Paal starport control guided the party ship into a bay on a very large expanse of concrete. Paal sees a lot of trade convoys, and is itself a rich agricultural world, exporting a lot of grain and basic goods.
On approach, the party looked for and found the Harriers, but very strangely they were in a triangle or star formation and all had bright colours showing on their hulls. Slayed worked it out first, they were displaying a moving image of the Drinax flag. Very showy and not at all subtle.
On landing the party made their way to the starport building and made contact with Krrsh. He was delighted to hear that they were on the planet, and arranged to meet with them as soon as possible.
In a private lounge, Krrsh and some of the more long-serving crew met up with the party with huge grins on their faces. Not only were they happy to see the party after many months, but it turns out that Paal has tremendous respect and some envy for Drinax. As soon as the local government found out that they were from Drinax they offered free accommodation, free landing rights and cargo facilities, free maintenance, and so on.
This seemed to calm a slightly annoyed Slayed and the party down. It seems that Krrsh had determined the best course of action, which was to literally fly the flag for Drinax.
Shortly thereafter the party received an invitation from a starport official for later in the day. The purpose of the meeting was unclear, but the party decided to dress up in some of their more fine clothes for the meeting.
This, it transpired, was the correct decision as the purpose was to find out who the travellers were, and what their relationship with the Drinax delegation was. Upon finding out that the party were in fact the owners of the ships, and were Drinaxian nobility, the locals almost wet themselves in excitement. Of course the same offer benefits would be made to the party, and of course they were welcome to stay as long as they wanted for free.
A second meeting was arranged for the next day. More senior officials had been brought to the starport and the tone was one of barely suppressed excitement on the part of the Paal delegation.
The Paal representatives were keen to know if Drinax was open to creating a new relationship with Paal, and would people from Drinax be visiting more often in an official capacity now. The travellers assured them that this was very likely to be the case. Also, the Paal people were very glowing in their terms to describe Drinax goods. The travellers it turned out had some small number of goods that they would graciously gift to the Paal people as a gesture of good will. It was a close call, but none of the Paal representatives actually fainted.
Following the meeting some of the cargo in the Harrier's cargo bays was given to the Paal people.
The decision was made that Dr Astor would proceed to Palindrone to start working with Lady Yemar to bring her back to health. Krrsh would take him there in the Far Scout, with a good crew and some marines. There was a suggestion from Lady Nitrane that Lady Yemar might conceivably take some form of revenge on the scientist, so Krrsh and the others would be responsible for his safety while on Palindrome. Brooke went with them as she would be able to find her way back to Theev from Palindrome.
The party and the remaining crew then boarded the Harriers and with some fanfare departed for The World where they hoped to find Goff.
TO BE CONTINUED
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