161-1107 Orpheus Base (TR 2523)
The crew of the Shinkiro (Anastasia, Lars, Dr Parsifal and Cauldron, with Krrsh in tow) parted company with the Recent Convert (formerly the Deepnight Amundsen), who left for Pandora and the hidden Martin II, accompanied by the Mercifuge.
Leaving the hidden Sindalian base – now reclaimed on behalf of King Oleb, himself the proclaimed successor-in-exile to the Dragon Emperor of Sindal, the Shinkiro jumped to Blue, where the Spark of Life was most recently reported to be. The Spark of Life was the ship of Dr Izikai Nafir, the bitter rival of Dr Parsifal, whose early career was blighted by Nafir’s plagiarism and betrayal.
Parsifal now sought revenge: a revenge made all the more convenient by the demand of Prince Harrick that he be able to provide Clarke with a science vessel capable of performing research and improving the health sector on Clarke before he accepts the role of High Psychopomp. Since this was Clarke’s condition for entering the Kingdom of Drinax, the party had genuine motivation to succeed in acquiring the ship in a way that would not see Harrick, Prince of Drinax, accused of piracy!
170-1107 – Bulhai Base, Blue system
The crew of the Shinkiro chose to jump, first, to Bulhai Station, the independent freeport on a moon of the outer gas giant in the Blue system which they had used before due to the presence of a mercenary supply company. From there they contacted Loren Els, a junior civil servant in Blue’s capital city, Elohai. Els had been recruited the year before by Basemath Mondrane, a colleague from Deanna’s naval career who was now a wandering agent and recruiter for the growing asset of intel sources in Deanna’s employ. Another agent existed on Blue – Fa Roysopp, a petty criminal – but the party chose not to activate her at this time.
While the party were nominally in Blue to pursue the Spark of Life, the growing hostility to Drinax of the Blue government, and the possible links to the government on Lilgan, were impossible to ignore. So the group asked Loren what he could tell them about the attitude of the government of Blue to Drinax. A couple of days later they got a response, detailing how, in the last 20 years or so, Blue had gone from a small backwater, essentially passive in whatever external relations it had, to possessing a virulently anti-Drinaxian media and (in recent years) to building, buying or renovating a far larger, jump-capable fleet than its economy could dream of supporting.
I’ve managed to finish compiling the latest fleet records. Blue’s got more ships than anyone here admits we can pay for — five Edict-class defence boats, five Vigilant-class corvettes, and two Bedrock-class carriers still “under evaluation” at the Highport. The Edicts are supposed to be system-only craft, but I’ve seen the movement schedules — they can be ferried elsewhere by the Bedrocks. Someone’s planning for more than defence.
No one down here in admin knows where the money’s coming from. Every budget line for the fleet ties back to something called “Special Continuity Funds.” When I tried to trace it, I got told (politely) to stop asking questions.
Morale’s good but the officers are nervous — too many inspections, too many “advisors” aboard every ship. None of us know who they actually report to.
I’ll try to find out refit schedules soon.
There’s a new hauler been bought in Empire which will go in for refit later this year: they are calling it the Cornerstone class liner but it’s supposedly a troop carrier, with small ships for ferrying troops to the ground. It should be commissioned in 18 months.
The party asked Loren to give them a summary of the fleet built by Blue. In the meantime, they moved to the surface of Blue itself, relying on disguise nets, a programmable transponder and the adaptable hull of the Shinkiro to avoid being identified as Drinaxians.
173-1107 – Elohai city, Blue
On their way to Blue’s capital city, Elohai, the party researched the Spark of Life and her time on the planet. They discovered excitable stories in the local press about the ship and her cutting-edge computer systems, which not just backed-up each onboard scientist’s work overnight, but somehow multiplied the productivity of each through a multiplicative effect. Aware of the trail of bitter former collaborators alleging IP theft that Nafir possessed – including Parsifal himself – the party viewed this with great suspicion.
They also spotted a news story about the quadrennial interfaith conference, held on a varying rota of planets over the years, which would start on Clarke in two months: it was being hosted by the Psychopomps this time, and the interesting news was the announcement that Prince Harrick of Drinax was slated to attend as guest of honour, while attendees were to include the Psychopomps of Clarke themselves, the Church of the Solar Divinity, the Church of the Starry Wisdom and the Shield Church of Neumann
Much of the press concerned a junior scientist by the name of Lira Venn who was joining Dr Nafir’s incubator aboard the Spark of Life. The party discovered that she was renting out her apartment during her absence and, posing as prospective tenants, visited her. Finding out more about the ship and the fellow scientists (of whom there were two, at least one of them far less positive about Nafir), Anastasia managed to arrange a tour of the ship the next day in her role of journalist.
The players decided to rent Lira’s one-bedroom apartment on Blue since the plan is to get Lars on-board the Spark of Life as a mechanic/engineer, and they supposed that he may need an address for his disguise.
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