Thursday 8 November 2018

The Delegate

Recovering
Still recovering from her wounds, Lady Nitrane was confined to bed in the Harrier's medibay. A number of guards had been set, including representatives of the King's personal guard in battle dress. The rest of the travellers gathered around and considered what they might do.

Abruptly the door opened and in walked Lord Wrax, a sour look on his face. "Hello Nitrane" he intoned, and moved to the side of the bed barely glancing at the rest of the party. "I understand that you are to choose the delegate that will attend the space port opening on Vorito. Naturally, I am the most suitable candidate and you must choose me."

Lady Nitrane looked at her ex-husband and opened her mouth to reply, but he rushed on stating that he was clearly the best option to send as the delegate, and that the other three had terrible flaws that precluded them from consideration.

Lady Hil followed shortly thereafter, bring tea and cakes to help the recuperation. She also had some valid reasons for going, and some clearly overwhelming arguments about the non-suitability of the others. Prince Harrick was next, and then Princess Rao. Again, they were adamant that they were clearly the best suited, and the others not at all the right people to send.

Prince Harrick


Choosing the delegate
Lady Nitrane was reeling from the influx of arguments for and against the potential delegates when King Oleb himself entered. He enquired about Nitrane's health and was clearly worried for her. He then asked whether she'd chosen the delegate as he asked because a little birdie had told him that all the potential delegates had visited her.

Nitrane started by asking which delegate he thought should go, and he said "well clearly not the Princess", so Nitrane went through some arguments for and against each delegate. The King then theatrically hit his forehead with his palm and, putting on a show of having just thought of something, said that perhaps Lady Nitrane should be the delegate. He pondered for a second longer and then proclaimed that "Yes, that's what I'll do. You are the delegate Nitrane!" and sat back looking very pleased with himself.

With that the King looked at Count Slayed and Sir Sparrow and then to Unter. "We can't have commoners accompanying the Drinaxian delegate. You, Unter, are you a loyal subject?".Unter confirmed this was the case. "Am I your King?". Again a confirmation from Unter. "Very well, someone give me a sword. No not that one!" he exclaimed as Nitrane reached for her power sword. Looking around he saw a scalpel on a tray and said 'That'll do" before knighting Unter and flinging the scalpel away over his shoulder where it clattered into cupboard door.

Slayed and Rachando had a talk too. The trader had discovered that there was a vault on the Vorito space station which contained important information that might aid anyone wanting to thwart the expansion plans of the General Development Corporation. He'd obtained the information from a spy in GeDeCo called Nairr.

With Nitrane now the official delegate plans were put in place to create some dresses using light types of armour, as well as get suits for the men in the party and uniforms for the crew.

Nitrane approached Jagad and asked if she'd be her lady-in-waiting and after a thoughtful pause she agreed smiling. A doctor was also assigned to the delegation, who could assist Nitrane's recovery and help her with a skill augmentation for diplomacy. Also in the group would be Mr Skinner, a court diplomat in a grey suit and carrying a small datapad and a briefcase.

Before leaving the travellers sent a message to Sindal for the crew on the space station, hoping to get a status report on the station returned to them on Drinax. They also arranged for Rachando to send people to collect the daughter of Launch Pilot Henshaw, and hoped that they would get there before Hrol Irontooth's people did. Finally Goff said that he'd go to Clarke to retrieve his ship and meet them back on Drinax in a few weeks.

To Vorito
The Harriers departed for Vorito via Pourne, Paal and The World.

On Pourne Slayed met up with Navin Yarral from the Bureau of Investigation for a drink. Navin asked if the Harriers were involved in the disappearance of an imperial treasure ship but Slayed successfully diverted the conversation and gave the impression that they were not.

On Paal, it transpired that the leadership of the planet were also going to Vorito and therefore the travellers had an easier time than normal with no high ranking meetings arranged.

On The World the travellers found that the leadership there had not been invited, possibly because of the secluded nature of the inhabitants, but most likely because of a lack of opportunity for GeDeCo to build a spaceport with which to make money.

Vorito Spaceport
Upon arriving in the Vorito system the travellers discovered that one of the Harriers had not arrived with them. Possibly this was related to an error in the coordinated jump, meaning the other Harrier might arrive soon, or it could be something more serious.

The ships were immediately hailed by a system defense boat belonging to the General Development Corporation and were informed they would have to leave if they did not have official business. The party announced that they had the delegate from Drinax on board which satisfied the SDB and the Harriers were told where they could dock. The approach was almost entirely automated, with the station providing an impressively advanced set of navigation aids.

As they got closer they could see the space station more clearly. According to its designers, Vorito Highport was a rotating dodecahedron with reconfigurable docking arms extending from each primary vertex. To the Travellers, it resembled a metallic spider or maybe a squid, reaching out to strangle them. For some reason Blue Danube started playing on the comms channel to calm the travellers.


When the Harriers docked, they were met by an honour guard of security forces who accompanied Ammun Ko, a smart and perky, and very enthusiastic, GeDeCo representative who explained that she was the Drinax delegate's personal liaison. She carried a datapad and referred to it from time to time when answering questions. She was from the Imperium and very excited to be in the wild and perilous Trojan Reach.

Ammun Ko

After the formalities of presenting credentials, the travellers moved from their docking bay into the station itself. The interior of the space station was hugely impressive. The hallway from the docking bays was large, but when the party reached the main concourse for this small area of the station it was clear that it could handle many millions of passengers a year.


The station was still some way from being completed though. Lots of activity was in evidence, visible even from a distance thanks to the sparks of welding, and including assembling, painting and polishing done by sophonts and robots. While operational in parts, it would be a few more months until it was fully open for business. In the meantime, what was operations was still better than any starport in the reaches.

They reached a set of elevators and Ammun Ko gave each of the Travellers a passcard, and explained that it would be needed to open doors, and could also be used to purchase items and track their needs on board the station. As a courtesy, their passcards had been pre-loaded with Credits, so anything they purchased on board the station would be free (within reason – it was to cover drinks and souvenirs, not a new starship).

Rising up the private elevator the party emerged into a luxurious VIP area. They passed through a huge lounge, restaurant and bar, past a small but exclusive row of a dozen or so shops, to a suite of six bedrooms and other living areas that were set aside for the Drinaxian delegate. Their crew, they were advised, would be getting accommodation nearer the docking bay, but still luxurious.

Amman Ko advised Lady Yemar that the reception for the opening of the starport would be in approximately 18 hours. The first event however would be a special dinner for the Drinaxians cooked by a master chef up in their VIP restaurant. Following that the shops would all be open for them to peruse and purchase whichever Vorito-made goods took their fancy. A period of rest and recuperation would then be appropriate before preparing for the opening ceremony.

Members of the crew were escorted into the VIP area to bring their baggage, and then the travellers took some time to look over the computer terminals. Unsurprisingly the information that could be accessed was just information about the starport and some brief bits of information about the schedule that had been created for the delegates.

To be continued.

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