As Prince Harrick entered the Harrier, Princess Rao stopped short, turned to the travellers, and asked if they would swear fealty to her as their future queen. Nitrane and Unter did so immediately. Slayed and Sparrow then followed after a moment, exchanging glances.
Rao smiled widely, nodded graciously, and thanked them. She then asked if the four of them were capable themselves of flying the Harrier by themselves. They said that they could, and she asked for all other crew to be removed from the ship while they went to see the Zhodani agent.
On the trip to the rendezvous point Prince Harrick wanted to see the inside of a Harrier as he'd not had the opportunity previously. He seemed suitably impressed by the fabulous cargo bay and immediately grasped that it was to impress visitors.
Upon arriving the ship was brought to a halt as the Princess told them to wait for the Zhodani ship to arrive and make itself known. She wasn't sure how they would react to seeing the Harrier instead of her yacht.
Chbradlklodgiepr Dlmshar
When the ship was finally detected it was already adjacent to the Harrier. It's stealth properties were incredible, but went some way to explaining why there were no rumours of Zhodani ships in the area - nobody was detecting them.
A docking tube was extended and the party could hear the ships connecting. The Princess went to the airlock to welcome them with Admiral Slayed. Prince Harrick and the rest of the party stayed in the bridge awaiting the Zhodani.
Two Zhodani in armour appeared first, followed by a swarthy man with a mustache that curled up at both ends wearing a wrapping style headpiece. He was wearing robes and carried himself in a manner that indicated he was very sure of himself.
He bowed low to the Princess and announced to anyone who might be in earshot that he, a humble servant of the Zhodani Empire, was most honored to again meet Her Royal Highness, the Princess Rao, who in her wisdom, and in with the betterment of their two body politics had most graciously agreed to meet him.
Upon being invited onto the bridge the two guards took up positions while he introduced himself as Chbradlklodgiepr Dlmshar, representative of the Zhodani Empire, He explained that he was interested in Drinax as they were clearly the most civilised system in the Reaches, and as such the obvious partners with which to work to being prosperity to the area.
He asked to look over the ship, and was taken by Slayed and Nitrane, with Prince Harrick, to look at around. He seemed impressed but asked few questions. Returning to the bridge the conversation continued for a little while on topics that seemed innocent and innocuous he declared that he was ready to leave.
Speaking earnestly to each person in turn, grasping their hands in his, he wished them well, told them that they would do great things, and that he hoped that the alliance between Drinax and the empire would flourish. Each person got his full attention in this way. Prince Harrick was also advised to take his sister's words to heart and trust her and her judgement, to which he nodded.
Dlmshar took his leave, flourished a wave, and returned to his ship. Tracking it as it left he was there one moment and then, as they must have turned on some stealth technology, disappeared.
Back to Drinax, and bad news
The Harriers rendezvoused and jumped to Drinax where it was discovered that King Oleb had passed away. When they docked the Princess returned to her quarters where her retinue brought her up to speed with the events that had transpired since Harrick had taken her to Asim.
The palace was in mourning, and the coup still in their minds it was not sure what would happen next. Prince Harrick calmed the situation by proclaiming that he was fully supporting his sister to be queen and that his followers must also support her from this moment on or be accused by him of treason.
Princess Rao advised that the coronation would take place in six months and that the heads of state of all systems in the Trojan Reach would be invited.
To the Space Station
The party needed no more prompting to head to the space station, which had been their destination all along. With the limited jump range of the Harriers it took five weeks to reach it whereupon they found that the megafreighter was connected up and providing power, and that already the mining and smelting facilities were running and stockpiling raw materials for manufacturing.
Goff had also supervised, with the help of the robot Maria, the repairs to the computer systems. The party needed to enter the Ducal codes provided to them by Oleb many years ago now, which they did with some trepidation - Goff had attempted to start the computers a day or two earlier and all defensive systems had sprung into near-catastrophic action. Nobody had been killed but it was a close thing.
Entering the codes deactivated any self-defense modes that the computer was in, and people could start the business of repairing the station once again. The computer greeted the travellers and called itself ALF, short for Artificial Life Form. It advised that it would be able to watch and control everything in the station. In its databanks were the manufacturing blueprints for anything the station needed to make - including the station. It was able to fully maintain itself once the engineers got things into an operational state after many centuries of neglect.
To the Hidden Base
Once things were in progress on the space station the party's thoughts turned to the Wildeman base. They travelled in the Sorrowful Maiden: the Harriers would meet them at Drinax for the coronation in a few months. Their journey started on Theev where Lady Nitrane picked up some dresses and gowns for when they returned to Drinax. The others picked up suits and uniforms as well.
Travelleing via Marduk and Exocet they reached Wildeman with three months to go to the coronation. There they found that Ben Parr, whom they had left in charge, had with Gobbo's advice built some additional manufacturing plant to increase capacity. This would allow the shipyard to work on three production lines rather than just the one it was previously.
The base was sending one trading ship per week to Wildeman - jumping in-system to disguise the source of the materials. In addition it was creating System Defense Boats for Tech-World has had been promised by the travellers some time ago. Slayed took some of the profits that had been made.
Considering how to get the SDBs to Tech-World, Sparrow suggested they stop SDB production to quickly produce a cargo ship capable of transporting one SDB at a time to its destination. Plans in the system were found and slightly modified to create a 600t ship with jump-2 and docking space for the 300t SDB. It would take a few weeks to create at which point the SDB production would continue.
The party stated on Wildeman for two weeks and then headed to Tech-World via Exe.
To be continued.
Upon arriving the ship was brought to a halt as the Princess told them to wait for the Zhodani ship to arrive and make itself known. She wasn't sure how they would react to seeing the Harrier instead of her yacht.
Chbradlklodgiepr Dlmshar
When the ship was finally detected it was already adjacent to the Harrier. It's stealth properties were incredible, but went some way to explaining why there were no rumours of Zhodani ships in the area - nobody was detecting them.
A docking tube was extended and the party could hear the ships connecting. The Princess went to the airlock to welcome them with Admiral Slayed. Prince Harrick and the rest of the party stayed in the bridge awaiting the Zhodani.
Two Zhodani in armour appeared first, followed by a swarthy man with a mustache that curled up at both ends wearing a wrapping style headpiece. He was wearing robes and carried himself in a manner that indicated he was very sure of himself.
He bowed low to the Princess and announced to anyone who might be in earshot that he, a humble servant of the Zhodani Empire, was most honored to again meet Her Royal Highness, the Princess Rao, who in her wisdom, and in with the betterment of their two body politics had most graciously agreed to meet him.
Upon being invited onto the bridge the two guards took up positions while he introduced himself as Chbradlklodgiepr Dlmshar, representative of the Zhodani Empire, He explained that he was interested in Drinax as they were clearly the most civilised system in the Reaches, and as such the obvious partners with which to work to being prosperity to the area.
He asked to look over the ship, and was taken by Slayed and Nitrane, with Prince Harrick, to look at around. He seemed impressed but asked few questions. Returning to the bridge the conversation continued for a little while on topics that seemed innocent and innocuous he declared that he was ready to leave.
Speaking earnestly to each person in turn, grasping their hands in his, he wished them well, told them that they would do great things, and that he hoped that the alliance between Drinax and the empire would flourish. Each person got his full attention in this way. Prince Harrick was also advised to take his sister's words to heart and trust her and her judgement, to which he nodded.
Dlmshar took his leave, flourished a wave, and returned to his ship. Tracking it as it left he was there one moment and then, as they must have turned on some stealth technology, disappeared.
Back to Drinax, and bad news
The Harriers rendezvoused and jumped to Drinax where it was discovered that King Oleb had passed away. When they docked the Princess returned to her quarters where her retinue brought her up to speed with the events that had transpired since Harrick had taken her to Asim.
The palace was in mourning, and the coup still in their minds it was not sure what would happen next. Prince Harrick calmed the situation by proclaiming that he was fully supporting his sister to be queen and that his followers must also support her from this moment on or be accused by him of treason.
Princess Rao advised that the coronation would take place in six months and that the heads of state of all systems in the Trojan Reach would be invited.
To the Space Station
The party needed no more prompting to head to the space station, which had been their destination all along. With the limited jump range of the Harriers it took five weeks to reach it whereupon they found that the megafreighter was connected up and providing power, and that already the mining and smelting facilities were running and stockpiling raw materials for manufacturing.
Goff had also supervised, with the help of the robot Maria, the repairs to the computer systems. The party needed to enter the Ducal codes provided to them by Oleb many years ago now, which they did with some trepidation - Goff had attempted to start the computers a day or two earlier and all defensive systems had sprung into near-catastrophic action. Nobody had been killed but it was a close thing.
Entering the codes deactivated any self-defense modes that the computer was in, and people could start the business of repairing the station once again. The computer greeted the travellers and called itself ALF, short for Artificial Life Form. It advised that it would be able to watch and control everything in the station. In its databanks were the manufacturing blueprints for anything the station needed to make - including the station. It was able to fully maintain itself once the engineers got things into an operational state after many centuries of neglect.
To the Hidden Base
Once things were in progress on the space station the party's thoughts turned to the Wildeman base. They travelled in the Sorrowful Maiden: the Harriers would meet them at Drinax for the coronation in a few months. Their journey started on Theev where Lady Nitrane picked up some dresses and gowns for when they returned to Drinax. The others picked up suits and uniforms as well.
Travelleing via Marduk and Exocet they reached Wildeman with three months to go to the coronation. There they found that Ben Parr, whom they had left in charge, had with Gobbo's advice built some additional manufacturing plant to increase capacity. This would allow the shipyard to work on three production lines rather than just the one it was previously.
The base was sending one trading ship per week to Wildeman - jumping in-system to disguise the source of the materials. In addition it was creating System Defense Boats for Tech-World has had been promised by the travellers some time ago. Slayed took some of the profits that had been made.
Considering how to get the SDBs to Tech-World, Sparrow suggested they stop SDB production to quickly produce a cargo ship capable of transporting one SDB at a time to its destination. Plans in the system were found and slightly modified to create a 600t ship with jump-2 and docking space for the 300t SDB. It would take a few weeks to create at which point the SDB production would continue.
The party stated on Wildeman for two weeks and then headed to Tech-World via Exe.
To be continued.
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