High Law and Low Justice, Part 5

[Wilphe]

Shirgegge has a Class B starport, but no naval or marine base.
They'll be a presence there to deal with recruitment, liason and Vetern's affairs, but that's about it.
However, there is a K'kree diplomatic mission on the planet. They will have travelled in their own (armed) vessals, and as such will be under escort by the Imperial Navy. This will probably be at least a small task force built around a cruiser or light carrier and it's escorts*. Officer commanding that would be a Commodore or Rear Admiral - who'd easily outrank anything the Imperium has on the planet.

* Less than that would be an insult, more than that indicates a desire to overawe the K'kree. The subtleties involved in this sort of thing are legion, but that's the average.

Also:
So far as anyone, especially Ruzz'koff, can tell, this information looks accurate, so it's either genuine or a very well crafted forgery.

IC:
Ktarle, "Well, we know what this was about. Still doesn't help us a lot. Was he killed so as to steal this information? If so, then whoever did it failed, and there's at least a possibility they'll try to get what remains of it off of us or steal it from his cabin."

"Or he was killed to ensure that the data wasn't delivered to it's destination. If it was an Imperial Agent that did it then they must have had reasons why they didn't just arrest him. If it was someone else, then we are in danger if they think we might pass it on."


Gwydion, "I just have the nervous feeling that we've stumbled in on an Imperial Counter-espionage operation, in which case they won't appreciate us shouting about it from the rooftops."

 

[doghead]

Saanath, male human merchant

Saanath initially agrees with Tuan, but can see the value in Ruzz'koff's caution.

"He was informed of our intentions to hand things over the the system authorities upon arrival, that hasn't really changed."

Saanath pauses for a moment, in thought.

"Perhaps Ruzz'koff is right. This new information should go no further until we have made contact with the military escort for the K'ree. So two questions. How do we do that without drawing lots of attention? And what do we do with the disks and theis computer until then? I would like to make backups of the data, just in case there is an attempt to recover or distroy the original disks."

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Gwydion, "I just have the nervous feeling that we've stumbled in on an Imperial Counter-espionage operation, in which case they won't appreciate us shouting about it from the rooftops."

"Make no mistake, we will not be shouting from the rooftops -- we are turning this investigation over to the nearest imperial military authorities. If this is a counter-espionage operation, they will be in control and best able to keep things quiet.

"A more paranoid person might assume that IF this is a counter-espionage operation the best way for the imperium to bury any news about the story would be to disappear us and our passengers, but I'm not that paranoid and I'd encourage you to not be that paranoid.

"Making backups of the data is a mistake, I think. If this is espionage, then making copies of the data makes us spies as well. Once we've made copies, there's no clean way to deal with them -- if we turn them over to the authorities, then we're repentant spies. If we keep them, then their discovery can put us in hot water at any time. If we destroy them, there's no way to prove they were destroyed, and each one of us could prove to be a witness against the others -- while more than one of us lives we will be living under the (albeit distant) threat that the others will testify against us and turn us in as spies.

"That's not paranoia, that's life experience talking. Once you take a step down that path there's no taking it back. I've seen too many lives and careers ruined this way -- a simple act that, while breaking the rules, seems to make sense at the time, but that single act snowballs, making gradually more and more terrible things 'reasonable', turning friends and allies against each other.

"The only safe course is the straight and narrow. Package up our evidence, take some time to prepare written reports for the investigators, and don't talk about our change of course. Once we're in system we'll contact the escort fleet and ask for permission to dock. With any luck I'll know someone in the fleet who can help us find the right people to talk to."

-rg

 

[Wilphe]

OOC: If you are going ahead with that I will move on to the drop out of jump in the next few days.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

that's fine with me.

-rg

 

[doghead]

Saanath, male human Merchant

Saanath accepts Ruzz'koff's accessment, and hands over all the material he was working on to the Captain for safekeeping.

-ooc-
All right with me too. Saanath will keep monitoring the cameras and anti-hijack system to try and identify any suspicious passenger activity or movement. Particularly anthing that looks like someone checking up on a hiding place to ensure it remains undiscovered. But otherwise he just leave it to be sorted by the Imperiallies.

 

[Wilphe]

03:35 223/991

There's the usual slight, weightless feeling as the Vykris emerges from jump and then it's over. It looks like Trelene plotted the jump just right and you are headed straight for the main planet with little need for any course corrections save deceleration. The scan, which has hitherto remained blank and useless during for the last week comes on line and gives a read out of what's in system.

For starters, nothing immediatly hostile. A few convoys of fuel tenders are making their way to and from the gas giants under System Defence Boat escort.

There's about half a dozen starships of various types heading too or from jump, including two large bulk carriers of 20-25,000 tons that are probably packing grain or other bulk produce.

Orbiting Shirgegge itself are two large warships and attendent escorts. One is K'kree vessal designed to address their racial claustrophobia - a large, saucer shaped vessal which identifies as the 10,000 ton Kahk'rik'kreng Class Courier "Lashing Tail".

The other is an Imperial 8,000 ton Plata Class Fast Escort Cruiser, "Coronel". Four 400 ton Patrol Vessals fill out the Coronel's flotilla as close escort and liason.

 

[Wilphe]

That's a rather small vessal to be running escort, which suggests either a diplomatic snub or that the Imperial Navy is being streached very thin by the campiagns against the Solomani.

Saanath notes that a few of the passengers, Maxine Zdrac and Elizabeth Foster among them, have begun to gather in the Common Area. This is despite it being 3 am, they will probably be expecting that comm-links will be opened up...

 

[Wilphe]

Shirgegge 1511 Ley

B Class Starport
5 7800km in diameter, Surface Gravity .68G
5 A thin atmosphere, low gravity alone sees to that
7 71% water
7 Population of 95 million
8 Civil Service Bureaucracy
B Law Level - Weapons prohibited, civilian movement controlled
B Tech Level - Low Average Interstellar

Agricultural
Non-Industrial

No planetoid belts
5 gas giants

K0 V G5 D
A small, dim, orange star.


Shirgegge is a large and fairly prosperous agricultural settlement. Government has remained essentially the same since colonisation - government agencies control what crops can be planted, how, where and when they are harvested. Live in the few cities is rigidly controlled and restricted, in part to encourage residents to stay on the land. The delay in the harvest caused by the lack of the crucial equipment you are carrying has probably upset the delicate bureaucartic schedule, so they'll probably be very pleased to see you.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Russ'koff checks any available information sources (gather information?) to see if he knows anyone serving on the Coronel or one of it's tenders.

-rg