First Call at Zila

Where the Travellers visit the moon Zila, learn more about the crash of the Mammoth and gain a new friend.

This note is from our August 17th, 2014 session and was mostly written by Carl with edits and additional material provided by Kay and myself. The portrait of the Baron is by Liz Danforth and the map is from TravellerMap.com.

Continued from: Natoko and Patinir Belt.

Date: 169-1104 Imperial.

Location: Trailing Station, Patinir Belt, Aramis Subsector.

About midnight ship time.

We had the cargo loaded and we had our fuel. As usual, that meant we were ready for departure, this time for Zila. Launch went without incident.

On the way outbound we passed the Dead Reckoning, a 200 ton free trader inbound from Zila. They updated us on what was happening in the Zila system. As we are always glad to hear, there was nothing to fret about.

177-1104
Arrival in the Zila system was uneventful. What we knew of our destination:

An Imperial world located in the Aramis Subsector of the Spinward Marches. Zila has a warm climate and a thin oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and seas covering more than half its surface. Zila is the moon of a gas giant, and suffers huge tides as a result. Three major continents cover its southern hemisphere, while one major continent is in the northern hemisphere.

Zila’s population is 66 million distributed mainly on the southern continents. The local government is a participatory democracy but with an extremely limited electorate. Suffrage is limited to land owners and even then only to those who hold 1,000 or more hectares. In fact, a parcel of land consisting of 1,000 hectares is seldom broken up once owned and is referred to commonly as a ballot. Families holding several ballots generally distribute them among the family members. Zila’s Law Level is high but is an accepted fact of life. The planet’s Tech Level is 7, lower than average but sufficient to make life comfortable. Zila is an agricultural world with a trading station to encourage exports to the Vargr.

In addition to Zila Startown, other major settlements on Zila include Suugadus, Dirniga, and Irkigaki.

The wine of Zila has an excellent reputation; recent vintages have been critically acclaimed throughout the Marches. Four wineries dominate the market: Fireau et Fille, Signal, Delatest, and Tukera.

AMBER ZONE: Zilan Law Level is C, sufficient for individuals to be detained on slight pretext; local legal machinery is slow and often tedious. Individuals are cautioned to exercise extreme care on Zila lest they fall foul of the law.

The Startown district of Crescence was a rough area. But it was where we needed to go to talk with people who might help us learn something useful. We did sign everyone up for legal services, and we all got buttons showing that we were covered.

One bar in particular, the Dead Spacer, sounded like a great place to visit. After the normal settling in period, we planned to go for a drink and gossip session.

Things we hoped to learn, either by gossip or by port records were:

1. The time between the Titan landing and the Mammoth departure. The Titan was the ship that originally carried the gun components.

2. Where they stored the cargo ( if anyplace off the ship ) during the transition from Titan to Mammoth

3. What ships, particularly of 150 tons or greater size, had left the system. 150 tons was our best estimate of the largest size container that parts would be in. Some of the containers could be as small as 10 tons. We didn't think it practical to try for total ship information. We just hoped for a statistically significant trend.

First night on planet we spent in the Skylark, reviewing what we knew. We also viewed the facial database of "persons of interest" that we had amassed so far.

178-1104
Morning found Sam hard at work, selling our cargo and on the lookout for more. Medicus was able to get a great deal of the ship information we wanted from the port computers.

Looking around the spaceport, we could determine that Vargr were nothing that would stand out in a crowd. Since there is a Vargr trading post and shipping on the port, that made good sense. With that consideration, Gvouzdon going with us made plenty of sense.

The Vargr import meat, wine and vegetables from Zila. Trade goods they might want if we return was a hot topic that morning. Kipenzi and Gvouzdon went to their shipping facility for a visit.

That evening, Sam and Leon kept the ship safe while the rest of the crew went out to the Dead Spacer. The bar had a life-sized hologram of a spacesuit floating above the door with it's faceplate smashed and a grinning skull within. Pam the bartender greeted us when we walked in. The old line, "You just never know nobody when your journey's at an end", came to mind. It was good to start with a friendly face.

The bar was not jammed, but had a decent turnout. The turnout was definitely grouped by company.
The Vargr section - The Akerut section - The Oberlinde section - The Free Traders

We sat at the empty table right in the middle.

The Tukera and Oberlinde groups were pretty well separated and pointedly ignoring each other. Beyond that it was a pretty friendly place. It was "The bar around the corner where they make you feel at home."

One of the port workers recognized Kipenzi from the morning, and bought us our first round. We got into the talk session we had hoped, with several other people gathering around and contributing. Most of the talk was about cargo and trade, and everyone wanted updating on the Mammoth crash.

One worker, Toby Oromo, had a lot to tell us. He confirmed some of what Kipenzi had learned on Aramis, and added a little more. He thought the engineer on the Titan was pretty crappy.

According to Toby, the engines were damaged by an "absolute rookie boneheaded move"..."NO ONE would do that"..."pure negligence". He also told us that the engineer, Jellica Chan, had only boarded the Titan on Inthe. We thought that perhaps someday a trip to Inthe, to find out why she got on there, might be in order.

Toby was also one of the mechanics who fitted out and certified the Mammoth as ready to go. He was concerned that the crash might badly affect his reputation and job options. While we would have liked to settle his mind, just tossing out "we think it was sabotage" was NOT gonna happen.

The Mammoth, as it happens, arrived here (Zila) for a standard wine pickup a few days after the Titan came into port. This was a new piece of information for us too, fueling our speculation that it was a long term plan from the beginning.

He confirmed that the Mammoth engineer had been mugged. Chan assigned to fill the position. He didn't know anything about who made the decision.

Some time into the story-telling, the Oberlindes table caught some of our talk. They asked us to join them. Their ship, The Margin of Profit, broke down here about 5 weeks ago. They have been unable to get repaired. Accusations that Akerut was interfering with their parts orders were frequent comments.

A couple of Akerut crewmen, plainly a little worse for drink, sauntered over near the table and started mouthing off.

“There is the crew of the Skylark, that boxy little garbage hauler in bay 33.”

“What you carry? 25, 30 dumpsters in that cargo bay?”

Oberlindes Crewman: “Easy… he is trying to start a fight.”

“Ever carry scrap metal? There will be plenty once they finish cutting up that old wreck in bay 16.”

Fig yelled "A ROUND FOR THE HOUSE ON THE SKYLARK", but it was drowned out by the non-verbal interaction that started at that point.

Fig didn't see much of it. He did see the bottle coming, but was unable to duck in time... So, lights out for the Newton, thanks to a well thrown bottle.

Waking up in jail later was not a real surprise. Kipenzi and Medicus filled in the timeline. They were trying to get Fig and one of the Oberlindes crew out just as the local law folks arrived. Good thing we had arranged for the legal representation.

Surprisingly, we did not need it. Sam had called the law firm we insured with. He knew what happened because of the camera/radio gear we carry, and had a good set of footage ready for our defense.

Early in the morning of 179-1104, the police let us go. All fines paid, all damages covered, come back and see us again. Someone named Arrlanroughl had covered it all.

Fig's primary small crossbow/calf brace was confiscated. He filled out paperwork requesting it be returned to the ship. Naturally he would pay whatever the fine imposed. Fortunately, Medicus and Kipenzi were able to get their rings back. Sentimental value, don't you know. The thing about glowing near Ancient sites is just a bonus.

Later that morning we got an invitation from Arrlanroughl to come and talk about a possible job. He had bailed out everyone except the Akerut/Tukera crews.

We learned he is a passenger on the Oberlindes ship. Stranded here for several weeks. Filthy Akerut/Tukera interference.... Speculation was that he wanted off the rock.

A meeting was set at the local equivalent to the Ritz Hotel.

Arrlanroughl met us at the door and lead us into the main room then everyone did a double take because we recognized the man in the room. Arrlanroughl was the personal assistant to Marc hault-Oberlindes, Baron Feri, owner and CEO of Oberlindes Lines.

He was sorry we got caught up between Oberlindes and Tukera/Akerut, but was happy he could smooth things over.

For business reasons, he wanted to relocate his sector headquarters from Paya to Aramanx. He hoped we could carry him and his right hand Vargr, plus 30 tons of cargo that was needed to start a new office.

Secrecy was very important. He suspected (strongly) that he was being watched by the opposition and stopped by continued sabotage on his ship that he’s been waiting to get ‘fixed’ for the past 5-6 weeks.

He had some pretty sophisticated protection on his side. Our transmissions to the ship ceased the moment we entered the room with him.

The short version of the plan was:

• The Baron's staff would rent him a house/villa to move to.
• They would arrange for several preparation groups to be finishing up as he was arriving.
• The Baron would go in the front door of the house and change into workmen's clothes.
• He would go out the back door and get into a truck and be driven to the Skylark.
• As or slightly before that, the cargo (150 tons) from his ship would be moved to a warehouse. The important 30 tons would be diverted, and 30 tons of stuff we got would take its place, so the expected 150 tons would arrive at the warehouse.

While all that was set up, we checked on the Wolblutn's flight plan. Captain Bannerji was still a vague itch we would like to scratch. His almost certain use of a nuke at the Patinir system frying a shuttle had put us off it a little bit.

He had filed a flight plan to Pysadi from Patinir, but had clearly bypassed it and come straight here. He had left Zila a few days before our arrival.

The day came, 186-1104, and the game was afoot. Almost everything went according to our plan, with one small hiccup. Unfamiliar with all of the traffic signs, Fig made a slightly illegal turn and was stopped by a Traffic Enforcer.

This was during a loop-around that would let Sam see if we were being followed. No way to sweet-talk these officers, it was ticket time. Oh well, just another business expense.

With that one slight oops, the plan went off well. We launched off Zila and out of system.

187-1104 Early morning ship time.
Heading into jump space, bound for Aramanx

The trip was uneventful, if a little less classy than a Baron was accustomed to.

In a clumsy move, Fig dumped coffee on both himself and the Baron, scalding them both. He also tried to blame it on Arrlanroughl which didn't help matters. Between that and the illegal turn ticket (Oberlindes was in the truck), the Baron has serious doubts about his competence.

Kipenzi reminds FIG of an ancient Valani saying, that dates back to the first days of the Rule of Man a thousand years ago. In High Valani, it says: "Then tithatai ketsap sto kalamari, exene!"

That translates as: "Ketchup does not belong on the fried octopus, foreigner!"

194-1104
Out into the Aramanx system, docking at the orbital port.

Library Data: Aramanx (0605-B657974-6) is a balkanized world at the edge of the Towers Cluster, colonized in the 400s by settlers from Junidy. The initial colonists were a utopian group who attempted to eliminate warfare by returning man to a simpler state of existence. The technology required to construct fusion power plants, gravitic drives and nuclear bombs was renounced, leaving the colonists at Tech Level 6.

As later generations spread out across the planet, schisms developed and war was reintroduced: gradually, under the pressures of nationalism, all of the old beliefs died apart from the traditional hostility to new technology. Now even that is fading as offworld contact begins to make high technology the price of national survival, although a large segment of the population in every nation remains hostile to the new ways (and to the offworlders who bring them).

The planet is an average sized world with a thin atmosphere; 70% of its surface is covered by water. The five major continents include a varied but generally rugged terrain which has further encouraged the world’s characteristic balkanization.

Aramanx has a population of 1.6 billion people spread across eight major, and at least 20 minor, mutually independent nations, each with its own government, laws and society. The overall Law Level of 4 applies strictly to the orbital facility that serves as the starport for Aramanx. This Class B port, completed only within the last 10 years, was financed by a consortium of Imperial commercial concerns at the urging of Sternmetal Horizons, LIC, which has a heavy interest in Aramanx. It is only in the years since Sternmetal Horizons first began to open the world to extensive offworld contact that the planet has begun to advance but it remains incapable of producing fusion power, grav technology or even primitive atomic weapons. Extensive industrialization has kept pace with the rapid population growth of the last century or so and Aramanx is widely believed to be perched on the edge of a crisis period that could see the world blossom into a rival to Aramis or Junidy, or explode into a dangerous and world-encompassing war.

AMBER ZONE: Currently, the situation of Aramanx is one of watchful tension, particularly in the area around Lovrenyi. Several states remain technically at war and periodic raids and short thrusts are common. However, most nations on Aramanx are holding back for fear of lighting the fuse that will set off the ‘Powder keg of the Towers Cluster’.

As we came into station, we were viewing a news update on the goings on (part of our normal inbound preparation) Lo and Behold!!! On screen was Capt Bannerji, in a suit no less!

He was on screen during a report on a protest about something dealing with Sternmetal and Vargr mercenaries. We had to scratch our heads about that.

Businessman turned nuke bombing ship captain?

Captain laying low with his backers?

Maybe one of the major players in the gun theft?

"We figured that he was taking lanthium ore from the Patinir belt out to the Vargr extents and bringing it back in to sell for more money than the Imperium pays for in-system ore. We also figured that his ship was unlikely to have a nuke, and it’s more probable that an unknown third ship was involved. But the Capt in a suit here, ….. not adding up at any level" – Kipenzi

Maybe we should stay here a few days and see what he is doing.... or not

Continued in The Wolf at the Door

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet, Leedor on Aramis.