we played again!
from The Traveller Adventure: Memoirs of a Merchant
Captain...and His Crew
---Traveller's Aide Society Press, 1116
Port of Call: Aramanx, 98:1114
Astrogator's Log:
Surprisingly, this garbage scow made it through the series of successive, intense jumps that we subjected her too en route to Aramanx. We did a double jump to Carsten, first precipitating out of jump near a comet in the system's Oort Cloud. Then we entered Carsten system 100d from the gas giant. This bus had to my amazement, fuel scoops, and it held up relatively smoothly during a skim of the giant's upper atmosphere. Good thing that we had the Baron on board to oversee the "wilderness" re-fueling op. I mean ship's that I was aboard did it, but you can't feel a thing in a 100,00 ton [????]-class Dreadnought when it skims a gas giant. Plus, we only did it during wartime.
Good thing, old man Oberlindes is paying us well. The stress of the calculations was bad enough, but with his pet Vargr Arranlonghul looking over my shoulder, it was even worse. Fortunately, I had my family of anolas to calm me down in between jumps. I can't believe that Kigu' wants to space them! Crusty ol' Shugili....
Though, I have to admit the March Harrier, er excuse me the Neptune...no now, according to Dr. Chevalier and Mr. Atari, the Kragu-mali...curious an old Viliani god...is getting to be a veritable zoo. I think that's one of the reasons why the Baron took his leave of us on Aramanx. He said good-bye pleasantly enough, saying that he needed to book passage on a ship that would be travelling more towards Trailing, while we were stuck here in the Aramis subsector. I don't blame him. I've thought about it myself, but the mysteries that have arisen keep me here, and my anolas like it also....
Aramanx has multiple nations, each vying for a monopoly on interstellar trade. Because of that, and the low tech level of the world, Sternmetal Horizons constructed an orbital facility. We docked with no problem, dislodging cargo and passengers, and going through the customary inspections. Rani and Mr. Atari took care of all that business, while the rest of us went scrounging for cargo, more passengers, and fun. I hit the TAS hostel right away to get in a good game of cards. Once again Tukera and her subsidaries beat us to the punch. There was no cargo as Akerut had hauled it all off, and the rest of the bulk cargo was reserved for our new "friends" at Oberlindes. Captain Lenard speculated that it would be at least three weeks before we could load up and head out. So we got sort of a mini-vacation. From TAS, I made my way to Concourse 3 and the Worldview: two drinking establishments that also had some good gaming tables. At Worldview, that evening we saw a report that got my hackles rising. Algesh' felt the same way. On a report about rioting in a border town planetside, I saw Rojet Bannerji, the captain of the Wolblutn. It was an impossible coincidence, and I for one praised my luck. The itinerary we copied from his wallet said that he was supposed to still be in the Vargr Extents. And we wanted to ask him about that destroyed shuttle that we had discovered in the Patinir system.
Epeslatl and Mr. Atari were on it right away. The Security Officer told us that there was only a two-day old employment record of Mr. Bannerji, and that he was getting a pittance of a salary that did not equate to his being on the board of an important trade negotiation. Ep, with his diplomatic savvy, managed to get us a meeting with this trade mission. Unfortunately, we would have to go planetside into a country with martial law and enemy troops, including Vargr mercs, gathering at the border, but 'danger' is our crew's middle name...I guess.
I retired to my room to think about it, and ran into Gvouzdon suspiciously loitering in the corridor near my state room.
--You didn't eat the anolas, did you?
I asked him
Not answering, he proceeded to ask me about the brooch again. We should have kept him in low berth! I saw a sidearm in a holster hanging at his hip.
--Who gave you that?
--Al' says that I am a member of the crew now.
He smiled showing his teeth.
--I am not going through this again, Gvouzdon,
and I turned my back on him to get some rest.
I checked to make sure nothing was missing, and comforted the anolas. I'll have to talk to the captain about keeping that mischievous Vargr on board....