In jumpspace, Cleon uses the system to forge identities for us all and cement our control of the ship and its computer system. All of us think the Tessalon is very high tech, compared to what we seem to be used to.
After a week we arrive at the Joyeuse system, coming out of Jumpspace at the 100 diameter limit for the system's star, Carolus, because Charlemagne, the gas giant which Joyeuse orbits, is in orbit 0 for the system and thus itself within 100 diameters of Carolus. We head in, identify ourselves to the Gram Squadron who are patrolling space there, and refuel at Charlemagne. That done we then set a course to Joyeuse itself. We are careful to use the defined approach lanes!
There are several orbital facilities around Joyeuse. We choose the New Aachen orbital facility over those of the Kingdom of Joyeuse and the Duchy of New Olenburg as new Aachen seems quite liberal, and its space station has an enclave of the Empire of New Rome, whose law level is as low as it goes. The Tessalon trundles in and we dock at the space station. Spacesuited dock workers plug the ship into station power. With the power connection we also get an internet feed and hundreds of channels of free TV.
Quite quickly a New Aachen customs officer arrives; his name is Garamond. He takes our docking fee and performs a polite but thorough customs inspection. We tell him that the damage the ship has came from a pirate attack in the Orcrist system; he seems quite surprised by this news, but not disbelieving. In conversation with him during the inspection we find that there is another ship like the Tessalon here - the Corzide, in bay 37. Apparently it arrived here a week after the Tessalon arrived in Orcrist. Bugger.
The customs inspection over, we arrange to have the Tessalon's life support system and supplies re-stocked, then leave the ship and go out through a large docking/cargo handling space and into the station proper. We head for the main shopping/eating area, a mini-mall-like space, and buy various things, in particular some clothes to replace the overalls we have been wearing since we got our of low berth (a couple of people, particularly the person in a coma, are bought lurid mu-mus). That done we head for the New Rome enclave. The on-station entrance is a bit too heavily guarded for our liking so we go back to the ship and go to the enclave in the ship's air-raft. We dock at the enclave's airlocks and go in. The smartly dressed thug guarding the docking area lets us through without problems.
Inside is a riot of shops, bars, brothels and everything else, all brightly lit with holograms and neon. We are looking for people who can change our transponder; this is probably illegal anywhere else but here! Most people here are armed, but all seem polite, too.
Cleon seems to know his way around this sort of place, and leads us away from the main corridors into less-travelled areas. We end up in a narrow back-corridor that ends at two bars, the Moonbeast and the Broken Leg. We go into the Broken Leg. Everyone goes quite a and looks our way as we come in, but return to their drinks quite quickly. We look around and head for the bar, buying drinks. Carla, the attractive topless barmaid, directs us to Mr Leo Zhuniashtu, who is in a corner booth. In said booth we can see a big man who looks in his forties, muscular, with chiselled looks, long flowing hair and beard, dressed in a smart suit. This is Leo, and he is clearly in charge. With him sit a scantily-clad girl, who he has his arm around, a scantily-clad man, someone who looks like an accountant, and four thugs, two men and two women, all with large guns.
Cleon goes over to talk to him. The thugs scan him for weapons and he gives them his gun before sitting down. The rest of us watch. Cleon explains the problem to Mr Zhuniashtu. He says he can arrange the re-transpondering of the Tessalon. This would normally cost fifty to sixty thousand Royals. However, as we do not have that amount of money it can probably be done in return for a favour. He will make some enquiries.
As Cleon talks, the others notice a man at another table watching Mr Zhuniashtu and talking into something on his wrist. Hermes goes and sits down at his table and engages him in conversation, trying (quite successfully) to distract him. The man tries to get rid of Hermes politely, but Hermes won't take the hint. The man eventually tells Hermes that he will have to 'demand satisfaction' from him (i.e. duel him) if he doesn't go away. Hermes goes away, but Cleon is done by this point.
Cleon thanks Mr Zhuniashtu, his gun is returned to him, and he rejoins the rest of us. We leave the Broken Leg and go and shop.
We buy weapons and ammunition here, because New Rome's low law level allows us to stock up on things like ARL ammunition. Cleon gets a new power cable for his laser rifle. The shop owner tries to interest us in all kinds of things. We do try out some swords too (what with the duelling culture that seems common in the Sword Worlds). Of us all only Su-Lin seems familiar with swords, Cutlasses in particular. She buys one. We all buy suits of cloth armour too.
As we wander the enclave we eventually notice that we are being shadowed by one of Mr Zhuniashtu's female thugs, who seems very good at this sort of thing. We do not do anything to throw her off our trail.
Then we head back to the air-raft and fly back to the Tessalon. As we fly back a small, heavily armoured high-acceleration Customs vessel intercepts us and we are searched by customs for illegal things. They do not object to our weapons and so forth, but we are warned not to take various things off our ship and into the New Aachen part of the station while we are here.
Back on the Tessalon, Cleon searches the New Aachen internet as we consider selling this ship and replacing it with a less 'hot' and more anonymous one. Several auction houses have some battle-damaged Jump-1 freighters and one Jump-2 freighter. Some second hand ship brokerages have more battle-damaged freighters and ships repossessed due to their owners not making the mortgage payments. One of these has a yacht for 100 million Royals (with 3G acceleration, Jump-2, lots of staterooms, a launch, some cargo space). From the prices on the web sites we estimate that the Tessalon is worth 100-200 million Sword World Royals.
Evening comes, and we go out for dinner on the station.
As we eat the ship is rung by the captain of Corzide, Captain Aria Xan, and the call is diverted to Hermes. She basically wants gossip about the company, what we are doing here, and so on. We (Hermes, anyway) tell her some lies and a few facts, but are generally cagey, citing mission secrecy. She seems a bit offended by this, but doesn't let it stop her. Eventually she rings off.
Dinner over, we roll back to the Tessalon and sleep in the ship.