An expanded version of our in-jump report. Actually started this before re-reading previous posts, so it is sort of a retcon. But the next episode will be on Mont.
Laying in the jump plot and re-running some simulations through the jump computer, the captain was talking with our 3rd officer Dietgard to finalize jump. On his mark I dimmed the lights, and made the announcement over the internal comms: "We're prepping for jump. If all passengers would please stay in their cabins, we'll be transitioning shortly". Of course, there really is not much of a transition, and the light dimming was an ancient custom we just followed. The No Refunds has plenty of power, more than she really needed. Not that I asked the crew much about that: for a cargo ship we seemed a bit over-powered. Of course, there are places where that can come in handy, as we were at the edges of the Imperium and in the League of Planets.
Being an Imperial citizen, the League was, while not quote demonized, set up as a place of questionable people. And, in reading a lot of the League literature, the Imperium is drawn up as this vast, impersonal and often cruel empire. The truth I think lies in the middle for both. And honestly, the people are no different no matter where you go. Having been around a lot more than most people, and being a reporter, I've seen the good side as well as the bad side of sophonts. And sometimes I wondered how the No Refund managed to keep ahead. A spaceship is expensive.
And with those thoughts, I closed up the external comms array boards and went to check on the two cargo bays. While I never felt the shift into jump space, sometimes cargo did shift about for some reason. Gremlins I've heard. I think it is more the holds getting packed badly.
We have the two passengers this trip, the somewhat stuffy scholar Tea Kensi, and our hopeful broker Petria Klytria. I spent a fair amount of time working on the First Meal. While Scholar Keni seemed, ambivalent, about the meal, Petria seemed to really enjoy it, and was in quite the talkative mood.
"When I get to Mont, hope there is food as good a this, Mr. Catillion." He refused to call me by my first name. "Though I doubt it - along with a lack of brokerages, there is a lack of good foods. I've a good feeling food imports may be an excellent source of credits. To the good life!", as he raised his glass. The scholar merely raised her eyebrows at him. I am sure that was a human expression she must have picked up from somewhere.
After cleaning up, the passengers were back in their cabins, watching vids or whatever it is passengers do. I went back to my bunk, and started writing up more of our progress and stories. I had originally signed on to broaden my universe, so to speak. To write a story of the stars. So far it has mostly been manning the comms when in-system, and accompanying Ewo on her cargo trips.
The next day while I was on shift, an alarm went off in the forward cargo bay. The emergency systems reported some sort of explosion. Checking my sensors, it was not on the insidients where I had placed some extra sensors, Instead, some of the exotic aromatics had apparently combused, and there was a small chemical fire. The automatics were not handling the blaze well, though so far it was limited to the single cargo container (rolled this random event for an in-jump issue, then rolled a 3 on my first attempt at fixing things) Worried that we could lose the entire cargo, I quickly brought in the captain and engineers. We depressurized the bay in short order, and the fire was out.
After repressurizing the bay and inspecting the cargo, the aromatics looked to be a total loss. And despite a complete decompression, there was a most peculiar smell in the bay. But the container had managed to contain the fire, and nothing else was damaged other than some external smoke damage. The forward bay was equally undamaged: it takes a pretty severe fire to damage hull plating. The captain had me start researching the insurance issues on bulk cargos. (and in checking, there is a brief mention of insurance in GURPS: Far Trader, and nothing I could find in T5. And I know Classic does not have anything on it. There have been several discussions on insurance over on COTI I believe in the past, but I'm too lazy to dig those up. And besides, we're in a different political environment than the Imperium, so as this is MTU guess I can make up my own insurance mechanics. And not sure that goes in the same sentence as role playing games. Guess the old "accountants in space" meme may still apply to Traveller if you want it to!)
According to the League legal system, the shippers are responsible for ship-board mishaps and damages occurred thereof. For cargo that is damaged as a result of the cargo itself, transit fees are still paid and insurance, if applied for the shipment, will cover those costs. Legally, then, we had to prove that the cargo itself managed to self-combust and destroy itself. I dug through the sensor logs and could not find anything that would have set off the fire. The atmosphere and gravity logs showed no disruptions, and the bay was set to a lower temperature than the rest of the ship. Ewo reviewed my findings, added a bunch of legalize to it, and we hoped that would cover us from having to pay for 10 tons of now destroyed aromatics.
We came out of jump about an hour or so earlier than optimum time and saw off in the distance Mont spinning slowly a few hours away. And now to find that class E port - no transponder or radio guidance.
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