Thomas and Bea, in suits, are in a corridor in a police
station walking towards the interview rooms.
Bea: "You're late again"
Thomas: "Had to get each tooth
clean before I came out."
Bea (incredulously):
"You're weird you know that. Why'd you bring him in again?"
Thomas: "I am sure its him."
Bea:"But forensics are clean. They were before and they still are".
Thomas: "He is lying - its in his eyes. And the sound isn't right
either"
Bea: "The sound?"
Thomas (exasperated) "The interference pattern! From the door"
Bea: "Whaaaa"
The pair comes into the interview room.
Bea: "Well he is here now. Lets see what he has to say. Again."
Thomas: "You can't have been
where you say in your statement because the acoustics are wrong"
Bea (gently):"Leave the
questions to me Tom, you just watch and do your thing. Now Mr Blessington could
you confirm your previous statement telling us where exactly were you when
Senator DeVois was murdered?"
Blessington: "Of course, but I really see no need for me to be back
here yet again. One might think that Detective Flynn was conducting a vendetta
against me.”
The door bursts open and Inspector Travers comes marching in with two
other policemen.
Travers:
"Detective Flynn please step outside."
Thomas Flynn leaves the interview
room with the Inspector.
Travers: "We have strong
evidence to suggest that you have been receiving bribes for the last two
months. You will be suspended immediately pending a full internal
investigation. And Thomas - I must say that I am disappointed in you."
The scene ends with a look of shock on Thomas' face at the accusation.
Cue Music ……
Dr Wu has gone off to talk with his adoptive parents whilst
the crew listen to Joe who says he has found a potential job for them. It seems
an eccentric old acquaintance of his Wesley Greenshanks has a little collection
of copies of rare and beautiful items that he would like to extend. The museum
of Antiquities on Ariel has an exquisite jewel encrusted egg that he would like
a copy of. The museum has already refused him permission to make the copy, so
he has a forger lined up on St Albans to do just that. Problem is that he needs
someone to go to Ariel, borrow the egg, take it to the forger and then take it
back. He is willing to pay 3000 credits and has plans of the museum, a
holographic simulation of the egg and cover story to get them to Ariel. The
crew discuss it at length and decide it is too risky for the money. Bau decides
to look at the records on the transponder of the Herodian and where it went
after he discussed with Eleanor why she thought the lost Ark had landed on a
planet.
Eleanor decides to look on the cortex to see if anyone has
written an academic paper on transgenic technology. As she is starting to do
this she gets a wave from her sixteen-year-old cousin Yolanda on the moon of
Holos above Shadow. It seems that she wants her cousin to help her out. She is
in love with a boy called Oswald Fenderhal on the neighbouring moon of Taloon,
but neither their family nor her own approves of the match. They have forbidden
her to see him and what is worse Oswald’s family has locked him in a tower to
prevent him seeing her. Eleanor talks to the Captain Flint to see what she
thinks but doesn’t really want to get involved. She talks to Yolanda trying to
give her the wisdom of her years in love, but refuses to talk about Josiah
other than to say he is dead. This doesn’t endear her to Yolanda. Eleanor talks
to her again and tells her not to do anything silly. Yolanda asks her not to
tell her mum and dad as they do not approve. Eleanor contacted her dad Roger
Malou and told him what Yolanda was up to. He told Eleanor that Yolanda was
promised to marry a boy from another trader family Raul Marques as part of an
Alliance and that Yolanda had to get this silly obsession out of her mind.
Roger said that they had an ongoing feud with the Fenderhals who had been
stealing their business. Eleanor asked whether they stolen some of the
Fenderhals business and Roger admitted they had, but only in retaliation.
Joe meanwhile went out to a cortex terminal and waved
Yolanda. After she got over the shock of who he was he asked how much she could
pay him to “rescue” her lover. She told him she had an allowance of 100Cr a
month and that she had saved up 850Cr so far. Joe told her to hold on and not
contact any other mercenaries.
Eleanor tried to contact Raul to see if how he felt about
Yolanda. Raul told her that he’d fulfil the contract of marriage for the family
as he was an honourable man and would do his duty.
The crew’s thoughts turned to Dr Weir and to the love-bot of
Sinead that they had picked up. Dr Wu had by now returned to the Serendipity
and they persuaded him to look at the chip from the love-bot. Joe had spoken to
Captain Flint about Dr Weir and persuaded her that they needed to deal with
him. They needed to find out where he went and Dr Wu managed to get a download
from the love-bot’s chip conversation log. She had only been in existence for 8
months and only remembered being on the station and on the farm. They had left
the space station on a shuttle that took them to a Swift class ship. This took
them to Athens. Dr Weir had left a week before the Serendipity arrived on Athens
and on that day about twelve ships left the planet. The only Swift class ship
that left was called the Osprey, but they left no details of where he was
going.
Thomas Flynn went through the logs of conversations and
indexed them using his own system.
Joe decided to put out to a few contacts to get them to tell
him if they saw the Osprey anywhere.
Around this time Eleanor got a call from Roger Malou. It
seemed that his daughter had gone missing alongside her riding instructor
Julian. There was a shuttle missing and Roger was pretty sure that she was
heading for Taloon to rescue her lover. Eleanor managed to persuade the crew to
help saying that she could probably get something from the parents for helping.
The Serendipity took off for Shadow, which was only about 7
hours away. About 3 hours into the trip, Thomas was hailed by the S.S.Utopia.
Lieutenant Hunter declared that they were looking for an escaped fugitive and
they would be boarding the ship to search for her. The crew spent the ten
minutes the Utopia would take to approach them and dock to try and hide away as
many illegal items as possible.
Captain Flint greeted Lieutenant Hunter as he boarded with
his men in a friendly manner. Hunter was not happy to see them and accused the
crew of aiding and abetting Alleyne Hill in her escape from the Cathedral on
Verbana. He’d worked out that they must have helped her and had come looking
for clues. He got his men to search the ship from tip to toe. Hunter went into
Pinto’s cabin and found the assault rifle that he had under the bed. Hunter
asked Pinto whether he had a permit and thinking quickly Pinto said his father
Senator Jarrett held the license for him. Lieutenant Hunter decided to check
and contacted Senator Jarrett on Londinium. Senator Jarrett confirmed that of
course he had given his son the rifle as his dutiful son Pinto would be doing a
favour for him shortly.
The only other thing they found was the rocket launcher that
they confiscated from the engine room before leaving. As he left Lieutenant
Hunter threatened Captain Flint that if he found any evidence that they’d
helped Alleyne escape he’d be back.
The Serendipity arrived on Holos where they were welcomed by
Eleanor’s Uncle and Aunt who offered to feed them. It seemed that there was a
masked festival on Taloon tonight to celebrate the founding of the colony there
and that it was possible that they would try and rescue Oswald tonight. Aunt
Mary showed Thomas Yolanda’s room where he discovered what she might be wearing
and also found a picture of Oswald.
Uncle Roger arranged for some costumes for the crew and they
flew in via another moon to Taloon to the field where the shuttle was parked.
There Bau disabled the shuttle and he helped Pinto disguise Thomas Sonic Rifle
as a water pistol. Dr Wu took out his supply of knock out drugs. Then they took
one of the ship’s shuttles into town and crossed the bridge past a couple of
thinly disguised security men.
The group looked around town for a while until Thomas
spotted Yolanda’s dress disappearing into a building of from the main compound.
As the group got closer to the building they found it was a kitchen with
waitresses coming out with plates of nibbles. Captain Flint and Bau went around
the back and found Yolanda’s gown near the back door. Joe picked up a plate of
nibbles and gave them to Dr Wu who liberally laced them with one of his drugs.
The tower was attached to a second building and was guarded
by two more security men. Pinto pretending to be Scandinavian with the plate of
food went up to the guards and tried to gain entry. The guards were not fooled
by his accent but decided that they couldn’t resist the food. Dr Wu’s date rape
drugs soon took effect and the guards were knocked out. Joe dragged them into
one of the rooms on the ground floor and went up to see the boy in the tower.
When he got there he found the boy in bed with a horribly bloated head. A call
to Dr Wu confirmed that it probably was Space Mumps. He came down the stairs
when the others advised him that Julian the riding instructor was coming into
the building. Joe hid whilst the riding instructor went up the stairs. His
attempts to listen in to the conversation were fruitless and soon the riding
instructor was coming back down the stairs.
The crew watched where Julian went and soon spotted him
approaching Yolanda. Julian whispered something to her and she seemed to doubt
what he’d said. She stormed towards the tower. The crew decided to let her go
into the building and find out for herself. Just after she’d entered Joe slipped
in after her and the crew outside spotted two more security detail heading for
the tower. Thomas, pretending to be drunk tripped one of the guards and then
Bau came in pretending to be his drunken friend. The other one headed on
towards the tower and Pinto was forced to use the Sonic gun to knock him out.
Joe, inside the building dragged the guard inside before the other guard got up
and started to head for the entrance. Pinto’s first shot didn’t knock the guard
out, but he got the man second time. These new guards were added to the guest
room on the bed with liberal amounts of alcohol to make them seem drunk.
Meanwhile at the top of the tower Yolanda was seen standing
in the windowsill. Joe rushed up the stairs whilst Captain Flint tried to talk
to her from below. Dr Wu usefully took off his cape to catch her in case she
fell. Up at the top Joe found her threatening to jump unless Oswald came with
her. Joe put his gun to Oswald’s head and threatened to kill him unless she
came down. Afraid for her love she complied much to everyone’s relief. Joe
tried to make her come with him, but she hesitated to obey. She took off her
pendant from around her head and gave it to Oswald. “Here is a token of my
love” she said “Keep it with you always and when you get better return to me.”
After she was led away Joe took it from the struggling Oswald to ensure that
there was no evidence that Yolanda had been here.
Meanwhile Dr Wu seeing the situation was no longer a problem
decided to go and enjoy the festival, enjoying the company of several young
ladies. Later the crew would return and pick up Dr Wu on their way to Hera.
They headed back through the crowds to the shuttle and back
to the ship. There they picked up Yolanda’s shuttle and via another moon headed
back to Holos without Dr Wu. There they returned Yolanda to her grateful family
who asked if they could do anything for the crew. The crew asked for a few
spices and a job.
Roger Malou thought for a while and then said that there was
one thing that the crew could do for them. They had recently acquired a storage
facility on Hera through a will, which was challenged by another arm of the
family, the Lissau’s. They had connections with the Tong known as Chew Ho Fung.
Together they had bribed / threatened the local judge to rule in their favour
to overturn the will. They have appealed but they need all the help they can
get with it….
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