We're going to do this bit a little differently.

There will be sections specific to various characters.  Those will be marked.  Please handle these as you normally would.

I will also be jotting down 'general events'.  These are just things that happen on board.  I will assume at least one of your PCs see them occur.  Who sees what during these events will be entirely up to you.  How and If any of your PCs react to these events will also be up to you.  You do not have to react to any of them if you wish.  That is entirely up to you.

Let me know if there are questions.  Thanks

General Event

The jump goes as smooth as butter.  Real butter.  Not that fungal substitute that was being served everywhere in Wyltz.

Tia sinks into jump space, isolating everyone in their own little world.  Outside of one communal meal a day, the high passengers seem to be keeping to themselves.

Ulie only emerges from her cabin for that meal, and then once more to get a sandwich and refill her water pitcher.  She seems to doing a lot of work on her hand comm.  From the pulls she makes from Tia's data library, it mostly has to do with entertainment industry news, some general accounting software downloads, and gossip websites.

Calliope can best be described as 'cordial but distant'.  She doesn't mind chatting with anyone for a few moments on very general topics.  But if the conversation seems to drag or goes beyond general pleasantries, she smiles, holds up her hand comm, and says, "I'm sorry.  I don't mean to be rude, but I have a lot of material I need to practice."

She then heads off to the brig and spends the rest of the day with Fritz, going over lines.

Sister Maybell spends almost all day in the garden.  She will even fall asleep there, shoes off, laying with her head on a sack of fertilzer, face pointed at one of the picture windows as if she had fallen to sleep watching the stars go by.  She will talk to anyone about anything.  Except religion.  "I can proselytize if you want," she says with a wink and a laugh, "But I think it's better to just try to be kind to others.  There's no better way to get my message across. Know what I'm sayin'?"

Tia comes out of jump four days later.

---

As soon as Tia comes out of jump BB, there's a message from Mr. Madigan on the net.

The ship's name is Tiamat's Flight, correct?  The crew roster is interesting.  But then it always is with these kinds of barges.

Of course Mr. Madigan already ran a background check.  Anytime you submit a report BB, he must run background on any and every proper noun you list in it.

I will trust your judgement as it relates to the crew and Nero's mental state.  He's young.  He'll fall out of love fairly quickly I imagine.

More importantly, I will be informing him that he will be required to attend his Grandmother's 125th birthday celebration in six months on Collace.  You do not need to mention this to him.  I will handle that when we get near the date.  However, if you deem the crew of this Tia capable, please make arrangements with the Captain to transport him to Collace at that time.  I have included the coordinates.

If he is not trustworthy, please let me know your itinerary and I will arrange for you and Nero's pick up.

---

Iderati Central Starport Authority acknowledges your flight plan Ledo.  You're cleared to approach the system's gas giant and given a position in the skimming queue.  You'll have to stick to an outer orbit of the planet for three hours, but that's not too bad.  There's an naval boat not far away.  You should be safe to float in orbit for that time.

As you bring Tia to a standstill, you notice you have a lot of incoming messages.  Eight...no...eleven...now it's sixteen.  They are just popping into your comm queue.

Are you going to Bowman? Can you take on any cargo?

Do you have cold storage space available to Bowman?

Up to four tons dairy.  Need transport to Bowman quick and in a hurry.  Willing to $$$

Can you squeeze in any cargo to Bowman?

Are you willing to swap cargo bound for Bowman?

They all seem to be from brokers at the starport and all asking more or less the same thing:  can you make room for cargo to Bowman?

The crew mostly is busy with their own business. Ledo and Tepha are busy running logistics while Silver takes her role as security officer much more seriously than ever before, regularly doing sweeps and auditing logs (with the help of Fritz) to make sure everyone is where they are supposed to.

Rig however starts finding himself engaging in long conversations with Sister Maybell. Despite his advanced age he still found learning new stuff interesting and after being stuck between the hull plating replacing burnt capaciters he found having a nice meandering conversation surrounded by greenery pleasant.

"How does you not preaching sit well with the other nuns? I figured if you're going to devote your life to a cause it's going to be the first thing you discuss. I remember growing up seeing a holo about a sassy con artist who ends up hiding at a nunnery from a crime syndicate. It might have been a guy...I don't remember, it's been a long time since I had time for stupid comedies like that."

Rig didn't know where he was going with that comment and felt a little foolish even bringing it up. He just had gotten used to saying what was on his mind around her and that had just kind of slipped out. He didn't mean for it to be an accusation. He seemed to recall that the whole plot might have just been an excuse to show naked nuns in the shower so maybe it wasn't the best thing to bring up as he thought about it further. Or maybe that was another movie?
This message was last edited by the player at 22:33, Fri 18 Dec 2020.

BB signed off on the report and responded back.

Confirmed. Current flightplan has Tiamat's Flight at Collace in 3-4 months. I will keep you apprised if anything changes en route.

Ledo hadn't originally intended to head to the station but he started pulling up their current cargo and consulting with Tepha. Right now their fuel tanks were empty so they could reach the hidden cargo holds. They could move the 5t of mail heading to Bowman into their smuggling tanks and that would free up 5 tons of space.

Ledo began scrolling through local offers and earmarking anything they had in their cargo hold. Over the past few adventures they had picked up a random assortment of goods and raw materials and if there were people willing to take it off his hands he could pick up more cargo for Bowman.

"Tepha, start scanning the local markets hard. Looking to offload containers one, two, and seven through nine. See if there are any worthwhile offers in system. I'll sort through cargo suppliers and pick up more food for Bowman."

He flicked a quick comm message to Rig.

"Hey Rig, can you shift the mail to secure storage. We're getting a lot of offers for more foodstuff and could probably pick up a good deal if we can fit the cargo space."

A scan of the local news net provides quite a bit more color on the situation with Bowman Tepha.

Iderati is an agricultural world.  Three of the major cities host the headquarters of some large and powerful Ag-Tech companies and so the world also has a surprisingly high level of technology.

On first blush, it makes the situation in Bowman seem nonsensical.  Even if Gohature shipments fall behind, it would make sense that Iderati could fill in the gap.

However, as usual, there is more to the story.

Iderati is so affluent, it specializes in high end agricultural.  Certainly it grows wheat and corn and beans.  The staple crops that fill the Imperium's belly.  But it only produces enough of that to feed the system.  Most of its arable land goes towards luxury items.  Jalapenos.  Teas.  Vagarian ktch.  Honey.

There's also a large amount of dairy farming.  Fresh eggs and real milk.  Neither of these goods tend to travel well out of system.  But yogurt, butter, and cheese certainly do.

However, belters like the population of Bowman, tend to want long term foodstuffs.  The type processed in Gohature's fungal farms.

When the blockade of transport occured at Wyltz, the shortage of transport vehicles caused the food shortages in Bowman.  Bowman authorities enacted a hold on all transport heading through the system.  They claimed it was due to an increase in pirate activity, but the real reason was to put pressure on Iderati to lend assistance to their belters.

The blockade halted transport ships coming in the opposite direction:  those returning to Iderati to Glisten.  Those transporters either had to dry dock in Bowman or give up on the Iderati to Glisten run, which few were willing to do.  It is a very lucrative run.

The loophole here is that goods can be traded from ship to ship in Bowman.

The offers you are getting in are from desperate ag brokers who have tons of perishable food stuffs sitting in their warehouses.

The key word there is 'desperate'.

So.  Here's the deal.

You can move as much 'luxury consumables' as you wish/your hold can carry.  You will have to buy them.  The base price in the book is 2,000 cr.  If you want to try to negotiate that down, feel free to try.

Whatever 'luxury consumables' you carry to Bowman, you can sell...with a bonus of +10 to your roll. And you are guaranteed a minimum result of 12.

Up to you how you want to proceed.

I'll get to Rig and Silver's posts later this weekend.

Thanks

Ledo schedules the sale and transfer of cargo. The trade goods he received for free would turn a tidy profit and adding some additional foodstuffs to his cargo would help alleviate the problems at Bowman.

OOC: Selling for 21,000 then buying 7t of luxury consumables for 14,000.

When Tia comes out of Jump, you have a couple of replies sitting out there Silver

No idea who that is.  Sorry.

I thought you were dead?  Sorry. Never heard of the guy.

I might could ask around.  But if you want to slip me 2K to loosen up some tongues, that would help.

---

Sister Marybell points at a packet sitting on top of a bucket.

"Can you hand me the one that says 'strawberries' please?  Thanks."

She gives you a grin Rig as she takes the packet from you.  She tears a corner and spills a few seeds into her hand.  Carefully, the tips them into the small hole she had just dug, puts some of the reclaimation waste you helped her fish out of the disposal, and covers it all with dirt.

"I told your mainframe about the care for these.  Don't forget about 'em.  Fresh fruit is always better than squeeze tube."

She peels off a glove and wipes some dirt off her cheek, still grinning.

"Preaching comes in all kinds of formats.  Think about it this way.  If I had come aboard and started talking nonstop about the divinity of stars, would you have listened?  Or would you have just pretended to listen, cos I am a passenger, and just tuned me out?  Be honest."

She chuckles.

"I would tune myself out.  But maybe, when you're chewin' on a fresh strawberry or watermelon," She nods towards the short row of mounds she just finished planting.  "Maybe you'll stop and think I got to eat this cos of that nice nun.  Maybe I should check out what she believes."

Sister Maybell erupts into a laughter again.  She stops and smiles.  "At least maybe it will change some preconceptions about what a 'nun' is.  And I don't have to let you see me in the shower either."

She gives you a wink.

Silver swipes away the messages. She wasn't interested enough to gamble credits on likely scams.

Rig feels himself flush a little. Was...was the nun flirting with him?

He quickly excused himself mumbling something about needing to check on some CO2 scrubbers and retreated back into the engineering section of the ship.