the ship as well as the hold.

As they were searching for contraband, the lead inspector asked, "any large amount of hard currency aboard? Could make you a target for thieves, pirates or other criminals."

Ken replied to Lorain.  "Send us the information on the bar and we'll go fetch the artifact Lorain.  15K will keep us running and maybe we can ship some cargo and passengers out there while we're at it."  He pauses; "How have you been?  I hope the reporters have been leaving you alone to get your work done."

As the customs cutter hails Ken will see that they complied with directions and assumed a lunar orbit.  He'll walk with the inspectors and answer any questions that they have. "We've got our operating fund in the safe and I'm sure some of the crew have their personal cash aboard.  I don't think it amounts to more than 30K total."

In reply to Neva Alexovna Morozova (msg # 97):

"Yes, you make excellent...scrubber?"

When the Excise men reach the engine room, Olly will following them around, growling every time one of them touches "his" engines.  In fact he dogs their every move.

In reply to Oliver Oliphant Oksasaellllozae (msg # 104):

Neva just chuckled at Olly's comment.  She was in the engineering room when the inspectors came and she watched their movements.  She kept quiet though since she was the junior in here and she found it cute that Olly growled when they got too close.  She was careful not to tell Olly that of course but she was starting to think that she had found a good place here.

The Excise men find Stanley in the hold, pretending to drive his Grav Cycle through hordes of Sky Raider Cultists. His efforts are rather hampered by the custom made vacc suit he insists on wearing whenever aboard ship. Usually, he holds his helmet and gloves in his upper hands, ready to seal them at the slightest hint of depressurization, but apparently the Sky Raider Cultists are in some kind of low-pressure environment today. That, or he needed two hands for the steering wheel and the other two for sword wielding.

He purchased the Grav Cycle from one of Blake's buddies nearly five months ago, but he doesn't actually know how to drive it, so he just polishes the thing while listening to music from one species or another.

There is a brief bit of tension as the Excise Officers find his well-loved copy of Zhodhanistics And The Art of Grav Cycle Maintenance next to the tool kit, but a brief scan reveals it to be rather more focused on the "maintenance" part.

By now, everyone is probably familiar with his habit of playing Stupid Sophont in front of authority figures, though he does seem to take a certain multi-faceted glee in the role.

Edit I forgot this is the future, and he has a computer. It's entirely possible that he's playing on some futuristic version of the Wii.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:39, Thu 19 Sept 2013.

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 103):

Lorain replied to Ken, "I've been fine. if you can leave right away, that would be wonderful! The bar is on Nomael. 2 parsecs away, within your Jump range if I'm not mistaken? The city, if you can call it that, is Varnov's Landing. Near Nomael Down port. There will be a finder's fee, paid for by the Institute, of course!"

"I'll upload the image that the computer scan got a hit on. It's from some news cast eight months ago and arrived via routine media delivery from Nomael a month ago. Picked it up on the media scan almost by accident, we were specifically checking for academic publications but ran the whole delivery through the computer just in case. It rates 86.91% accuracy of being an authentic SKy Raider artefact, or a close copy of one. Like I said, the image was taped eight months ago, two months before the artefacts we found arrived at the Institute. So it's not a copy of the one we found."

Her image on the comm screen was replaced by that of news program about how the rising tensions with the nearby Hegemony were hurting Startown businesses. The pub wasn't named and looked like any one of countless establishments they'd been in on planets from Far Frontiers to the Marches. In the middle of a pan the screen froze and then zoomed in on a wall hanging off the side of the bar. The plaque was the same size as the small breastplate necklace they found in the Sky Raider tomb on Mirayn, with four raised disks. Data streamed down one side, an analysis based on what little information the computers could glean from the few frames of video.

"As for you, call me when you clear customs."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:08, Fri 20 Sept 2013.

In reply to Stanley (msg # 107):

Once they reached lunar orbit and were boarded:

The customs people thoroughly scour the ship. They know their business are able to locate every single credit that may be stashed about, they miss nothing! Aside from the verbal warning, nothing was seized as they were unable to find anything incriminating.

As the Free Suns is a fair ways from Vargr space, the agents are a little unfamiliar with Vargr and give Ollie a warning to back off. They were not heavily armed but did sport snub pistols and batons.

However, they were a little more familiar with "gogs", as the native Mirayns were typically (if condescendingly) called. They merely smiled at Stanley, assuming he was there for heavy lifting and perhaps comic relief, and went about their business.

The lead agent gave them a clean bill of health and sent them on their way. They were cleared for landing at the starport, Alz Atse Down.

Once the custom officers clear out, Stanley comms his beloved Captain, his familiarity with Basic a sharp contrast to the charade he was just playing. "Change of plans, sir? Should we re-up our weapon permits?"

Stanley knows from previous trips that Law 5 planets allow shotguns, and will have no problem with his "quaint native ceremonial swords." He's certainly filled in the paperwork often enough over the last 6 months.