Traveller Session 7

Deck Plan of the remains of the Vigilant Star (click on the plan for a larger version)

After boarding the launch and exiting Vagabonds Hope we make our way to the location of the Vigilant Star, and as we approach we see that the entire front section of the ship appears to have been sheared off and we can see into some of the staterooms on board. We hail the ship as SOP, but get no response. It appears that we will have to use our Vacc Suits to get to the other ship as there are no hatches for us to connect to. We get the launch into position and fire a magnetic grappler over to anchor the tether and them we make our way across, I communicate to Cyndariel to stay on standby whilst we make an initial re-con of the other ship. Cyndariel the relays our plan and current position to our own crew aboard the Vagabonds Hope.

I am first to attach my line and make my way across followed by Earl, we enter into a cabin. it is in reasonable condition, a piece of paper floats away from our passage so i grab it and it shows the flight plans of the Vigilant Star. We are in the cabin of Niamon Eirak and the paper has the Jump calculations the he has made. I take a copy of it and send it to Tharbin to see if he can give any more information on it.

In the cabin of Niamon Eirak can be found calculations for jumps:

In the meantime Earl has continued to explore and finds some cargo containers and I make my way along the outside of the ship to see if i can find any other access points we missed on our initial pass with the Launch. We get a call from Masuyo telling us to be exceedingly careful and stay in a group if at all possible so I make my way back into the ship to regroup with Earl and I also ask for Cyndariel and Junebug to join us at their earliest convenience. Cyndariel suits up and joins us right away but Junebug is tied up with something else and will join us as soon as she is free. We do have gravity on board with a vacuum but no power. With both Earl and I in the cargo area we can cover more space quickly and make short work of that exploration. The crates weigh a few hundred kilos each and most of them have a lot of stickers all over them with various destinations but the majority of them are destined for Flammarion. Thankfully the grav plates are still functioning but the Atmosphere has vented out into space. On her way to us Cyndariel has found an engineers cabin, determined by the debris floating around inside. Earl suddenly comes across another cargo container but this one is very different from the others, there is no location label and there is no obvious method to get into the crate. We spot some airlocks south of our position so we approach and find an iris lock, as there is no power Earl accesses the manual override to get it open, we find the engine room on the other side which has the dead engineer and a terminal which seems to have some power. I access the terminal and a name pops up CAPTAIN KEALIN VEXAR of the BLACK SWAN, I read it out and Earl instantly recognises the name.

We have all the information we can get from here for the time being so we continue to check the ship for possible survivors, Cyndariel has confirmed the cause of death was rapid decompression. The next alcove leads to a ladder to the next deck up and I make make my way up to the hatch and access the manual override to open it. in the corridor here we find sveral empty passenger cabins and Cyndariel finds the Captains cabin in which there is handwritten notes in a small notebook labelled "1105-".

Captain's Notes for 1105

The route from the Captain's Log plus the computed jump from Ator to Flammarion). Click on the map for a larger version

Stave (Spinward Marches 0710)

*Date of Departure	010-1105
*Duration	4 days in-system
*Purpose	Stopover to celebrate Prime Day - even if we arrived on 006-1105!
*Notes	Shame we're on this primitive world but at least the beach is a very pleasant stopover (and the locals do have some interesting alcoholic drinks).

Terra Nova (Spinward Marches 0511)

Date of Departure	019-1105
Duration	2 days in-system
Purpose	Commercial trade exchange and cargo delivery
Notes	Our one stop in the Zhodani Consulate on this tour. Papers all in order and no problems negotiating for our new cargo.

Mizen-fel (Spinward Marches 0311)

Date of Departure	029-1105
Duration	3 days in-system
Purpose	Routine fuelling and maintenance stopover
Notes	A minor delay due to unforeseen cargo issues, but all cleared up while the fuel purifier did its work

Prinx (Spinward Marches 0212)

Date of Departure	038-1105
Duration	2 days in-system
Purpose	Commercial trade exchange and cargo delivery
Notes	Smooth transactions with local merchant guilds; we took on a shipment of rare, high-quality minerals from the Prinxian mines.

Yiktor (Spinward Marches 0114)

Date of Departure	046-1105
Duration	1 day in-system
Purpose	Brief stopover for crew R&R
Notes	A group of our crew members took part in a popular underwater sports event, which was...illuminating, to say the least.

Rushu (Spinward Marches 0215)

Date of Departure	056-1105
Duration	3 days in-system
Purpose	Commercial trade exchange and cargo delivery
Notes	A successful transaction with local merchant guilds; we took on a shipment of rare, exotic spices from the Rushuan plantations.

Attica (Spinward Marches 0414)

Date of Departure	064-1105
Duration	2 days in-system
Purpose	Commercial trade exchange and cargo delivery
Notes	Local merchants quite cagey but we made a profit from the minerals and spices.

Retinae (Spinward Marches 0416)

Date of departure	072-1105
Duration	1 day in-system
Purpose	Delivery of supplies
Notes	While the research remains classified (and I "don't have the required security clearance") I was asked to carry a cargo all the way to Andor (and personally deliver it to the star port on the planet's surface!). The accompanying paperwork is in order (including authorisation from the 208th Imperial Fleet). I've agreed to take the cargo but to be on the safe side I'll route via Flammarion and consult with Mr. Casarii since the penalties for violating the Imperial Interdiction are quite severe.

Faisal (Spinward Marches 0518)

Date of departure	082-1105
Duration	3 days in-system
Purpose	Commercial trade exchange and cargo delivery
Notes	Picked up unrefined ores for Dekalb. A vessel of a few thousand tons spotted leaving system but no record of it present in the star port’s (hand-written!) records.

Dekalb (Spinward Marches 0618)

Date of Departure	091-1105
Duration	2 days in-system
Purpose	Commercial trade exchange and cargo delivery
Notes	A smooth cargo delivery - the local stevedores are very efficient!

Winston (Spinward Marches 0620)

Date of Departure	099-1105
Duration	1 day in-system
Purpose	Brief stopover for minor repairs
Notes	Jump Drive capacitors needed adjustment; Kaida reports the 'refined' fuel we bought on Dekalb had a very high concentration of Deuterium which affected the jump.

Terant 340 (Spinward Marches 0622)

Date of Departure	109-1105
Duration	3 days in-system
Purpose	Commercial trade exchange and cargo delivery
Notes	A successful transaction with local merchant guilds; we took on a shipment of rare, exotic spices from the Terantian plantations.

Jacent (Spinward Marches 0624)

Date of Departure	118-1105
Duration	2 days in-system
Purpose	Commercial trade exchange and cargo delivery
Notes	A smooth transaction with local merchant guilds; we took on a shipment of high-quality textiles from the Jacentian textile mills in exchange from the spices from Terant 340.

Rorre (Spinward Marches 0526)

Date of Departure	126-1105
Duration	1 day in-system
Purpose	Brief stopover for crew R&R
Notes	We allowed our crew members to take part in a popular recreational activity, which provided some much-needed relaxation.

Darrian (Spinward Marches 0627)

Date of Departure	136-1105
Duration	3 days in-system
Purpose	Commercial trade exchange and cargo delivery
Notes	A successful transaction with local merchant guilds; we took on a shipment of rare, exotic minerals from the Darrian mines in exchange for the Jacent textiles (though the profit margin on the textiles was quite low).

Ator (Spinward Marches 0729)

Date of Departure	145-1105
Duration	2 days in-system
Purpose	Commercial trade exchange and cargo delivery
Notes	A smooth transaction with local merchant guilds; we took on a three ton shipment of redundant electronic components. They may be scrap but the shipyards at Flammarion's highport will pay enough for them for us to make a significant profit.

I open the iris valve to the common area which has another empty cabin, I come across another body which i search for ID and request Cyndariel have a look at the body, again cod is rapid decompression. She was Elara Aurora a courier from the Federation of Arden on her way to Iderate, there is no indication as to why she was aboard this ship. was she working to pay her passage, she is carrying encrypted documents on her which we decide to take with us. The Captains cabin also had an encrypted crystal which we also take with us. throughout our entire search we have not found a shipping manifest. Junebug has finally made it on board with us as as she approaches the strange create she has bad feeling about it. Having found no survivors we contact the Vagabonds Hope to request they put in a salvage claim for us so we can tow the wreckage back into the range of the plant and scavenge what we can from the derelict.

We get back aboard our Launch and set up the tow to get the Vigilant star onto orbit around 567-908, as we begin we get confirmation that our salvage claim is successful, it will take around one day for us the get it into a rough geosynchronous orbit over the settlement. Masuyo requests that we load the unmarked cargo crate onto the Launch and to take any and all suspicious materials down to surface with us. We get the Vigilant Star into a relatively stable orbit. Masuyo and Tharbin traced the route of the Star back to Zodani Space skirting Querion Darrian - it appears that a mis jump brought them to 567-908 and this is what caused the ship to be sheared apart. After landing Junebug tells us all about the bad feeling she has around the crate but cant explain why it make her feel this way so she asks those of us affected by the singers performance aboard the Liner to get close and see if we also get the same reaction and now that we have to time to focus on it we do in fact get the same strange feeling around it. What is inside? we need to get it open.

We drop off the cargo we picked up from Walston and Masuyo is offered a strange crystal for 2,750 from our cargo takings so she buys it. When she gets back she asks me to take a look at the maneuver drive to see if I can coax some more power out of it, i make moderately successful attempt it's not 100% but it is an improvement. Earl suggests the Junebug have Kimbley take a sniff at the strange container and she suspects that he is also having a strange reaction to it

Vagabonds Hope is refuelled and ready to go, all salvage has been recovers and loaded. we make our Jump successfully and continue our training from the previous jump.