Traveller Solo: On Tryonas 256-1106

We came out of jump further away from Tryonus: tidally locked in orbit 0, it was within the sun's jump shadow.  So instead of the 3 or so hours it normally takes us to get to port, there was almost a 12 hour delay. Coming in, the planet on visuals was just a black dot, then a circle as we approached the dark red sun. At the comms, I got the query from Ridley Station, the high port hiding behind Tryonas to avoid the red glare from the small sun. I responded, "This is the No Refunds. Requesting passage to Bowden Down. Purpose is trade and passengers."  A woman's voice replied after a moment, "Please dock at High Port, Dock 12, for inspection and pratique certification."  For some reason, this was the first time I had been requested for a pratique, and made a quick check to Dr. Teag.

"I'm filling out the paperwork now, Malik. Tryonas is sometimes pretty insistent on following all the rules. I'll have the e-copy ready well before we make port."

As we were closing in, a mining cutter was accelerating away from the planet, going to the belt I assumed. They were well outside our path, but I hailed them to see if there was anything we needed to know.

"Hailing mining cutter, this is the No Refund. Just checking to see how the Tryonas system is doing." There was a brief pause, and a fairly noncommittal response of "Just heading out to Holla Point on a resupply run" as they continued outward.

As we approached the small port, sensors and visually I could see it was a Argos class station, spinning to provide free gravity. Apparently docking bay 12 was a connector on the lower docking ring.  Captain Laux brought us to station keeping with deft control over the ship. Automatics connected our ship to the station with a shudder I felt through the hull, and then the green connection lights lit up a few minutes later as the airlock systems engaged. 

The captain walked back, nodding to Ewo and myself. "Now the paperwork begins" he said, and headed down the stairs to the port air lock, where the umbilical connection was linking us to the station.

Tyronas

Ridley Station, Argos Class Station (from 0-Hr)

Ok, finally got back to this, though not far. Tryonas is orbiting a small red giant, and it is in orbit 0 and tidally locked. I am thinking, and I need to really figure that out, the main planet is within the jump shadow of the sun, so we exited jump space further out. Classic Traveller had no such rule: you jumped out 100 diameters or so from the world. Later editions, and I want to say it was GURPS, added the jump shadow, so you had to take into account all the gravity sources, including the suns. I need to find where I read that, and see what the distances are per stellar type. I even started my first Wiki entry discussion on that. 

Anyway, I rolled for space encounter, and somehow got a mining cutter. And their response was short and respectful, neither happy nor angry. So not much happening there. I decided to use one of the larger station maps I have (no posters!) for the high port, I think I got this one from one of Ryan Wolf's earlier Kickstarters where he was overly generous in giving out his earlier PDFs as part of the deal. Now that he knows he has a pretty consistent response, he has learned he does not have to give a lot away to make the project a success.  So I'll poke around those maps a bit to see if there is something there interesting, but we'll probably handle the inspection, then go down the gravity well to sell those cars, disembark our passengers, and seek out new cargo.

Also go to use the word pratique, which I picked up on the character challenge from Traveller Adventure. See - RPGs are a learning experience!