Psi chick looks as though she’s going to pull through although the Weren expires messily. We’re reminded that the hibernation pods on the ship won’t prevent death a la freeze field; a dying person will still expire inside. Benton looks over psi chick and determines she looks to be save-able. He’s unsure if he wants to do it but some encouragement from the rest of the party causes him to relent; he patches her up and she’s now stabilized. Gargoyle checks over the dead people and finds that they do not have bounty hunting licenses, indicating that they were probably not bounty hunters at all and were more interested in just killing us. In any case Psi chick gets put into stasis. Benton decides to go through the belongings of the dead people to see if there’s any loot; we’ve already planned to take their weapons and add their distinctiveness to our own; they oddly have next to nothing else, including no identification or other conspicuous possessions.

We turn our attention back to our original objective, the bounty, which has yet to arrive. We contemplate moving the ships to make it look like everything is normal but considering that the Iron Mule has already seen our vessels we decide that’s not worthwhile. Our deliberations end up being cut short. The Star Mule contacts the planet. Thankfully we give the local authorities a good story to tell about the other ships in dock. The No Equal and the cowboys take off and plan to meet us on Tendril to collect the bounty.

The ship finally lands. The Star Mule’s captain disembark along with his crew, for a stretch. Local security forces check them out as well. Our plan is first for Blake to feel out the captain about handing the guy over, despite all of his bad burns from the plasma grenade that have miraculously healed thanks to some good drugs and medical care. We also plan to work on getting them all as drunk as possible in the cafeteria with booze procured from the No Equal. If that doesn’t work Gargoyle plans to be ready to sneak on board their ship to look for the fugitive.

Blake applies some silver shine to his tongue, pulls the captain aside and sweet-talks the captain fairly well. The captain mulls it over, considering the implications to his reputation. We try to convince him that a number of other bounty hunters will be after this guy and that it might be in his best interests to unload him sooner. The captain indicates that their next destination is there last one and that he could easily unload the guy and let him take his chances. We offer to pay him off about 1,250 credits which will also save the captain a trip to the next system and the associated expenses. The captain finally agrees, indicating that a side airlock door to the ship well be mysteriously unlocked when they unload cargo in about six hours. We talk him into providing payment after we make the grab. As we now have six hours prior to action we rest up while Benton works to treat injuries. Benton’s natural healing manages to make astounding progress in the time, thanks to some fantastic healing rolls. Seamus’ [un] natural healing powers also cause him to recover greatly.

In six hours Seamus, Gargoyle and Blake stand near the main airlock, ready to infiltrate the ship. They keep open a communications channel to make sure we’re all aware of our activities. Conveniently the rest of the Iron Mule’s crew is on another level entirely. They quietly makes his way to the passengers area of the ship, locating the single passenger’s compartment that is occupied (based on the light on inside). The three of them try to approach quietly; Gargoyle sneaks well but Seamus and Blake fail to approach quietly. They walk up to the door and find that it’s locked. Blake goes to work on the door using his lockpick and makes short work of the mechanism and opens the door. Our target, Tag Morris, is inside and looks rather surprised at seeing some burly strangers at his door. Seamus does nothing more than stand there and look at him and Tag is quickly cowed into submission, accepting his fate. He offers little resistance as he’s cuffed. Seamus goes through his things looking for anything pertinent to his crime and is able to find a hidden box of X3D’s, likely data that’s pertinent to the case. Seamus also kindly packs up his belongings for him and brings them along. We show him to his new quarters, in the brig, and give him a new set of clothes to make sure he’s not concealing anything.

We take off from the planet and head towards Alaundril to drop off the bounty. We have about 21 days of total drivespace. We continue our studies. During the trip Sinon spends some time talking with Tag to hear his story, find out about his crime, and inquire as to the circumstances to verify, to his own satisfaction, that the guy actually did commit the crime. He seems more interested in spinning falsehoods and stringing facts together to form a story of his innocence. Based on that as well as his easy capitulation to us at his door, Sinon seems comfortable turning this person in to the authorities.

Between jumps Blake takes his time to check and double-check his astrogation calculations and manages to put us far outside the orbit of Alaundril. Space traffic control directs our flight path to a landing area. Ion Productions representatives and government representatives meet us at our landing area, as do the Red Hook crew. Burns demands to only take 25% of the bounty instead of the 50% we originally negotiated for upon seeing that we kept our word; we decide to take him up on it. We now have some time to let our drive recharge.

Holo-chai looks over available bounties and offers us our choice of three; we end up choosing to go after a pirate leader that’s attacking shipping targets; he’s wanted dead or alive, offering twice as much money for him being alive (180,000). We also have the opportunity to pay ourselves and do some shopping while on-planet. We decide to pay ourselves our normal salary, $6,000, and remaining money after expenses will go into a general operating fund for rainy days. We spend some time shopping as well to gear up. Gargoyle helps us navigate the mean streets to find marginally-legal equipment as we want it.

We put psi-restraints on psi-bitch and wake her up to ask her some questions. She’s surprised that she’s still alive and wants to know what we want from her. Sinon, with some help from interrogation drugs, is able to get into her mind and extract honest information from her. The mission was to extract and safely transport Tag Morris, the bounty guy, to extract and safely transport him to Thorn shipyards. After digging further we find, though she’s very reluctant to tell us, she’s a part of the Securtas mercenary group. Apparently her captain negotiated the deal with their client, Thorn Shipyards. After questioning her further we eventually decide to turn her over to the local authorities. We’re able to get an honest answer from her that she doesn’t plan to seek revenge as this is “just business.”

Holo-chai does some research on our next target, a piratical captain. He’s apparently wanted for a number of counts of murder, property damage to ships, and for the last ten months or so he’s been targeting Rogue, Inc ships hauling rhodium out of Acheron as well as freighters coming from Tendril carrying starship parts purchased from Ion productions. We consider different methods of intercepting him. While we know a few spots in space that we might find him we also consider that his party’s reputation for partying in the Lucullus system is also known. They normally stop off there to sell captured components and celebrate. Considering that it’s an easy intercept to find the guy we decide to head to the Lucullus system to set things right.

That’s it for the night. We each receive two character points.