033-1107 Arunisiir Starport
Returning to the Martin II for a third day of work on the crippled treasure ship’s engineering spaces, Deanna investigated the life support systems. She was interested in seeing whether there was a point that could be utilised to circulate a debilitating gas throughout the ship. She did find this, and she then had Cauldron and Anastasia look at the gas detection sensors that would need to be compromised to prevent the advanced filtration system removing any contaminant, but Anastasia found the sealed unit impossible to check in situ, and took a note of the model to research later.
As they arrived at the ship, the Drinaxian volunteers noticed a civilian with magnetic boots and advanced welding equipment working on repairing the hull plate damage done by the liquid hydrogen explosion.
Meanwhile, Dr Parsifal used charm and sympathy to persuade launch pilot Henshaw to talk about what was causing her such stress and depression. After some probing by the skilled interrogator, she broke down and confessed that she had done “something terrible”. Hroal Irontooth had located her daughter on Lilgan, and was threatening to kill the child unless Henshaw helped him to take the Martin II. She had to help Salvesdes get the treasure ship to the ambush in the Exe system where Felmar had failed.
Anastasia had grown concerned about the alleged treaty that Second Assistant Steward Vane thought she had found in purser Vaughn’s cabin, and the series of individuals asking about Tech World in various ways.
At lunch in the galley, Anastasia chose to sit near the astrogator, Osha, and started speaking – loudly enough for Osha to hear – about a series of what she hoped would be provocative subjects: Tech World, the vault, the journey, the crippled jump drive and so on. All this time, she was using her psionic abilities to read Osha’s surface thoughts. As well as alarm, she picked up passing concerns about whether someone would find something that was attached to the vaults, and how she was going to get that thing off the ship at Tech World and then back on again.
Parsifal found Crewman O’Leary, Marine Jen Laral and another, burly individual speaking in hushed but aggressive terms about something, but they stopped when he came closer. Parsifal questioned O’Leary about the vault, and discovered that it would only open when the ship was in Tyokh, and needed both the captain’s key and his DNA in order to do so.
Later, Dr Parsifal located Harc, whose misaligned cranial jack he had fixed, and found the marine sergeant delighted by the results. Harc, however, was disquieted and paranoid: he was sure that there was a psionicist on the ship, and maybe even several. He confided to Parsifal (who had not been on the ship at the time of the accident, and who had cured his headaches) that he thought that the Zhodani were probably behind the incident, and that there was more to come from them.
Deanna Stewart was summoned to seek Captain Torsa on the bridge. She quickly spotted that the captain was worried that Deanna – herself a former Imperium Navy captain – might look down on him. She flattered him and carefully referred to him as “Sir” and Captain” and the popinjay became happier and happier, treating her with condescending politeness: even friendliness. Soon afterwards, Deanna and the other Drinaxians found that their clearance had been extended to more of this ship: essentially all areas except for the bridge, private staterooms and offices, and the vaults.
On returning to their ships, that evening, both Timaeus and Parsifal noticed Aparo (the trader who had, while bugged, called Purser Vaughn to say that “Tech World is on”) surreptitiously taking photographs of both the Shinkiro and the So Much For Subtlety, as well as the rear of the Martin II.
034-1107 Arunisiir Starport
The Imperium close escort Arshad landed at the starport to resupply, and their Captain requested permission to come aboard the So Much for Subtlety to speak to her captain, Timaeus. On his arrival, he explained that he had done this to avoid awkward questions of precedence between the vast Imperium Navy and the tiny but ancient Drinaxian servicem with its two thousand years of unbroken lineage.
After ninety minutes of frenzied dusting and polishing and laying-out of best cutlery by Patrick, during which time he dragooned every droid on the ship into helping him, including the Manichaean Table, who was rigorously instructed that – for now at least – Imperium naval uniform meant “friend”, Captain Burghof arrived. Much to the relief of Patrick, he expressed a warm admiration for the Sindalian-Aslan fusion of styles in the ship’s interior design.
Captain Johann Burghof expressed his admiration of the actions at Acrid and Argona, and he particularly requested a blow-by-blow recounting of the cutting-out operation above Argona, about which he enthusiastically asked question after question. He was interested in the logistics, and eventually mentioned that there was a brotherhood of senior and retired naval officers, based around the system of Empire in the Trojan Reach, which had high hopes for Drinax based on her recent actions as a potential bulwark against Aslan expansionism.
Having heard rumours that Irontooth was hunting the Martin II, Captain Burghof expressed his fervent desire to ambush the would-be ambusher: would the Drinaxians not wish to join him and the Martin II, plus any other Imperium ships that turned up, in an action against the pirate, if he could be located? He was sure that such a glorious fight would see the Drinaxians’ standing with the Imperium soar.
Anastasia and Parsifal, in the meantime, sought out the ship’s purser: Vaughn. Parsifal questioned him while Anastasia read his surface thoughts. He seemed obsessed with placing the document in his possession into the vault, somehow, at Tech World. He clearly thought “if I get the fake treaty into the vault as planned then GeDeCo promised that I’ll never work again.”
At lunchtime, Parsifal spoke to Astrogator Osha. She kept checking the backs of her hands, compulsively. He played the role of concerned physician, psychologist and ultimately geneticist, leading her to admit that she feared that a flaw in her bloodline would see her outcast from Dolberg society and not allowed to have children if it manifested, which would first happen as dark lines on the backs of her hands.
She said, however, that she would soon have the money to have a correction done to her gene line, an operation that would take place in Tech World after the ship had finished its current run.