Logs of Abernathy, Entry 325 to 330

= Personal Log, Abernathy Linkerton #325 = So I have arrived in system 567-908 to some bad news. My lab ship, the Oppenheimer, cannot rendezvous and meet me here. I am now left without a ship capable of really handling the recovery of the anomalous ship. I try to see if I can interest the far trader that delivered me, the Emperess Marava, but they were heading in the opposite direction and had a promise to keep. I doubt they could have really handled the recovery. The best I can hope for is a good scan of the ship at this point. However, I am stranded, and at best 2 month before it jumps near the Bowman arm. I need to find another ship.

= Personal Log, Abernathy Linkerton #326 = Fantastic Luck. A scout ship, named the Calamity, jumped into system just yesterday. I managed to interest them in my mission, and they agreed to assist us. They merely wanted an advance of 30,000 cr. I agreed and gave them the coordinates of my cargo at the downport. They agreed to pick it up, we will be leaving tomorrow. I could not have asked for a better ship. It's an old design but it seems to have been upgraded with a densitometer, which will make mapping the ship a simple matter. We will have plenty of time to prepare in advance of the anomalous ships arrival in Bowman.

ADDENDUM #1: The scoundrels left me high and dry! They took my money and cargo and flew off in the night!

ADDENDUM #2: I never got the name of the crew. What a fool I was!

= Personal Log, Abernathy Linkerton #327 = It has been a few weeks, and I confess I have given up hope. I have been imbibing far too much of the local whiskey made by one of the chemists in his personal cabin. It's called Face Peeler and it lives up to the name. I was enjoying it with another fellow stranded traveller. In a drunken stupor I accidentally let slip the details of the ship I was hunting. Well, better an asset than a liability, so I hired him as a bodyguard. Maybe he will be able to tell if I am falling for a ruse and embarrass myself again. He at least seemed interested, even if he was a gruff and silent type. His name is Cletus Zapruder Schott, but goes by "Zappy".

No ships have passed through, and none of my messages for assistance have even left the downport. I may have missed my chance.

= Personal Log, Abernathy Linkerton #328 = So, a weird day, all around. It appears that the former crew of the Calamity were arrested! I admittedly found out by accidentally accusing some innocent persons of stealing and asking my bodyguard to 'rough them up', but the misunderstanding was cleared up quickly. They were listed in the public passenger list of the Autumn Gold, a large liner that jumped in early this morning. The captain of the Autumn Gold, a sweet sounding person named Michelle Merigold, unfortunately rebuffed my request to hunt for the anomolous ship. The steward did offer to sell me passage to Walston, which I did accept, and paid for Zappy as well. When reviewing the passenger logs, I found several individuals identified as "Crew: RVS-PCS 00007933 CALAMITY" and that two of them were making planetfall. Zappy and I confronted them, but quickly found that they were the new crew of the Calamity. They are on their way to Walston to claim the Calamity, and they agreed to complete my mission! I ran some quick calculations, and in two weeks, we may be just in time to get a scan of the ship in Bowman!

These new crewmembers are the following:
 * Kyras Ler: The Captain
 * Gaius Livius: The Tactical Officer
 * Newton Peabody: The Engineer
 * Minno Paste: The Pilot

= Personal Log, Abernathy Linkerton #329 = Today was a wild day. I have chosen my companions well. Numerous disasters, and I need to put it into words so that in the future when I dream of today I can look back and confirm that it really did happen. Let us begin with where I almost died.

We had arrived in Walston. We were taking the local shuttle service to the downport. Just a few hours into the flight, warning signals start blaring in the cabin. Zappy grabs me by the collar and shoves me into a chair after I just returned from the restroom. Unaware of what is happening, I sit and helplessly watch. The Calamity crew forces their way into the cabin. I later see the pilot dragged to a seat at the very rear of the shuttle. We could feel that the shuttle is making some rather violent maneuvers, as the inertial compensators seem poorly maintained. I hear a terrible explosion and part of the right side of the shuttle is exposed to the thin upper atmosphere. The incoming air felt hot but we must have already descended enough that we were not at risk of burning up. We put on emergency respirators found under the seats. Finally, I could see the ground rushing underneath us as the Calamity pilot tried to bring us to as safe a crash landing as he could manage. The shuttle slid to a stop, filling the right side with dirt and ripping off a wing. Unfortunately the captain and Vargr stewardess were ripped out. Fortunately all of the passengers survived.

I found out later that pirates had struck the Autumn Gold and made off with her. A fighter had launched two missiles at us, which the pilot had managed to dodge at least one of them with the help of their Engineer, who overloaded the tiny shuttles engines, then successfully glided the unpowered shuttle back to Walston's main island. I am quickly finding out that this crew is very competent, and that the pilot in particular is very good. My next story will also illustrate this. We were picked up after a few hours by a submarine and lead by the local security forces back to the downport for standard customs processing.

I will continue my amazing tale in my next log.

= Personal Log, Abernathy Linkerton #330 = I am writing this sitting comfortable in my bunk aboard the reclaimed Calamity, a ship which is well named, as it seems to attract the sort of disasters only the very capable can handle. Luckily it seems to have found her crew. Her first challenge was not the mere machinations of mortal man, but a primordial force of nature! However, I am getting ahead of myself.

I was stuck in the downport while the crew of the Calamity went off to recover her, trying to find something to entertain myself, when I heard a distant thunder. Several Port workers were running to the observation tower balcony. The entire island was visible from that vantage point. There were high power telescopes set up there and Zappy managed to muscle into controlling one of them. He also left me for a moment and returned with a portable comm-radio, which I did not ask where he had obtained it. From the balcony, we could observe Mount Salbarii. There was a cloud of ash in the air hanging over the mountain. The dormant volcano had come alive.

The cloud was emanating from the slope opposite us, so we could not see the town that it threatened below. The crew of the Calamity were piloting their craft above it, though we could not see the ship. Over the radio, we could hear the confused and manic response of local officials. We could hear the Imperial Port Authority ask the Calamity for emergency assistance. They were tracking the flow of lava for the officials. They also reported that they were landing to pick up civilians for the evacuation.

Astoundingly, I heard the Dictator of Walston come on the radio to ask the crew to recover his gravcar, because his Vargr chauffer had taken it to rescue the poor mans parents. They ignored the Dictator. It was during this exchange that the mighty volcano finally unleashed it's full power. The top of Mount Salbarii exploded in an impressive eruption that in hindsight I wish I had captured on video. It blackened the sky and dimmed the local star into a ball of red light. Lightning could be seen shooting up and down the billowing cloud and pyroclastic flows could be seen zooming down the sides.

It was after this that the Dictator's Chauffer requested assistance from the Travellers. The GravCar was failing in the choking smog and would not make it to the ocean. Amazingly, the Calamity responded that it would. Over the radio, we could hear as the Calamity negotiated with the chauffer to fly the GravCar into the cargo bay. It ended with the Chauffer confirming he had made it and the pilot saying they were now going to fly clear. It was then that the other observers yelped that they could finally see the Calamity over the slopes of Mount Sulbarii.

I peered into the telescope, and I could see the tiny silhouette of the Calamity against a red sky. My first time laying eyes on the ship, and it was framed in a flash of lightning. I admit I started yelling along with the cheers of the other observers as we watched the ship maxing its engines to fly upwards. It was trying to avoid the oncoming pyroclastic flow, but it did not manage to make it. The shockwave struck, and the Calamity was flung backward like a toy bobbing in the ocean. The balcony became quiet as the ship disappeared under the clouds of the flow. The radios were silent. But then a glint of light and the radio crackled to life. The Calamity was requesting permission to land at the downport. It could be seen cresting the ridgeline, low to the ground. A beat up, ugly ship, to be sure, but the citizens of Walston around me were celebrating it's beauty.

I found out later that the Calamity had been abandoned in the caldera of the volcano. The Crew had a lot of trouble getting to it. They actually had hired the Chauffer earlier in the day to fly a rickety gyrocopter to the summit, before the Chauffer had been recalled to serve the Dictator. The same Vargr submarine captain that had rescued us was also on hand to help out with the evacuation. I think his name was Pliny. They had actually lost power when the pyroclastic flow hit, but their engineer managed to bring their power plant back online, and the pilot was able to recover. Thanks to sheer luck the town was successfully evacuated, and there weren't any reports of missing persons, at least in the short amount of time we lingered there. The Calamity Crew were celebrated as heroes.

Now we are on our way to Bowman, and now perhaps this crew will make a name for themselves amongst the stars.