8 September 2023

The town has taken notice of our presence for sure. On day 5, Brick get approached by the local pusher, to see if he's interested in any of the local supply of chemical feel goodies. Franky takes Almeca to a local museum for the day and we go out and uh... fish. When we make it back to port I am... "invited" to a "lunch date" with the local arm of the law the next day.

On Day 6 we make a particularly good catch - no need to buy our lunch today! I also make sure to freshen up, and meet up with my lunch date. If there was ever a human expression of the concept of beige, it would be officer Ted Crescent. The food is mediocre, the conversation stilted and this place barely serves beer, let alone a half-decent wine.

Officer Ted asks, point blank, if we're trading weapons. I answer him equally point blank that no, we do not. He seems satisfied and otherwise uninterested in anything.

Upon my departure from the restaurant, I am bumped into. Concerned for my wallet, I quickly inspect myself and find all of my belongings plus a note with a reference to coordinates and a mention of a rock.

I bring this to the attention of my companions and after some deliberation we uniformly decide to let sleeping, possibly arms-dealing dogs lie. Randy makes compelling arguments here - he appears to have an unusually strategic mind.

On day 7 we split the party. Heloise purchases a horribly, gaudy statue of a six-armed baboon who is supposed to be named Tarkuman. We have a god catch of fish and crab on the water, and the land crew comes bath with a treasure trove of mushrooms. It is far too much for us to eat, so we split it with Almeca to take home to her family.

Day 8 brings more of the same - amazing hauls of both mushrooms and seafood and - lucky for us, - more seahorse footage to show off to the people concerned with the fun of our trip.

Diogo also catches that we're being followed for some time as we make our way to our boat, but under his instruction we manage to shake off our shadows. I'm beginning to see genuine potential in the level of alertness that he brings to our goings-about. What's that old saying? "It's not paranoia if someone is actually out to get you"?.

During the quiet hours that me, him and Heloise spend fishing that day, I share with him an idea that I have been hatching for a while. For sure, the Calendula-expedition crew would benefit from anonimity and a safe(r) way to make a living than just as random mercs for hire. When I try to explain to Diogo the precariousness of throwing in his lot with a group that's wanted by one of the most powerful organizations, he lights up. He too, it turns out, is concerned with hiding his name and operations from prying eyes. While incorporating formally was not on his radar, he quickly sees the potential of having the bland facade of a business to hide behind. He promises to consider the idea. Whatever herb he's smoking seems to have taken some of his edge off, and I, too, find it adds a pleasurable haze to a productive morning.

Heloise's face is unreadable when I find her at the rudder, but I assume she notices my relaxed state. I pitch her the same idea as I did Diogo, though, where I talked to him about security and layers of anonimity, I talk to her about the need to have a legitimate business face and a way to.. engage in unproblematic activities, like aid work, and the need for someone with a good reputation to start helpful initiatives. It takes her a while to understand the duality of the offer, but soon she's at least somewhat enthused. She promises to speak to Brick.

On Day 9, we head north far enough to hit Sverny waters, and local law enforcement descends upon us like locusts. They have /questions/ about the absence of our captain, but we can answer those with a little "mordida". 160 credits go a long way in this place. At some point, I manage to catch Randy's attention and talk to him about possibly putting a legitimate face on our activities. Out of all of us, he seems to be the one who needs it the least, but he appears interested nonetheless. His knowledge of organizing and networking, as well as his laser tight focus on mission objectives, make him an asset.

Day 10 sees half of us taking Almeca to the local farms and harvest markets. There are only so many ways to prepare sea food, after all. The other half of us fishes, and while we spend some money on farm products, we still manage to secure most of our own food.

Day 11 An utterly unremarkable day.

Day 12 We're going camping! Near Quartz! I take Almeca shopping (-50 cr), and the rest fetches the necessary from our catch and works on hiding it on our boat.

Day 13 We get close to Sverny and once again are accosted by cops. We decide on a change of tack.

Day 14 I feign illness to draw Almeca's attention, and to get Heloise out of the tent she shares with Almeca. Without me and Frankie, the crew sets sail for forbidden waters, using our boating expertise and the cover of darkness to explore what are supposedly the most dangerous areas in the region.

After a night's sailing, the crew makes contact with the local rebels (Luis and Bob most notably, but there are many others) and find them not nearly as dangerous as advertised. In a stroke of brilliant social acuity, they promise to transport testimony of the rebels' plight off-world in return for shelter from prying police eyes while they search for the sunken ship. Once they find it, they gather the wanted data, and Randy retrieves the ID badges of 6 of the deceased crew. The rebels admit that they ahve been trying to reach out. The note in my pocket was theirs.

That evening, the crew finds the ship, retrieve the data, and set sail back to Quartz. They make it back at dawn, much to my relief.

Now, how do we get off this blasted planet?

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