We'd received word that the Fatima's Bounty had been sighted at an ice moon, and Tahir was quite keen to go after them, but the rest of the crew had more of a humanitarian mission in mind. There were all those survivors that needed relocating. Plus there was the reporter from the Bulletin, Anata Gram, also looking for a ride back to Kua to deliver her story in person. Tahir was overruled.
Shahim had jumped ship, and Alqadi was also nowhere to be found, so we urgently needed a new crew member. Fortunately, one of the survivors who'd lost his own crew and ship in the Ghazali incident was in search of a new berth. Hamsa signed on as the new mechanic, and also ship's accountant.
Sayah and Hamsa went to talk to the station commander, in the hope of getting some money out of him regarding the survivor relocation. Unfortunately he was unmoved by tales of having to replace extensive amounts of furnishings, but he was persuaded to give us a free refuel, so we could at least get the ship to Kua. And the stasis pods for the passengers were a loan, and would be picked up at the other end.
Tahir and Lila talked to Anata Gram, convincing her to pay an appropriate fee for passenger travel, and also setting some ground rules for her time on the ship. No entering the crew member's private quarters, and no recording without permission.
We loaded up. Suleiman got renamed to Aliya (with a change of voice), just in case Anata noticed anything about the AI. Lila, resident portal obsessive, plotted the jump and Tahir set a course. We climbed into our own stasis pods and waited.
We awoke on the other side, feeling slightly sick as usual, but definitely in the right place. Gurgeh broke out a game of Dungeons & Dragons, and we entertained ourselves for the rest of the journey to Coriolis.
Sayah sent a message ahead, to warn the station we were bringing in the survivors and request that they had people ready to pick them up. Anata sent some messages of her own, setting up an appearance on a breakfast talk show. Tahir and Lila agreed to make an appearance. Sayah refused, Hamsa wasn't of interest to the show at this time, and Gurgeh had been banned by the rest of the crew from talking to anyone. They did still attend the recording for the free meal though, with Sayah taking Gurgeh shopping in advance to rent him some decent clothes and get a dupatta to hide her face with.
The talk show was a great success, with Tahir and Lila making sure to talk about the Fatima's Bounty and the actions of Sabetha Pour and the captain, in between discussing our heroic actions.
We attempted to contact our patron, Dr Wana, but she was unavailable due to currently being planetside. She did send word that someone would be coming to talk to us, however, and it wasn't long before Tahir got an email. It was a bit suspicious, referring to retrieving an item without much associated information. Sayah got on the data net and space googled (spoogled?) the sender's name, Merez Alcan, which got us a decent amount of information. He did seem somewhat dodgy, but we decided to meet him all the same.
Sayah took advantage of the plentiful markets of the station to go shopping, returning with a small packet she was unwilling to share, and an oud.
We went in search of Merez Alcan, and found him in the bar where we'd agreed to meet. We shared drinks while hearing him out. He was an artifact dealer. A contact of his, Lavin Tamm, had found an interesting statue and was offering it for sale. He'd checked with his buyer, and had the sale agreed, but when he tried to contact Tamm again, he couldn't get in touch with him.
He gave us some leads - the area where he'd last been seen, and his favourite drink, a rather unusual beverage known as Miran fire kohol.
Gurgeh scanned the picture of Tamm into a drone, set the facial recognition running, and sent it to fly around the area. Sayah went back to the market, and spoke to a kohol trader who was able to direct her to the White Turgah, a dive bar selling Miran fire kohol. Sayah bought a bottle of wine from him by way of maintaining good relations.
The whole crew headed for the bar, a thoroughly classy place with a door shaped like a giant cat's head with sabre teeth either side of the entrance. Sayah soon established that Miran fire kohol was on the menu, and Gurgeh ordered shots for everyone.
The shots were served on fire. Lila, Sayah and Tahir (the well brought up members of the crew) put theirs out with their hands and drank them. Gurgeh (pleb) put his out with a coaster. Hamsa (also pleb) attempted to drink his while it was still on fire, and managed to burn his nose hairs.
Some chatter with the barman persuaded him we weren't intending to get his customer into trouble, and he pointed out Jinna, a friend of Tamm who might be able to help us find him. She took off when she saw us heading her way.
Lila set off in hot pursuit. Sayah did the same, slightly concerned about Lila getting into trouble by herself. Gurgeh didn't run, but did find a short cut. But it was Lila, after narrowly wriggling free of the grasp of one of the guards, who finally caught up with Jinna.
The talk show had been a worthwhile exercise. We and our ship were now moderately famous for our heroic exploits, and it helped persuade Jinna that we didn't mean Tamm any harm. She let us know where to find him. A boarding house.
The boarding house owner was surprised to see so many of us, but quite happy to have Lavin Tamm taken off his hands. Apparently he kept throwing up in plant pots. We went up to his room, where we found him looking extremely ill. Radiation sickness, we assumed, and Gurgeh confirmed it for us. He didn't want to come with us, but was ultimately persuaded that if he wanted to live, he needed treatment in our med lab.
We wound Sayah's dupatta around his face and headed back to the Aliya (where the AI had been renamed Suleiman, at Sayah's insistence.) He told us about the statue and where he'd hidden it, but warned us that someone else was after it. He wanted nothing more to do with it.
On the surface this seemed like an easy job. We knew where the statue was, after all. But who else was after it, and why? And how, exactly, had Tamm picked up such a serious case of radiation poisoning?
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