Hank was contacted by an old naval contact called Skyler Frasier. He was looking for someone to hunt for a missing ship called the Perfect Stranger. The Island subsectors great rift had relatively few stars limiting the transit routes through the area and there had been friction between some of the planets which could disrupt the trade routes. The Perfect Stranger had been sent on an undercover mission to learn more about what was happening in the area but two of the crew had turned up on Amondiage a few months ago in cryogenic units, dead having been shot by laser weapons. He wanted us to retrieve the Perfect Stranger's data cores and return them to Zuflucht. Recovering the crew and ship would be a secondary goal (6 of the crew were still missing). We would be paid 250,000cr each on delivery and 10,000cr each per month for expenses. We were given passcodes to perfect stranger and paperwork to allow us to take possession of the ship.

Amondiage was one of three planets to be settled first in the subsector, the others being New Home and Neubayern. Amondiage was a dictatorship with a high law level.

We jumped to Amondiage. The star port charged the standard 500cr/ton for refined fuel or 100cr/ton for unrefined, and 2,000cr/day berthing fees. We had to report to security on arrival and were informed that no weapons were allowed. We saw a public information broadcast saying Amondiage was on the brink of war, with the Serendip belt aggressively posturing. We queried about ships in the space port but could not find anything on the Perfect Stranger. A paper clip appeared in the corner of the screen and suggested we subscribe to 'Everyone's guide to the ships of the islands'. That gave us a review. We contacted Sam G and arranged to meet in a warehouse.

In the warehouse there was a woman with some thugs who wanted to know why we were interested in the Perfect Stranger. Heironymus made up a story about them not delivering something but she did not believe him and ordered the thugs to rough us up. The thugs were subdued, but the woman fled. Heironymus found a small emergency beacon on the floor which had been activated. As we left the warehouse we could see a police air raft heading towards us. We avoided them and made our way back towards the spaceport.

Heironymus approached the port authorities showing the paperwork we had. After some checking he was told the Perfect Stranger had filed a flight plan from Acadie -> Colchis -> New home. We then filed a flight plan and jumped to Acadie. Records said Acadie was a colonial possession of Amondiage with a single major city and goods there were subsidised by the government. When we landed we saw there was a security alert caused by a general strike at a mining complex and paramilitary law enforcement were everywhere.

Heironymus said we were traders of bobble hats and were meeting the Perfect Stranger for a trade. We were asked for paperwork and told we would be given access if it checked out though there were some issues to resolve. The Perfect Stranger was in the space port but the issues were that they wanted 72,000cr for accrued berthing fees before the Perfect Stranger would be released. We paid the fees and the ship was released into our care. I arranged to sell the three Shakuurzarpi eggs we had for 30,000cr.

On board the perfect stranger I started checking over the ships systems while the others checked out the rest of the ship. The cargo space had only a few empty containers, and there were the remains of mouldy food in the galley. There were some problems in the control pathways of the J-Drive which were a mess and several key components were missing. It looked like someone had deliberately disabled the ship.

Hank found someone had hacked the navigation system and had downloaded and replaced the logs. He also found some hidden files with info about a hidden safe containing contingency funds in the ships office, and a drop point hotel. The safe in the office had been lasered open. Alan found a smuggling compartment which contained a small black box which was locked and we could not open. The drop point hotel file said it was on Herzenslust.

We went to buy what I needed to repair the Perfect Stranger but Hank suddenly said we were being watched and ran off into the crowd. We followed and the woman Hank was chasing went into a vehicle bay through a door with a sign 'authorised personnel only'. Inside we were attacked by three individuals. Heironymus was knifed by one and Hank was shot with a laser by the woman he had been chasing. She ran off when Hank shot her back. Hank then killed the third attacker and Alan stunned the one who had attacked Heironymus unconscious. We booked into a cheap hotel and took the stunned individual there where he was secured.

While I went to get parts for the Perfect Stranger and Alan took Hank for treatment, Heironymus waited with the captive. When he recovered consciousness Heironymus questioned him. He claimed to be part of the Amondiage government though Heironymus thought he was lying. He knew our names and said he wanted to know what the crew of the Perfect Stranger had learned. When we were unable to obtain any further information he was stunned and smothered then the body dumped.

I returned to the ship and made the repairs. We hired a crew to take the Superb Starling back to the Ducal Heir as we did not need to be paying the running costs of two ships. Herzenslust was some distance away and the first step was to jump to Colchis. From there we continued to New home. Hew home refused to honour our credit account and there appeared to be political tensions. We went to a bar and heard a man called Orcini was a local dealer. He offered us a job to break into the Perfect Stranger and download the computer logs. He said the ship was of interest to a local government. We agreed thinking we could make some easy money.

When we returned to the ship we found a group trying to gain access. They were intimidated to leave and we created some bogus navigation data showing a plan for the Perfect Stranger to fly on to Schlesien belt. Hank was called to the spaceport authority and told the ship was grounded due to some administrative procedure. It was then suggested it could be cleared for a 50,000cr payment. Alan went to pay while Hank and Heironymus went back to Orcini. Orcini was not interested in any flight logs without the data cores and a fight broke out. Hank broke Orcini's arm when he drew a knife and Orcini ran off leaving his bodyguard to fight. After trading a few blows with Hank the bodyguard was knocked out.

During the fight Heironymus managed to plant a bug on Orcini and overheard him rushing to the spaceport authority where they were clearly in collusion, talking about reporting to 'Mr big' and sending their men. The four people who were attempting to break in earlier were seen driving towards the Perfect Stranger with cutting equipment. They cut their way in while the pre flight checks were still being performed. Hank quickly dispatched two and the others turned and fled.

We took off and jumped to Sturgeon's law where we refuelled from the local gas giant. As we were finishing we were attacked by two missiles. One hit but I shot and destroyed the other. The missiles appeared to have been launched by an orbiting mine and there were another two mines we could see on the sensors. We quickly moved away from them and landed on Sturgeon's law. It was a hell world populated by a moss which metabolised flesh and metal. The star port was on an island which had been cleared of the moss. We were questioned on why we needed repairs before finally being allowed to land. We spent some time repairing the ship and relaxing. We also got some new SW installed using the expense account.

We then jumped to Elysee. It was an independent world and HQ of The Island Bridge trading corporation. After refuelling we jumped to Besancon which was also an world after fighting a war of independence against Serendip belt. From there we jumped to Herzenslust which was a colonial world of New Colchis. As we did not have a New Colchis registration we were directed to the secondary star port. The planet had a dense tainted atmosphere and there was a starship graveyard outside the city. The coordinates we had for the drop point hotel were somewhere near the junk yard.

We hired a vehicle and went to the ship graveyard. While looking round the graveyard we found the remains of a type R merchant similar to the Perfect Stranger. I thought the hardest part of the ship to reach and therefore the most likely place for something to be hidden was in the auxiliary flow chamber. While I was crwling round the insides of the wrecked ship investigating, the others overheard the guy running the scrapyard making a call and saying 'they are here, what do I do' and being told men were on their way. Eight people showed up in two vehicles. One put a knife in the tyre of our hire car. Inside the ship I found 2 computer cores labelled backup 1 & 2, and 20,000cr in an old holdall.

A gunfight quickly ensued. One of the attackers fled but the others were killed. the guy running the scrapyard was interrogated and said he had been approached by a woman who gave our names and told him to watch for us and keep us here. I quickly swapped out the wheels on our car with wheels from theirs, and we left. As we made our way back to our ship we became aware we were being followed, and a car pulled up along side us. The car was being driven by the woman we had encountered previously on Amondiage. The passenger fired and hit me with a laser pistol. Hank fired back and hit the passenger, killing him. Heironymus fired wildly at the car until I finally succeeded in losing it and drove back to the star port.

Having found the data cores we decided to make our way to Zuflucht. I used the access codes we had been given to decrypt the data cores. We found a partial set of data files and a code on the data cores which gave us access to the box we had previously found. It contained 100,000cr but nothing else. We jumped through Besancon and Elysee then took a multiple deep space jump to Gloire. It was a colonial possession of the Serendip belt and served as an agricultural supply planet.

On Gloire Heironymus met someone he knew called Malonius. He said King Oleb XVI of the trojan reach sector was looking for travellers with skills and was offering lucrative job offers. King Oleb lived in a floating palace and if we went there we could profit greatly. After a couple of days on planet we took off to make the last jumps to Zuflucht. As we maneuvered away from the planet we picked up an imperial vessel called the Ishsagi. The Ishsagi launched two fighters and said it was here to collect the data cores. When we delayed they launched another two fighters. We decided to perform an emergency jump but a feedback loop caused the jump engine to fail.

The results were catastrophic with the other major systems all taking damage. The ship was left adrift as we mis-jumped with the warp bubble collapsing after a few hours leaving us in some unknown location. The ship had suffered significant damage and was dead in the water. Sensors detected a ship in our proximity, a Close escort class ship, possibly Gazelle class. It appeared to have been in space for more than 20 years and was on minimum power. I patched up the M-Drive enough to allow is to move the Perfect Stranger over to the other vessel.

We docked and entered it's docking may. Inside we found a military gig. A quick inspection of the gig showed it to be in a decent condition. It had a Bio-Tek logo on the airlock. On board we found a vac suit and two laser carbines.

We continued searching the ship. In the cargo bay were twelve containers. Six were opened and empty. They were labelled Hyper sulphide acid. The unopened ones were labelled Alkali compound. We continued investigating. The drives appeared to be in good shape but closer inspection showed the J-Drive needed a complete overhaul. I started working on the power systems. The others continued searching the ship. Three corpses were found in the common area. They wore overalls with the BioTek logo. There was no signs of decomposition and when Hank cut one he found a greyish material rather than flesh.

A UV lamp was found, and it showed small dots on Hieronymus's glove, in an area with some acid burns, and in the empty containers. Various medical supplies were also found, as well as a portable computer in a cabin and a notepad computer in the captains cabin. It required optical login. The captains corpse was on the bridge and the computer was unlocked using the body. Records were from 20 years ago.

All navigation data in the ships computer was lost. I found a directory listing. I supposed the corrupted file originally read something like "encountered a small oxygen rich planet with no like except several spores. In accordance with standard corporate procedure we proceeded to take samples. Navigational coordinates to be found in the navigation files directory". I did not get any further because when Hieronymus returned to the common room he saw one of the bodies had been torn open and saw something slithering on the ceiling.

When Hieronymus shouted a warning over the comm system I turned down the life support system temperature in the hope it would slow the creature. However very quickly more of the creatures burst from the bodies of the other crew. Alan hid in the toilet after being injured by one of the creatures while everyone else fought and killed them. The bodies were thrown in an airlock and ejected, but there were spores in the air from the creatures, and one started burrowing into Alan's neck. He injected himself with some of the alkali which killed it, and we formed a plan to cleanse the ship by aerosolising the alkali in the ships atmosphere.

Hank took shelter in the military gig but was attacked by a larger version of the creature which had been hiding inside. He managed to trap it in the cockpit. It was however very strong and after a short while broke out. Heironymus went to help while I helped Alan disperse the alkali throughout the ship. Eventually everything was killed and the ship was decontaminated.

When we got the navigation systems online we found we were in the Tlaiowaha subsector in deep space in Aslan territory. King Oleb XVI could be found on Drinax which was only two jumps away so we decided it would be more profitable to seek his employment than make our way to Zuflucht which the mis-jump had taken us far from. I updated the ships black box to rename it the Lost Horizon. We then jumped to the Khusai system which was between us and Drinax, but inhabited by Aslan. We were intercepted by a patrol craft but eventually were granted permission to land. We were offered a full overhaul of our ship for free if we agreed to spy on King Oleb XVI. As the cost was going to be more than 1,000,000cr we agreed and the ship was overhauled.

The captains log revealed more about how the ship met its fate