Previous episode: The Hockey Match

Relena and Noumalia went to the cargo bay to meet their mysterious visitor. Kelda took up an unobtrusive position to one side, laser rifle in hand. Just in case.

Just before the visitor appeared, Lance reported that there were still no ships on scan. The visitor used what appeared to be a standard transporter - but transporters don't have a long range, and they can't be used while a cloaking device was active. He appeared in the cargo bay, wearing his Immaculately Tailored Suit, standing with his arms akimbo to show that he was not armed. He introduced himself as Mr Smith, second subdirector of the Special Projects division of the Collective Maintenance corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Company.

Mr Smith offered Relena a job. They would travel to Aruhasi IX (five days' travel) and meet with a certain Mr Cane (who would contact them on arrival), collect the package he was carrying, and return it to Velke. On delivery, they would be paid a sum of 30,000 credits. Relena negotiated for a 15% down payment, and signed what Mr Smith referred to as a "standard deniability contract" - a document of several thousand pages that included a clause for compensation of repetetive strain injury suffered while signing the contract.

Mr Smith vanished from the cargo bay the same way he appeared - although there was still no sign of any ship he could transport to - and the Mystic Shark set course for Aruhasi IX.

The system consisted of a larger than usual number of planets, with a surrounding asteroid/comet belt. There was a travel advisory on the system, which reported that pirate attacks had occurred in the belt. The Shark put into port, but there was no-one there to meet them. They spent a full day negotiating for the sale of their cargo and purchasing two crates of fine wine, all the while wondering where Mr Cane had got to.

Relena was considering contacting every Cane in the telephone book when Lance suggested checking the passenger manifests of incoming starships. They found that there was a Mr Cane aboard a transport, Ellen's Myth, which had failed to arrive on schedule the day before. After seeing that the flight plan indicated that the ship would drop from hyperspace quite near the encircling asteroid belt, they quickly deduced that the ship had been waylaid by pirates. Lance set course for the Myth's entry point.

There were no ships nearby when they arrived, but Kelda was able to pick up on scan the images of two ships, very close together. They were clearly docked with one another, and they cautiously approached.

They received a hail from one of the ships, asking them whether they were "authorised to negotiate on behalf of Universal Pharmaceuticals". The voice asked for ten million credits for the safe return of Mr Cane and his cargo. After some debate, the crew decided to board the two ships, since the captain of the pirate ship indicated that they would start killing the hostages (twelve of them) if there were further delay.

The larger ship, Ellen's Myth, was docked to the smaller ship - identified over the comms as Vanderg's Slaughter - on the starboard side. However, the Shark was able to dock on the port side, and the crew boarded the Myth.

Noumalia was able to discern that the passengers were being held in the cargo bay by several of the pirates. She was able to telepathically contact one of the hostages, but he was unable to assist in any meaningful way. Noumalia created a distraction by telekinetically knocking a box over while Kelda, armoured in her scout armour, slipped into the bay undetected. Meanwhile, Relena and Unity raced around through engineering to get to the starboard side airlock and board the pirate vessel.

From inside the cargo bay, Kelda could clearly see that the pirates were skrak and kurg - two races that always worked together to cause as much problem for shipping as they thought they could gain profit from. Five skrak were guarding the bound and kneeling prisoners - one of them carried an Imperial disk cannon while another appeared to be the captain of the pirates.

Relena and Unity quickly found the bridge of the pirate vessel, where the first officer was commanding the ship's pilot and astrogator. They were able to quickly kill the kurg first officer and astrogator, but the skrak at the helm station managed to severely injure them both with his blaster before finally being brought down by Unity. Fortunately neither Relena nor Unity lost consciousness, and they were able to use enough first aid to stabilise themselves.

Meanwhile, in the cargo bay, Kelda shot the pirate with the disk cannon and the pirate leader without being detected. Lance created a distraction while Noumalia telekinetically threw the other pirates about the cargo bay and Kelda steadily shot them from hiding. The last pirate was brought down by Noumalia - mentally fatigued, she resorted to her pulse laser pistol.

Bluebook: During Mr Smith

They freed the prisoners. One of them, a distinguished-looking elderly gentleman who carried an iron-bound cane, thanked them profusely for their help before mysteriously announcing that he had a message for Lance.

The gentleman tapped Lance in the forehard and whispered something into his ear, then vanished in a spray of pearlescent light. Noumalia, curious as always, read his mind. She hissed.

The remaining pirates surrendered - their command staff and most of their muscle were dead, and the grateful Mr Cane regretfully informed Relena that the "standard deniability contract" that she had signed prevented her from claiming the pirate ship as salvage. Frustrated, she let them go. However, the pirates had killed the regular crew of the Myth, so Relena sat at the helm controls, accompained by Kelda and Mr Cane while the others returned to the Shark to travel back to Aruhasi IX

What is the mysterious cargo that Mr Cane is carrying that is worth thirty thousand credits to Collective Maintenance (a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Company)?

Bluebook: After Mr Smith

Bluebook: Kelda & Unity

Bluebook: On the Bridge of the Myth: Kelda & Relena

Next episode: The Delivery

Quote of the session:

Noumalia: The cloaking device is heavily destroyed.