New Thoughts

y294.09.1 to y294.09.7 Thea, Bjorn and Kaito attempt to find evidence that ties the Black Sword to the operations of the Grommet.  A run down factory ship sailing the seas of the ocean world of Mensah.  Raj stays on his island and learns from his accountant that he is running out of money. Thea meets Troy, an agent from the Mensah Ministry of Protocol.  He is there to provide backup on the off chance there really is a connection between the Black Sword and Grommet. Thea and Kaito mix it up with Hextor "Dirty" Drake whom they believe might be a member of the Black Sword because he ripped off four tons of a spice called Summer Thet from Captain Kelton Holmes, owner of the Free-Trader Hudson which touched down on the deck of the Grommet. Kaito gets drunk and spends 1,000 Credits on a woman of questionable morals. Thea talks with Carmel Forte about Drake and learns that Drake's brother made off with several million credits taken from the Mensah Navy.   Thea saves Captain Holmes from being knifed by Drake.  In return Holmes gives Thea a small revolver which she takes to Kaito.  (What was she thinking!!)  Kaito uses the revolver to shoot one of Drakes lackeys but in turn is stabbed twice by Drake.  Very near death he is rescued by Thea who beats Drake twice with her collapsible staff. Captain Holmes takes Kaito and Thea onboard the Hudson where his medic, Dr William Armstead treats them for their wounds.   Troy and Thea leave Kaito on the Hudson as they go to talk with Carmel Forte, a woman who Thea thinks might have information on Drake.  She doesn't so they leave and are ambushed by Drake who takes them to the ship's main office. Captain Holmes offers to take Kaito to the Tantry system but Kaito conviences him to stay and wait for his friends.  Kaito contacts Dame Candis Worth using the communication equipment on the Hudson and pisses her off to a point where she sends ground troop to the Grommet just to arrest him. Thea and Troy are taken to the main office and confronted by a bald man with a red beard accompanied by a young woman with bright green eyes and flaming red hair.  The bald man knows how Thea disrupted his operation on Quartermark and expressed sadness that he will not have the opportunity to kill Sir Churchgate. He further explains to Thea that Churchgate and his friends escaped in a Yacht that was to be his entrance payment into a new group of associates.  But that fortunately "they" have other talents to bring to the table. He showed Thea a small grey vial of an alien drug that his new associates have given him as part of his pay.  He doesn't know what it will do so he offers Thea a choice.  Either she take the drug or she can have Troy given the drug.  With out a second thought Thea offers her life for Troy's. Somehow the bald man and his red haired friend seemed to know exactly when to leave so that they would not be caught when several armored grav-vehicles with combat armed troops arrived.  The calvary comes over the hills just in time. To wrap up.  Thea had turned on her pen sized video recorder and had a record of meeting the bald man.  Whom Kaito saw was Sir Landen Xaiver.   With clear evidence of a connection with Pirates Kaito is let off the murder charge (as he shot a pirate).  He and Thea were paid 15,000 credits each and with Bjorn were taken to the island of Roy's Folly. Jengo made Thea as comfortable as possible and three days later she woke up from the drug induced comma.  The drug had rewired her brain greatly increasing her intelligence and slightly increasing her dexterity.

Y294.10.1 to Y294.16.4 Travellers: Thea (Dylan) Bjorn (Jay) Kaito (Alex) Silas Zones (Reme) The Travellers take some down time and train.  Only Bjorn is successful as he learns Vacc Suit-0. Silas Zones, a former reporter for the Mensah Ministry of New and Information arrives on the island of Roy’s Folly.  However, he only drinks the Marquis’s booze, lies to the Travellers about writing a book on hunting and tries to sell them narcotics. Jengo provides Kaito with “Sober Pills” that when taken immediately eliminate the effects of alcohol and other drugs. Thea spends some time with Baron Lemon learning to play chess on the Marquis’s holographic, voice activated chess table.  While talking with the Orsen, Baron Lemon, Thea decides to find out more about “Dirty” Drake’s brother who sold millions of credits worth of unrecovered equipment from the Mensah Navy. Thea and Bjorn meet with Dame Candis Worth and learn that Dirty Drake was shipped off to the mines on the moon Adan.  Worth also sets up a meeting between Thea and Bjorn with retiring Admiral Sir Augustus Dunaway, who was the commanding officer during the robbery. Sir Dunaway explained that LeLand Drake, smarter brother of “Dirty” Drake, was not only a genius but that he was an expert with communication equipment and computers, he had a strange fascination for digital music and that he was killed in a brawl on Simmer Station, a small mining outpost in the Scatters (asteroid belt at the edge of the Mensah system).   In Y291 the Mensah Navy was transporting twenty Type B maneuver drives from the Mensah Adam’s Port to the their base on Vone (another moon of the only Gas Giant in the Mensah system).  Only nineteen of those drives arrived. Each drive is worth eight million credits ( CR 8,000,000 ). The missing drive has never been recovered and Admiral Dunaway thinks it is still hidden in the Scatters where LeLand stashed it before his death. Thea and Bjorn travel to Adan in order to find a way to talk with “Dirty” Drake about his brother.  They discover that Baroness Jenny is on Adan and so is her junk yard. They meet the Baroness and inform her that Tamir has died.  She takes them to see the Mortis and will still honor the contract she made with Tamir, that she won’t sell the ship to anyone else until the end of the year.  The Travellers need to come up with Four Million credits for a down payment. The Baroness also complains about her lack of quality security guards and asks the Travellers if they known of any good candidates for the position of security/watchman.   The Margaret Weller Society on Quartermark has listed her Junk Yard as a location authenticated to be the source of supernatural phenomenon.  Thea and Bjorn meet Henry Green who is trying to find proof of a ghost and win the Million Credits the society is offering. Bjorn punches Henry and takes his “Hyper Magnetic Wave” detector. Henry's home made Ghost detector. Baroness Jenny confesses that her grandfather claims to have spoken to a ghost in the junkyard when he was a boy.  He was always tinkering around with the cast off electronics that litter that junk yard and one day he made friends with a spirit from beyond.  Years later in the Navy he suffered a head injury and after that always seemed to be a few cards short of a full deck. But the Baroness likes to believe that her grandfather childhood story was true. Thea and Bjorn next visit the Cantina, the only bar in the town of Liberty on Adan.  They meet Aldo Green, uncle of Henry and a Kren named Kandian. Bjorn gives Henry back his “Hyper Magnetic Wave” detector.   Kandian cuts right to the chase by telling Aldo that the Travellers wish to speak with a “new” prisoner to the mines.  Kren are rumored to be telepathic. Aldo offers to provide the Travellers with maps of the Blanche mines in exchange for two High Passages and Cr 50,000.  Until just a week ago Aldo was himself a prisoner in the mines. Having been sent there after being convicted of stealing a cargo lifter.  During the year he spent in hard labor he contracted Hashmen’s Irritation, a fatal disease that causes weakness and death. He want money to travel to Towers in the hopes of finding a successful cure from experimental work being conducted by Da-Ren doctors. The bartender and owner of the Cantina, Riley Taylor runs a high stakes card game every four weeks.  The winner gets an offer to play in an even higher stakes game on the yacht of Baron Blanche, the owner of the mines where Drake is serving hard time.

“Mining Your Manners.” Current Travellers: Victor VonRaven [Cory] Kaito Saito [Alex] Thea [Dylan] Y294.16.6 Thea, on Adan, sends word to Kaito to join her.  Bjorn decides to hire on with Baroness “Jenny” as a security guard at her Junkyard.  Victor, the Marquis personal Air/Raft pilot, will travel to Adan with Kaito and Jengo in order to keep an eye on the Marquis’s investments. Y294.17.1 The Travellers are now situated in two hotel rooms in Liberty, the small village on Adan located next to the Junkyard.  They discuss the idea of paying Aldo Green two high passages and CR 50,000 in exchange for details and maps of the Blanche (prison) mine.  They agree and the exchange is made. Green then heads to the Down Port to catch a shuttle to Mensah and then on to Towers in the hope of finding a cure for his terminal case of Hashmen’s Irritation. The Travellers had also learned (or known) that Argon Diggs runs a month card game at the Cantina.  The buy in is CR 5000 and the winner is invited to join an even higher stakes game on board the orbiting yacht of Baron Blanche.  The Baron owns the mines were Drake is imprisoned. Y294.17.7 Kaito and Thea join a six player practise game during the day that will decide which who is allowed to join the evening game.  Thea wins Kaito washes out. Kaito joins the four player game in the Cantina.  Despite a lack of gambling experience she comes in 2nd.  The winner is a retired electrician named Ben Harvey. Victor gets Harvey to give up his place in the Barons high stakes game in exchange for a four week visit to the island of Roy’s Folly.  This allows Thea to claim victory and she has the chance to join the Baron’s game on 294.18.7 which would allow her to talk with and ask Baron Blanche to release Drake into her custody. Y294.18.1-4 Kaito initiates a backup plan to have Victor instated as a guard at the mines.  Then he could give Drake Fast drug and fool the other guards into thinking he had died.  To do this Kaito contacts a young woman named Lori Lays who was a prostitute he encountered on the Grommet.  Lori had drugged Kaito but “only” stole CR 1,000 from him. (So she’s an honest thief right?) After having her way to Adan paid by Kaito,  Lori declines to take part in his plan. Kaito asks her if she knows another woman who would be willing to help blackmail a guard and she tells him to contact Ann Bell on Mensah.  She is willing to seduce and drug a guard for CR 12,000. The plan actually works.  Kaito gets four guards from the Mines to attend a recruitment meeting at the Cantina.  One of the guards was drugged and framed for beating up Ann Bell. (Actually it was Thea punched Bell into unconsciousness). Kaito in a mask blackmailed the unfortunate guard into helping Victor get a job as a guard in the mines. Y294.18.5 Thea returns to Mensah for a fitting wardrobe change.   Victor starts work as a prison guard and makes contact with Drake.  Who doesn’t trust Victor. Y294.18.7 Thea returns from Mensah in time to attend the Baron’s card game aboard his yacht.  After paying CR25,000 she comes in third. But she does manage to talk with the Baron.  He likes the idea of taking credit for recovering the drive. He will release Drake to Thea.  If she finds and returns the drive he expects all credit for it’s return and an equal share of the cash reward (CR 32,000).  He also asks Thea to pay CR10,000 which is about the amount of labor he will lose for releasing Drake. Y294.19.1 Drake is taken from the Mines.  He gives Victor (a guard) the finger as he passing him in the tunnels.  He is taken to Thea’s hotel room where he wants liquor and food. He then drops the bombshell that in order to find the missing drive, rumored to be hidden in the Scatters, they must first go to Quartermark.