Chapter Two: Queen of the Belt

[BackworldTraveller]

The hatch is open - both sides. You can see directly into the crew deck...but it isn't lit...Looking back, you have lost sight of the rest of the party, and the broken bits of plant material are still slowly drifting to the floor.

[cybersavant]

Reven Stiilpahth

moves up from the back of the group and follows Indrani inside. "Going to take a bit of work to clear all this out, see if the electronics are compromised."

[ateno]

Pranit starts researching ship cleaning companies anonymously.

[The Bindoner]

Nālani moves through the group around the door and carefully picks her way through the dried plants, following Idrani's path and trying not to get any on herself.

Tcha! A shameful way to treat a ship. Not even sealed. Looking at Idrani: This Navy must pay to restore the ship to the state they took it in, as the legal custodian, do you not agree, Captain of the Committee?

[Stirling]

Tiberius

on the way through the bays

Ngora your mind is very creative. I am sure Ms En Sabah could use one with such fancies in her media productions. Mind you apologise first. Politicians have to bite their lips even when grieved or offended. Humility will open more doors than banging."

He tries to steer the young woman to apologise to Noor. The 'my dad was murdered' comment was surely insensitive and untimely to Noor.

And he wants the girl to feel there could be something positive personally for her if she clearly wishes not to crew on the ship. An apprentice opportunity at a well respected corporate like Sabah Media or being the public face of Noor who wishes to be socially media distant, could be a good trade off. So he tries to surreptitiously use some persuasion skills to get her to apologise.

inside the ship

Trees everywhere. Does it look like some large cannabis grow. The trees under lights and in pots rather than rooted into the framework.

"Mr Pranit Kilrane-Bewoor. You inspected this ship. Perhaps we can all have copies of that inspection report and compare it to the present needs. See what needs fixing in the light of no further inspections by the navy or maintenance over the last years."

[joertexas]

Nālani moves through the group around the door and carefully picks her way through the dried plants, following Idrani's path and trying not to get any on herself.

Tcha! A shameful way to treat a ship. Not even sealed. Looking at Idrani: This Navy must pay to restore the ship to the state they took it in, as the legal custodian, do you not agree, Captain of the Committee?

"Oh, I quite agree," Indrani replies with a lurking smile. "Now, if we can only get them to agree, as well." She examines the ship more closely, looking first for any signs of structural stress on the hull, and any defects in the docking cradle's alignment. A collection of modules like this was never meant to operate in a gravity environment in the first place, she thinks.

[Monsieur Rose]

Noor

She smiles at young Ngora. "Thank you. I'm sorry to hear about your father. He was the previous captain, was he not?" She walks and talks with Ngora and Tiberius.

"It's been a long couple of days, thanks. I would love to do an interview with you sometime. We could talk shop. Legal blogging, hmmm. You know, I'm sure I can think of some people who could use some good social media help. I could put you in touch when this is all done."

When the doors open and reveal the state of things, her face falls. She was sure that the Queen would be her path forward, but now...

"What is all this? That vid feed showed none of this. Someone has clearly tampered with it to hide the truth." Noor stays outside the hangar and the vegetation within.

[BackworldTraveller]

With the party spread across the hanger - Noor at the Hanger Entrance, Indrani and Raven by the ship it becomes that the doors to the ship are open because the plants are part of a watering system that comes from inside the vessel. Each pot has its own light and drip-feed. They don't appear to be feeding any water, nor do they seem to have done so for ages.

(Anyone want to make a Science/EDU roll for identifying the plant type?)

Stepping across the dividing line from station airlock to ship airlock, there is that strange feeling as you step out of the artificial gravity into spin-only - a lurch. So the ships "a-grav" is off. No lights. No power at all. No air circulation. Inside the ship is definitely cooler than in the bay - but just as dry and a bit mustier. Looking at the control panel in the stations air-lock you can immediately see the issue. The ship services have been disconnected from the station - and with the powerplant off nothing inside has any power. And even the emergency batteries are drained.

[Stirling]

Tiberius

Scrunched up several leaves in the palm of his hand, grinding them into finer grains. He gives a sniff, tobacco aroma comes to mind, but of the waccy-baccy sort.

Tiberius investigates the trees and hydroponics [2d6] = 9

[ateno]

Tiberius
"Mr Pranit Kilrane-Bewoor. You inspected this ship. Perhaps we can all have copies of that inspection report and compare it to the present needs. See what needs fixing in the light of no further inspections by the navy or maintenance over the last years."

"Sorry those official records are locked away and I don't have access to them, even if I was active duty, I would need a reason.

From what I remember It was late in 289 and it was taking a load of prefilled containers to a smaller port in Sidar. The bridge was up to snuff, Notice to Spacers was updated, Engineering was updating main power software, I'm sure the ship agent brought it with him so the ship would pass. Some of the containers were mis-marked. Cracked a few, found nothing wrong, just negligence. I think there was a 8K fine after the lawyer dance. No pressing problems and maintenance We let them on their way after the update."

Pranit looks around.

That's what I remember, was that too much?

Pranit walks in and see the situation. Well they usually hide it, this is new to me.

[BackworldTraveller]

Tiberius

Scrunched up several leaves in the palm of his hand, grinding them into finer grains. He gives a sniff, tobacco aroma comes to mind, but of the waccy-baccy sort.

Tiberius investigates the trees and hydroponics [2d6] = 9

This you recognise from your Police days...its a native of Sapphire (Wheeze) and provides a mild, cheap buzz but is addictive and thus locally illegal. Each plant would be worth about Cr50. There's about 1 plant per square metre, so someone has walked away from over Cr6000 worth of crop, plus their equipment.

And you guys are in possession of the lot!

[BackworldTraveller]

n.b. Station services can be restored to the ship from the airlock control panel

[ateno]

Pranit walk all the way in and accesses the situation, finds and addresses Indrani.

Captain, the right thing to do is contact station police and report what we found and have them process the illegal material.
What are your thoughts?"

[joertexas]

Pranit walk all the way in and accesses the situation, finds and addresses Indrani.

Captain, the right thing to do is contact station police and report what we found and have them process the illegal material.
What are your thoughts?"

Indrani looks around at the contraband plants. "Let's hold off on the report until we can inspect the ship and power it back up. If we report it now, this becomes a crime scene, and they will boot us out. As long as we don't attempt to transport this material, then we aren't guilty of a crime." She raises her voice to address the group. "Please start documenting all of this and save our imagery. We will need it to prove that this plant material isn't ours, since technically, we do own it now."

[BackworldTraveller]

Pranit walk all the way in and accesses the situation, finds and addresses Indrani.

Captain, the right thing to do is contact station police and report what we found and have them process the illegal material.
What are your thoughts?"

Indrani looks around at the contraband plants. "Let's hold off on the report until we can inspect the ship and power it back up. If we report it now, this becomes a crime scene, and they will boot us out. As long as we don't attempt to transport this material, then we aren't guilty of a crime." She raises her voice to address the group. "Please start documenting all of this and save our imagery. We will need it to prove that this plant material isn't ours, since technically, we do own it now."

n.b. Technically, it is in the docking bay, not the ship. So the Port may consider it theirs not theirs arrgh, Advocate roll for GM

[BackworldTraveller]

Ngora

So this is what the ship has come to. A druggies haven! I hope you can get it tidied up.

Hmmm flicking through phone I know someone who could write up a drugs find on Port Authority premises quite nicely! He'll owe me for that tip.

[joertexas]

n.b. Technically, it is in the docking bay, not the ship. So the Port may consider it theirs not theirs arrgh, Advocate roll for GM

Indrani's concern is that the plants' life support was rigged from the ship. That, and mere proximity, muddies the issue to the point that she is trying to make it quietly go away. She'd prefer to float the ship out of the dock first, but that isn't happening without a readiness inspection. Unless... what's involved in obtaining a ferry permit? https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/fi ... permit.pdf

[joertexas]

Ngora

So this is what the ship has come to. A druggies haven! I hope you can get it tidied up.

Hmmm flicking through phone I know someone who could write up a drugs find on Port Authority premises quite nicely! He'll owe me for that tip.

Indrani steps over to her. "That's a good idea, but let's hold off on making that call for the moment."

[BackworldTraveller]

n.b. Technically, it is in the docking bay, not the ship. So the Port may consider it theirs not theirs arrgh, Advocate roll for GM

Indrani's concern is that the plants' life support was rigged from the ship. That, and mere proximity, muddies the issue to the point that she is trying to make it quietly go away. She'd prefer to float the ship out of the dock first, but that isn't happening without a readiness inspection. Unless... what's involved in obtaining a ferry permit? https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/fi ... permit.pdf

"is capable of safe flight" is yet to be determined...but yes, in theory

[BackworldTraveller]

Ngora

So this is what the ship has come to. A druggies haven! I hope you can get it tidied up.

Hmmm flicking through phone I know someone who could write up a drugs find on Port Authority premises quite nicely! He'll owe me for that tip.

Indrani steps over to her. "That's a good idea, but let's hold off on making that call for the moment."

OK - I'll just make notes, for now