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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jasper" data-source="post: 1494223" data-attributes="member: 277">Chapter 10 Jump Money    The ship shuttered. The jump field stabilized. Everyone knew something when wrong. Squish had dropped a decimal point badly. The good thing was they were alive. The worry was would the ship break up on returning to normal space, miss the planet, or were they on jump space voyage to nowhere.                 Sharnatha woke in the middle of the night. The cabin she had chosen was freezing. She adjusted the temperature and rolled over. Thirty minutes later she woke again the cabin was still freezing. She reset the temperature to normal. A quarter of hour she awoke. The temperature was dropping pass zero C.  She left her cabin and climb down to engineering. She flung open the tool box and grabbed various tools and a replacement sensor. A half hour later she returned the tools. She grabbed an extra blanket from stores and adjusted the new thermometer to a nice temperature. Fifteen minutes later she awoke again freezing. She grabbed her bedding and left the cabin. Turning the sick bay temperature to five degrees above normal she deactivated the bed monitors and curled up asleep on one of medical beds.                The trip to Berg was uneventful except for pounding, hissing, and mounting frustration of the Aslan as no matter what she did the temperature in her state room stayed around -12C. Frank suggested they plug the drain in shower and let the water run then she could at least go ice skating to pass the time. Sharnatha did not claw his eyes out only because he was at the far end of crew table. The crew wisely did not tell her the passengers had opened book on which was going to win and the odds were now favoring the stateroom. Prince Andrew only threw three tantrums in public and demanded that Brenda be searched in his presence because she had to be cheating at cards because he always won when he played with the marines.  Alice had to body check Brenda when she lunged across the table at the prince. This resulted in Captain Mason ordering Andrew to his cabin and frog marching the prince when he didn’t move. The dressing down Mason gave the Andrew was suppose to private. Unfortunately a faulty circuit caused the speech to be broadcast all over the ship. Curiously the speaker in the prince’s cabin wasn’t working at that time. Mason came out of the cabin and posted a guard on the door. The prince had decided to stay in his room the rest of voyage.               On day 37-993 Squish, Frank, Sharnatha and Rami were on the flight deck as the counter approached zero. The stars snapped into place.              “We are not dead!” spoke Frank.              “We are not where we suppose to be either”, remarked Sharnatha, “We a day away from Berg!”                 Jesse smiled, “Hey Squish could have missed the other way and we would hit the planet.”              It was agreed from then on she would astronavigate, and Squish would pilot. But he would stay on the ship until they reach Ranua. The trip to Berg was good for the Aslan. She had finally got the heating fix in her cabin during the day. Berg wasn’t worth the stop except for fuel. They traded the vids for only eighty credits. The Prince let his displeasure be known when he was told he would not be allowed to disembark the ship. Berg was just a fueling stop and only two exports were industrial diamonds and sulfur compounds. He could view the twin volcanoes in the distance from the safely of flight deck. Brenda packed up Himme and rented some filters and was able to talk one of ground crew into taking the passengers sans Prince Smith of an over flight of the volcanoes. Himme seemed interested until she hit the open switch of her carrier and the smell hit her. She spent the rest of flight bouncing her mouse against the window of her carrier.  The ship lifted a day later.               Squish was looking over Sharnatha’s shoulder as she plotted the jumped. “But I did all that too“, he rumbled. They enter jump space. When she finally decided to call it a night, a blast of ice cold air hit frosted her muzzle.  She grabbed her pillow and marched straight to the sick bay. The trip to Mikkeli was uneventful. Sharnatha had given up on the stateroom controls.              They landed on Mikkeli on the afternoon of fiftieth day of nine hundred ninety three. Frank discussed the money situation unless he would win at poker or they pick up some cargo at the next stop they wouldn’t be able to pay for repairs even if the promise of million credits reward were true.  The group agreed to pool the remaining money minus expense and let Frank hit the casinos. Frank would stop if he lost have the stake money. Sharnatha and the belter would poke around for some speculation cargo. Rami and Jesse would be Jesse’s flankers. Squish and the Prince would stay on board. The marines would do guard duty outside. The passengers would be free to roam but had to be back on board an hour before lift off. Frank reminded every one due to centuries of burning hydrocarbons the planet was smog bound so everyone need a filter. Frank paid the ports fees and departed. After she got the ship loaded with fuel she left. Sharnatha quickly found a few dTons of ammo and some dTons of electronics which the shipper would hold free for a day if he didn’t get an offer. She spend the rest of time amusing herself while the ship by dissembling Himme’s cylinder and washing the collar. The electronics were very sophisticated. She hit the data net to do some searching. The cylinder was basic medicinal recorder and neural blocker. It also had a GenAssist logo inside. When she looked up it was pass midnight and only she and Himme were awake on the ship. She grabbed a bar of soap and towel and paid the prince a little visit. She grabbed one of sleeping bags of Marines which was on the floor. She tossed the bag over the prince’s head. She the stood on top of it and started to wail away. Himme helped by swiping at any toes or flesh which became exposed.  The prince repeatedly screamed for mercy and bellowed for his marines while thumbing his panic button. When she was satisfied, she and Himme dashed out the door as the Prince feebly struggle to climb out of bed sheets.  Two hours later she was abruptly awoken by the racking of a shot gun in her ear. She froze and opened her eyes.                 Captain Cass stood over her with his weapon pointed at the ceiling. “You dropped this.” He dropped the fake panic button on her chest. “If I was in another company, I might say good job. But I would also remind certain party goers that we know when he been sleeping, we know where he been bad or good. And some bugs are a jarhead’s best friend. That is if I was in another company“  He turned, hefted a first aid kit then left the bay.            Meanwhile Frank had not wasted time. He sat down to the thousand credit table and won nine thousand in a few hands.  He moved to a ten kilo table and sat in. Ten hands later and he was eighty thousand to good. Another ten put him a hundred and sixty thousand credits to good. At this point the casino asked him to leave. He gave the signal to Jesse who eased out first. Buy the time he cash out the winnings, Jesse had a cab waiting to take them to the other casino.  Frank asked for a twenty kilo limit table. With three hands he was another sixty grand ahead. After that his luck changed. In another three hands he had lost the sixty. Wisely he cashed out.             The next morning after paying for the cargo the ship lifted. A few hours later they were in jump space and again the temperature was dropping in Sharnatha’s cabin. The stress and the cold in cabin had to getting to her. During the nights she kept dreaming of Himme talking with her. The dreams were vivid. Some times Himme would give her a formula to make a human’s hair fall out. Another time Himme was offering square kilometers of land to toss both Jesse and Squish out the air lock in jump space. Still another was Himme offering to buy her a ship or for her to take out Brenda.            To pass the time the crew took time drilling a hole in the sealed door. A few holes were drilled and a small light cable was pushed through to throw some light on the interior.  Inside was a huge birthday present. The paper was faded. It had large yellow ducks, comical Vargr, cute puppies, and muscular Aslan. It was two plus meters tall and about one and half meters square. Everyone even the Prince took turns looking and taking guesses.  Frank ruled they would not proceed further until they reached the star port at Ranua. Seven days later the jump clock hit zero.</blockquote>

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