The crew spent some time on Coriolis, restocking the ship. Hamsa had business elsewhere, so had disembarked, taking his collection of spare parts with him. While shopping for replacements, Tahir ran into the person who'd sold him his second hand environmental scanner. He was quite keen to get off station in a hurry, and we were very much in need of someone better at negotiation if we were going to keep paying the mortgage. Karim joined the crew.
We had already been looking at the Rimward Reach after our experiences on Kua, so when Jinna contacted us, worried about Lavim once again, we were ready to listen. She'd had a message from him, giving coordinates out in the Reach, near Djachroum station, and while it looked a lot like a trap, we weren't going to miss out on an opportunity to get to the crew of the Fatima's Bounty.
The mortgage was still on our minds, however. It was a three week journey, and it made sense to pick up some cargo to take with us. Karim got talking, while Sayah searched online, and between them got us some work transporting a cargo. Good pay, no questions asked. Karim managed to squeeze an extra 2000 birr out of the deal. Along with a few tons of mineral extractors that we were confident would be an easy sell at Djachroum, and a surveillance mission to carry out on arrival, we'd covered the cost of the journey with some profit on top.
Jinna was keen to come with us and see for herself what had happened to Lavim. There was some initial doubt about whether it was worth bringing her, but after she auditioned as ship's cook by making us a three course meal, we were finally convinced. She also saved us the trouble of getting a pet for the ship by bringing her own cat.
The three week journey passed uneventfully, and we arrived at Djachroum. Jinna was keen to get going, but first we had cargo to deal with. We unloaded the 'no questions asked' cargo and picked up our pay, and found a buyer for the mineral extractors. We were tempted to stay longer and investigate the supposedly haunted part of the station, but Jinna was very insistant, and with no real reason to delay, we set off again to the coordinates she'd given us.
When we arrived we found only a signal buoy. Tahir spacewalked out to pick it up, and Sayah extracted the message. Another set of coordinates and a message that he hadn't been able to wait any longer. It was looking more and more like a trap. But we weren't deterred.
We found the Fatima's Bounty, attached via airlock to an asteroid. Something wasn't right here. The ship was dark, and as we approached, the sensors failed to locate any life signs aboard. Closer inspection revealed the ship didn't even have atmosphere.
We suited up, and attached the Aliya to the ship's other airlock. With some help from Suleiman, we got aboard. There was some debate as to what to do with the ship given our history with them. Sayah's suggestion was that stealing their cushions seemed appropriately petty.
Karim: "Do you know how uncomfortable it is trying to fly in a ship with no cushions?"
Others: "Yes! And it's all because of them!"
All the same, there were probably people in trouble here, and unlike the Fatima's Bounty crew, we weren't the kind to abandon people. After sending in Gurgeh's reconnaisance drone, we made our way to the bridge. Power was down, but Gurgeh managed to rig up enough power for Sayah to pull the final logs from the ship's computer.
It didn't make for comforting reading. Two boarding parties had been sent out. Both had lost contact after only three minutes. Not long afterwards, something had started affecting the ship itself, causing it to fire one of its torpedos with the torpedo bay door closed, and finally an infection of data memes lead to a complete shut down. Gurgeh told Suleiman to separate himself from any of this ship's systems immediately.
We could walk away, taking the ship's cushions and abandoning the crew to whatever fate had become of them. But that (apart from the cushions, at least) wasn't who we were.
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