The first thing I decided to do when I woke in the morning was to organise my stateroom to make sure I had space to study. The astrogation checks and rechecks always had me stressed and worried as we headed out to jump points and I fear that I need to know more than just the basics and have reliance on jump tapes and the ship computer.

The computer library had the basic information and I could start studying now, though I will also need to get some further courses and instruction material when we get to Moughas.

I managed a good study session throughout most of the day before I needed to get ready for the Captain's Dinner. I could feel myself get a little uneasier as the time drew near and I hoped that I would be able to make light and polite conversation without it spiralling out of control. It would be nice for Annie to have an easy trip for once.

I arrived in the lounge a little early, but already most of the passengers were there. Annie had laid out drinks and nibbles for them and whispered to me that we would try a little socialising before we sat down to eat and in the event of any sense of the unease I had been feeling, we would be more able to move people away.

It was much easier stood up before the meal to make simple conversation and I was able to ask most of the passengers at once whether they had been to Moughas. To my surprise, all of them had been there at least once before. Fatos Nagasawa was even one of the first settlers on Moughas back in 1085 and had espoused about the world, stating "The ocean, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever", which led to a little ripple of applause from Veltishko Dubois. It seemed that no-one else had ever been further than the downport and although they had seen the beauty and majesty of the water world from afar, had never been on the water outside of the extrality line.

There were dangers on Moughas, Fatos had warned, and these were the main reasons that none of the others had left the downport. Storms and the threat of superwaves that regularly occurred made construction of protective buildings very expensive, and many of the few islands that existed were mostly uninhabited. With the exception of the downport and a few other sites on the Leeward Islands there were no permanent buildings on the surface.

Away from the downport was an underwater arcology, Ash Ra Tempel, that was located on the western Kalchas Shallows which is where the main flow of trade, other than the downport, seemed to happen.

Annie's trick before the meal was a resounding success, as the passengers were all relaxed and amicable to one another. So much so, in fact, that Manana Monge's tongue ran away with her more than she intended I think. She has been a crewman aboard the vessels for one of the major Enope-cluster merchant lines, Feri Haulage LLC, for many years and had been to Moughas a few times. She indicated that she knew about a series of cost cuttings to the Starship Approach control systems and these had plagued the downport for years. Last year, she went on to tell us, two shuttles had been forced to abort landings after control systems inexplicably went down at the last second^[1]. And she was convinced they wouldn't be the last.

I made sure that I reassured the passengers that we would be exceptionally careful upon approach and was delighted when it appeared I had their confidence. For the first time I believe I actually enjoyed the full dinner.

#0001 — 028-1106 @ 1100 to 028-1106 @ 2300 IST Ω

Pleased with the way the Captain's Dinner had proceeded the previous evening allowed me to continue my research into astrogation a breeze. When the stress and anxiety of making sure a ship full of passengers are happy and content melts away it is easy to concentrate. Most of the day I spent in books and tapes, with the occasional stroll around the ship just to make sure that everything kept running smoothly.

In the medbay, James was undergoing some research himself and had his head in books with an elaborate set of small experiments before him, with small amounts of algae growing in one of the vessels.

I can't pretend I understood that much of what James said, but it sounds like he is continuing his research into the biology of flora, and algae in particular, that he was doing before he left SuSAG. He did note that he was looking after the low berth passengers on a regular basis, though, he would take a walk and stretch his legs from the research and head through the cargo bay to the port section and inspect the berth controls manually.

I walked down to the cargo bay and into the port corridor along with James on his next inspection, just in case I had to know which buttons to press in an emergency. It seemed quite idiot-proof, though without a doctor present at the time of bringing a passenger round it would be "interesting".

Annie was in the cargo bay, fetching something from Antonie Christensen's cargo crate. She explained that it was tea, different boxes from all parts on the Spinward Marches and beyond. Annie said that Antonie mainly sat in his stateroom drinking vast quantities of the stuff and complaining about the water being too pure.

We got talking about my efforts to learn astrogation and James mentioned his research. Annie laughed and said that Otto had been helping her out learning how to wear a vacc suit properly. She had always found them clumsy and difficult to wear and to put on and take off. Otto had always seemed to move around so easily.

As we were laughing about Annie's clumsiness in a vacc suit, Otto himself appeared in the cargo bay, some form of starship component in one hand and a tool box in the other. He shrugged and told us that the repairs never seemed to finish on the Kalitá. We mentioned James' science, my astrogation and commented on how Otto was helping Annie with her vacc suit.

I asked if Otto was learning at the same time as us and he nodded in agreement. After the issues we had had last jump with the Kalitá and the power plant he was reading the old girl's manuals and studying our fusion plant so that he would be able to fix any problems later.

With us all spending time concentrating on our own development we must not forget that we have a ship to run and passengers that need looking after.

#0002 — 029-1106 @ 1100 to 029-1106 @ 2300 IST Ω

The rest of the jump passed in delightful peace, with contented passengers and plenty of time for the crew and myself to continue our studies.

When the notification came through for the expected jump precipitation I once again asked the passengers to remain in their stateroom and for all the crew to don their vacc suits. The exit was bang on cue and I quickly opened up the sensor panels to get our bearings and readings from the Moughas system.

Readings came through quickly on the system and confirmed we were about eight hours away from the homeworld. Traffic was fairly light and the comms buoy supplied a vector to approach the highport. Moughas could be seen through the viewports as a small blue circle, tiny, but obvious in the blackness of space. As I turned to look at the newsfeeds and other system reports I let James know to start the process of unfreezing the low berths.

Efate was spinward from where we were now at Moughas, on the edge of Imperial space, as Kinorb was. The news was disconcerting, especially as there appeared to disagreement on the facts. We would have to continue to be careful about heading close to the border. Regina was near the border, but was well protected.

Not so long after leaving jumpspace and as we followed the provided vectors to the highport we were hailed by a Type-S Scout, the "Following The Light Of The Sun", who hailed us from some 50,000km away. They were warning all civilian vessels to chart around their location as they were monitoring and investigating some form of gravitational disturbance. We were given a 5,000km radius safety zone to avoid, so I had to bring the Kalitá off the provided ship lane vectors and steer around. It added a little time to our journey, but nothing significant.

As we sped towards Moughas, James was bringing the low berth passengers into the lounge, and many of the high passengers were crowding around the viewport to see Moughas, even though as they all stated they had been to Moughas before.

As the planet grew larger it truly was a beautiful sight to behold.

A blue gem, with wisps of high cloud shone brilliantly out into space, with flecks of small islands here and there. In the northern hemisphere looked to be a gathering dark cloud and it was obvious even from this distance that storms and heavy waters would crash throughout the globe.

As we continued in we got to within hailing distance of the highport and I pushed out a friendly comms. There was little traffic around the station and I expected that it was only used for non-streamlined vessels, or ones that would have difficulty heading down through the atmosphere.

My suspicions were correct in that the main starport for Moughas was a downport and instructions were given for route and landing. There was an Amber warning for weather at the moment as a storm was approaching the port and all caution should be taken.

Once again I asked the passengers to head to their staterooms and the low berth passengers to strap themselves in the chairs within the passenger lounge. Annie joined me up front in the bridge and then we turned the Kalitá on to the course provided by the upstation and descended into the atmosphere.

#0003 — 030-1106 @ 1100 to 036-1106 @ 0300 IST Ω