1100-002 - The Partners join an IISS Volunteer Emergency Survey

 

1200 – 1800 - Madeline ap-Corserra finishes the Partners' briefing, and gets them badges granting them  access to facilities inside the Regina IISS base (including the gym, the range, the commisary, and the VES's Ready Room. The Partners mention to Madeline that they might do a side job for TekImport while the An Lang is being outfitted; Madeline cautions them. The Partners meet Madeline's second-in-command and the An Lang's Chief Engineer, a female Vargr named Saeagang Uztsuee. The afternoon is spent between the Ready Room (where Froge, Leah, and Martaan discuss ship's armaments, software, and power plant requirements with Madeline and Saegang), and the base's firing range, where a retired Marine named Pug serves as the Range Safety Officer. Pug helps the Partners try out a variety of firearms and orders them weapons and ammunition for the VES. The Partners return to the Ready Room, find Saegang gone, and ask Madeline if she wants to join them for dinner. She declines, but suggests that they might meet a fellow VES member, the Tactical Officer Grigor Phelleps, at the Travellers' Aid Society bar.

1800 – 1900 – The Partners arrive at TAS and find the bar almost deserted. A man and a woman are sitting at a table in the corner, while a young man, extremely drunk and dressed in Imperial Army fatigues bearing a Major's insignia, is loudly proclaiming to Arbellatra and anyone else that he is going on a secret mission to battle "alien tech." This turns out to be the afore-mentioned Tactical Officer Grigor Phelleps. Martaan sits down with Grigor to talk to him, while Arbellatra whispers to Froge that Phelleps has been at the bar for a while now, is very drunk, and she's pretty sure that the stuff he's talking about isn't appropriate for a public setting. Martaan helps Grigor to bed (he's staying on the same floor at TAS), removes the liquor from his room and leaves it at TAS's front desk, and then rejoins Froge at the bar, where he gets a big hug from Arbellatra. While all this is taking place, Leah is bemusedly making her way through the appetizer menu.

1900 – 2200 – The Partners sit down for dinner, only to find themselves joined by the man and woman who have been at the bar's corner table. They introduce themselves as Jelph (a tall, handsome man with perfect teeth, who looks like a holographic entertainment star) and Dandelion (a tiny woman with obvious cybernetic implants). They claim to be from TekImport, and remark that they will address Grigor's behavior and breach of VES security. They excuse themselves, stating that they will most likely meet the Partners later. The Partners message Madeline about Grigor; she responds tersely that the situation is being addressed. The Partners have a leisurely dinner and drinks; Froge and Arbellatra make tentative plans for a date after Arbellatra finishes her bartending shift. 

2200 – 2330 - The Partners call it a night— Leah walks back to her ship, Martaan departs for the gym, and Froge heads up to his room to freshen up for a night out with Arbellatra. While getting off the elevator, Froge encounters two burly young men wearing work clothes labeled "Ed's Cleaning" carrying a lumpy-looking rug with a surprising bulge in its center. The two young men try to avoid eye contact with Froge as he makes small talk with them; at one point, Froge hears a faint hiccup and the words "alien tech" issue from the rug. He calls the other Partners to warn them that Grigor is being kidnapped; the Partners leave their comm devices in a shared conference mode as they head back to the TAS lobby. 

Martaan runs up from the downstairs gym into the TAS lobby, finds it empty, glances around and identifies the door from the lobby into the service portion of the TAS facility. Dashing through, he sees two men loading a rug (which grunts in protest) into a service elevator. (Meanwhile, Leah is threading her way through the crowd as quickly as she can on her way back to TAS, and Froge has taken the elevator down to the lobby and is looking for the kidnapers.) Seeing the two kidnappers distracted with rug, Martaan surprises them, rushing the elevator, and solidly punching the nearest one. The second kidnapper fumbles for something in his pocket, but Martaan has the initiative and strikes first, throwing a solid punch that stuns him. Unfortunately, this gives a moment for the first kidnapper to act— he draws a snub-nosed pistol and shoots Martaan with some kind of dissolving gelatin dart. Martaan struggles to remain conscious, but feels himself slipping down onto the polished floor. The last thing he sees is the first kidnapper scooping up his personal comms device as the elevator door closes and begins to ascend.

By this point, Leah and Froge have made their way into the TAS lobby. They find their way into the service portion of TAS, locate Martaan, wake him, and help him to a couch in the lobby. Leah and Froge are convinced that the kidnappers will be leaving the hotel from a vehicle stored in an underground garage, but they are unable to find a garage egress and intercept the vehicle. Leah hacks together a tracking app to find Martaan's comms device, and detects it traveling at speed and altitude away from TAS. She realizes the kidnappers must have had a grav vehicle on the roof, and they are leaving Grigor. Martaan's comm signal abruptly cuts out. The TAS night manager is clearly frightened, and wants to distance himself from the evening's events. Leah hears from the kidnappers that they must meet them at TekImport tomorrow at noon to retrieve Martaan's comm device and explain themselves. The Partners also hear from Madeline, who seems a little irritated at the turn the Partners' evening has taken. 

Arbellatra, leaving her bartending shift, sees Froge briefly in the TAS lobby. He tells her that this might not be a good night to visit with each other. She agrees and urges him, "Be careful!" The Partners finally turn in for the night. Leah orders new comms devices for the Partners.

1100-003 - TekImport

 

0600 – 0900 - The Partners wake up, eat breakfast, and steel themselves for the day ahead.

1100 – New comms devices are delivered to TAS; the Partners head out to TekImport.

1200 – The Partners are greeted at TekImport by a furious-seeming individual who walks them into a conference room containing Jelph, Dandelion, and Count Quinlan ap-Corserra. Martaan explains his reasons for intervening at TAS— he couldn't be certain who was kidnapping Grigor Phelleps, and didn't want to put the VES in jeopardy. Count Quinlan nods once after Martaan finishes. The unknown man begins to upbraided Jelph and Dandelion for theirs sloppy fieldcraft, and is in turn upbraided by Count Quinlan for their lack of subtlety and imagination. Both the unknown man and Count Quinlan apologize to the Partners for the way this situation was handled.