Beauty Is...Bowman Starport
Ledo
You do some finagling to get the 7 tons of Wyltz goods sold before you jump to Asteltine. The refrigerated crates of yogurt and eggs get loaded aboard. Neither of these items cryo well. But they should make the two jumps you'll need to make fine.
The contracts you're carrying, both the ones from Wyltz and this new 'milk run', contain similar clauses about delivery: you need to take the goods to brokers at the Bowman starport. The brokers will sample for freshness, and then you will deliver them to a site run by a belter co-op further on in the Bowman system. The co-op will take possession and issue a letter of receipt. Funds are then wired into your account.
This arrangement is because of the pirating going on. The seller assumes the risk for transport. But that's built into the price.
The broker at the Bowman starport will provide the drop off coordinates after testing.
As you leave Iderati, you notice several ships following your vector. This feels a little more natural than what happened at Wyltz: Iderati tends to release ships for jump points in groups instead of one at a time. Iderati does assign coordinates to jump from. So two or three ships going the same way as you isn't odd in and of itself. Though one seems to follow you just a little too long.
But it amounts to nothing. It drops off when you're about forty minutes out from your jump point. There's a Iderati security cruiser not far away and no one shows up as you hit jump space.
Asteline is almost a cake walk. You luck into a bump up on the gas giant refuel queue: a ship ahead of you develops engine problems and has to limp to port. You get shoehorned in and manage to refuel half a day ahead of schedule.
Maybe it's just your nerves, but once again, something kind of odd happens when you head for jump coordinates. This time it isn't a ghosting on your sensors. When you pull out of the gas giant's atmo, a ship that had been in queue suddenly veers off and seems to be heading out to jump coordinates about the same time as you. The ship has the call name Silly Boy. You remember it seeing it in the queue list, and it was a few slots after your original slot. So unless it got bumped too, it shouldn't have refueled yet. It also is heading out from a trajectory that makes it seem like it had never gone into the gas giant's atmo.
But the Silly doesn't follow you. It doesn't even head out in the same course. And there aren't any blips behind you.
A quick look up shows Silly being some kind of private yacht. It looks a little rough to be a yacht, but then again if it's being used by some rich game hunter or a prospector, a yacht can get pretty dinged up.
The registry for ownership is showing as owned by a corporation out of Collace. Twin Stars Research.
General
The passengers continue on as they did before. Ulie becomes even more of a ghost. She now only comes out for the communal meal. Calliope says she's bringing her a breakfast bar in the morning and that the producer is doing some kind of business related stuff.
Calliope continues to practice in the brig. She asks if anyone wouldn't mind playing handball with her once every couple of days. "I need to get some exercise in if I can."
Handball in the hold isn't uncommon. A lot of crews will do it. Most containers are sturdy enough to use for the game.
Maybell has the garden looking awesome. The woman has a green thumb. She chats with anyone who drops by. The Sister is actually a pretty skilled conversationalist. She seems to have a good sense of how long people are willing to talk, understands quickly what subjects the other party has no interest in talking about, and can read the mood. Best of all she is a good listener. She makes you feel like she's actually trying to understand what is being said, only interrupting to ask questions to clarify a point she might not get, and not making assumptions about what is being said. She manages to save a dying basil plant and at least one meal includes a pasta dish that's spiced up with fresh basil and real garlic.
The frozen people are still frozen. No issues. The androids remain off.
During the jump to Bowman, Fritz asks Tepha...if they made a movie out of your life, who would you want to play you?
Nero
Obviously you can't update your channel during a jump. All you can do is look over the last downloads the system took in before Tia slide into hyperspace.
The Bugga Boys hold a concert to raise money for victims of the whole flood on Wyltz thing. They manage to ratchet up a nice, tidy sum but more so their subscriber count goes through the roof.
There's news about Ansley's trial. She's going to be arraigned as part of the wackos. The Paws announce their disbanding to absolutely no one's surprise.
The last comments you have on your channel are mostly the same ol' same ol'. That weirdo who was making death threats piped up. Have anyone you love? Say goodbye to them. I'll find you sooner or later
The guy's delusional.
The last comment that you downloaded before you got shut off the net reads
You should do an expose on corruption in the entertainment industry. Since you're acquainted with that kind of thing now. Everyone loves a good scandal. And wouldn't it get you ratings?
