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While the group is in route to the Star Portal at Algol Xela
confesses that she does not have the 20 million Imperial credits needed to pay
the ransom for her parents. Her brother Taveer has access to the family
accounts. Xela says that he could get the money with a signature but Taveer and
his friends are, of course, still marooned on Earth.
Paladin and Shifter hatch a plan to have Shifter impersonate
Taveer and get the money.
Paladin suggests that Xela and Shifter practice mimicking
Taveer’s signature.
Shifter wants to know more about Taveer so that he can play
the role to its fullest. Xela tells them he is a unscrupulous, womanizing,
spendthrift, never-do-well cad who makes it no secret that he wants to become
emperor someday. After becoming Count Ubudgin and taking control of the family
business, manufacture of weapons including the only factories that produce
Nova-Bombs!
Nova-Bombs are the most powerful force of destruction in the
known universe and one of the weapons of terror that the Emperor uses to keep
his subject planets in line. By themselves they produce pitiful small
explosions but when dropped into a sun it starts a chain reaction that explodes
the star, killing all the world that orbit it, and maybe the worlds of nearby
or neighboring star systems.
The Emperor does not like being beholden to the Ubudgin
family for his weapons of ultimate terror.
After a couple days of handwriting practice the ship
inexplicably drops out of warp and goes onto emergency power.
At the same time a human shaped figure appears in a ball of
fire on the ship’s bridge. The man turns out to be a human, from Earth, who was
experimenting with his teleport system trying to extend it’s range. He was
hoping for miles but accidentally did a one time hop of over 180 light years!
Stalker agrees to help with the rescue mission in exchange for a ride home and
a few pounds of gold.
When they approach Algol Xela tells them that once a
thriving civilization dwelt on the now dead planet. It flourished and died sometime
after the PreCursors built the Star Portal system (30 million years ago) and
uncounted eons before the rise of the Thalok Empire.
She broadcast the code to get the Star Portal to open to
Thalok Prime, when the activation signal comes back she pilots the Shamrock to
the other side, a bristling and busy solar system with dozens of ships of every
description zooming about!
The Shamrock is hailed by an Imperial Custom ship demanding
permission to come aboard.
The group meets old friends of Xela who were messing with
her. Kei and Yuri, along with their pet monster Mughi, come on board and
‘extort’ a couple bottles of expensive booze. When they learn that Taveer and
his friends are on Earth they decide to go and get him. They tell Xela to take
her new earth friends to Ubudgin. After taking care of bringing Taveer (and his
friends) home they will take the Eathers home next.
Xela tells the group a few stories about Kei and Yuri on the
way to Thalok Prime and the bank.
At the bank Shifter easier get the Teller-Droid to hand over
the 20 million Imperial Credits. The only wrinkle was an old girl friend of
Taveer’s approached him saying she hadn’t seen him since his birthday. Her name
was Daw and she was really annoyed (but tried to hid it). She is also
super-rich but not noble. Daw’s sister, Onnill, is in better contact with
Taveer than Daw is.
Daw invited Taveer (Shifter) to lunch. Taveer (Shifter) sent
Xela back to the ship with the money while he went with Daw. They had sex in
her car. Daw wanted to take Taveer to see Onnill so that Onnill could see him
on Daw’s arm.
Using the excuse to put on better clothes he convinced Daw
to take him back to the Shamrock. When get got on board Xela hit the launch
setup and requested (and was granted) immediate launch.
The ship travels without much more incident until it reaches
the coordinates in the Bandoq star system where the rendezvous is supposed to
take place.
Xela is concerned when after several hours the pirates don’t
appear. Paladin says to wait for a day and then try to radio them. Almost to
the minute a day later the pirate ship, The Marauder decloaks and puts them in
a tractor beam. The dialog begins.
The pirate captain tells them he does not have the Count on
board and that he wants Taveer to bring the money over. Taveer (Shifter)
refuses and the group starts asking questions thinking the pirates are inclined
to answer because they want the money.
Au contraire, they claim the money is a pittance compared to
what they are already being paid to kill the Count and his entire family. He
(the pirate) wants to take them somewhere that they will never be found but
allowed to live. Just in case he needs the living Ubudgin family as a
bargaining chip against the Emperor.
He also tells them he can trust the emperor to make good on his
promised pay because his girlfriend is the Emperor’s eldest child and heir to
the throne. Oh, the Imperial family are telepaths just in case that is an
important thing to know.
The group decides that their only real option is to play
along with the pirates for now. Xela goes and hides in the engine area of the
Shamrock while the pirates project an air
corridor between the ships so the group can safely board the open deck of
the Marauder.
Stalker is going to teleport aboard the Marauder unseen and
try to sabotage the tractor beam emitter and look for Xela’s parents. Meanwhile
Shifter will continue his ruse of being Taveer, hopefully without the telepath
finding out. Paladin is pretending to be Taveer’s head of security.
Session ends just before the group is to board the Marauder.