The Problem Child
Unity excused himself to Medbay to study the organism further. Brian asked Relena whether he could go too, and Relena responded that he could, as long as he remembered his promise to her. Brian agreed, and accompanied Unity.
Meanwhile Relena arranged to have the ship searched for more signs of the mould/slime/lifeform. The Shark was still four hours away from putting in to port, so Relena arranged for Kelda to sleep for two hours while Noumalia searched the cargo bay. Relena herself started searching the common room and the cabins for two hours, then she would wake Kelda and take two hours rest herself. Lance would search the bridge.
Relena failed to find any sign of the organism, so she woke Kelda. and retired for her own nap.
Bluebook: Be careful waking sleeping snipers.
Eventually, they made orbit around the planet Udux, an ordinary-looking civilised planet. Relena asked Lance to watch over Brian while the rest of them had a quick meeting. Brian had fallen asleep in Medbay.
The search of the ship had not been particularly fruitful. Kelda and Noumalia had both thought they heard a sound like something skittering around, but couldn't be sure it wasn't just their own imaginations. Also, Kelda had sneezed hard on entering Brian's quarters. Unity mentioned that Brian had sneezed a couple of times before falling asleep, so he contacted Lance and asked him to seal the room. Relena volunteered to go in a spacesuit to collect an air sample.
Unity hadn't been all that successful at analysing the organism either. He had just set up a genetic assay, but it would take several hours to complete. In the meantime, they had to decide what to do about Brian. Relena and Unity were both in favour of finding him a religious community to foster him. The last thing that they wanted was for him to be shipped straight back to Vitar. Unity, however, advised that they should let him sleep for as long as possible.
The Shark sought and gained permission to land. Relena and Kelda, as usual, went looking for a new cargo. They were able to sell the crates of wine for a nice profit, and picked up a cargo of local delicacies that would be high-value on other planets, as well as food supplies for themselves. Unity went on a tour of the temples and religious orders, while Noumalia went shopping. She picked herself up a nice dress and some earrings. Oh, and some spare parts for the ship. She did see one or two Men In Immactulately Tailored Suits around, but they did not appear to be interested in her.
Upon returning to the dock, Relena received a message advising that the dockmaster had a message waiting for her. He rifled through his box and handed over the note:
Quote of the week
