"So basically you are here to invite us over on behalf of this nice mister Andy Explorer?"

"Screening," the woman says.  "To keep the interest down to those Andy would feel are right.  That's what I'm supposed to do.  You're journalists..."

"Documentarians" Lilana interrupts.

"The difference?"

"Mostly a journalist is about what's happening today, a documentarian is building a broader, deeper story and it might even be historical.  Not limited to current events at all."

"Well close enough," the woman says.  "You have a vested interest in keeping sources confidential.  Officials can be a little short sighted with that.  They also have a habit of forgetting that information is valuable and worthy of some compensation.  It's Thank You For Your Assistance Citizen and they walk away.  Journ...Documentarians are better clients."

They arrange a transfer of some contact data to Lilana's computer.

Lilana takes a moment to  ask Charles:  "You ask good questions.  Have you ever considered this line of work?"

** *** ** **

Meanwhile, Jackson is still talking with the business crowd in the GloosEx Mercantile.  The wall screens are always displaying the news, and a story has arrived with a recent courier ship, all the way from Earth!  Information moves at the speed of travel, and that means its more than a month old already, at best.

Large and near simultaneous protests in parts of the planet, against the Commonwealth system.  The most serious are in the Governates in the region formerly belonging to a nation, Bangladesh.  This is now the Governates of Dhaka and Chittagong. Both have seen civil unrest, and in Dhaka Governate, an "Interim Democracy Organization" is pushing to have a public referendum on democracy and a return to national sovereignty without the permission of the Commonwealth- effectively declaring the Commonwealth rule of Dhaka illegitimate.  It's what the media calls a "developing" situation.

One of the spacers present makes a joke about profit from "gun running to the rebels".  Maybe it's a joke.  Probably.

Another notes that the sentiment isn't at all what people might have suspected.

"It's not us trying to be independent from them.   Lord knows we all benefit from security, from starports and safe traffic all across the Hundred Worlds.  It's them trying to chuck us off, and stop subsidizing the colonies, that's what it is.  We terraform planets and build brand new cities and a good part of Earth is still... crap."

Charles nods to the informant and a soft chuckle at Lilana interrupting to clarify she is a documentary maker. When the deal is done and they are ready to go he replies to his employer.

"Nah there are lines of work that get you more money then journalism where asking the right or wrong questions is equally important."

"Nobody seemed to be spying on us, at least. Not in person," Sanjuro explained when he rejoined them, "except me."

"I don't get the angle, though. There can't be living people in those berths, if they're just sitting around unpowered on the surface. And if there's dead people, you don't need to cart around a low berth. Lots easier ways to dispose of bodies. I figure it's just empty low berths. Maybe they're prepping a secret base, with something like a frozen watch?"

"Anyhow. Maybe I've got an angle on something: do we have any spare budget for a little ship upgrade? There's a guy I know might be able to hook us up with better sensors. I just have to find him." He's trying to navigate the directory, but with nowhere near Lilana's deftness.

(Sanjuro can use an Ally to represent the contact he has for buying sensors, or make an appropriate roll to see what kind of deal he can get.  By "appropriate" we mean using whatever skill or ability goes with the plan.  So, if it is a social connection, use Social Standing.  If is a market connection, Broker, etc.  "Which skill is right for this" depends on how you want to do it.)

"You're thinking we might have to do a search for these things, right?" Lilana asks.  "We might, depending on where we end up going.  Right now it seems we are headed coreward, past Deseret and St. Brendan.  St. Brendan is a frontier kind of place, they rarely have the best of anything.  Deseret's a pretty advanced world, though.  Have you been to this region of space before?  Deseret's colony was founded by the Mormon church, and St Brendan by the Roman Catholic Church.  Some people call it God's Quarter."

"Deseret is the only planet I have ever seen where the people go out of their way to be dull," the woman running the virtual suite shop says.  "Sometimes they visit, check out the mildest things we have, and act like it's something completely illegal.  Then they come back the next day and buy another."

"And yet it is next on our trip," Lilana says, "as that is the way Coreward from here."

When Sanjuro asks if there is budget to upgrade the ship Viper raises his hands and looks at the owner. Clearly not something he was planning to pay for.

"Don't think our sensors are good enough? They are above average anyhow."


He shrugs as they start to leave. Coreward it was. He never been on a home ship. That was going to be interesting.

"They're good," Lilana says.  "Okay they aren't Navy sensors but... they're good".

There are military surveillance vessels with truly enormous, and enormously expensive sensor systems.  These are often found on ships patrolling beyond the frontiers of the Hundred Worlds, searching for signs of Carinan activity.  But things like this would be far beyond the capability of someone with a small ship making documentaries.

"Still.. it's good to know that Sanjuro knows about these things.  Or knows about people who do.  We should ask him about the details when we're on our way.  Hopefully this isn't just a wild goose chase.  Even if it is, we'll get some interviews with the Crossers.  Have you met aliens before?"

It's meant as a conversation for the trip back- since they've gained all they can here, it's time to return to the Nellie Bly and make sure its fueled up and provisioned... and they'll have to pick up Jackson along the way.

He's been trading stock tips with the others.

Calling the drone to tail him he replies.

"Yeah seen a few aliens. Hard not to in this time and age. But never really for more then a little business."

As they are outside he nudges his thumb over his shoulder to the place thy just left.

"So whats your take on this?"

They retrieve Jackson from his happy place among brokers, traders, and ship crews.  He tries to commit to memory the things he learned here.  It's definitely something worth repeating- if there is money to made trading, learning is the key.

Back on the ship, Minka has overseen the fueling and provisioning, as well as a few routine maintenance services.  Every ship has a regular schedule, and she is adamant and keeping as close as possible to the Nellie Bly's.

Lilana explains the very small but very eye opening bit of information they recieved, and Minka's first reaction is the wonder, "wow, maybe the rest of the crew was right about this.  This is... are we really going to investigate this?"

"Still in it," Lilana replies.

"Then so am I," her petite assistant says with a slight air of false courage.

They set course- the ship will travel to the Crosser Home Ship, by way of Deseret and St. Brendan.

"Anything anyone has to say or do before we leave?" Lilana asks.

"I'm good" said Jackson. He found the information from the concourse useful but  not sure if or when  he would get an opportunity to act on it. Then again if the political situation got worse if could all be moot.

Charles shrugs.

"Nah im good. Though i do wonder if a home ship is a good place to loose our discs."

They launch.

Lilana stays in her office a while, on the one hand frustrated that all they got was a lead to a lead... and at the same time, very amazed that the story is about a mysterious cache of cold sleep pods.  She busily searches for information, and starts editing what she already has into story material.

Minka runs things while her boss recuses herself.

She asks the others if they have any intention of ditching now that they know what they know.  This is the sort of thing that had the previous crew leaving.

But she reminds them:  "If we get a story out of this, Lilana can make a lot of money selling the documentary.  She can be pretty generous, when the money comes in."

The Nellie Bly turns towards Deseret, and the FTL engine engages.

Deseret, they know, is a "socially conservative" place.  Very.  Along with St. Brendan, Chong Am, and a few others, a planet where selling "immoral" entertainment can get you in trouble.  But then, they already know- the value of entertainment chips can grow with distance from the source.  And they don't take up much cargo room.

The Nellie Bly is a few days out from Deseret, and from there, it will continue Coreward, to St. Brendan, and then the "Home Ship".

"Well i think most people still on board are aware of what they signed up for right. As for generosity. I hope you don't mind i only believe in the promised payment and don't expect  free gifts so i'll work for what i paid."

En route Charles pulls up the images he has made from the photos. It was a strange thing people always considered drones an intrusion on privacy but smart glasses did exactly the same. Well he didn't complain he had images now he could work with. At least if there was a data stream to work with. He also checks their media to make sure their discs do not hold the title immoral. Or if they are they don't push to much for a higher price.

Charles studies...

He learns that the drone was not entirely invaluable.  During the discussion in the virtual shop, the drone was simply waiting and watching outside, and recording.

It wasn't the only one.

After a lot of studying, he can determine that there was not only one but three cameras watching events outside the shop that day- four if you count the shop's own security system.

There is the standard public security camera operated by the Glooskap police.  An ordinary thing.  Very obvious.  Maybe there's more, as some clever police forces have hidden backup cameras, expecting that criminals would seek to disable the obvious camera.  Then, even if they do, you have evidence on them to lock them up even before they commit their intended crime, as tampering with a public security camera is a felony.  For this reason, hidden backup cameras will always have the primary camera in their field of view.

Which brings us to the unexpected third camera Charles finds.  It does not have the primary camera in its field of view, which means it is unlikely that it is a backup primary camera.  It's not far from the shop, and is concealed as a very plain looking power coupling near a long, graffiti covered wall.  But though it took Charles a while to find it, the little black lens is clear.

** ** ** ** **

Once the ship no longer needs her piloting, Minka makes occassional visits to see how he's doing.  Like her boss, she's noticed that he's easily adapted to being more than just crew.

"You know, some of what you have we could put into B-Roll" she says.

She elaborates.  B-Roll is the term documentary makers use for "supporting" shots and scenes, that aren't the main story, but put it in context.  In this case, the streets of Glooskap's "Service Housing".

He greets Minka warmly and is more then willing to share a drink with her in the mess. When she mentions the B-roll he perks up.

"So you say i can get money for the images my drone makes? Now thats cool. That little thing makes more footage then anyone likes to watch."

He chats with her on the topic a little clearly interested on the money side of things. Once they are done Chalres meanders over to Lilana leaning against the door looking at her work as his drone pops up next to him.

"Hey boss check this out. Not sure if its relevant but it might be."

He conjures a holo image of the front of their store and then highlights all 3 cameras and points at the real covert one.

"That one here think it means something?"

Lilana is very good at making compelling, interesting documentaries, and she does know cameras and sensor equipment well, as people in her industry tend to do...

But she's not an expert on covert spying gear.

Still, she speculates.

"Someone is keeping an eye on that shop.  But that doesn't mean that its specifically related to our journey.  Perhaps she frequently trades in information, a person like that can attract the interest of.. authorities?  Others?  Still... one thing.  We have to make sure that camera doesn't appear in any of our scenes.  It might help for us to know that we were likely seen, but I don't want to expose anyone else's surveillance.  We don't want to make enemies."

"On it, Lilana," Minka says.  "I'll make sure we don't use any of that footage."

"Also," Lilana says, "it seems Mr. Sanjuro isn't going to stay with us.  That's a shame.  We'll be short handed again.  We can put out a hiring notice when we get to Deseret, and then again at St. Brendan."

"If it was from the informant it was a great way to have images of who is going to the home ship. But with you i doubt images are hard to get. Still now you know."

He states more or less sharing her idea on the thing. When the departure of crew is brought up he nods.

"Maybe you better take on crew of mercs? You may say this is not such sort of an op but maybe its the kind of people that won't run off? I might not still be here if i didn't have a background in operations you know."

"I still don't want to get into any situation where they might be needed," Lilane says.  "But... let's see what kind of feedback we get from our Crosser contact.  They might have some more information.  If it will make everyone feel better, maybe we can add a bodyguard to the team.  Especially since we're losing Sanjuro."

"Oh my goodness," is all Minka has to add to that.

They continue on to Deseret, and with a few days, the little ship arrives.  Jackson takes over as pilot, and Minka is quite happy over it, as her skill there was very limited.

**** **** ****
Deseret has it's peculiarities- a large population, but far more "home grown" than most worlds, due to its high birth rate.  The gravity is higher, the weather is warmer, the world is a little wetter, and it is somewhat off the "Main Line" of travel, but it is still considered a prime habitable planet.

Like all of the major worlds it has an orbital habitat that serves as a major port and place of exchange. (The most important worlds have more than one, Earth has numerous).  These are the Highports, and they get the ships that cannot land, or whose crews do not wish to land.  At the Highport, cargo and passengers are exchanged via robots and landers, ships are refueled and repaired, and they almost always have shopping, rest and relaxation for travellers.  They are very much in the mold of 21st century airports- no matter you go they seem alike, more like each other than the planet below.

The spaceports on the planet itself are scattered, and double as airports.  About 150 million people live on the small island continents of Deseret.  Starships that can land will frequently head to a spaceport on the surface, skipping the Highport entirely, if they have the time and the inclination.
t.

Naturally, immediately as the Nellie Bly arrives, local authorities want to know the destination.  Keeping ships orderly and never bumping into each other is important.

The traffic at the Highport is moderate, with nine other ships presently in. Most are the regular passenger transports.  One is a commonwealth navy ship.

While Jackson doesn't mind piloting as well as engineering, at some point he will discretely inquire about a small raise if he is going to do double duty. Jackson is also willing to help Minka improve her pilot skills as well.

"Make it clear in the job offer and pay. That you want people to lend you some muscle when its needed but you want their main skill to suit the ship. This.."

He makes a general gesture towards the container with media.

"Is a nice offer but probably not for the type of people that will stick around when it gets hairy. Hell i know the pay is not enough for me to think about doing more then self defence. If you like i can put my feelers out for some folk when im out trying to sell the discs so we can payout Mr. Sanjuros bit."

Looking at the navy ship from the mess window he smiles and nods his head in that direction.

"Maybe a few techs from there like a new job?"

Lilana puts together her job offer and adds it to the stream of information on the Deseret I-Net.

"Of course this means we're here a few days at least," she says.  "I would have wanted to go straight on, but it's best to have a full crew.  Maybe we should put in on the surface instead of hanging around here.  Spaceports can get boring very fast.  Maybe we can find a secondary story."

In addition to the "big thing" Lilana is always pursuing, there are the secondaries.  The little things, human interest stories, interviews, events and items of curiosity.  She doesn't cover news, which doesn't flow that quickly across space anyway.  She covers.. things of interest. Always one or two, if you keep your eyes open.

There's another issue, of course.

Charles has demonstrated that he is beyond "just crew", he is part of the production team.  He's a documentary maker now.  So he gets cut in for a profit share.  Just a little, for a start, so they can see how it goes.  Assuming, of course, they can make a profit.

"Deseret's not a good place to hunt for stories," Lilana notes.  "They go out of their way to be boring here."

Minka, on cue, reads aloud from a computer display.  "The name comes from a word meaning “honeybee” in the lore of the Mormons, who initiated the settlement of the planet and came here in large numbers.  Deseret is wetter than Earth, and larger, with a higher gravity (1.06) and heavier (but breathable) atmosphere.

The first waves of human settlers were mostly Mormon, and for reasons unclear today they placed a priority on attracting Jewish settlement as well.  When colony charters guaranteed a basically “theocratic democracy” structure for the planet, several Orthodox Jewish movements joined the Mormons.  They eventually managed to establish Deseret as a haven for minority religious groups that could be, here, their own local majorities, with Bahais, Zoroastrians, and several others establishing enclaves."

Minka reads on and concludes:  "Hmm.. did you know Pir-e-Vela is the only city in the Hundred Worlds with a majority Zoroastrian population?  That's got to be worth a few minutes screen time. I mean, while we wait for responses."

"You think we will get the crew we like from the surface? Those Mormons don't strike me as the lot that likes to pry in others business. Still a place like that got to have some underground places that might make a nice subculture item. Lets see if i can find an in with the material we got if you like to go down."

"While Mormons are not the only group on this planet we will probably not find many people with the required covert skills, then again we may stumble into one of those exception."

Jackson shrugs then turn to Charles and Lilana "If pursuing secondary stories will help pay the bills then that's  terrific, I don't think it would be any more dangerous than what are we are doing already." Jackson hoped he wouldn't be proved wrong.

 Pir-e-Vela isn’t what one might expect.  Despite it having the biggest Zoroastrian population off Earth, and the largest Zoroastrian population anywhere, even here in Deseret it is a secondary city, possibly tertiary.  It’s nowhere near large enough to rate its own Governate, being lumped in with Antipodia, over a thousand kilometers away.  It does have a spaceport- rare for a minor city on a well populated world, but then, any halfway decent airport works as a spaceport these days.   Even there, though, it’s evident:  there must be some very wealthy people here, because you can see a number of very small transport spacecraft.   Some even look like private yachts, or luxury charter craft.

It’s also evident from the dress of the people and the wares in the shops in the spaceport.  There are some wealthy people here, more than would be expected from the small population.

Humanity is very scattered in the 24th century.  It was hard enough to learn all about one world, now... a hundred of them... most people never bother learning the quirks of geography and society on each one.  The Hundred Worlds are full of the exotic, far off places people have never heard of.  Some, like Pir-e-Vela and Ireland, tucked away in plain sight on major worlds.  Lilana realizes that she can certainly get some material here.  Mundane and boring, most likely, not like a stash of mysterious hibernation pods, but if well presented it will pay the bills.

When the boss shares the local info Charles chuckles. He loved watching the 'how the rich live' type of documentaries as a teen. Dreaming away at what might be once he got rich. The fact he was here as a wage slave says enough.

"Right. So we go out to find us some new crew and also a to see if we have a buyer for our goods. You start your item and if we can help give a holler."