Brent nods.  "We can easily land with eight G-hours fuel.  Can you program her to land by the village or should I pass along a course to feed into the computer?"

"Already have it set," Joxe replies. "We will be ready to undock whenever you say."

Brent notes that they are an hour out from low planetary orbit, and their ETA on the ground is a half-hour later, or 1932 ship's time.

"Undocking now.  Let me proceed you down so the villagers don't freak out seeing a strange ship."  Brent undocked and then headed back to the village.

180-1402 2000 Local time

The newly-formed division makes its way back to the village, and lands without incident. During the flight, Joxe runs diagnostics and finds that the runabout is in excellent condition. Apparently, its hangar had been equipped with a maintenance unit that kept everything functioning for two hundred and fifty years. A built-in system also monitors things and executes repairs as needed. The supplies for this system are topped up, which is good because Joxe can't fabricate the high-tech spares it uses.

The ship has two bunks with built-in low berths, and is capable of 1g acceleration for up to 10 hours and has a jump range of two parsecs. It has only enough storage capacity for supplies and baggage for two people for a week's travel, plus an emergency life support reserve for another week.

Their arrival in the village triggers an impromptu celebration as the teenage girls are introduced to everyone. They are practically mobbed and kidnapped by the other teen girls, who all congregate in one corner of the main hall, gabbing and laughing together.

After the meal, Joxe goes out to secure the ship, and then she returns immediately. "I can't get in. It's locked, and the computer refuses me entry."

Brent sighs in relief as he lands the craft.  He shuts down the systems and gets outside as the others land.  After a bit of explaining to the locals he kisses Joxe and then frowns at her words.  "Locked out?  Damn... we'll need to see if the girls can get back inside.  Lets go rescue them from their admirers and see if they can coax the thing open."

It takes a few minutes and the courage of ten men to rescue the girls from their kidnappers, and soon the entire entourage is gathered around the runabout.

Joxe and the other women are of no help as they laugh at the guys' efforts to herd the girls. Finally, Melina steps up and ruthlessly establishes order by shushing everyone with a raised hand. The other village girls follow suit, and Melina lowers her hand. "Okay, let's give them some room."

The ship does nothing when Eleni tries to open the hatch, but responds immediately to Radshir.

Brent sighs in relief as the ship opens up.  "Let's go inside and find out why the ship responds to you Radshir.  Maybe you are related somehow to the original owners?"  Brent will head aboard to the control area although he first looks around and marvels at the fittings and luxury.  "This is quite the nice set-up.  Let's see if we can talk to the computer."

Joxe sits and confers with Radshir and the computer, where they determine that the teen is a direct descendant of the original owner. According to the computer's record, gleaned from a DNA sample it analyzed and interviews with the girl, Radshir is a countess, whose lands are now part of one of the nation-states on Sittahr.

"This really is your ship," Joxe explains to her. "You have legally inherited it."

"But, what do I do with it?" The teen looks at the assembled group.

Brent moves over to sit next to Joxe as she works with the computer.  He is impressed, amazed even by the sophistication of the design and can only shake his head again and again as new wonders are revealed.  He glances over at the Radshir and frowns a bit.  "This ship is almost a toy, too small to carry cargo and difficult to maintain with it's sophisticated technology.  Still as a courier and carrier of small, high priority cargos it could serve your planet.  This would be useful as trade and commerce re-open.  Longer term the very technology represented by this ship will eventually be priceless."

"Will you let us go home," Eleni says sharply, with an undertone of fear in her voice.

"Eleni, calm yourself," Radshir replies. "If they meant us harm, I don't think they would have brought us to this village and shown us to all these people."

"I want to go home," Eleni says quietly.

Radshir turns to Brent. "The people in my country have told us little of the Collapse. So much was destroyed, they say. We know that there was once a mighty empire, and that we suffered greatly from attacks. Even now, some other countries are pushing to get back into space, so we can protect ourselves if the attackers come back."

OOG: New pic on Dropbox.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:41, Sat 06 June 2020.

Brent raised his hands.  "We'll certainly take you back to your home.  We want to understand your ship, refuel it and make sure that everything is safe." He listened to Radshir.  "We don't know much more than your people.  The fall of the empire was hard on all the worlds and much was lost even in our system where we maintained a good deal of technology.  We," he gestured to their small group.  "Are working to explore a bit and perhaps link up some of the local worlds.  Maybe we can rise people back up to something better.  So if some of your people are talking about spreading back into space then we should go back to your world anyway."

Radshir thinks for a moment. "From what I hear and read, most of my people aren't interested in contacting others, even though it makes sense that they're out there."

"Why should we?" Eleni exclaims. "You've read about what they did!"

"Ele, that was over two hundred years ago," Radshir says patiently. "Maybe my ancestor, whoever she was, has done us a great service, even though she didn't mean to do it."

Ele faces her cousin. "You're not wanting to stay out here! What will our parents think?"

Radshir shrugs. "They are probably worried sick about us. We can't do anything about that right now."

"We can go the hell home!"

Radshir sighs and shakes her head. "If you want to go home, I'm sure these folk will be as good as their word. But, Ele, think about all of this for a minute. Look around you. These people are facing the same struggles we are, and some of them have starships, real ones that can go from system to system."

"We have one, too!"

"Not really." Ele's eyes bug out, and Radshir holds up her hands. "We can't refuel without going to the authorities, and they will just take it away."

"Gee, that sounds familiar," Joxe says to Brent. "We faced the same decision when we left Egg."

"So, you know what I'm saying," Radshir says with a shrug. "We really can't show up at home with this, because they probably won't use it, and they surely don't have anything like your ship." She looks at Brent. "As much as I'd like to bring you all to my home, it's something that we'd have to handle very carefully. We may not have starships, but I've heard about some space defenses that sound dangerous."

"Missiles and lasers, I heard," Ele puts in.

Brent listened to the two girls talking, allowing them to work things out as well as learning a bit more about the attitudes and situation on their world.  He nodded to Joxe, grinning wryly when she brought up their own predicament.  His expression turned to one of concern when they mentioned space weapons and the intent to use them.  "We certainly don't dare risk an engagement with planetary defenses.  We're not running a warship nor do we have any desire to get shot up.  There is no real way to fix any major damage and I won't risk any of the crew."  Brent paused.  "Who controls the weapons?  Do you have one government ruling the planet or multiple entities?  We might be able to negotiate something from a distance to get you back safely."

"Why not just come with us?" Melina jumps into the conversation. "I will be going, too."

"We don't even know anything!" Ele protests.

"I disagree," Radshir replies. "We know that Brent and his ship exists, we know that there are people here on Execute, and we know that we can't try to go home right now." She looks at Brent. "There are five nations on Sittahr. For the most part, they get along with each other. I mean, we've never had any wars like some of the old stories talk about. At least, not after the raids stopped, and we didn't start trouble with the raiders."

"Okay, so what?" ELe crosses her arms and glares at her cousin.

"So, we are the only people from our planet who know about this." Radshir looks at Brent. "I would like to help make things better, but I will consider my own people first. Since it only listens to me, I'd like to keep my ship, too."

Brent nodded, impressed with the girl's determination.  He nodded to the girl. "So we can't take your ship back to Sittahr or at least turn it over to any of the various authorities.  We can get Ele back.  Radshir, you are welcome to come with us.  I'm not sure what you want to do with your ship.  It's really a runabout or a scout more than anything else."

"If I may," Gareth speaks up from his seat next to Malcolm. As the group was talking, chairs and tables appeared, and a half dozen of the town's leaders are sitting and listening to the conversation.

"If they had not been transmitting, our sensors would not have picked them up until they were very close. If there was a way to change the paint scheme to something less flashy, then even visual detection would be very difficult."

"So that's how they got off-planet without being shot down," Joxe surmises.

"That, and the defense system probably isn't set to shoot outgoing ships," Malcolm put in. "That could be dangerous to your own traffic."

"Is it possible for both ships to travel together?" Radshir asks.

Brent smiles at the suggestion.  "The Jump flash is the only thing you can't really hide but then you have to be looking for it.  We could certainly paint the ship if we can come up with something that would be tough enough to last, ideally something that will diffuse the IR signature further."  He thought about the question of traveling.  "We can jump together but how we come out depends I think on our skill.  There should be a way to synch the jump calculations to improve things."

Melina raises her hand. "We were planning to leave in a day or two, so we can explore what is further trailward," she glances at Malcolm, who nods at her with a smile, "and see how the other systems are doing. We have the answer for Sittahr, so, other than taking Ele home, we don't really have to spend much time there."

"I'm okay with sending a message," Radshir says. "We can record messages and send moving pictures, even."

Ele looks thoughtful, but she doesn't say anything.

"We can do that, I think," Melina replies. "So, what do we do after that?"

"We need to take Ele home, that is a promise and may garner goodwill.  There may be some argument about not turning over the ship but they don't have to know the details."  He shrugged.  "We'll keep moving up the main I think after Sittahr."

201-1402 - 0800

The last two weeks have been a flurry of activity as Wanderer and the runabout conduct two jumps and refueling operations. Both ships are functioning flawlessly, and Joxe has devised a method to refuel the runabout after each jump. She runs a hose from the ground refueling receptacle for the aux tanks in the cargo bay to the tiny ship as it holds station just outside the cargo door.

Whenever possible, the runabout docks, and Joxe or Brent, who both now have clearance as crew aboard the runabout, watch the conn while the girls take a break from the tiny cabin for a couple of hours aboard Wanderer.

Aboard Wanderer, the four new folks, and Melina, are attending classes and training twelve hours per day. The cargo bay serves as a gymnasium, since half of it is empty except for their cargo container and some supplies. All in all, everyone is adjusting to life aboard a starship.

Joxe has warned Radshir about not broadcasting anything, and so both ships are only using passive systems, and a direct laser comm link for intership communications.

Both ships are fully fueled, with Wanderer's refinery still working on fuel in the aux tanks. They are in a distant orbit, right at the jump limit for the gas giant.The runabout is docked, and Joxe has the conn, while Malcolm is on the bridge. Melina is cooking breakfast, and she enters the crew area after serving Malcolm's tray.

"Elenea, are we ready to send our message?" Radshir looks at her cousin. The pair had worked on it while they were in jump.

"I think so." Radshir looks at Brent. "Can we send it, after all?"

The runabout's transmitter and receiver are much more powerful than Wanderer's, and it is capable of sending a directional signal across the twenty light-minutes to the planet.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:38, Thu 11 June 2020.

Brent had worked hard himself during the Jumps not only training the newcomers in shipboard life and skills but working on navigation and familiarization with the higher technology systems of their new home.  He didn't neglect the most important part of his life and spent every moment that he could with Joxe, learning about her life and thoughts but mostly just being with her.

When they broke out into the Sittahr system he immediately set the sensors to scan and record radio and other emissions from the main planet and elsewhere in the system.  Once they were refueled and ready he nodded to the two girls. "Go ahead and send it.  Remember if anything happens we jump to the outermost gas giant on my orders.  We can regroup there, refuel and run away if needed."

201-1402 - 0930

The runabout transmits the twenty-minute message Radshir and Elenea have recorded for their family. Essentially, they say that they are fine, and that they are working with people to help bring interstellar travel back to this part of space. They stress that they are in no danger, and that they will return at some future time.

After the message ends, a full hour passes before a return message comes back. It's from the planet's defense network, and it carries a message from the family, along with a warning to not approach the Sittahr mainworld.

In the meantime, there is little usable radio traffic detected from the planet. Most of it is little better than static at this distance.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:33, Fri 12 June 2020.

Brent finishes breakfast and reads a bit of a navigation technical manual as they wait for a response.  He frowned at the message and shook his head.  "Not a friendly group are they..." was stated to no one in particular.  Brent glanced at the girls; "Do you have enough or do you wish to communicate further?  I think we will be Jumping out shortly."

Brent sees that the girls are dabbing at their eyes with handkerchiefs, but they both nod. "Yes, we are ready. Where do we go next?"

Brent thought for a bit.  "Let's jump to Cosenza.  It has enough of an atmosphere that some people may have survived.  It's just Jump one so we can Jump right out if needed."