4 August 2023
It is time for us to depart from Drinax. Pent and Stigo get a little stipend from us to sustain them in our absence, and then we make for Hilfer on the first leg of our "Bacherlor party" trip to Sink. We've decided that Brick is to be the lucky man, though it's quite unclear who he;s supposed to marry.
Still. The trip is uneventful. The second leg is possibly even more boring that the first. Somewhere in the endless and vaguely star-studded tedium I sit for my first brokerage exams, but get confused on the difference between Indirect Off-planet Derived Income and Interstellar Non-salvage Profits and Gains, as redefined in the Empirian Taxation Protocol Update of 1101, and also fail to properly account for cryo-burn based value loss in perishable cargoes, and so I will have to do a resit.
Some of the crew are more successful like Diogo who gained adequate knowledge in all things related to sensors. Brick managed to graduate from the online school of stealth, nobody saw him for a week. Heloise while thoroughly understanding the theory of firing a gun, failed miserably in practical application. No one seriously wounded.
We make it down to Sink's spaceport, which is set up to process thousands but contains barely dozens, go through immigrations and make an acquaintaince with our government appointed guide. Almeca Bew, pleasant though she is, is an unwelcome surprise.
She recommends us a hotel, but promises to scout for us something with a bit more local flavor. We tip her handsomely, go for dinner and agree to meet at the docks the next morning so she can help us find a suitable ship and captain for us to go fishing with. Much to her dismay, we settle on doing business with Captain Fred, the worked-hard-and-put-away-wet-looking owner of the vessel The Loves Lost. Because there are not enough life vests on board, Almeca refuses to let us all board, and so Frankie and I go with her to see some local ruins - we're joined there by another guide, who seems to specialize in this area. Almeca seems very charmed by Frankie. Heloise takes boating lessons from Captain Fred, and Diogo and Randy manage to secure a catch of crabs and fish to supplement our dinner.
Our fishermen notice that our captain loves a sip, beer or otherwise, which is duly noted.
On day 2, we buy additional life vests for the boat and buy some whisky for our captain. Frankie and Almeca go to the local craft markets. No seahorses, just more crabs and fish (Diogo and Randy are getting terrifying with these harpoon guns) and Heloise continues her boating lessons and is allowed to try to dock the boat. We pay Fred for a minor repair (100 CR)
On day 3 we all set sail early, having agreed to meet with Almeca later in the day. We spot the magnificent sea horses, and I befriend one of the local crabs. We also locate our cache, which I mark with my communicator. Our techies rig it so that we can use it as a locator beacon.
We hand our beloved Captain the whisky and tell him that we'd like to go out extra early the next morning, but that we'd understand if perhaps that was inconvenient for him. For a 1000 CR deposit, he is willing to let us go out on our own.
Almeca has found us a local place to stay - someone who has some business off-planet lets us use their town home. This decreases our bills and gives us some privacy.
After having made ourselves at home in our new digs, we ask Almeca to take us hiking in the hills along the western shores of the lake. We have a little repast outside and we frolic to our hearts' content. We also very coincidentally happen to locate a secluded cove, hard to spot from land, but easily accessible from the lake itself. We take notes of checkpoints along the road, and spot two.
On day 4, I agree to await Almeca at our new location for a spa day at a civilised time. The rest of the crew sets sail at the crack of dawn - sans captain Fred - and retrieves the cache. Diogo, Brick and Randy work together to hoist the cache on shore, stow it in an out-of-sight spot in the cove and then install our state of the art fish finder on The Lost Loves.
I take to the steam baths and enjoy a rejuvinating facial treatment based on tea. Almeca seems to be enjoying herself, which is wonderful.
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