Surha: Iced Dreams (Part 1)

The Deathwish crew seeing that they are all the way out in the Rimward Reach find that the journey to Coriolis Station will be a very long one.

It has been about a few hours since their escape from Titan-161 and most of the crew are in cryosleep. Izzaldin decides that, since it will be a long journey, the crew will need to take extended shifts manning the bridge while others recuperate in their cryobeds. Izzaldin and their newest member of the crew, Nos Ibaz Illamizra, take first watch. Because Nos Ibaz Illamizra is the newest member of the crew, and was a prisoner on Titan-161, Izzaldin is highly suspicious of her and her intentions.

Did You Hear That?

As they sit and man the bridge as first watch, the ship's left thruster suddenly fails and the ship is going at half impulse. Sensing an engineering problem, Izzaldin and Nos Ibaz decide to go to the left thruster to check what the problem is with it. As they reach the thruster, they notice that a component in the thruster is missing. Someone or something yanked out a regulator in the thruster causing it shutdown to prevent an overload. As they notice this, they hear skittering above them in the maintenance shafts of the ship. Sensing a stowaway prisoner, they quickly head to the bridge to check the ship's logs for any abnormalities and figure out a plan to flush the stowaway out of hiding.

As they check the ship's logs and sensors, the ship's environmental controls shut down. The ship's heating system that keeps the inside of the ship not turning into an icicle fails. It is starting to get cold. If they don't find the intruder soon, everyone will die from being frozen alive. They hurriedly search rooms and corridors of the ship. After what seems like an hour, they spot the intruder, a small boy in a prison uniform. Izzaldin and Nos Ibaz "play hide-and-seek" with the boy. The boy at multiple times gets caught by them, and gets away shortly. The boy, in the time he was "playing hide-and-seek," had assembled a modified shock weapon from one of the shock sticks the crew took with them from the prison. At one point, the boy tries to use the modified shock stick on Nos Ibaz but she blocks it. Izzaldin hits it away from him and effectively disarms the boy. After what seems like an hour, Izzaldin and Nos Ibaz finally catch the boy and subdue him. They ask the boy who he is and what he's doing aboard their ship. The boy refuses initially saying that he doesn't trust criminals especially ones coming from Titan-161. Izzaldin asks what the boy was trying to do creating a weapon and trying to take them out. The boy tells them that he was planning to knock them all out, take the ship, and fly it to Algol. After a long session of trading insults, the boy finally agrees to tell them who he is after he is convinced that the Deathwish crew is not going to kill him and throw him out the airlock.

The boy introduces himself as Abdulelah, and he turns out to be Iroh's former cellmate onboard the prison ship to Titan-161. At that point, the boy was dying of starvation, but somehow managed to survive the prison transport experience and nurse himself back to health in Titan-161. The boy is from Algol and was sent to prison for stealing food and supplies from Algolian slavers. The Algolian slavers caught him, and because they saw that he was not even worth selling on the slave market, decide to turn him in to the Consortium authorities. The reason why he was stealing was because he was trying to take care of his sick mother, and they couldn't afford the medications to help her deal with her illness. He resorted to stealing to survive and made it a point that he was stealing from those who deserved it, and not people who were truly in need. He tells the crew that he wished to be brought back to Algol so that he can see his mother again and take care of her. The ship's captain, Izzaldin, decides to make the boy an offer -- fix their ship and they'll take the boy to Algol. The boy slyly negotiates a deal and asks for 500 birr for himself on top of it all. Izzaldin agrees and takes him up on the offer. After about an hour, the boy manages to fix up the ship; however, it is shown that the boy ate half of their food and water supplies aboard the ship so the Deathwish crew needs to fill up on supplies on the nearest habitable outpost. Scans aboard the ship indicate that the ice planet, Surha, is the nearest planet so they plot a course there.

Here We Go Again...

Right when Izzaldin finishes plotting a course to Surha, they hear a beeping sound on the bridge console. A ship happening to pass by is hailing them. It is a Consortium prison transport ship on the way to Titan-161. Izzaldin answers the hail and they hear the captain aboard the ship tell them that their transponder is turned off, and by Third Horizon law, their transponder should be turned on so that other ship's in the area can identify them. Izzaldin and Nos Ibaz are horrified. If they turn the transponder on, it will send data packets detailing where the ship's been and what its gone through. Realizing that they didn't wipe the transponder data, by turning it on, they will be sending data detailing how the ship was captured and sent to Titan-161. This means that the prison ship will know that the ship isn't supposed to be out in space and it would alert them that it's a stolen ship. Izzaldin and Nos Ibaz try to send bogus transponder data, but it doesn't work. this prompts the captain of the prison ship to tell the Deathwish crew to shut off their thrusters and prepare for docking, a search of the ship, and questioning.

Izzaldin quickly wears the flightsuit in the cargohold and Nos Ibaz changes out of her prison uniform and wears an old labcoat that Izzaldin has onboard. They tell the boy to hide in the vents, and he complies. As the docking clamps of the prison ship embraces the airlock of the Deathwish, the airlock shortly opens and a dozen prison guards carrying vulcan carbines and full armor enter the ship. In front of the group is a guardsman that starts questioning Izzaldin.

"We're going to have to ask you to remain where you are while my men search the ship by order of the Consortium"

Izzaldin prepares herself for questioning. The guardsman asks her why her transponder is off to which Izzaldin replies that the transponder is broken and they're trying to get it fixed in Surha. The guardsman asks her why can't they fix it onboard? to which Izzaldin says that they've lost their tools onboard. The guardsman offers to fix it for them. Realizing that if the guards fix the transponder, they'll be able to see the data and they would promptly be sent to prison again. Izzaldin convinces the captain that it is okay and that they'll be able to fix it on Surha and that they should not trouble themselves with them. Meanwhile, Nos Ibaz starts acting suspiciously leading the lead guardsman to ask what is her relationship with the captain. Nos Ibaz starts saying they are lovers and that the captain can be a bit crazy sometimes. This leads the lead guardsman to be even more suspicious and asks the captain to stand aside while they further question Nos Ibaz. Izzaldin tries to intervene and says that Nos Ibaz is also in need of psychiatric help and they're looking to get her right in the head on Surha. The lead guardsman believes this and decides not to interrogate Nos Ibaz further, and says that he really needs to get his lover checked to make sure she isn't succumbing to Space Sickness for being out in space for too long. Izzaldin thanks the guardsman, but before he leaves, asks him if its possible to spare some food and supplies as they've not brought enough for their travels. The lead guardsman agrees and asks his guard contingent to quickly stock up the ships food and supplies. After food and supplies were taken into the Deathwish, the guardsmen leave the ship, the prison ship transport undocks, and the Deathwish resumes its journey to Surha.

Surha: Where Hope's End

The Deathwish crew land on the planet Surha, one of the farthest and most inhospitable planets in the Kua system. It is a world of perpetual ice storms, poisonous atmosphere, and extreme cold weather. However, it is here that miners, freighter pilots, and smugglers have made their home to get rich quick and to take advantage of those that do. The crew end up at the only major settlement on Surha, Hope's End, where they try to get information, stock up on weaponry and armor, and maybe take on a few jobs to earn enough birr to continue on their journey.

The crew head over to the settlement's only supplies outfitter and bar, Hope's end, where they see dozens of miners on lunch break, freighter pilots looking for mining courier jobs to fulfill, and the locals milling about catching the latest news from Coriolis Station. Izzaldin and Nos Ibaz head over to the supplies vendor and purchase weapons and armor. However, since they're in an isolated area in the Kuan system, prices for everything are criminally inflated. Izzaldin and Nos Ibaz try to haggle for prices and manage to get some weapons for themselves at regular Coriolis Station prices, but the shopkeeper tells them this will be the only time he'll do this since they're new on the planet. They manage a few more supplies such as exosuits to combat the extreme weather of Surha as well as other goods.

The crew then head over to the bar to get some information about jobs they could do in the settlement for a group of mercenaries. The bartender tells the crew there is a man named Bahram Karebadja, an agent of Algol Exports, looking for a group to rescue the company's prospectors trapped on the Harballa Massif; the giant mountain range on the planet. Many of the people on Surha don't want to do the job as it seems too dangerous and the locals don't want to go near the Harballa. Many of the locals think the Harballa is a cursed place filled with Darkness from all the old ruins there.

The bartender also informs them of another job by a Karim Al Hawat of Xuro Security who is asking to do a shipment protection job. The job entails protecting a shipment of survival gear meant for colonists living on the edges of Hope's End territory.

Izzaldin thanks the bartender, and sits down at a table to ponder which job to take. He sighs hoping and praying that these somewhat easy jobs don't end up starting revolutions, getting them in jail, or getting the crap kicked out of them. He silently wishes he took up making baklava, opening a small shop on Coriolis Station, and enjoying a quiet life making and selling baklava to his heart's quiet contentment.