Eventually, of course, the T-72 hours till departure from Rockport slip by, and the ship once more heads out into space. It's a short run to the Jump Limit, calculations are made for the jump, and the ship transitions smoothly into J-Space.

If some of the crew were bored with nothing to do back on Rockport they've now got an entire week with nothing to do.

Sylvester fusses over the engines while on duty, making small talk with Evelyn if she cares to speak, mingles with the crew off duty and not asleep.

He studies the books and papers of Marcus on power plants, seeing what is useful and what isn't. He has no problem learning from the other man even if he felt too self important to learn from Sylvester.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:21, Tue 25 June 2019.

Once in jumpspace, Sir Walter offered classes in the mess for those that wanted to attend on brokerage and galactic trade.

Marcus spends most of the week in the engine room, trading time between learning the ends and outs of the power plant and maneuver drive installed on the ship, while also pulling up manuals and starting to learn more about the jump drives.

Studying Engineering: Jump Drive

Sam spends some time getting to know the new arrivals, and checking on the bridge. She suggests to the Captain that they might want to have a crew meal in welcome for the newcomers at some point in the week - though she also tartly adds that she would rather he didn't cook it....

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 3):

Sylvester attends, wanting to learn more about trading and investing, but he was want to learn about the power plant more.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:49, Wed 26 June 2019.

Inderpal went along to the classes about brokerage and intergalactic trade, since she wanted to move into that field. She took extensive notes and asked many questions.

When not at this, she read up on as many as the ship operating manuals as she could to get familiar with her new job as Communications Officer and be ready to assist in other capacities if needed.

"Need any info on the jump drives, just ask Marcus, I'm studying your manuals on power plants, brushing up there myself."

After he's done for the day, Sylvester continues to study the power plant trying to improve himself above where he is in maneuver drives as well. He wants to be an expert!
This message was last edited by the player at 15:24, Sat 06 July 2019.

Sharik made life as pleasant as possible, for herself and the others on board.  With no passengers to speak of, she broke into the luxuries and liberated anything with an expiration even remotely close to this jump's date; obviously her logic was that it would need to be replaced with fresher materials as soon as possible.  It was perishable after all; so, it might as well get used.

The diminutive astrogator wasn't secretive about it; she was always more than willing to share what she found.  Stuck in the jump bubble for a week meant that there was plenty of time to enjoy themselves.  And Sharik did seem to know how to enjoy herself.

But she also knew how to study.  Given her role as the chief astrogator on the Longshot, she seemed to take that very seriously.  She spent plenty of time on the bridge review jump status as well as trying to keep up with the latest multi-variate navigation algorithms.  Shar actually seemed to be very at home with the complex topological math as well as the various iterative, numerical computation methods and implementations that were spawned from those higher-level mathematical theorems.  The cosmopolitan-looking gentlewoman had a tendency to hum while she worked, often it was a catchy multi-part fugue or a variation on one; she claimed that she never made any of it up - they were all the invention of an ancient Solomani composer from a tiny land-locked principality call Saxony.

---

[OOC:  Barring anything else coming up, Sharik will study Astrogation and Electronics (computer) for the week ... And she'll entertain at dinner (Carouse/3 ... no immediate need to improve that currently).  She is a relatively good conversationalist; with JoAT/3, she knows just enough about any given topic to be dangerous.]

Valeska didn't see that there were any significant gaps in the crew skills... at least nothing that was relevant to what they were doing. She supposed if they were going to be mercenaries or spies, there were a few skills that should be more represented.

With that in mind, she decided to focus on her own shortcomings.

She opted to study Security and Physical Science.

Pablo saw himself in a very narrow role... mostly because he lived in a very small box. He had no delusions that he was some scientific whiz or a brilliant engineer. He never had any talent or interest in the sciences or marketing. And his idea of stealth was a baseball bat!

He couldn't see anything that the ship needed that wasn't already covered six ways of Sunday by the rest of the crew. So, he, too, focused on  his own improvement. Athletics and Zero-G needed a nudge, so that's what he spent his time working on.

Khea nervously observes the work of her two underlings, not only to see If they know their work but also to take care that the ship does not blow up when jumping (again)

If all works well though she spends the week in jump space to let the two handle the engine room mostly on the own while going through all the crew documents and, in her spare time, tries to get more stories about the Darrian Confederation out of Sylvester and finally figuring out how to move in her vacc suit so that she won't look quite as silly as last time.

OOC: Training Admin and Vacc Suit

During the Jump, Serge was spending most of the time on the bridge, getting closer with the systems and controls. During the downtime, he requested Vonon and Pablo to teach him several jujutsu techniques.

OOC: Training Pilot (Spacecraft) and Melee (Unarmed).

Inderpal attends the dinners as well, entertaining with comic stories about her brief diplomatic career and time in the Scout Service. Hopefully everyone will like her once she's done.

Sylvester attends the regular crew dinner as well, telling stories of his time in the Darrian Navy when it comes his turn, but not going into heavy detail, saving that for Khea in the engine room when she asks about the Aslan in Darrian space.

With the additional crew, things got a little more interesting on the ship during jump. It was still a rather large ship, though, so if you didn't want to see anyone else, it was easy enough to hide.

The time passes all too soon, and the ship's computer chimes the one hour mark till exit from jump-space.

Serge and Sharik are on the bridge at the exit time, joined by Vonon just as the ship exits j-space.

((OOC: Haven't worked out shift assignments yet.))


No proximity alarms go off, indicating that there is nothing hazardous in the immediate area.

Additionally, sensors determine that the ship arrived at 100.3 diameters out from the planet. The planet's automated sensor grid detects the ship and transmits the standard ID request. The usual 'data handshake' happens.

And everyone is startled a bit when something slams against the forward viewport!

It's a body!