Session 4a Summary
Jim Dade gets Delano Mack to keep station outside of Zerzi’s planetary sensors so they could rendezvous there with the Dire Straits, and they can be sure that the ZSN didn’t take over the ship without revealing where the research complex was. He also wanted an opportunity to surprise Delano Mack and Dohpaz Vito to get real information out of them.
When the Dire Straits reaches Jitterbug’s position, Delano sends a low-power radio message to thems requesting permission for the Jitterbug to dock, and to have everyone meet at the airlock.
in the corridor on the Dire Straits, Jim Dade brandished his pistol and demanded answers. Chris, thinking that Jim had turned traitor, tried to take him out. In the ensuing scuffle, everyone present saw that Jim could move faster than was humanly (or vat clonely) possible. It was over before anyone else could react, and Chris turned away, dropping the still conscious Jim to the ground. Jithal scrambled away into the vents, avoiding conflict as usual. Jim got to his feet and again demanded answers from Delano Mack. How had he found the Dire Straits? Who told him where they were? Did you tell anyone else about the message? Delano revealed he had been told by his contractor what course they would be on. He had no idea how that had been known, considering the time and distances involved. He had told no one about the message, and had no idea what it actually said.
Jim asked Steve Irwin to go find Jithal, to apologize about Jim threatening everyone, and to ask Jithal to do a thorough scan of the ship for tracking devices. Steve set off to find Jithal.
Jim then told Dohpaz Vito that Saizar Thoth had betrayed him, sending the message to Chris to take the case from Dohpaz and deliver it to Saizar. Jim offered the services of the Dire Straits to help dealing with this betrayal. After some back and forth, Dohpaz agreed to be a source for some chemicals that Steve Irwin needed for his research (actually to be used for Chris’s pheromone substrate,) to double the pay for the current contract, to agree to work together in the future, and to have first dibs on the Grulvaxian technology if they decided to put it up for sale. Jim also learned that the little frog-like person Dohpaz had received the case from was named Brolant Dar.
Jim then offered a job to Delano: take the data stick with the message from Saizar Thoth back, travel on the Jitterbug back to Cuthbert Station, and then telling Saizar Thoth that he wasn’t able to find the Dire Straits. In return for that, Delano could use the Dire Straits as his home base, traveling outside of Zerzi system when they leave and saving docking expenses. He would have to go about his business for a few weeks before meeting the Dire Straits “by happenstance” at an agreed upon location. Delano accepted and jumped back into the Jitterbug and headed for Cuthbert Station.