You can do as you like, but it may hinder the king’s plans to awe the locals.
Byron plots a course into the system.
After the meeting with the crew, Jerry meets the command crew on the on the bridge.
"Time is a wasting, my friends. Let's get this ship out where she belongs and see what she can do," says the erstwhile Captain says.
"Astrogation - plot a course to the 100 diameter limit. No point showing all and sundry what the Nemesis can do - let's keep that under our hats," orders Jerry as he reaches up to a non-existent cap on his head.
"Pilot - Keep to standard atmospheric and in-system speeds, for now."
"Comms - handle the standard jib-jab with Traffic Control and the like. Draft a polite message to the Palace, too. Something about departing on the Grand and Profitable Adventure."
Jerry pauses for moment before moving closer to the Comms station. He speaks quietly so that other will have difficulty overhearing, "Standard last messages from the crew, particularly those just hired. Scan the messages and tell me if any have included information about what we are off to do."
"Engine Room - standard operation. Monitor the engines and inform us of anything unusual or worrisome."
"Marines - well, there should be nothing for you to do right now."
"Now, does anyone have a pressing desire to visit Asim? Say, to see the old homestead? Leave a last message personally? If so, speak up now before we plot jump coordinates."
Jerry pauses to make a dramatic gesture, sweeping his arm towards the nearest viewscreen for the benefit of the bridge crew and an imaginary audience.
"You have your orders - make it so!"
Daneel looks askance at Jerry. "I doubt anyone has ever had a pressing desire to visit Asim. There's nothing there for us - let's get to work."
Steph takes her seat in the pilots chair. She settles in takes a deep breath and puts her hands on the controls. "Yes Captain" she begins to pilot the ship out of the docking bay on the charted course.
Nemesis leaves Drinax behind as it moves smoothly out to the 100-diameter limit. When Bryon assures Jerry that the limit is past, Jerry engages the Jump Drive. The ship's lanthanum grid powers up and tiny flickering fires dart here and there across the hull. The jump engines form a tiny bubble of normal space around the ship, inflate it with neutral hydrogen and...
...the ship is gone.
Firmly locked in its own universe, Nemesis doesn't move at all, but the portal between dimensions does. For the next week, the crew of the Trojan Reach's newest raider is all alone in the night.
When no one else indicates that they are sending his message to the Palace, Jerry exclaims, "Hmm? No takers to be the voice of the Nemesis?"
He hurriedly composes the communication and sends it off.
Once the Nemesis jumps, Jerry relaxes a bit. "I will be available, if needed. My cabin is closest to the bridge. Otherwise, I will be reading what I can about ship to ship combat."
Jerry is good to his word, spending the week studying Tactics - initially with the aid of the expert program on his computer.
Byron trains with the marines to prepare for Zero G combat in the new suits.
Steph spends her off duty hours with the crew trying to get to know them better. She generally asks about their interests outside of their jobs, and makes a list of things they said were forgotten. One thing she forgot was a vid game or two that she could loan to the crew when they get restless.
She'll ask Misty to help her with her bladed melee combat.
A week goes by as the crew gets to know each other. Dr. Hargek has some amazing stories about life in the Vargr Extents, while it turns out that Afaar'iy is a really good baritone and enjoys singing songs of battle. Meanwhile, Kagni has an extensive collection of graphic novels all about a universe where knights and scoundrels rescue princesses and battle villains with laser swords and derring-do.
Eventually, a week later, the crash alarm sounds - standard practice on ships when about to re-enter normal space. The alarm means that everyone has under ten minutes to get to General Quarters before the tiny universe collapses and deposits Nemesis back into space.
Any preparations?
Ray is horrible at being cooped up. Not just in a jump -- all the time. The ship, the walls... It doesn't matter that they're in and awesome ship, and she's living in the nicest quarters she's ever seen. She just needs... space. Solid ground under her feet, a sky above her, sunrise, sunset, sound of the birds -- or hissing toxic gas. It doesn't really matter where she is, as long as she's somewhere.
Somewhere else.
Story of her life. Never satisfied.
So Ray begins the journey sociable. She makes the rounds, visits the crew -- sometimes together, sometimes alone. And when she bores she moves on to the next one. Hangs out for a while, tries out what they're doing, then moves on.
It's alright the first few days, but in time its grating. It's less a pleasant visit and more irritating. Not purposely, of course. But she's bored and impatient, and no one like their 'calm' interrupted. Especially not on a jump. Impatience is contagious.
She enjoys Dr. Hargek's stories, and shares some of her own -- the good ones, of course. Not the sh** she's been through the last few years. The time before. Scouting missions, surveying planets, harmless trouble, dangerous environments, run-ins with local flora and fauna. The good times.
She bugs Jerry when he's trying to study and decides to give him a nickname. She tries for fierce and badass, but eventually comes to the decision that 'Jerr-Bear' is by far the best nickname for him. She resolves to use it constantly. Maybe she'll give him a break when they're negotiating or something. She'll have to see.
She trains with Byron and the marines, sparring and training. Helping Byron figure out how to use his Vacc Suit. How can anyone not know that? It's like breathing. Just... necessary.
When she discovers Afaar'iy can sing like a boss she badgers him for sing whenever she's bored. Sometimes she sings along, and other times she just dances with abandon. She never just sits to listen. She's not a sitter. She's a doer. Maybe that's why she doesn't like the walls. Anyway, she likes Afaar'ir's jams, and says so. But then she's moving on again. She tries to get into Kagni's graphic novels, but she always laughs aloud at the absurdities inside -- the cliche's and the grand coincidences and the lack of main characters dying horrible deaths. It's great comedy. Except its not supposed to be. By the end of the week he doesn't offer to let her read them anymore.
She eats, she fidgets, she talks, she paces, she oils the guns, she fidgets, she performs some other random time-filling chore, she paces.
But, she can't escape the walls.
My mid-week she starts punching them. Figuratively. Not literally. She doesn't want to break her hands. That'd be stupid. Then what would she do?
She's a regular fixture among the marines as she tries to brush up on her fist-fighting and wrestling. She's a little rough around the edges, but she can put up a fight.
When the alarm sounds Ray grins and pumps her fist in the air. "Whoo! Yes!" She hurries off to General Quarters, rapping her knuckles on the doors she passes by in excitement. "Let's get it done, crew!"
"What do we got, Jerr-Bear?" she asks she she arrives.
Jerry moves to the bridge, crossing the corridor and passing through the iris. He heads upwards to the captain's platform, trying to determine to secure himself in the chair or stand nonchalantly along the railing.
Today, on this first jump, Jerry opts for safety. He moves to the chair and sits, settling himself on the upholstered chair. Looking around, Jerry sees the the receptacle for a sword. It is that point that he realizes that he has forgotten his weapons.
"Is everyone ready?," Jerry says as he settles into his Captain Jaramillo-Smith persona. "Mister Vasiir - soon as possible, report on the jump drive and systems."
"Sensors - who has sensors?"
"You know I don't think you've ever answered a single question I've thrown at you, Jerr-Bear," Ray muses aloud. "You need to work on your communication skills."
She makes no move to take control of the sensors.
"Aye, sir," chirps the comm from Engineering. "Readings are steadying. I'll have a full report in a few minutes."
"What we have, Ray, is that we are about to emerge from jump. Presumably, in the Pourne system," replies Jerry from his seat on the captain's bridge.
"Knowing what is around us would be good, too. I wouldn't mind starting our pirate careers early, if there was a fat merchant close by and no naval vessels," continues Jerry.
Daneel keeps busy during the jump - very busy. He spends most of his time poking into every nook and cranny of Nemesis' systems. If something is sealed up or otherwise inaccessible, he uses one of his mental knacks to get a look at it anyway.
He sees Steph and Ray training with the marines, and, seeing the sense in it, decides to join them. In the time he spends stretching and limbering up before sparring, he also limbers up his mind. He focuses on the other minds on board and gets used to feeling the pressure of them. He grows more comfortable with their presence and learns to recognize them by the nuances in the way they "feel".
When the alarm goes off, Daneel pulls his head out of the m-drive, and heads to the bridge. He pulls up the sensor arrays and makes sure everything is ready to scan on their emergence into normal space.
Steph takes her seat in the Pilot's chair and readies to take control of the ship again. "Coming out of Jump, Sir." She faces forward.
Daneel detects an 800-ton freighter about 1,000,000 km from the planet, heading inbound at Thrust-1. [i]Nemesis is approximately 1,600,000 km from the planet and approximately 875,000 km from the freighter. The freighter will reach the safety of the satellites in approximately 4 hours.
Jerry rubs his chin as he ponders the question of how to present the Nemesis to the world.
"Make us look like a small freighter ... fast for carrying high value perishable cargo. If we have to, show registry from ... I don't know ... Tech-World, I guess." commands the captain of the Nemesis.
"Astrogation - math was never my strong suit. Can we get between the freighter and the satellites with room to spare?"
"We'll decide what to do when we get closer and can tell more about the freighter. Any other ships in the system? Especially military?"
Byron plots a course to see if they can intercept the ship before it reaches safety.
Byron plots a course to see if they can intercept the ship before it reaches safety.
[dice=Astrogation+EDU]2d6+1+1
At Thrust-4, you can make the intercept in 45 minutes.
There are many other ship in the Pourne system. Perhaps two dozen. But they are either docked at one of the stations or millions of kilometers away by the gas giants. There is indeed a powerful System Defense Boat (SDB) orbiting the nearest gas giant. A ship like that could wreck Nemesis in minutes, but it would first have to catch her.
There are no ships nearer to the freighter than Nemesis.
"Captain. Should I pilot a course for the freighter? Seems like a good first target." She runs her hands over the pilot controls just waiting for the go ahead.
"Make it so!," replies Captain Jerry. "Let's try this out."
Jerry thinks for a moment before asking a question. "Engineering - what is the status of the jump engines and drives? Will we be able to make a jump in approximately one to two hours?"
You'll be well within 100 diameters (1,440,000 km) of the planet. You'll even be within 90 diameters (1,296,000 km). It will take you approximately 33 minutes to achieve 90 diameters and 46 minutest to achieve 100 diameters.
"Wicked!" Rei says with a lop-sided grin. She hurries off and hops into the gunner's seat. She makes sure the turret's good to go. "In position, Jerr-Bear."
Byron goes to put on his armor and vac suit. After he gathers his weapons he goes to make sure the marines are ready to go in case the ship chooses the harder path.