On Canaan

Alex landed on Clemency station and obtained permission to proceed to the planet on a beautiful day. The planet was a religiously oriented, repressed society, and the export of “horse embryos” was a necessary source of capital for the world. They were actually the product of abortion clinics, which were illegal on Canaan. 

Having made the deal collected cargo, the high-tech cargo containers were loaded onto a horse drawn cart for delivery to the Alex Murphy. As the cargo was being loaded, they noticed a young boy drawing a picture of the ship.  The boy was about to get chastised by her mother when Grendel approached and attempted to calm her.  A man approached to intervene, and Grrr joined to get control of the situation. The boy ran off to the other side of ship to continue his drawing. A crowd gathered to admonish Grendel, and Grrr commanded that they disperse. He told them that they would depart as soon as the cargo was loaded. The crowd dispersed when Grendel went to assist with the cargo.

In the mean time, Kovak kept an eye out for potential stowaways to assist in getting aboard. She shielded the boy from prying eyes and noted younger children under the care of an older girl approaching the boy.  Then the girl tried to sneak onto the ship.  At that point, the ship’s guns started pivoting about menacingly while Grrr confronted the crowd.  Kovak got the girl onboard, but made a loud noise. Alex shut the door to cover it and had a droid brought the girl a snack. 

The man threw a punch at Grrr, he ignored it, and knocked him out. The man’s support saw this and were cowed. Grendel announced that the ship was about to leave. Grrr turned to return to the ship.  He heard the sound of a shotgun and advised against that course of action. The shot went wild. Grrr knocked the man out. Grendel cocked his elephant gun. Grrr commanded the locals to collect their fallen and get them out of blast range. Alexed buzzed the crowd on takeoff and released some smelly exhaust over the town.

Kovak released the girl from the closet and brought her to Bletherin.

En Route to New Florida

On the voyage, Bletherin introduced the geneticist to the “horse embryos.” She advised that there were 400 mixed race embyroes, some of which had been in storage for a long time. From their condition, the facilities on Canaan were exceptional, suggesting some degree of official sanction.

At Australis

They jumped to Australis, using both pilots, where they discovered a really big ship upon entering the system. The were no signals from the ship or the construction facility. As both pilots were fatigued, they cold not jump straight away. Alex  scanned and noticed shuttles transiting between the ship and the station. He picked up transmissions on a normally unused channel and set about decoding it. 

Alex moved the ship closer and the comms activity increased. Then another ship undocked from the large ship that was about the same size at the Alex Murphy. Bletherin waited for the other ship to communicate. The smaller ship started turning toward them. Alex shot a probe in a circuitous way in order to send a virus to infiltrate the big ship.

Bletherin hailed the shi as the “free trader Bad Wolf out of Estra.” There was burst of static from the other ship. Grrr charged the weapons to invoke a response. The ship continued moving forward. Then a machine-translated voice made contact. Bletherin replied that they were transporting a consignment for House Huresca. The other ship slowed down and changed course to between the Alex Murphy and the other ship.

Bletherin said that they came to refuel at the station.  The other ship replied that they could not allow it. Bletherin said that they could not jump without fuel. Nothing happened for nearly an hour.  Then a tanker emerged from the station to refuel them. Alex stalled the operation to facilitate his probe.

Eventually, the ship was refueled. Alex infiltrated the tanker with a virus to enable Alex to probe with. The ship had a name painted on it in a non-standard alphabet and identified that some of the characters were G’frar.  The probe retrieved data, but there was too much to download in the time available. 

There was nothing suspicious about the space station crew, but there was evidence that the station had sent a distress call.  However, it may have been jammed. The big ship started speeding up operations to hasten their departure. Alex extrapolated their destination. He successfully prevented them from planting a virus, but created misinformation for them to retrieve. In the meantime, he reprogrammed his probe to cause minor failures to delay their departure. The big vessel redocked its ships, including the tanker, but the tanker wrecked the docking arms in the process.

Kovak did the in-system jump to behind some moons around the neighboring gas giant.  There were hidden from the other ship. Alex prepared two plots, to Mentra and Tarring, depending on which way the other ship went.  

Over the next four hours, they detected various problems on the big ship, including a shuttle crash. Then numerous ships jumped into the system. The ship powered up its jump drives, but it took longer than normal.  The smaller ship undocked. Four CEP destroyers were heading to intercept, but the smaller ship ran in the other direction. Alex shadowed the vessel.

The large ship’s jump process powered down and restarted. They realized that they had been hacked. Then the little ship jumped. Kovak determined that it jumped to Carrick’s World, which was not expected. Bletherin alerted the cavalry to their identify and jumped after the smaller ship.

Carrick’s World

The primary planet, Carrick’s World, was under human quarantine. Upon entry into the system, the other ship was not detected. Alex went ito stealth mode. There were six other planets, some with several large moons. There were signals from Equis, the other main planet, asking someone to identify and stop. Grrr detected the ship heading past Equis toward Carrick’s World followed by another ship. They appeared that they were preparing to land there.

The pursuing ship fired and it the other ship and it disappeared under the clouds of Carrick’s World. Alex went to active scanning. Grendel sent a stealthy signal to the station as an undercover CEP agent on the ship and they they should not interfere. He got a short acknowledgement. Alex scanned actively and discovered a furrow in the surface, but the ship appeared to be intact. Grendel determined that these ship would be able to lift off after extended repairs. Bletherin sent a signal to CEP alerting them of the ship and the Alex Murphy resumed its course for Mentra.

Mentra

The jump to Mentra was uneventful. They went to the science station and dropped off the geneticist and the stowaway there. Alex finished interpreting the data and determined that the big ship was definitely G’frar. He uncovered G’Frar star charts that identified their less travelled routes. He also found genealogical data demonstrating a preponderance of engineering knowledge being passed down. He also found a desk plan of the big ship.

On to New Florida

They continued on to New Florida to make a proper report.  Nothing seemed amiss.  A liner departed as they arrived, adn there were a large bulk freighter in dock. The crew reported to their contact at Joe’s. The large ship got away, but not before they were tracked.  They reported that the small ship crashed on Carrick’s World.

A few days later, the core was swapped out with non-viable embryos, and new cover cargo was loaded. Then they set off for Loranis. 

Chain of Command

  • Bletherin – Garlan (scaled hexapeds, with the front set of limbs equating to arms with four fingers, and
    the second and third having cloven hooves) Captain of the CEP Alex Murphy
  • Grrr (aka Snarl) – atypical Harth (furred mammals that resemble semi-anthropomorphic dogs) Head of Security on the CEP Alex Murphy  
  • Alex – the CEP Alex Murphy AI
  • Grendel – Heffulump (alien with multiple tactile appendages) Engineer of the CEP Alex Murphy
  • Kovak – Human Pilot of the CEP Alex Murphy