Chapter XXIV
Date: 220-993 and 221-993
Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven, Urlainn Refueling Depot, Aleif, Ley Sector
A little over seven days after entering jump space, the
Bray Keaven emerges from jump 100 planetary diameters from Urlainn, Aleif's smallest and nearest gas giant. After checking the local vicinity and finding no vessels on sensors, Kevon points the
Bray Keaven at the Urlainn Refueling Depot and begins the eight-hour journey towards the station.
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The trip towards the station is fairly uneventful until the
Bray Keaven is about two hours away. At that point, a patrolling Imperial Navy cutter challenges the
Bray Keaven. When Kevon identifies the ship and himself, the reply is notably animated. “Welcome back to Aleif,
Bray Keaven! We expected you back at some point, but we thought that you'd be headed towards Aleif proper rather than the refueling station. The refueling depot isn’t much, but if you’ve got some time, I’m sure that we and the crew of the
Civan can throw a decent party anyway. What do you say?”
The
Civan is an Imperial Navy close escort (part of the interdiction squadron) that the
Bray Keaven encountered during the plague relief.
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The rest of the journey in is a little noisy with welcoming communications from the other two cutters and several of the fighters operating in the area as well as from the refueling depot itself. Everyone seems to be pretty happy to see the
Bray Keaven.
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At 1527 hours on the 220th day of the year, the
Bray Keaven docks at the Urlainn Refueling Depot (port side airlock). The refueling depot is a converted 10,000–dTon ex–Imperial Navy surplus tanker. There is a small sundries store and a couple of diner–bar establishments, but that's it as far as amenities.
Kevon strongly encourages the able crew to attend the party.
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After the
Keaven emerges from jump space, Saro reassesses his two patients. Satisfied with their progress (and their unusual adherence to his directions), he makes some recommendations.
“Mr. McConnell, while your condition has much improved, you still need to restrict yourself to non–strenuous activities for the next week or so while I oversee your recovery. However, if you continue to follow my recommendations I see no need to administer another dose of Medical Slow Drug at this time.
“As for you, Mr. Vargas. You are recovering nicely as well. But, as your wounds are much more serious, I think the best course of action would be to administer another dose of MSD. You will of course be rendered unconscious for 24 hours, plus or minus, but during this time the drugs will advance your recovery significantly.
“However, if you’d rather forgo the MSD, that route is open as well. Your healing will continue, under my guidance, albeit at a slower pace.”
“Doctor, if you want a ship flown, you consult me,” Vargas says, “and if we want medical advice, we consult you. I have the greatest confidence in your skills and am truly grateful for your care. If your opinion is that I should have another dose of MSD, then it should be administered. However, I would like to wait until we are back in jump space.
“I have a responsibility to Jarvis to oversee his shipment and I cannot do that if I am unconscious. It is not that I do not trust the other crewmembers in this matter. It is just that I gave my word to Jarvis, and this is an affair of honor. I hope that you will understand my position on this point.”
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After the
Bray Keaven docks at the Urlainn Refueling Depot, Swann, Kevon, and Aidan go get ready for the party. Swann retrieves Vasilii’s gift vids for distribution.
Kevon dresses according to naval tradition.
Aidan dresses in one of his usual fine gray suits and selects a couple of bottles of fine cognac from his stock to take along to the party. “Somehow, I doubt they’ll have quite the right glasses for enjoying this. Nonetheless . . . ” he thinks.
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Meanwhile, Vasilii arranges for the ship to be refueled. Para Dglen, the Sydite Urlainn Refueling Depot representative who answers Vasilii’s call, seems quite happy to hear from a member of the esteemed
Bray Keaven crew and cheerfully tells Vasilii that she already scheduled the far trader for refueling when she heard that the ship was inbound. The refueling crews should be there within two hours. The station normally has an automated refueling system, but the system is down for the lack of a central controller chip due from Sentry in the next few days. As a result, an EVA crew has to make the hookups manually.
Para does apologize for not being able to give Vasilii more of a discount, but her boss is a “real Ursa–sized pain in the ass” and only allowed a 10% discount off the standard price of Cr750/dTon refined or Cr150/dTon unrefined.
It’s always nice to get 10 percent off a 50 percent mark up, thinks Vasilii. Oh well, an extra jump would cost even more. It’s going to cost about a hundred grand to get to Shanape as it is.
Para does ask if Vasilii will be going to the party and drops hints that she’d like to meet him there when she gets off work. Para is fairly attractive for a Sydite, with blonde, close–cropped hair, and a large (though not overweight) build. Since she’s not Vilani, and she doesn’t run a business, Vasilii gracefully declines.
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Martha decides to stay onboard and keep an eye on things and continue standard maintenance on her systems since no one told her the party is mandatory.
“Finally,” she thinks to herself, “I can get some of these things done without having to report every five minutes.”
Martha suits up, drops her handcomp into an available pocket on her vacc suit, and gets to work on some of the minor tedious maintenance issues that are more comfortable outside of jump space.
Since Martha seem to have her nose buried in sensor texts all the time lately, Vasilii lets her know there are some unusual “targets” coming to flap around the hull and she might want to track them for a bit of fun.
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Saro sees to Vargas and Ian and then decides to make a brief appearance at the party to ask the crews about the situation planetside on Aleif.
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Around 1630 hours, Swann, Kevon, Aidan, and Saro set out for the party at the Whacked Duck, one of two “bars” on the depot. The walk is a short one since the habitable areas of the depot are not very extensive.
Upon entering, the
Bray Keaven attendees are met with a round of cheers from the mostly Navy and Marine crowd of about 30 folks. Drinks are quickly thrust into Swann’s, Kevon’s, Aidan’s, and Saro’s hands, and numerous toasts are quickly made.
Kevon apologize for McConnell’s and Vargas’ absence, stating only that they had “taken ill.”
Swann plays Santa and distributes the vids and holosims. The Imperial Navy and Marine personnel and the depot personnel are very appreciative of the entertain-ment tapes, and yet another round is ordered to toast the
Bray Keaven crew.
Aidan offers the cognac around, after checking with the barkeep on the availability of glasses. Finding none, he checks through the stock. He decides that some dusty wineglasses will work in a pinch and shares out the drink.
Aidan tries to regale the crowd with stories of the court as he tries to get the Navy men talking about the latest weaponry and ships. He eagerly listens to any mention of the Argentii Works.
Aidan and Kevon circulate and chat mostly with the officers. Aidan has takers for his cognac, but the conversation about court isn’t too well received (wrong crowd).
Kevon ends up spending most of his time talking shop with Lt. Commander Pam Hovas, the captain of the
Civan (the close escort). Lt. Commander Hovas seems pretty surprised that Marcus Argent left the ship, but she did hear about Kevon’s piloting while rescuing the Tukera Long Liner.
Kevon talks about what Marcus was doing as of his last letter, and general Navy stuff; if asked, he’ll discuss the Tukera incident, but otherwise he’ll avoid talking about his personal heroics. However, Kevon certainly immerses himself in the party, and spends most of his time around the officers, particularly his fellow lieutenant commander.
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Saro briefly falls in with a medic on the
Civan and asks about the situation on Aleif. The AHV plague is mostly contained now, but there are still people dying because the vaccine can't be manufactured quickly enough for everyone who wants some. Total deaths run into the millions, but there is general agreement that the situation could have been far worse.
King George'’ Land is being administered by occupying forces from surrounding nations, though it seems likely that the surrounding nations will end up annexing their administration areas. Several nations that were most affected have “temporarily” gone to martial law (and rule), though Bromley is not one of them.
After making an appearance and chatting a while, Saro heads off to explore the rest of the refueling depot. The public areas are quite small, and the one shop doesn’t have any good deals (on anything), so Saro ends up at the other diner–bar (imaginatively named, “The Diner”). He ends up nursing a drink in the corner alone, but the waitress realizes who he is and brings his drinks on the house.
Saro will mildly protest receiving his drinks for free, but will graciously relent and thank the waitress with a wan smile.
“Sometimes, just sometimes,” he muses to himself, “good deeds
do go unpunished.”
Saro and the waitress, Gina, end up chatting in between her occasional rounds of helping other customers. The conversation is light and enjoyable. Gina is in her early 30s, but she has traveled quite a bit and is easy to talk to.
Feeling slightly guilty about not paying his own tab, Saro does not abuse the generosity of his benefactor and drinks fewer glasses than he otherwise might’ve consumed.
When he makes ready to return to the
Keaven he leaves behind a significant gratuity for the kind waitress. Gina protests a bit when Saro tips her, but then gratefully accepts and says that she hopes he and the
Bray Keaven will be back soon.
When he returns to the ship, slightly inebriated, Saro does a quick checkup on Emile’s and Ian’s status before heading to his cabin where he lies in the dark before falling asleep, ruminating on his recent behavior, attitude, and mental health.
The next day, even though he is still in a funk, Saro forces himself to present a friendlier face when interacting with the crew.
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Back onboard the
Bray Keaven, Martha and Vasilii keep an eye on things, particularly when the crew of four arrives to make the refueling connections. The refueling process takes about 30 minutes. During the refueling and while she is watching the security monitors, Martha doesn’t notice anything unusual.
As the refueling crew completes their tasks, Martha is struck by a random thought, and makes a note on her handcomp to speak with Swann during jump this next week regarding a personal matter.
Before going to sleep for the evening, Martha contacts her counselor from her sessions here at Alief, and conducts a brief session over the comms as she fills him in on her progress, and the assistance that Dr. Saro has provided her through his meditations and grounding/centering techniques. She manages to reach Dr. Noreya — who was her counselor while in Aleif — on board the
Wall of Stone (the interdiction cruiser). The conversation is a bit time lagged, but Dr. Noreya appears to be delighted to hear from Martha and hear that she is doing well. Dr. Noreya does ask about Martha’s nightmares and counsels her to avoid stressful situations as much as possible.
Martha responds that the nightmares have subsided a lot, but she still feels uncomfortable at the strangest moments. Still, those are getting fewer and farther between.
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Vargas and Ian are, of course, assiduously resting.
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Back at the Whacked Duck, the party extends late into the evening hours and looks like it will probably go late into the night. A couple of crews off the other ships that are docked do come by and join the party.
Aidan stays until Swann and Kevon leave in order to provide support for his comrades. On the way out he thanks the barkeep and leaves a generous tip.
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After distributing the vid disks that Vasilii purchased to the Navy, Marine, and depot crews, Swann ends up spending more time with the crews from other ships than the ImpNavy and ImpMarine types.
After a drink or two, Samana Noekka, the Vargr first mate off the
Urroe, a far trader, asks Swann, “Are you headed for Sentry or Liar’s Oath? If you are headed to Liar’s Oath, would you have space for a 1-dTon priority cargo? We blew a few of our jump coil capacitors after our jump here, and we’re going to be sweating for at least a few days to get those damn things replaced, so we’re not going to be able to make our delivery in time. Some Army big wig ordered some cloned organs for his military, and we’re in a bit of a bind. The captain sunk a lot of money into the organs, and we’re going to lose the money if the organs aren’t delivered within eight days. How about Cr5,000 for the delivery? So, can you help us out?”
Swann looks at Samana Noekka — both of her — commiseratively and says, “That’s a sad, sad story my friend. Sounds like your ship’s had a run amok, I mean, a run a bad luck. But don’t worry, your luck’s about to change because the
Bray Keaven’s here to save the day. Again.
“Just let me contact our cargomaster, Mr. Kugikushi . . . Mr. Krugarushi . . . Mr. Koochikoochi . . . Vasilii and see if we have room. Wait right here. Don’t go any-where. I’ll be right back.”
Swann then turns in his seat, takes out his personal comm, and calls the ship to inform Vasilii about the deal.
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Vasilii confirms that they’ve got the space and he’s happy to take the cargo at priority rates provided the group at the party sees no problems. He suggests that Saro inspect the cargo.
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After he gets confirmation, Swann disconnects and turns back to the Samanas. “Good news. We can help you out. But we need to have our ship’s doctor, uh, Doc, come take a look at the cargo to make sure we can accommodate those organs without them spoilin’ before we get to Liar’s Oath.”
Swann takes out his portacomp and slides it across the table to the Vargr. “Just input your berth number so I don’t forget it, and I’ll bring Doc and Mr. Koocaracha by first thing in the morning. Now let’s drink to friends helping friends and frozen assets.”
After the toast, Swann leaves the party and staggers back to the ship. He informs Vasilii of the final details of the morning cargo inspection and pickup. “Don’t forget to tell Doc, m’kay? And don’t forget to wake me in the morning.” He hands Vasilii a Cr10 tip, staggers to his cabin and passes out in his bunk without even getting undressed.
Vasilii flips the credit chit a couple of times, then pockets it and smiles.
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Early the next morning, the
Bray Keaven gets a call from Samana Noekka, the Vargr first mate off the
Urroe. Vasilii briefly considers passing the call to Swann but thinks better of the idea, and he discusses the details of transferring the priority cargo to the
Bray Keaven. Given that Urlainn Refueling Depot only has external docking berths and narrow internal corridors, Vasilii (after consulting Kevon) and Samana agree the crew of the
Urroe will bring the cargo container over by towing it behind their air/raft with a few vacc suited crew. The
Bray Keaven crew will meet the Urroe crew outside the ship (in space) and handle maneuvering the cargo into the port cargo lock. After the cargo is secured, Samana will board the
Bray Keaven to inspect the cargo and give the crew an escrow credit chit for Cr10,000.
With some difficulty, Vasilii manages to rouse Swann and tell him (and the rest of the crew) of the plan to transfer the cargo in an hour. Leaving Swann to get things back into focus, Vasilii, Kevon, and Aidan set to working on clearing room in the port cargo lock so that the starboard cargo lock now has 1.5 dTons of luxury life support supplies and the port cargo lock has 0.1 dTons of supplies, the eight mis-siles, and 1 dTon of free space.
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Swann takes a quick lukewarm then cold shower to wake up, dresses in work coveralls and then downs a bowl of oatmeal in the crew lounge. He then grabs his vacc suit and heads to the port cargo lock.
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An hour later, with Kevon and Vasilii on the bridge and Aidan in the port turret, Swann and Martha suit up and exit the port airlock. The three Vargr crew of the
Urroe show up right on time with the air/raft towing the 1 dTon cargo container. After a bit of maneuvering by all parties and with the help of some zero–g cargo handling equipment, Swann and Martha get the 1 dTon cargo container into the port cargo lock and secured. After the outside cargo door is closed, Swann, Martha, and Samana enter the port passenger airlock and go to inspect the cargo.
“This is pretty much routine, a habit we’ve gotten into lately,” Martha explains to Samana.
The cargo container appears to be a specialized standard container. Samana explains that the cargo container is designed specifically to transport cloned organs. The cargo container is similar to a standard refrigerated container (requiring a power connection), but also contains power outlets for individually powered freezer units that hold a few organs each. The cargo container provides power and secondary cooling while the individual freezer units provide the main cooling.
Martha asks if the unit requires power from the ship’s power plant, or if it’s internally powered.
Samana replies, “The container does have a battery that last for a few days, but it will need power from the ship’s power plant — there is a power outlet within easy reach.”
There are three 0.75m–tall doors set evenly up the 3m–tall cargo container. Samana opens the lower one, and a wave of cold air rolls out. Inside, Swann and Martha can see a number of stacked containers with blinking lights, all marked with medical symbols. Saro comes by to take a look and the container that he inspects — a different one than Samana held out — appears to be properly marked, certified, and in good working order.
Saro does think (to himself) that he is a little surprised that they didn’t use a self–contained low berth container or a specialized organ transport container derived from low berth technology, but the container is an acceptable means of transport even if the technology is lower and the risk of damage to some of the organs is higher.
After the
Bray Keaven crew seems satisfied, Samana gives Swann the delivery instructions: deliver to Col. Wilkerson of the Liar’s Oath military at Covenant Downport, and an escrow credit chit for Cr10,000 to be unlocked by Col. Wilkerson upon delivery.
“I’m glad we are able to help out you and your ship,” Swann says to Samana. “Thank you for offering this opportunity to us. I believe there is a saying among your people: ‘May your pack be swifter than its prey.’ There also is a saying among the Belters: ‘Leave no rock unscanned.’ Good hunting, jump safely, and if our vectors intersect again, the first round’s on me.”
The Vargr first mate then leaves the
Bray Keaven through the port airlock to rejoin her crewmates.
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After Samana leaves, Martha pulls out a couple of handheld scanners and goes over the container again. She scans for radioactives, detectable explosives, radio signals, and density. The young engineer detects nothing dangerous in terms of radioactives or detectable explosives. There are no radio signals emanating from the container. The densitometer readings appear to be about the same throughout with some minor variations (not quite as densely packed towards the top, but close).
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Sometime in the late morning, Saro sends a comm to the waitress from The Diner, thanking her again for her benevolence, and the pleasure of her conversation.
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After a few final preparations, the
Bray Keaven undocks and heads out to the jump point. The
Bray Keaven leaves the immediate area of the Urlaiin Refueling Depot with a send–off escort of a pair of Imperial Navy fighters. The fighters don’t stay with the
Bray Keaven for long, but the rest of the transit to a same jump distance is entirely unremarkable.
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At 1810, the
Bray Keaven slips smoothly into jump space, bound for Liar’s Oath. Given that it’s dinnertime, the crew — even Vargas, with Saro’s permission — gathers for a relaxing and casual dinner.
After dinner, Saro, Swann, and Aidan make a quick inspection of the other two doors on the cargo container. Both appear to be locked, and Saro opts not to press his inspection, much to Swann’s and Aidan’s disappointed curiosity.
Given the late hour, Saro and Vargas decide to wait until tomorrow morning to put Vargas under Medical Slow Drug. Besides, Saro reasons, watching a holosim with the rest of the crew in the lounge might improve Vargas’ mood, too. After the sim, the crew heads off to their staterooms to sleep, except for Vargas, who heads back to the improvised sickbay.
Sleep comes easily for most of the crew, and by midnight, everyone is soundly asleep.