Eshtam arrives at the spaceport in the early afternoon, slightly worse for wear after a night on the town with the Imperial navy's finest. Captain Aalir meets her on the landing pad and introduces her to the rest of the crew.
[The captain and crew have been randomly selected from 1001 Characters (with the Captain's Pilot skill replaced with Ship's Boat), and their inter-relationships generated according to Zozer Games' Star Trader. I've included the absent pilot in the mix to help figure out how the crew will feel about her 'replacement'. Gender for each was 50/50, race determined by a d6: 1-4 standard human, 5 solomani, 6 vilani.]
| Name | Race/Sex | position | 1001 chrs | Age | Feelings about... | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot | Engineer | Medic | Captain | Gunner | |||||
| Druna Bellos | Sol. F | Pilot | Other 39 | 34 | Secretly hates | Ignores | Openly jealous (of ship) | Loner | |
| Daffid Jones | Sol. M | Engineer | Merch. 3 | 22 | Secretly siblings | Share secret | Making sexy time | Loner | |
| Gelray M'Hooc | Hum. M | Medic | Merch.20 | 26 | Inseperable buddies | Lifelong friend | Secretly jealous | Knows dark secret | |
| Kaduushili Aalir | Vil. M | Captain / steward | Merch.12 | 46 | Inseperable buddies | Share secret | Loner | Lifelong friend | |
| Zet Mornako | Hum. M | Gunner | Merch.1 | 22 | Friend through guilt | Ex-friends | Bitterabout past | Knows dark secret | |
[From here on, I'll be using Star Trader tables for ship encounters and events.]
The Galatea leaves port without incident. On the way to the 100-planetary-diameters limit for jump, the comm picks up a distress call from a 600t asteroid-mining derrick. One of the derrick's workers has become suddenly violent. He has a gun and has injured or killed [(1d6+3)x10] 80% of the crew. Captain Aalir doesn't want to risk the ship or her crew on a rescue mission, and cites the urgency of their delivery, even though it would only be 6 hours out of their way.
[Q: Is there any dissent? Yes. roll 1d3 for dissenting crew member.]
Gelray, the ship's medic, insists that they have a duty to provide aid to fellow spacers. The captain puts it to a vote [50/50 Y/N for each crew member]. Eshtam certainly votes to help, as do three of the crew. Only Daffid (perhaps unsurprisingly) sides with the captain.
Six hours later, the Galatea makes her final approach to the mining derrick. Eshtam effortlessly [roll 9+pilot+dex=12] matches speed and vector with the platform and joins the airlocks. The comm has been silent for some time, so everyone arms themselves from the ship's locker before proceeding.
The interior of the derrick is heavily damaged, but the atmosphere and gravity are still normal. Eshtam leads the boarding party, pistol at the ready.
[Q: Is the violent crew member a criminal? No.
Q: Is he a disgruntled employee? No, but... he's unhappy with working here.
Q: Has he turned to drugs to deal with it? Yes, and... he's having a psychotic episode from some bad shit.
Q: Is he still out of control? No, but...]
The violent crewman is sitting on the floor of the mess hall amidst broken furniture and at least one body. When he see the party, he picks up his weapon [an auto carbine] and waves it in their direction, mumbling for them to keep back.
[Task: to talk someone down from a drug freakout
difficult (-2), INT + streetwise, Medicine or Psychology, 10-60 minutes
Eshtam rolls 4+2+2, failure.]
After 20 minutes of trying to talk him down, he panics and opens fire. He sprays bullets into the corridor wildly, but no one is hit. Eshtam and Zet return fire. The belter is hit, and goes unconscious but is still alive. Gelray stabilises his condition and issues a sedative whilst the rest look for survivors. Gelray patches up the injured, but it is decided (unanimously) that no one wants to wait around for the authorities -- an SDB is en route and will arrive within the hour. The survivors on the derrick are in no mood to argue. They thank their rescuers, and allow them to depart. Soon, the Galatea is in jumpspace, en route to the next system.
The jump is nearly uneventful, save for a minor power failure. Zet (the gunner) blames the Daffid (the engineer) for not performing adequate maintenance, and it nearly comes to blows in the common room. Gelray manages to break it up before it boils over. Zet sulks for the rest of the jump, and refuses to talk to Daffid at all.
Eshtam isn't sure what to make of this ship. Perhaps should have listened to the security trooper's warning...
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