Next day, Jonah checks on the fifth person, and he comes out of his coma. He is confused and disorientated. Things are explained to him, and we show him about the ship. It seems that he is an engineer/tech type, and knows about sensor operations too. He gives himself the name of Dave Kevinsson. He is not impressed by the lime and lavender paisley mu-mu he is dressed in.
A bit more shopping is done, in particular Dave's mu-mu is returned and exchanged for more sensible clothing. Hermes shops for books, and buys a disc of ten thousand out-of-copyright novels, which should keep him occupied for a while. Jonah shops for medical texts, in particular those involving anagathic research, and buys a number of books.
Then we go back to the New Rome enclave (with Dave) and to the Broken Leg. Mr Zhuniashtu is there again, and waves us over. Dave looks ... interestedly ... at him. He tells us that he has arranged a job for us. He wants us to go the world of Mjolnir, on the Coreward edge of the Sword Worlds, pick up a cargo from there, and take it to Garda-Vilis in the Imperium. Two technicians will travel there with us and while we are in jumpspace en route to Mjolnir they will change our transponder and do other repairs (for example of the airlock door and the hole where the gun turret used to be).
We agree to this plan. Mr Zhuniashtu thanks us, and we leave the Broken Leg.
The techs will take a while to arrive, so while we wait we go about the dockside and find a few cargoes of luxury foods and drinks waiting to go to Mjolnir. There are enough that we manage to exactly fill our hold. This will earn us a tidy few tens of thousands of Royals, upon delivery. The cargo is loaded into the Tessalon.
To act as cover for our activities we also register ourselves as a trading company, Camp Freight Limited. This is quite easy to do in the Duchy of New Aachen, though it does cost some money.
Eventually the two technicians arrive. There is an older and more experienced man named Stefan Alokhan, along with Brian Stregoi, who is younger and less experienced. With their arrival we are ready to go, and so we do. We board the Tessalon and, with the permission of traffic control, leave the space station and head out and away from Joyeuse towards the 100 diameter limit of the star Carolus.
As we fly out away from Joyeuse a space battle breaks out in space over where the war is taking place on the ground. Fortunately we are nowhere close, but we speed away anyway...
And after some hours we are in a position to jump safely, and the drive is engaged. Into jumpspace we go.
En route to Mjolnir, Stefan and Brian break the seals on the Tessalon's transponder (very illegal!) and start work on it. Wires are rearranged and new components installed. Dave watches them as they do this, hoping to learn how to do it himself, but it does seem to be rather ... specialised ... work (not to mention difficult). However, after a while the new transponder is installed. Rather than the Tessalon, the ship is now the 'Camp Crusader'. The transponder says we are hull number #1 of a unique design hailing from some far-off planet, and our records say we bought it on a world in Corridor Sector. The old transponder identity can be reactivated if necessary.
Stefan and Brian also install a new airlock door, so we now have the full set of four airlocks. They also go EVA and glue some plates over the hole where the gun turret used to be (these cannot be welded on because of the high-tech hull type).
Jonah does research using his new books, but is having trouble with the different medical terminology used in the Sword Worlds.
Dave performs some proper repairs on the main data bus from engineering to the bridge, causing a few worries when he cuts it again, but no major problems.
Unfortunately, it turns out that there was something of a cock-up going into Jump, which means we are in jumpspace for ten days, rather than the usual week or so. This is rather worrying, but has no other bad effects, and we emerge where we expected....
And so we arrive in the Mjolnir system...