Brent shook his head.  "Do you think you can get enough of a power source going that you can smelt that much ore?  Maybe you just want to get it to the next level of concentration and we can take it back to Egg.  I'd guess the refining process gets exponentially harder.  There has to be a sweet spot I would think in terms of bulk to transport and effort."  He thought for a bit. "While we have the ship here let's move whatever bulk around that you need.  We can skyhook quite a bit.  The weapons can also be useful in breaking stuff up."

"Those are all good ideas," Gareth says. "How about I take a day or two to look at the equipment left here, and then we can go survey the mining site again?"

Brent nodded and thought to what they carried.  "We have the fabrication modules right Joxe?  Those could help quite a bit but the power supply is probably lacking."

Joxe nods. "Yes, we do. We can run them from the ship's power, like we've been doing for the fabric extruder."

Brent considered.  "The best thing to do is make a list of what you absolutely need Gareth and we can spend a week or so running the fabricators for you.  That will get you started."

"Will do," Gareth replies.

"What do we do next?" Joxe asks.

OOG: You can just list what you want done over the next few days, or we can play it out.

OOC:

I think we want to build enough to provide power systems that can be hooked up to water wheels or something solar.  We'll help repair some of the transport as well.

169-1402 1215

Two days later, the group meets for lunch at the village hall. Naimh and Veronica, by now an obvious couple, sit across from Brent and Joxe, while Gareth sits opposite Malcolm and Melina.

"I've been through everything that the agricultural operation had here," Gareth begins. "As you can imagine, most of it's pretty well gone after two hundred and fifty years. I have salvaged an air raft that was stored in a well sealed building, but it needs a new hot section for the turbine. There's also a grav truck that's salvageable, along with another turbine power unit that I think we can repair." He pauses for a moment.

"What's the bad news?" Joxe asks with a winning smile.

Gareth smiles back. "Well, they do have a nice fusion plant - but we can't make the parts to bring it back online. It's too advanced for our manufacturing capabilities. If you can find the parts I need, that would supply plenty of power."

"How much do you need to repair the vehicles and the turbine?" This question came from Malcolm.

"It'll take about a ton of our supplies to do it," Gareth replied. "That's with refurbishing and reusing parts from the other machines. It also includes rebuilding the hydrogen cracking plant and refueling rig, and repairing machine tools in the village's shop. With that, I can make most repairs, except for the solid state units. They've done well as long as they weren't exposed to the weather."

He pauses and waits for comments.

Brent dug into the fresh food as Gareth brought them up to speed on the situation on-planet.  He considered the options before speaking up.  "Power is your most important issue; without it you'll be stuck.  Let's set aside the fusion plant unless you stumble on the parts to fix it later.  Make a list of what you need and we'll keep an eye out as we travel." Brent paused for a moment.  "Let's get the fabricators going as soon as we can.  We should build your critical spares as well.  Then while it's all running we can do a bit more searching around the planet for other caches of equipment.  I'd guess there will be more that we can scrounge."

The conversation continues through lunch:

"While we're running the fabricators," Joxe says, "we should start training Melina and maybe one or two more people in starship operations."

"I'd like to take some of the local craftsmen through the machine shop as we bring the equipment back online," Gareth puts in.

Naimh smiles as Veronica nudges her. "We've been busy with the medical staff and the teachers," she reports. "We could use a few more solar chargers, and maybe an array for the school to operate the tablets and the data center."

"I saw some panels and other parts in storage," Gareth replies. "They're too small for what I need, but maybe you can use them."

"I wish we had a way to at least detect a starship, if one should show up," Malcolm says after a moment. "As it stands, someone could land right on top of us before we'd know they were there."

"Do you have a way to shoot one?" Melina asks.

Brent is caught up in the discussion. "We should download all of the instructional material that we carry.  It can be used as reference as well as to start training the people here to operate and maintain the equipment.  There should also be some medical supplies we can provide to aid with infections and such."  He frowned as the thought of raiders was brought up.  "We should certainly be able to provide some passive sensors that might pick up a Jump flash.  It would provide some degree of warning.  We should also make sure to stick to high frequency comms that won't get out through the atmosphere and provide a clue to the presence of people here.  Not having a fusion reactor may be good as there will be no neutrino trace."

After a bit of thought Brent nodded slowly.  "The best bet might be missiles, something short ranged that can be sprung at point blank range without sophisticated fire control."

"We have ten missiles aboard; five in the turret, and five reloads," Joxe ruminates. "I can reconfigure one or two as mines. Their onboard passive sensors are good enough to find a ship in orbit. I can also set up a commlink to control the missiles, as well as allow people here to communicate with anyone in orbit."

Bent looked at Joxe for a moment and nodded.  "That would be the best bet.  They'll be passive and not reveal any of the settlements.  With luck any intruders will think it's a left over relic of the wars.  Go ahead and set it up Joxe."

180-1402

The next week goes by in a blur of sixteen-hour workdays as Wanderer's crew labors to prepare for their upcoming departure. They place two missiles in orbit as sensor platforms and mines, and set up a communications system in the village.

The ship is relocated next to a large barn, which is repurposed as housing for the fabricators. Joxe and Gareth run heavy power cables to the units, so the ship can be quickly cleared for flight if needed.

Brent, Joxe, and a bevy of young volunteers from the village work to completely clean and inventory everything aboard Wanderer. The air raft is also cleaned and inspected between its frequent flights, and Joxe even pulls the remaining missiles and checks each of them. The shipboard laser's test firing draws a large crowd, as Brent cooks a large tree on a mountainside forty-four kilometers from the village.

Gareth works to bring the mining operation back online. He is able to repair some of the more robust machines, and cobble together enough equipment to extract raw ore and crush it into a manageable form. He estimates that he can produce a ton of raw ore per day, once the system is running smoothly.

Everyone donates time toward training new ship crew candidates chosen from the young people in the village, along with the ongoing training in medical, education, and fabrication. Joxe fabricates datapads and displays to equip the stations, and she liberates on of the stateroom holo displays to drive the primary training station's displays.

Elsewhere in the village, the leaders direct efforts to bring machinery and vehicles back to help the village with their production needs. They meet with Brent to discuss future plans. While they are apprehensive about Wanderer's impending departure, they agree with the broader strategy of returning to the Egg System with lanthanum, so that they can regain jump travel.

Brent and the other Eggers are instrumental in establishing this policy decision. Together and individually, they speak with the villagers about their home, answering questions about the people, the government, and their culture. As one gruff older lady put it, "we don't want to invite more trouble that we have now." There are still some holdouts within the populace, but most people are eager to reach out beyond their familiar world.

OOG: Okay, I'll take a breath here, and let Brent interject his thoughts :-)

OOC: Wow!  That is a busy week.  :)

Brent threw himself into the efforts to start the bootstrapping process for the people of the village.  He worked shuttling people and things around, using his technical skills to support what Joxe and Gareth were accomplishing as well as endless discussions with the elders and every other walk of life on the planet.  He also pushed to contact other settlements to both spread the benefits of the reintroduced technology and medicine as well as adding more manpower to get things done.

"We'll need to bring as much raw ore back to Egg with us as we can.  Can we get enough lanthanum out of a ton of raw ore to equip a small ship?" He frowned.  "Things will be delicate in contacting Egg.  They will be suspicious of us to say the least."

180-1402 1525 Local time

"... and, once we're done with the port fuel processor, that will be it for the maintenance," Joxe says as she finishes her report to Brent. They are sitting in the port cargo door, enjoying the afternoon breeze blowing through the cargo bay. Their equipment and supplies have been respotted to maximize the free space, especially now that the aux tanks have occupied the forward part of the hold.

Before Brent can reply, the priority alert tone warbles on every comm unit and from the ship's internal comm. "Distress call received," the ship's computer intones. At the same moment, one of the students rushes past the barn and runs up to the ramp. The young man is panting with exertion. "We've detected a jump flash! Another ship is here!"

Brent smiles as he shares a squeeze bottle of water with Joxe.  "It's looking good.  I hate to have the ship broken down and apart but we can get the maintenance done and provide power and assistance to the rebuilding all at the same time."  Whatever else he had to say was cut off as the message came across.  Brent stiffened for a moment and turned to the young man.  "Go run to Gareth and have him shut down all powered equipment.  Get things camouflaged and move the women and children away from the village.  We don't know what kind of trouble may be on the way.  Also have him prepare the mines for action."

Turning to Joxe he frowned. "Get us flight worthy, I'm headed to the bridge to find out what this signal is all about." Giving Joxe a quick kiss Brent sprinted to the bridge calling out as he ran.  "Bring up the system charts and display what we know of the Jump Flash.  Also display the distress call.  Short ranged comms and low power, call the rest of the crew to the ship."

A flurry of acknowledgements flow back to Brent through the ship's comm as he rushes to the bridge. He arrives and sits down in the center station, noting that it's configuring to battle mode. By the time he settles in, Joxe is at her engineering station. The powerplant is online, and she closes the cargo doors as Malcolm and Melina rush inside.

Gareth is across town, as are Naimh and Veronica. It will take them at least ten minutes to arrive.

According to the display, which is enhanced by the passive sensor data from one of the two orbiting mines, the jump flash came in on a least-time course from Sittahr, right on the hundred-diameter limit. The missile is using a low-power laser to transmit data, but it will be below the horizon in ten minutes, and the trailing missile won't be in sensor view for another twenty minutes. The missile is tracking the ship inbound using the broadcasting transponder, and the trajectory quickly resolves to a low orbit, presumably preparatory to a surface landing on Execute.

The initial transmission was an automated, nonspecific distress call sent by the ship's transponder. It repeats itself a half-dozen times, and then it stops.

Meanwhile, Malcolm and Melina enter the bridge and take the outside seats. The engineering repeater shows that the ship is buttoned up and ready for flight.

"Gareth, Naimh, and Veronica are still across the village," Malcolm says. "They're still five minutes from the ship."

Then, over the radio emergency frequency:

"Hello? Can anyone hear me?" It sounds like a young girl, speaking Galanglic with an odd accent.

OOG: Think of a pronounced Scottish accent...

Brent stands, waving hands through the holographic controls to bring up data as he pulls on his vacc suit.  He'll leave the helmet off but as the sensor data flows through the displays it's worth the time to play it a bit safe.  He activates the warning lights on the exterior of the ship as well as a siren to keep the locals away from the drives should they suddenly boost.

When Brent looks over the data he relaxes just a bit.  The fact that the ship was broadcasting on a transponder that was not obviously military likely meant that the intruder was less likely to be blatantly hostile.  Of course false distress calls were an obvious and well used ruse.  "Computer, analyze the transponder data and whatever it can tell us about the ship's status and origin."

He nods to Malcolm and Melinia as they enter the bridge.  "Strap in, this doesn't immediately seem threatening but it could be anything."

OOG: Pausing the response... I'll finish after the answer... can we rebroadcast through the mines while communicating with them via tight beam laser that can't be traced easily?  I'm thinking we can talk to the inbound without giving away our position.

OOG: Yes, you can relay through the mines.

"Okay," Malcolm says after a moment, "this transponder is, well, different. According to it, the ship carries an envoy of the House of Sol, from Exeter. It won't give any further details, since it says we aren't cleared for that data." He enters another query in his display. "The computer says this is the real thing; our stored Imperial protocols are coming back as verified."

"Can anyone hear me? We need help."

Bent worked a bit of magic through their sensors and punched out a tight beam message to the mine and then broadband to the incoming ship.  As he worked he brought the thrusters up to idle.

"This is XXXXX control.  State the nature of your emergency.  We are preparing rescue craft."

OOC: Where the heck are we??? :)

OOG: Right here: https://travellermap.com/?p=23.826!-69.54!7.75

"We don't know how to steer this boat," the voice replies. "We just want to go back home, and it's saying that we need fuel to do it. Please, can you help us, Ceannaire?"

According to the transponder that's still broadcasting, the ship is on a trajectory for low orbit entry, putting it in position for a descent and landing at the old starport. There are no active emissions other than the radio and the transponder.

"The computer is insisting that this ship is a House of Sol... Oh, wait. That's House Adair, Archduke of Sol." Malcolm lets out a low whistle. "These people are, or were, the top of the heap around here. I don't know who's running that ship now, but they were some powerful people."

"That girl doesn't sound rich or powerful," Melina says quietly. "She sounds scared to death."

"Gareth, Naimh, and Veronica are aboard," Joxe advises over the comm. "They're suiting up for combat."

"Have Gareth relieve me," Malcolm says. "He's qualified up here, and I'm not."

"On my way," Gareth replies.

"Stand by, we'll boost to rendezvous with you.  Is your life support stable?  Ask the computer if you have enough fuel to land. Lastly how did you find yourself on the ship and is there anyone else aboard with you?"  Brent turned back to the others. "Let's boost and rescue this person.  I think it's legit but we'll be cautious.  It's another jump capable ship at the very least.  Everyone strap in and suit up."  He did a set of quick calculations and set the ship into a minimum time solution to intercept the ship prior to hitting orbit.

At Wanderer's normal acceleration, you will be able to match vectors at a point 390,000km from planetary orbit. You will intercept at 1810 ship's time, or two hours and seventeen minutes from now. At that point, the bogey will be fifty-two minutes from orbit, traveling at 26.8 km/s, assuming that it maintains a steady 1g deceleration burn the whole time.

Gareth settles into the left seat, replacing Malcolm, who immediately goes aft to suit up. He carefully lifts Wanderer into the air, and then boosts away, riding the countergrav hard to gain altitude so they can quickly go to maximum boost.

Over the comm:

"Uh, okay. It's just my cousin and I. We found this ship in a barn, I guess it was? We just wanted to fly a little bit, but it said that we had to go here. The ship says we have enough fuel and, um, life support? What's that, air? Oh, yes, right. Air. We are okay. Plenty of air, it says."

Brent plotted the course and set the ship in motion.  "We've got about 130 minutes to intercept.  Everyone stay ready and watch the sensors for any other signals or signs of hostility."  He turned back to the comms and again opened a circuitous communication. "We're on our way and will intercept in about two hours and fifteen minutes.  What planet did you come from originally?  Is your cousin onboard as well?  Lastly can you communicate with the computer and tell it to enter orbit..." Brent consulted his own navigational instruments.  "Standard orbit L432D1.  That will allow us to match courses easily."