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Sally Rasputin leads SAFCO to a bar called The Alien Outpost. It’s a place that caters to non-human sophonts, and it is here they hope to find Slick (a Crab with a bad shell condition that keeps him coated with slime), Sally’s contact from Lomax. They find him there, tell him they want to meet with Lomax, and wait until the place closes (watching all the entrances) to see where he goes. They follow him into Scumtown where he enters a warehouse. The team surveils the warehouse and finally are invited in by Lomax. He has quite a few goons in there.
The team meets with Lomax, avoiding a fight. They tell him that Reesus is missing and he had been a source of good jobs. They’d like to do work for him. They see no sign of Reesus.
Lomax recognized them from the news as the people who saved the Baroness from assassination. He knows they are freelancers and very capable, and might be good associates. He offers them a preliminary “get to know him” deal. If they will make the 3 parsec trip to the Trask system and retrieve a load of radioactive minerals from the mining station there, he’ll of course pay them well, pay for their fuel, and it will set the stage for future dealings. The team accepts, mostly as way to get in good with Lomax and eventually find Reesus. They are told that in the morning Lomax will send his representative to their ship, to accompany them on the trip and do the deal.
The next day SAFCO, as they will be going to a place where radioactives are mined, buy some radiation suits (5), four radiation blankets, and a couple ofd emergency vacc suit survival kits. They will be traveling to the moon Desolis, in orbit around Trask-4, a gas giant. The system is amber zone due to civil unrest on the main world. They learn that Novasteel is a mining concern of relatively small size, but is profitable due to the nature of their specialties (radioactives). Desolis is a large vaccuum moon.
Also that morning a grav transport arrives delivering Lomax’s representative who is in cold sleep in a pod. They put it in the cargo bay, look in the small window, and see it is Reesus! Lomax has given him to them! The instructions are to thaw him out as soon as they are in space.
SAFCO sends Fardt to town to inform Mergatroyd and request that he come to the ship to smooth things over when they wake Reesus up. Barney makes a big show of ordering some ship parts, to explain their delay in lift-off to anyone watching them.
Fardt uses streetwise skill and finds out that administrator on Desolis sometimes does illegal deals…he is corrupt.
Mergatroyd arrives. They thaw Reesus out. Mergatroyd talks him down. The team thinks “problem solved” and they can now just deal with Lomax on their own terms. Reesus explains that no, they have to continue as Lomax has implanted a tiny explosive device in his neck. It will explode and kill him if removal is attempted or if Lomax detonates it remotely. Only Lomax has the code and means to disarm it. They decide to do the deal on Desolis, while Mergatroyd tries to raise a group to attack Lomax if necessary.
They jump to the Trask System, and are immediately located by a system defense boat. They are told they can skim from the gas giant and visit Desolis, but the are not to approach the main world of the system or they will be destroyed. SAFCO agrees.
After fuel skimming, they land at Sierra Praxis base, the mining operation. It consists of a number of large domed habitats and buildings, all sealed and enclosed on the surface of the small vacuum world.
Reesus gets a meeting with Dr. Jonton Fawke, the manager of the facility. Lucky and Flint go with him. Roger stays on the ship. Fardt, Barney, and Sally visit the tavern.
In the tavern, Barney, Fardt, and Sally make friends with the miners.
Reesus negotiates a deal with Fawke for two containers of radioactives. Lucky and Flint ask him some questions. Afterward they go to the base’s top-notch medical facility, where they ask the doc to examine Reesus. He confirms that there is something implanted and that it has a very tiny power source. He says it is consistent with that Reesus was told about it, and he would not try to remove or disable it. They join the others at the tavern.
A small tremor is felt throughout the facility and the power flutters briefly. One of the miners explains to Barney that a small meteorite probably struck nearby, which is not uncommon. Nothing to worry about. A bit later a loudspeaker tells Inspection Team 2 to report for duty. Again, the miner says this is nothing to worry about. They simply check for any damage to the facility from the impact. Members of the team go to the viewing room on the top floor of the habitat, and see no signs of trouble.
End of Session.
IY6026.268
Elapsed time: 394 game days
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