Year 1107 Day 018
We lifted off just after day break. I let the crew sleep in except Virlasttii who was
coming home just as we were getting ready to leave. The engineer had prepped the THREE
PLUS THREE before turning in. We made port 2 hours later.
A crowd had gathered around the small craft landing pad as we came in. We set down
nearby and made our way over to see what was up. Ramik Sajjo's shuttle had been
cordoned off with crime scene tape. To my great shock, a security man explained that
he'd been abducted.
By lunch we'd gotten the ship ready to go, but it looked like it was all for nothing as
the local authorities hadn't found Ramik Sajjo. The crowds and security men had broken
up and I was waiting by the ship when one of the port's ground-crew approached me. He
was tall and seemed too well-groomed to be part of the engineering staff. He handed me
a hand-comp, inside which was a video of our steward, sandwiched between two armed men
and wearing Ramik Sajjo's cloak! I was flabbergasted and turned to ask him what this was,
when I noticed he was holding a small automatic.
"Your man says he's here. We want Sajjo. Now!" he hissed in a Vilani accent, before
forcing me inside the ship.
We found the steward's room, but it was empty. Sure enough Sajjo was aboard, coming
from the aft. He spotted the man with the gun and produced his own weapon: a gauss
needler. A gunfight erupted.
Fortunately he drove off the impostor without anyone getting hurt. The crew had come
forth and we confronted Sajjo about the situation. He confessed to coaxing the steward
into wearing this cloak, flying the shuttle back here for 500 credits. He realized
when we discovered the radioisotope on the cloak, that he'd been marked for something
nefarious. We chided him about putting our steward in danger but he felt the man
would be fine. Also, he wasn't about to turn himself in; then added that unless we
got underway soon, he'd make sure we never worked in this subsector again. It wasn't
an empty threat and one I had to take seriously. Rock meets hard place.
Thirty minutes later I got a radio call from the Vilani. He regretted his actions as well
as the situation. When I informed him that Ramik Sajjo had no intention of surrendering
he thought it over. He already knew about the wreck. He promised to release our steward
on two conditions: one, that we make a copy of the navigation computer of the wreck and
two, that we give the dead Vilani aboard the vessel a proper burial. Apparently he'd
purchased the dead man's hand-comp at the auction. It was how they'd tracked Ramik Sajjo
back here. I agreed to the Vilani's terms. Our steward would be in no danger and I could
vid-tape the burial and bring the copy of the navigation core to him upon our return.
Seventeen days later we came back and I exchanged the nav-core copy and the vid for
our steward. And Ramik Sajjo got his salvage. He might be a big shot in Krefek's eyes
but he'd sure dropped a few notches in mine. I decided I'd had enough of ARKADIA and
we found the first cargo we could and jumped spinward to GARDA-VILIS.
We lifted off just after day break. I let the crew sleep in except Virlasttii who was
coming home just as we were getting ready to leave. The engineer had prepped the THREE
PLUS THREE before turning in. We made port 2 hours later.
A crowd had gathered around the small craft landing pad as we came in. We set down
nearby and made our way over to see what was up. Ramik Sajjo's shuttle had been
cordoned off with crime scene tape. To my great shock, a security man explained that
he'd been abducted.
By lunch we'd gotten the ship ready to go, but it looked like it was all for nothing as
the local authorities hadn't found Ramik Sajjo. The crowds and security men had broken
up and I was waiting by the ship when one of the port's ground-crew approached me. He
was tall and seemed too well-groomed to be part of the engineering staff. He handed me
a hand-comp, inside which was a video of our steward, sandwiched between two armed men
and wearing Ramik Sajjo's cloak! I was flabbergasted and turned to ask him what this was,
when I noticed he was holding a small automatic.
"Your man says he's here. We want Sajjo. Now!" he hissed in a Vilani accent, before
forcing me inside the ship.
We found the steward's room, but it was empty. Sure enough Sajjo was aboard, coming
from the aft. He spotted the man with the gun and produced his own weapon: a gauss
needler. A gunfight erupted.
Fortunately he drove off the impostor without anyone getting hurt. The crew had come
forth and we confronted Sajjo about the situation. He confessed to coaxing the steward
into wearing this cloak, flying the shuttle back here for 500 credits. He realized
when we discovered the radioisotope on the cloak, that he'd been marked for something
nefarious. We chided him about putting our steward in danger but he felt the man
would be fine. Also, he wasn't about to turn himself in; then added that unless we
got underway soon, he'd make sure we never worked in this subsector again. It wasn't
an empty threat and one I had to take seriously. Rock meets hard place.
Thirty minutes later I got a radio call from the Vilani. He regretted his actions as well
as the situation. When I informed him that Ramik Sajjo had no intention of surrendering
he thought it over. He already knew about the wreck. He promised to release our steward
on two conditions: one, that we make a copy of the navigation computer of the wreck and
two, that we give the dead Vilani aboard the vessel a proper burial. Apparently he'd
purchased the dead man's hand-comp at the auction. It was how they'd tracked Ramik Sajjo
back here. I agreed to the Vilani's terms. Our steward would be in no danger and I could
vid-tape the burial and bring the copy of the navigation core to him upon our return.
Seventeen days later we came back and I exchanged the nav-core copy and the vid for
our steward. And Ramik Sajjo got his salvage. He might be a big shot in Krefek's eyes
but he'd sure dropped a few notches in mine. I decided I'd had enough of ARKADIA and
we found the first cargo we could and jumped spinward to GARDA-VILIS.
