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'Memory Lapse'


Session 1.9: Yori, Treece, and Inthe


Session 1.8   Index   Session 1.10


In Jumpspace, Dave uses the parts we bought to fix the fuel tank hole we acquired at Dinom. Then he gets more erratic, is stopped from disassembling the manoeuvre drive, and locked up in the stateroom he shares with Jonah. Jonah moves out of the stateroom and into the upstairs storage area.

He, at the insistence of the others, then attempts to psychoanalyse Dave. He doesn't seem terribly good at it, so Avni, fresh from 'psychiatry for dummies' helps.

Hermes, in addition to his 'book of the jump', institutes group therapy for us all. Avni claims she is fine. Hermes is lost, and feels part of him is missing. Jonah feels much the same. Hans too has some of these feelings, and says he is tempted to give up what we are doing and settle down quietly somewhere. It is pointed out that based on our past lives we might just sink into obscurity and mediocrity if we do that. Dave refuses to talk and so we put him into the emergency low berth, for our safety, and his.

Everyone finds things with which to fill their time in jump:


And after a week, we come out of jump 100 diameters from Ruanec, the outmost planet of the Yori system, with our transponder off for stealth purposes. Ruanec is a small bluish-green gas giant with no moons, which we have chosen because it is probably little-visited and far from Priodym, the system's star. Our guess seems justified; there are no other ships about. We also detect no SuSAG ship from further into the system.

We move in, and refuel at Ruanec, then head out again, going into Jumpspace on the way to Treece. Hans attempts to operate the jump drive, with little success.


Treece has no gas giants, and no water other than on Treece itself, so we jump to 100 diameters from Treece, orbiting close in around the red star Jalla. Because Treece is so small we quickly move into orbit under the direction of traffic control (which is run by the out-system rulers of Treece, a coalition of the nations of Inthe). We are a little concerned at the xenophobic reputation of the people of Treece, apparently arising from their civilisational crash following a civil war, which led to Imperial intervention and hand-over of governance to Inthe.

There seems to be little space traffic in the Treece system, and no SuSAG ship, but lots of satellites observing the planet.

As we take up orbit, a 100-ton customs cutter detaches from the Inthean orbital station (which is not open to the public) and approaches us at high acceleration. We allow it to dock and a vacc-suited customs officer, who introduces himself as Customs Officer Smith, comes aboard.

We show him about the ship. He seems satisfied, approves our landing in the Western Sea to refuel, and leaves. The customs cutter zooms away.

We head down through Treece's thin atmosphere. We pass over several cities as we go down; they seem to consist of sealed skyscraper-type buildings and some greenhouse domes with plants visible inside. All of the cities seem to have visible war damage, the burned-out shells of buildings and so on. Some cities seem entirely abandoned.

We land in the Western Sea, one of the eight small seas on Treece, and begin to refuel and process the water in hydrogen. As this happens, we flick through the Treece TV channels. It seems largely light and entertaining, with some educational content. Local news is very light - there is not much of it, and what there is, is inoffensive and seems harmless. Off-planet news is much less sanitised. As we watch this, we see a number of news items. There are various items, Imperial pronouncements and so, from the far-away Capital. There is news (our news!) of the coup on Dinom. And there is news from Garda-Vilis. Apparently the activities of the Tanoose Freedom League terrorist group have taken a serious turn for the ruling Vilisians, with attacks on government facilities. There is speculation of Zhodani involvement. Doh!

After twelve hours, we have refuelled, purified the fuel, taken off and are at 100 diameters from Treece and ready to leave. We jump out to Inthe. Hans again attempts to operate the jump drive, again with little success.


While in Jumpspace we decide which of the five major nations of Inthe we are going to go to. The Confederation of Mesak, with its very high law level, we immediately discount. We choose the nation with the lowest law level - the Kingdom of Osoku.

One week later we emerge from Jumpspace 100 diameters from the small yellowish-green gas giant of Herro, of which Inthe is the outermost moon (out of two), and head in. As usual, we head in to refuel at the gas giant before heading for the planet. As we do this, we detect a SuSAG transponder code from a ship around Inthe. Damn. There are also a good many other ships around Inthe, including X-boat tenders and a couple of X-boats.

As we fly in, we signal the planet and find out what we can of the market for our goods. Unfortunately, from the news it seems that Inthe has recently had a large delivery of high-tech goods from Rhylanor, an 'experimental' delivery up the X-Boat route, so that there is a big glut on the market for high-tech goods at the moment. We look around for a market anyway. The best deal is from a company in the Confederation of Mesak, but its very high law level discourages us from going there. Instead, we settle for selling, at a slightly lower price, to Lesothu Distribution Services (LDS), a company in the Kingdom of Osoku. We arrange to land there, getting a little more money for delivering to them rather than to a space station.

We also look for places to sell the Calico Weapon. There are four ship brokerages operating in the Inthe system, all on the world of Inthe itself:

Both the Jato and Phillipson Brokerages have seekers not unlike ours in the price range of 20 MCr and 60 MCr. The price seems to depend on tech level (the higher the more expensive), age and condition. Hmmm.

We check the want adverts too, but no-one appears to be looking to buy a ship like ours at this moment. We consider placing a private 'for sale' advert instead of using a brokerage, but decide to check them out anyway.

We contact the Jato Brokerage, and send them a data package describing the Calico Weapon. Over the radio, they estimate that they would be able to give us 15 to 20 MCr for the ship, based on its condition, but would obviously have to examine it in more detail before settling on a final price. We contact the Phillipson Brokerage too and ask them for an estimate as well. They give us roughly the same sort of potential price range as the Jato Brokerage.

Based on what we know of the costs of ships, this would leave us 25% to 50% out of pocket when it came to buying a new ship at Rhylanor. We definitely consider placing a private advert.


By this point we have refuelled from Herro and are approaching Inthe. We need to work out where we are delivering our cargo to. LDS is based in the city of New Lesothu in the Kingdom of Osoku. Kingdom traffic control gives us a course to the city's spaceport, and we head into the atmosphere.

Inthe's atmosphere is tainted with pollution, and rather dirty-seeming. New Lesothu is a city of hundreds of thousands of people situated on the shore of a large lake in the midst of fairly barren landscape. It seems to be largely made up of skyscraper-type buildings. New Lesothu traffic control direct us to the airport, off to one side of the city, and in to a landing at Pad 2.

We settle onto the pad. The port is medium-sized, with terminal and hangar buildings off to one side under a brown sky and greyish, dirty-looking clouds.

Several people from port services arrive in a buggy; they are all wearing orange coveralls and gas-mask-like anti-pollution masks. With our permission they connect us to ground power and communications. With that done, we use the phone line to contact LDS and tell them that their cargo is here.

As we are doing this another buggy drives up to the ship and two people in bottle-green uniforms with anti-pollution masks and sidearms get out. They are Kingdom of Osoku Customs officers. We let them on board and they inspect the ship and us. They also take our 100 Cr landing fee. They find no problems, approve our landing, thank us, and leave.

Dave is taken out of the low berth, ready for the selling of the ship. He seems rather dazed.

We use the internet connection to look into gaining citizenship of the Kingdom of Osoku. This, and new identities and so forth can all be gained at the Kingdom's capital, Osoku City, which is another city of hundreds of thousands of people fifty miles from here. We download, fill in, and send off immigration application forms to the Ministry of Immigration. However, we will need to physically visit the ministry to finalise them. Entry requirements are not too stringent - 1000 Cr and no criminal record (under Osoku law, which is fairly liberal).

We also download, fill in, and send off the forms required to register us as a new company. We will be Ad Hoc Enterprises Co., not a LIC (because of the paperwork and traceability involved). This too will require finalising in person in the capital.

At this point two large articulated lorries turn up outside, and a foreman rings the ship's doorbell while other workers unload a little forklift truck from each lorry. They show us their authorisation to pick up the cargo from LDS, and hand over our payment. That done, we use the ship's robot arms to unload the cargo. The workmen use the forklifts to load up the lorries, and when they are done they thank us, re-load the forklift trucks, and drive away.


With that done, we get permission from traffic control to fly to Osoku City and take off. Given the sort of vessel we have, Osoku City is only a few minutes away. We fly there above a large road and parallel rail link. As the city becomes visible there are a god many skyscrapers, and a large complex to one side of the city, in large grounds, which is obviously the Royal Palace. On the far side of the city from it is a starport complex. Traffic control directs us to pad 3, and we land. Again, port services connect us to ground power and communications. And again, Customs arrive. They collect our landing fee (another 100 Cr) but do not inspect us, as that was done at New Lesothu.

We use the internet to order filter masks for ourselves so we can leave the ship without wearing spacesuits.

These are delivered very quickly, and while we wait we find out how to get to the Ministry of Immigration in the heart of the city.

With our new filter masks on we leave the ship and head for the Ministry of Immigration. We walk over to the terminal building and get a tram from there into the city. Half an hour later, we are outside the Ministry of Immigration, a large impressive building near the Royal Palace. We notice that all the buildings are sealed from the polluted atmosphere, and some have sealed and air-conditioned tunnels and bridges linking them to other buildings.

We go in, and are directed to the third floor. We are directed to an office where we are all interviewed about our reasons for wanting to immigrate. They seem to satisfy the severe-looking woman behind the desk, and she approves our applications and prints out identity cards for us all. We all now have new identities, which are as follows:

We thank her, and go upstairs to register Ad Hoc Enterprises. This too goes smoothly, and the company is created. We leave the Ministry, and wander into the city. We find a bank, and quickly set up a new account, into which the assets of the Ulot Mining Co-operative are transferred. Hermes also finds a post office and sets up a post box as the address of Ad Hoc Enterprises.

With all that done, we post a 'for sale' advert on the Inthe internet, advertising the Calico Weapon for sale. There are no immediate responses, but time will no doubt tell...

Then we look into how we might get to Rhylanor. It seems that the Tukera Lines megacorporation runs regular liner services up and down the X-Boat route, with ships leaving every four days. The 'Equus' leaves in two days, the 'Kinorb' in six days (all the ships are named for systems on the X-Boat routes). Two days is probably too soon, so we consider getting the 'Kinorb' in six days. We will travelling by Low Berth, to save money.


Now that we are in the city, we decide we do not want to live in the Calico Weapon while we wait to sell it. Instead, we will get a hotel here. We use the internet again and find a budget hotel close by, and go and book in. Even though it is a budget hotel, its suites are still nicer and roomier than the ship.

Once we are checked in, we go out again, to shop. We buy Dave (Mumu) a surplus Scout Service uniform to replace his fancy dress, in the hopes that it will help him recover. Maybe. Scarlett also buys him some construction toys and other distractions. Jonah stocks up on drugs, buying sedatives and other drugs which will hopefully aid in resorting Dave to sanity.

And we wait for a response to our advertisement...


Session 1.8   Index   Session 1.10

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