Trouble on Boughene Station (Part 2)

The next morning Albert Zweistein awoke early and continued scanning for "bugs". John McLane returned from his luxury apartment where he'd been shot at the night before, and the two chatted more than they had prior. Both were quiet men.

Albert talked about his mother on Kinorb and how he had sought his fortune and worked for a noble who turned out to be crazy. The noble was a man named Sir Krington Kilson and he had founded a settler outpost on the world of Keppler in the Kinorb system. Keppler was a frontier world with a hard way of life, but it became harder when Kilson turned his settlement into a cult with outrageous practices.

Albert learned a lot under Kilson and was eventually knighted by him for the effort, but Albert became disillusioned and sickened by what he saw. He left…but his mother remained on Kinorb. Albert was pleasantly surprised when John explained that they were eventually headed to Kinorb at the end of the line in the Regina Subsector.

Pytor awakened and joined them in the Common Area. The three talked briefly about their lives and exploits until they were interrupted by a call from the police. In addition to the shot taken at John outside his luxury apartment, Rachel had been shot and injured in the left arm by a man also with a body pistol. That man too had been captured, but Rachel was treated and then questioned in detail. It had been a rare second shooting in a single night, so her questioning had lasted for hours. Now, a Detective Arthur Carson was on the way down to STARLIT for a visit.

Pytor learned that Imperial knight, Sir Scath Vornif, was not available for breakfast. He was off-station investigating an Ancient’s’ artifact site which appeared to really only be of interest because an entertainer wanted to go there. Miss Holly Folds was a vid entertainer famous in the subsector for history pieces and she wanted to see the dangerous Boughene Ancient’s site. The Knight was single and amused, so he escorted her and would return to the Station in two days.

When he arrived Detective Carson asked questions and explained that, though wounded, Rachel had wrestled her assailant until the fight was noticed by a guest. Security was called and this second assailant or agent was also taken to the brig.

When asked what the ship had been doing to make such enemies, Pytor explained that he didn’t know. They had passed through Feri but without dropping off cargo. Later their agent, Bolivar, dropped off a personal cargo of some kind. Pytor and the Detective talked about troubles on Feri and the Detective finished his questions and then left to analyze the bug. He offered a team to assist Albert with his sweep and Albert quickly agreed.

Soon after Rachel returned to the ship, and then the sweep team found a bomb outside the cargo bay in the Ships Locker. Everyone was asked to step off the ship, a bomb squad came and neutralized the bomb, and Albert and Pytor talked about paying for a security system. They eventually settled on a tenth-scale of the 1MCr Anti-Hijack software and security system. A spaceport agent promised that they could, “Install it for 90,000CR in two days. Six cameras, one for each access point, and a bridge monitor system. It can’t lockdown the whole ship but it can lockdown the two air locks.” Work began immediately, even as the Detective returned with more questions.

At almost noon Tabitha sleepily returned from her luxury quarters where she had overslept. She was surprised and somewhat guilty to learn about all the excitement; she had seen and heard nothing. As a skilled medic she quickly left to check on Rachel. The Gunner asserted to Tabitha that she was okay to fight and could carry out her Steward duties. She just needed a rest; she’d been up all night.

Another call came in. GP courier James Tagorr had something unusual for STARLIT to take to Pixie, and he was sending it to the ship now with two passengers. It was a weird morphing silicon polymer ooze (said to glow green and conform to cool surfaces – freezing solid when exposed to a certain light).

Alex Huffington, a grim muscular-looking armed man in a vacc suit, carrying a backpack escorted Dr. Terje Olefsson, a twitchy archeologist also in a vacc suit. Terje explained that they were eventually headed to the surface of the small vacuum planet Pixie which circles a binary star system. A noble there was paying a handsome price for the cargo.

John tracked down Brad Thompson, the cop who a former Marine who went easy on John last night. The two agreed to have dinner at a tavern in a few hours. John wanted to find out more about the “agents.”

Tabitha wanted to stay on the ship. She had missed enough action.

Albert was headed to a restaurant alone to pour through the Station’s Library Data. He wanted information on Feri and the troubles there.