They were having breakfast and drinking their morning kawah in the mess hall when Asa's communicator rang with an incoming call.

"Ms. Javedani, my name is Dario Kanaan." The man had a pleasant baritone, with a barely noticeable Algolan accent. "You left a message last night about your ship needing servicing. We have an opening in a couple of hours, our maintenance docks are in the Net. I will send you the exact time and the coordinates in a message. The fee for your ship will be 800 birr, plus fuel costs, if you require refueling. And please extend my best regards to Mr. Naser."

No sooner had she finished the conversation than the communicator chimed again with another call. "Ms. Javedani, this is Mr. Shammas, from "The Old Horizon". Asa furrowed her brow, trying to remember whether she had actually given the old man her contact number. "I was... ah... thinking about the young lady that visited my store yesterday... well... that came out a bit wrong... anyway, while we talked, I was admiring her earrings... and today I woke up with the realization that those were probably designer earrings". He paused for a moment, letting the information sink in. "I thought it might help you in your search... I can send you a rough sketch, if you think it might be of use..."

Adhan, meanwhile, decided to give the young hoodlum's communicator another try. He booted up his computer and reconnected the device, planning to go through the messages once again. Much to his disappointment he found that the previous owner had finally had the presence of mind to wipe the comm's external network storage. Adhan made sure to save the data that he did manage to glean, which was now stored in his computer's cache, but it was highly probable that the demise of the young man's communicator had become public knowledge.

Yet the Icons worked in mysterious ways. As Adhan mulled over his option, a marketing gadget's pop-up appeared on the comm's simulated screen. "Go wild at the Wild Juice! Every first day of the novena, buy two cocktails and get the third one free! Wild girls! Wild prices! Wild fun!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:29, Mon 06 Mar 2023.

"Thank you, Mr. Kanaan, we will be there at the allotted time. Please refuel our ship as well."

Asa's voice had a hint of relief as she disconnected the call. The thought of the Star finally getting the maintenance it desperately needed put her at ease. She turned to Kira, who was savoring her third cup of the aromatic kawah, a steaming cup of which was in front of Asa as well. The smell of the hot beverage filled the air, a comforting scent that eased their tensions.

"Kira, Can you take the Star to the Net and get that seen to? And perhaps the rest of us can continue our search."

Kira nodded in agreement. "Sure thing, Captain. Be sure to give the old beggar my regards if you come across him."

Asa took the second call. "That would be most helpful, Mr. Shammas! Just scan the sketch and send it directly to my comm. My data djinn might be able to run a search on it."

She smiled as she looked at her friends. "Today is another day. Let's give this a second try!"

Adhan stared at his comm screen for a moment, scratching the stubble of his beard, before slowly starting to grin. "Attention all crew! I am going to say a sentence that has never been said before: Thank the Merchant for advertising!" He read the advertisement for the Wild Juice aloud, with perhaps more enthusiasm than the ad copy really deserved. "That must be where they meet up!"

Ten minutes later, a message popped up on Asa's communicator. True to his word, Baltazar sent her a sketch drawn in pencil. It was a nicely done rendition of the earring in question, complete with an ear for scale.

The earring had the shape of an inverted triangle, each side measuring roughly three to four inches. Its top side pierced the earlobe, while delicate chains ran from the corners into its center, converging on what looked like a precious stone suspended between them in a thin wire frame. An arrow running to the triangle had the word "gold" scribbled next to it, while another pointed to the stone with the word "emerald?"

"That's...one big earring," Adhan said, musing over the sketch. "I'll get some searches running to see if I can learn anything about it."

"Well done, Adhan!" beamed Asa. "The Icons smile on us. Can you find out where the place is and see if you can find floor plans, maps, pictures, video feeds or some such?"

"And as for the earring, perhaps some reverse image searches, gossip columns, designer websites, anything that might give us a lead."

"Hey, and what about that picture you found?" interjected Kira. "Had a blast with Zazu and the bro. That one. Wasn't there a girl in that photo. Maybe she was wearing earrings?"

It took Adhan half an hour, a finely tuned image recognition app and a fervent prayer to the Messenger to find what he was looking for. The earrings were indeed part of a latest limited designer collection sold by a jeweler named Hasan bin-Soleimani. It took Adhan another minute to find the location of the merchant's jewelry shop, which was situated in the Core, a two-minute walk from the Dome of the Icons. The young man whistled inwardly as he quickly scanned the shop's prices. Clearly, affordability was not one of the shop's selling points.

Together with Kira they took a quick look at the picture Adhan had found on the network the previous night, but their examination didn't come to fruition. Given that the collection was rather new, and the photo was dated a couple of cycles back, there was no possible overlap between the two.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:32, Tue 07 Mar 2023.

"Good stuff," smiled Kira as she saw the search result. "Now hack that guy's customer database. Should be a breeze for a scholar such as yourself!"

Adhan turned to Kira. "You say 'scholar,' but it sounds like you mean 'criminal,'" he said, smiling to take any possible sting out of the words. "But I'll see what I can do."

"If it helps, consider it an order," grinned Asa.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:22, Thu 09 Mar 2023.

It didn't take Adhan long to hack into the jeweler's public network node, which was constructed using a boilerplate template and lacked adequate protective measures. It took even less time to come to the conclusion that the node did not possess any database functionality. If the merchant kept any records at all, it certainly wasn't online.

"Sure," Adhan growled at his tablet as he dropped it (not too hard) on the table. "Why would you use a computer when you can just write things down on PAPER?!?"

After a moment, he sighed and looked up. "Well, it looks like someone will have to ask him in person, because he doesn't record anything online."