Synopsis by Gina Swensen.
As the crew prepares to leave Geburah, they find that someone has snuck onboard Pandora when they find Typhon disabled and the cargo bay’s sensors blown out. The crew splits up to search the ship – David & Kenichi go to check on Sirena, Zeen and Amelie head to the bridge. Zeen & Amelie find the intruder, a bounty hunter named Gnosis of the Janissar race. He was interrupted stealing data. The fight was brutal and brief, with Amelie being knocked unconscious, Kenichi joining the fight, and he and Zeen forcing Gnosis to surrender.
They escort Gnosis to the brig, find out his name, mission and who sent him. After some banter they find out he was sent to extract all data the crew collected from Geburah, their mission logs, and travel data. He was also supposed to kill the crew and destroy the ship. He revealed that he had no intention of killing them. Pandora takes the data files and modifies them to report that they only found broken artifacts of no real value, that the machine holding the Artifact piece was broken beyond repair and their travel data would show that they came to Geburah after traveling thru parts of space that would be uncomfortable for others to follow and get information from.
Gnosis also let them know that he was hired by the Miraluhn Collective and would likely be hired again to continue to follow them. Zeen advises Gnosis that if we ever see him again, he’d better be carrying 40,000 Kirishima marks for us or he’ll be killed. Pandora also secretly adds a modification to Gnosis’ ship, so if it’s within range of her, it will notify her.
They let Gnosis go, a days walk on Geburah back to his ship.
The crew heads back to Clandestine where they pick up Mrs. Tarkk and her son. As they depart, Pandora gets a reading of a HUGE ship coming out of 2-space. It’s as large as a space station, bright red, shaped like a 10-pointed star. The Pandora is directed to dock inside. Kenichi, Zeen, Amelie and David all debark to meet the ships inhabitants – the Koga.
The inside of the Silence is hollow, housing a 3-space anchor that the crew is asked to use to meet their hosts. The crew is transported via 3-space to meet with the Koga Skobra Kibra that they were contracted for the artifacts. Arrangements are made to collect the items from Pandora by the Koga’s servants as Skobvakebra explains why he met them early – their timetable has been moved up due to the success of the Pandora’s crew and they need to collect and run, so to speak.
While meeting with the crew, Amelie has a private mental communication with Skobra Kibra about why she left one of the Fen with him when she visited before. She expresses how she and the Fen want to learn about other species and Skobra Kibra offers to let her and the Fen know more about the Koga. Amelie has a seizure as the information is transferred via the Fen and the crew is forced to end their delivery, returning to the Pandora where she is able to be treated.
Doctor Verlaine gets drunk, singing very, very loudly in a vent about his sister that annoys Pandora. As the crew returns, Pandora treats Amelie and discovers she’s attempting to speak in about 14-20 languages at the same time from the experience she just had.
The Pandora leaves the Silence and they head back to Vacuum Hell, while the Koga ship heads back to their homeworld.
Zeen gets a strange message from Regs about why he’s left Hedros, gotten married to 2 women and may be in need of help.
The crew leaves Mrs. Tarkk and her son on Vacuum Hell, where she can contact the Silver Citadel to get a scientific grant and continue to do her work.
The crew discusses where to go next. They talk about going to the Tangu Forest, the nearest area where a piece of the Artifact may be, but also a space where the Miraluhn Collective knows they will go and may be setting a trap for them. They decide to venture into the Core to the Vesper Whirlpools, 16 days travel via 2-space, where they may be recognized, so decide to take the long way around by heading to the Kiroshema Collective to get help masking Pandora better.
To be continued…
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