Friend or Foe?

Messages
The travellers took a fast messenger ship to Theev to inform them of the destruction of Drinax and that they had survived. They also sent the Far Scout to Wildeman to let the people at their base know what had happened, and to order them to cease the blockade.

Arriving at Theev they radioed ahead and were given priority landing at the private hangers reserved for the highest levels of Theev society. They asked to see Varuk Nirgal and were given direction to his offices. Two Widows silently emerged from nowhere and took up positions to protect the travellers as they made their way to see the head of the ruling council of Theev.

When they arrived he was waiting for them in his enormous office, on the highest level of a tower that overlooked the city. He welcomed them warmly and motioned for them to sit in nano-bot chairs that were forming themselves as he spoke. Sitting, they informed him of what had happened.

Nirgal was obviously taken aback at the news, and asked the party what they would do next. When they suggested that they would be visiting systems to inform them of the battle, Nirgal suggested that he instead would send out messengers to save them time.

Lady Nitrane suggested that they might have to visit the other systems anyway to try to keep the empire together. She did a royal wave to emphasise the nature of the visits, and seemed reluctantly to entertain the idea that she was the heir. Nirgal asked about Prince Harrick and was told that he had given up his claims to the throne.

Hacking
Leaving Nirgal to organise messengers, the party then headed to see Kagni Vasiir, the security expert who had helped them previously with false identities. He greeted them and asked what they needed. They explained that they had some data chips that were encrypted by Imperial Secret Service and needed something to crack into them.

Vasiir asked how old they were - about a year maybe - and said that  he could probably help. After running some diagnostics he gave them two alternatives and said that both should work, but that there was a chance that the encryption was so advanced that the chip would recognise that it was being hacked.

Slayed and Sparrow got to work and managed to get one chip de-crypted, and most of another. The third unfortunately wiped itself before any data could be extracted.

The partially decrypted chip contained information about many people, including the travellers themselves. It seemed that Darokyn had been keeping records on various people who arrived on Theev and made names for themselves. There was nothing about any of the well established pirate lords - only newcomers.

The completely decrypted chip contained irrefutable evidence that Theev was backed by GeDeCo. In fact it was almost as if Theev was a small subsidiary of the mega-corporation so deep was the relationship. It seemed that by supporting piracy in the reaches more commerce travelled from the Imperium to the Hierarte on the GeDeCo freighters, and the area was kept unstable so no political body established itself to tax trade.

This bombshell stunned the travellers. It was clear that Nirgal must be a GeDeCo operative of employee as he was the one in charge of money and commerce. How many of the pirate lords were aware of this? They considered what they had told Nirgal, and what he might pass onto his masters in GeDeCo. They also wondered if they were the same people who had been involved with the psychohistorical theories that the PCs had agreed to support.

Leaving Theev - for the last time?
Sparrow wanted to leave Theev immediately, but Slayed argued that by fleeing instantly they would raise suspicions. So they headed to the accommodation that was set aside for them, and mindful that everything they said and did would be recorded or watched, passed the time until they left the next morning.

Returning to their ship they plotted a course for Palindrome where they were wondering if Lady Yemar was aware of the GeDeCo connections. On the trip they considered what they would do next.

Slayed looked at the astrogation box that Empress Rao had given them. It was at least two thousand years old but still had up to date information and he was looking for asteroids or other interesting places where they could set up a new base - one that nobody knew about.

Sparrow considered what would be needed to establish a base using the high technology capabilities of the space station. He devised a package or about 20 tons that would contain complete manufacturing capability, power supply, computer with AI, all the blueprints in the station and more. This shipping container would be able to produce more manufacturing capacity and produce the elements of a space station assuming the raw materials were available. This would cost about 30MCr
and take a week or so to assemble if they brought all their resources to bear.

Palindrome
When they arrived at Palindrome they nervously contacted the space port and asked for permission to land. That was granted and being known to the personnel there they were ushered immediately through to see Lady Yemar who was waiting in her rooms.

She was unaware of the destruction of Drinax - the news would have reached her soon though but when they mentioned about GeDeCo she became so incandescently angry, swearing at Nirgal and others and throwing objects, that they were somewhat  relieved. She had clearly been unaware of the relationship.

Calming herself down long enough to order her people to go to Theev and withdraw all her assets and personnel, she told the travellers that their only option now was to lay low for the forseeable future. Their involvement with Drinax and their relationship with GeDeCo (both from Vorito and Theev) made her worry that the party would be targetted. The corporation clearly had plans and the best course of action would be to not get in the way of them.

Salif
Leaving as soon as their ship was refueled they jumped to Salif. Now everyone was considering their next moves. Nitrane suggested making a fleet of warships but others pointed out that they had capacity to make 600 ton ships, and so slowly as to make no difference. Sparrow refined his plans for 'space station seeds', and Slayed looked even more closely at the astrogation box.

Slayed noticed that their space station was on the astrogation maps, but you had to look closely in exactly the right place. That made them wonder what other stations or ma made objects were in the map. The decided that only by plugging it into something like the space station's huge computers would they be able to get all the information they needed out of it.

Arriving on Salif they docked in their hangar and asked to meet with Tiznee, who could move her appointments around to see them in six hours. They waited, not leaving the hangar, then went to meet her. She was given the same information as Yemar - they were sisters who would no doubt share the information anyway - and she became terribly worried for their safety. Like her sister she advised that they lay low - go into hiding - and not emerge for a long time. They arranged some codes that intermediaries might be able to use to get in touch with her, and they they left.

On the way back to the station Slayed came up with the idea of taking the jump drives out of the Galoot megafreighter and putting them into the space station. They would need to add some capacity but the vast majority of the drives were already docked at the station. It should be possible, with some careful engineering, to adjust the outside of the station with vents and baffles to make a jump surface that would encase the station in hydrogen and allow the jump to proceed safely.

Also, that left the matter of moving the station, The freighters manoeuvre drives and power plant could be repurposed to make a huge tug to move the station when needed. He got to work on some back of the envelope plans to show Goff when they arrived.

Space Station
Arriving at the station they let out their breath. It was still there and undamaged.

Docking they immediately got to work on their new projects as well as checking on the progress of the prototype ship. The new ship was about two weeks away from being completed which would give them another ship to use, and work out what benefit the new drive would give them.

Leaving the ship to be completed, they prioritised getting the astrogation box connected to the computer with assistance from ALF, as well as working with Goff to start manufacturing of the 'space station seed crates'. The jump drive transplant would have to wait.

A few days passed and all plans were progressing well, when suddenly klaxons blasted and ALF informed them that a 30,000 ton ship had just jumped in. Slayed asked ALF "are all the weapons operational?"  to which ALF replied "Yes Admiral Slayed."

To be continued.