Morgue the Merrier

Morgue the Merrier is the first session of Distant Stars, making it the tenth session of Ad Astra overall.

This session is split into two distinct halves, separated by having different plot threads.

## Plot

### First Half

At last restored, the *CS Vikham* lifts off and leaves Chor's Gutters. While the crew waits for it to exit the star's heliosphere (and thus be able to enter jump space), they decide to take on various leisure activities. This lasts until Seri hears an odd sound coming from the engines - content this means the ship is haunted, she rushes to Zavis, alerting him.

Zavis doesn't believe in ghosts, deciding to check to see if he can see what's wrong with the engine; upon entering the engine room, Zavis shines a light in to discover a pair of four, apparently glowing eyes staring back out at him. He freaks out and wakes up Wiks, informing the bounty hunter that "ghosts *are* real!" Wiks, however, insists on a more corporeal problem - he suggests that perhaps they have a Click stow-away, as Click eyes reflect light.

Wiks, Zavis, and Seri head back to the engine to Wiks taking his laser rifle, but the eyes (and whatever they were attached to) are gone. They decide to get Klux to as he would know any hiding spots in the engines, but upon waking him, they hear footsteps above them, seemingly coming from the Vikham's roof - since the Vikham is in space, this strikes the group as odd, and Wiks is about to shoot up when Seri stops him, pointing out that would potentially create a hull breach.

Shan wakes up, and the group decides to split up and scour the ship for the intruder; Seri, still content it's a ghost, wants to go with Shan, as they insist on guarding their "suspicious crates" in the cargo bay. This leaves Klux, Wiks, and Zavis to scout the ship; they go back to the engine, only to be greeted by a Scrid, who promptly walks over and gives Zavis a 'gift' in the form of a consumed mouse from its gullet.

Eager to prove to her the ship isn't, in fact, haunted, Wiks calls Seri, who - upon arrival - instantly is woo'd by how cute the Scrid is. She names him Comet, and begs Wiks to let her keep in. Wiks informs her the status of a pet on the ship is up the Sarim, who Seri radios. Sarim agrees, especially after Comet pukes up another mouse, revealing the ship to have a potential rodent problem.

Just then, the *Vikham* reaches outside the heliosphere and attempts to jump; the port engines fail, the ship falls lopsided, and misjumps due to engine damage from the mice.

The ship arrives in a seemingly random system, and as Sarim attempts to deduce their location via sexton, the group sets to work; Klux works on repairing the engine, to find the port Flux Capacitor has shorted and thus been damaged beyond repair. Finally, Sarim deduces them to be in Tyche Sector, having jumped the proper distance, just in the wrong direction. He radios a nearby Terran Federation base for help.

The Federation arrives shortly in the form of the *TFF New Horizon* which takes the *Vikham* into its hangar bay, much to Shan's dismay; they hide their suspicious crates under a tarp, and rely on the Federation's laws forbidding checking anything not in the open outside of formal inspections. This proves to work - the *Vikham* is transported to Starhold Bradbury without incident.

As the ship is being transported, the crew of the *Vikham* has a meeting, where Sarim brings them up to date on events - they will have to spend a few days at Bradbury to repair the ship. Wiks becomes uncomfortable, but does not inform the group why; Sarim seems to understand, but the rest are left in the dark that Wiks grew up on Brabdury.

### Second Half

The *Vikham* arrives on Starhold Bradbury and the group splits up to do various odd jobs; Klux goes to buy a new Capacitor, Zavis goes to check out the hospital and see if he can buy medical supplies (or help out), Sarim deals with Federation docking authorities, Seri works on "training" Comet, Shan guards the ship, and finally Wiks leaves to check in on an old friend of his.

The friend is Cryon DeLuca, and while at Cryon's shop, he runs into Kily O'Sullivan - another old friend. Kily reveals to Wiks she's helping out a friend named Anka Jayson, and inquires if he'd like to help her "get into trouble". Wiks is at first reluctant, but Kily wins him over with nostalgia.

Kily, Wiks, and Anka head back to the *Vikham*, where they gather the rest of the group. Anka informs them she is working for Nebula Records as a "fixer", and recently a star of theirs, Jaxton Miles, had been killed in a shootout with Federation station authorities. She employs the group to find Miles' corpse and remove any evidence he was connected to Nebula - technically, it's her job, but she is under-equipped for such endeavors. She furthermore professes attraction to Klux.

The Group agrees, granted she'll pay them 1,000 credits for the job, as well as cover their new capacitor.

The Group then heads to the apartments where Jaxton lived, to find it swarming with Federation station security. They learn Jaxton had, indeed, open fired on Federation officers, and had been killed in the subsequent shootout; he was taken to the morgue. The Party decides to head there, but they'll need access; to do this, Wiks guides them back to DeLuca's shop, and asks DeLuca to get them into the morgue; DeLuca, in turn, offers the group Terran Federation Medical Corps uniforms and a body bag, in exchange for 700 credits. They agree.

Wiks and Zavis dress up as Medical Corps officers, while Klux hides in the bag with their gear. They enter the security station through the morgue entrance, Zavis using his medical knowledge to give a story about the "corpse" in the body bag that will get them directed to the same wing as Jaxton. This works, and in turn the group (after letting Klux out of the body bag) searches for Jaxton's corpse. Finding it via a photo of Jaxton sent by Anka, they search the body - they find only one personal affect on the body: a single glass sphere, containing what appears to be a dead spider sealed inside it.

Although they find this odd, Wiks holds onto the sphere, and they sneak back out.

Upon returning to the Vikham, the Party presents Anka with the sphere and assures her there's nothing linking Jaxton to Nebula. Anka is thrilled at the latter, but quickly she becomes concerned about the former, obviously scared at what the glass sphere represents.