Interlude 1 - Gateway to Naxos

      Stormwind undertook the pilot/astrogator role and soon realised that he was woefully unskilled at the task (when he was serving, he was an insertion specialist and he left the rest to the bridge crew.) However, the "No Strings Attached" made a successful translation to Jump space, en-route to Naxos.

"We need to hire a competent pilot. How's our guest?" Stormwind glanced across to Julia, who had slipped into the co-pilot's seat.

"Resting. He's not too bad; a few days should see him fit"

"So, what do you reckon to him. What was all that about, back on Gateway Station?"

Julia glanced out of the forward window and felt the blind spot. She shivered. She hit the control that blanked the windows.

"I don't know. The one goon was trying to search him; the one that got away. Next we know, there's an air/raft chasing us. He was obviously desperate to get away from someone, or something."

Stormwind checked over the instrument panel readouts. Everything was on the green.

"We first met like this", mused Julia. "Remember? When you pulled me off Jamison's World." She leant over and kissed him on the cheek. "It's a week to Naxos", she murmured.

          A few days later, they were all seated in the common area in the ship. Trobb was recovered, but still looked pale.
"I'm really very grateful for this", he stammered. "I didn't expect you to get so involved."
"Involved in what, exactly?" said Stormwind. "Why were those men after you?"
Trobb spread his hands. "I don't know. I was leaving my hotel and I saw them following me. They must have mistaken me for someone else."
"So, what do you do?"
"I'm an air/raft salesman, on a roving commission. I work for Universal Flyers, based on Pavonis. My job is to set up dealerships in different systems."
Stormwind glanced at Julia. She shook her head slightly. "Something doesn't ring true".

THE CURRENTS OF SPACE

Issue one:  Gunfight on Gateway Station

            Date: 031-3201

            Some days later following the meeting with Colonel Head, Stormwind was discharged from the hospital. He and Julia headed to the spaceport to check out the “No Strings Attached”.

            The ship was a standard Type S scout, about twenty years old. It was obviously used, but was clean inside. Stormwind checked out the captain’s stateroom (identical to the others except for the bridge repeater instruments mounted on the bulkhead.) Julia claimed the stateroom opposite.

“What are you doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m coming with you. You need someone to look after you”

            Having checked over the ship, they retired to a nearby bar, the “Double Helix”, to discuss future plans. After discussion, they decided to head for Corinth, in the Trade Worlds Consulate; en-route they would seek out any information about the Vargr raids. Stormwind arranged for a message drop at the “Double Helix” in case they got separated. The bartender, Ryk Storm, was happy to oblige. A young man, he wore a full-face optical visor, indicating that he was blind. He wore an Imperial Marine Corp lapel pin.

“Where did you get injured?” asked Stormwind.

“During the Sheol campaign. Faulty face mask let in alien spores that ate my eyes.” He shrugged. “Could be worse.”

Back at the table, Stormwind and Julia discussed the route they would take.

Julia advocated a Jump-2 to Naxos, refuel and then Jump-1 to Corinth

There were a handful of people in the bar; Stormwind looked up suddenly as the door burst open. A young man strode towards them.

“I’m Daniel Trobb. I need passage off-planet immediately. I can pay you 1000 creds now, with the balance when we reach …

            His words were cut short as two men carrying auto pistols came through the door. The leader fired a burst, cutting down Trobb. The bar patrons dived for cover; Stormwind loosed off a shot but missed. One goon went to Trobb and began searching him. Julia pulled her Compad and put in a call to the police. Stormwind fired again and took out Goon 2; Goon 1 was still searching Trobb when Carter whacked him over the head with a chair. Ryk Storm pulled a shotgun from under the bar and yelled to the goon to stand down, the response was the guy made a run for the door. Stormwind tried to grab him, but the goon kicked him off and escaped.

            Julia ran over to Trobb, he was alive but badly wounded. She tried to apply first aid using the bar’s medikit, he stabilised but was still badly injured. Meanwhile, Stormwind searched the body of the goon; he took his autopistol (still with 14 rounds loaded) and a membership card of the “Silver Star Circle.”

Stormwind had heard of this; a very exclusive members-only club on Corinth.

“The police will be here any moment”, warned Storm. “I’ll stall them, you need to get well away; and take him (Trobb) with you”.

            They carried Trobb out to the air/raft outside the bar (Gateway Station is a diverse space station; the main access tunnels are large enough for air/rafts and there are many open spaces.) Stormwind took the controls and they headed for the spaceport. An air/raft swooped out of a side alley and gave chase! Stormwind tried some evasive manoeuvres to lose the pursuer; it didn’t work and they closed up to short range. A flurry of shots was exchanged, leaving Stormwind’s air/raft badly damaged. Julia used her captured autopistol to keep the enemy air/raft at bay, most of the shots missed. Finally, with the spaceport in sight, a lucky shot from the pursuers hit the power plant of the air/raft and Stormwind had to pilot it to a crash landing inside the spaceport. There was enough reserve power to limp to where the “No Strings Attached” was docked, they boarded in a hurry and headed out of the system towards the jump point.

            Julia settled Trobb in a stateroom; then she and Stormwind took stock of the situation. The air/raft was badly damaged and needed extensive repairs. Obviously someone was after Trobb, and all the evidence they had pointed to something going on in the Corinth system. They decided to stick with the original plan.

 

The Currents of Space - Prologue

Prologue:

            Stormwind struggled back to consciousness and tried to look around. There was something wrong with his vision, it was blurred and he could only see through one eye. He was in a hospital bed, with medical equipment surrounding him. Finally he focussed on a familiar face – Julia! She smiled and took his hand.

“Welcome back. You’ve been out of it for some time”

Stormwind reached up and touched his face, feeling the synthiplast patch where his right eye used to be.

“What happened? I don’t remember anything.” Julia frowned; then lowered her voice. “You were on an undercover mission to Corinth, something went wrong and you were shot at point-blank range. The back-up team pulled you out and you’re back here, on Gateway Station. You had serious head injuries, the surgeons tried but they couldn’t save your eye.”

“Thank you, Ms Carter, you saved me the trouble of explaining that”, came a voice from the door. “Of course, I assume you know that you should not have had access to any of that information?”

The speaker was a tall, grey-haired man wearing the uniform of the Gateway Scout Service. He closed the door; then moved to sit opposite Julia.

“Colonel Head”, said Stormwind. “Good to see you, sir”.

The colonel did not reply; instead he took a small object from his pocket and set it on the bed. It emitted a low, bone-jarring humming sound. “Sonic scrambler”, he grunted. “Need to be brief; this thing sets my teeth on edge, but it stops us being overheard.”

He suddenly rose, crossed to the window and closed the blinds.

“Something big is going on, quite what we don’t fully understand. Someone is stirring up unrest in the Trade Worlds against the Cluster; the Cluster in return is moving towards a war footing. Pirate raids are increasing along the Corridor and Vargr Corsairs are making bolder raids deeper into our space. In all of this, the Duke of Pavonis has kept a low profile and has said little; very uncharacteristic of him.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a PDA.

“Officially, because of your injuries, regrettably I have to terminate your employment with the Gateway Scout Service, effective immediately. You will receive the appropriate mustering-out benefits based on your service. However, I want you to act for me. I am releasing the Type S Scout ship “No Strings Attached” to you on a long-term loan basis. All the details are here on the PDA. I want you to act as my eyes and ears in the subsector. Travel around, trade, explore, be a traveller. Keep your ears and eye open; any information of use is to be fed back to me. “

He picked up the scrambler and rose to leave.

“Colonel. One question. Who did this to me?”

Colonel Head looked down at Stormwind. “Genuinely, I have no idea. Despite what your girlfriend says, you were not working for me whilst you were on Corinth.”

Traveller Solo Gaming

Hmm. Whilst surfing the Net, I found that someone is running a Traveller solo game using a flowchart that I created and posted years ago (I also updated it for MGT and re-posted it, only to be accused of plagiarism!) This got me into the mood of playing Traveller again (after all, it was the second RPG that I bought, around early 1978). So, here is "The Currents of Space" solo campaign. Any comments welcome.

Set-up
a) Setting. I decided to create a subsector on the edge of the Imperium, definitely non-canon so I can pick and choose bits that I like.
b) Drawing inspiration from Stars Without Number, I created five Factions to create a dynamic background to adventure in. The Factions are: - The Duchy of Pavonis (an ambitious Imperial noble), the Trade Worlds Consulate ( a loose Federation), the Vargr raiders (I like the Vargr as a PC alien race), the Promethean Cluster (a collection of worlds that use eugenics and selective breeding), and the Gateway Corridor (a series of Jump 1 worlds that link the major factions.) At the centre of the Corridor is Gateway Station, which is a bit like Babylon-5.
c) The rules set is MGT, with bits of CT thrown in, plus some home-grown stuff, plus some SWN.
d) The solo system is my own flowchart, augmented by Mythic GME and a random adventure generator that I created in Excel. Shaun Travers (the guy who sparked my interest again) suggested using Rory's Story Cubes to resolve encounters; something I might explore later.
e) I intend to use the same background to run some Games for my son Ben and his friends (Ben loves the Traveller CharGen system). We have a regular Monday evening meeting.