I decided in the morning that I would finish off filling the hold of the Kalitá and make one more trip to Seadragon for another couple of tons of freight. After that, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, although one thing was still on my mind regarding my bungling efforts on astrogation plots. I needed a specialised astrogation computer, preferably a portable one so it could be used for other things if required. After getting the freight sorted I resolved to hunting one down within the port.

With that in mind I left the Kalitá and docking bay behind and headed through customs and security to the Seadragon offices. Ahren wasn't there this morning, but another broker was quick to help me find the last pieces of freight.

I asked the broker about where I could get a specialised computer in the downport, but he wasn't sure. There were some stores that sold electronics hardware, but didn't know if they had any specialised computing equipment. He suggested to start there and see.

Many of the main stores were located in the central dome of the downport and I spent time wandering from one to the next without much luck. Standard computers were on offer, but none of them specialised as I would like. I was pointed at some of the manufacturing warehouses outside the dome as a possibility and found that to get there I needed to take an underwater monorail.

The monorail was prompt and cheap, only Cr10 got me a daily pass. The journeys were quick to the warehouses, only a couple of minutes or so, the carriages of the transport packed with workers mostly oblivious to the beautiful view through the windows to the ocean shallows. There were many wonderful creatures that swam and darted through the water as we passed, fish trying to keep up with the monorail and bioluminescent jellies floating serenely.

I spent a few hours going from warehouse to warehouse, up and down the monorail, until finally I found what I was looking for at a small company, Bascard Group, who managed intelligent systems for the downport and some of the cargo freighters.

To my dismay, however, the computer was not at the warehouse here at the downport, it was at the Ash Ra Tempel arcology. According to the people at Bascard it was nearly a Moughas day away in travel time. I asked if the computer could be shipped across, but they could only get it onto one of the cargo submarines, which took much longer to travel and we would have left Moughas by the time that it arrived.

They suggested I could take one of the passenger submarines, they were frequent and fast. The newer Nereus-class ones had a suprcavitating drive, they said, and could get there in less than thirty hours. I asked them to send a message to hold onto the computer at Ash Ra Tempel and I would see about tickets and transport.

I headed back to the main downport and found a travel bureau. Tickets for the Nereus-class submarines were Cr550 for a standard return and they went every six hours. You could buy a first-class return with your own stateroom for Cr6,000, but I thought that was a quite excessive.

With the thought of a trip to see the arcology I slowly walked back to the Kalitá to see if anyone else of the crew were interested in coming with me.

#0001 — 038-1106 @ 0900 to 038-1106 @ 1600 IST Ω

I didn't have to wait too long before everyone was back at the Kalitá. Otto was already there and had not long since finished his work on the thrusters. The would need a good try out, but he was convinced that he had fixed the problem and they were almost as good as new.

James had been outside the downport, down near the water, although he had been warned not to stay too long in case of another storm and there were strict rules around the tides on Moughas, which were huge due to its large and close moon. He had only been able to spend an hour here and an hour there, but he was happy and fascinated with the local flora and fauna and I imagine he would be jotting down notes and writing them up properly once we were back on our voyages.

Annie had been relaxing and spending time in the café bars in the downport, talking to some of the locals and trying to find the pulse of the area and any local gossip.

She had found a few people talking about Wochiers, our next destination, and that there appeared to be a manpower problem at the starport. We would have to look out for that when we arrived. Other than that, is was all small things, and nothing of much consequence for us.

I let everyone know about my intention to catch the submarine over to the arcology and asked if anyone wanted to accompany me.

Only James wanted to come along with me to the arcology. Annie had plenty of other things to do and wanted to save up her money. Otto was itching, even now sat at the table, to get back to the bowels of the ship and start the repairs on the sensors.

I looked up the time of the next submarine to leave, which was 2000 IST, nodded at James and we set about packing a small amount of belongings for the short trip. From the ship's locker we both grabbed a breather mask and added it to our bags.

Otto, sensing we were all done, made his apologies and headed straight down to engineering to start work on the sensor suite.

James and I left the ship in the good hands of Otto and Annie and went back to the travel bureau where I had found the prices, and we bought a pair of return tickets. We took the monorail once more to the travel port and after a brief security check we were on board.

#0002 — 038-1106 @ 1600 to 038-1106 @ 1800 IST Ω

The submarine journey was long. Very long. The Nereus-class was a luxury sub catering for four hundred passengers or so and first impressions was that it was luxurious indeed. The seats were comfortable and allowed you to drop them a fair way back to get some sleep. You could walk around and there was a bar, which James and I did have a drink or two at and grabbed a bite to eat. The first-class passengers had it even better, with their own staterooms and a full holosuite. However, after the first few hours, the novelty began to wear off.

When we left the downport we were all asked to take our seats and strap in. A safety brief was given by the stewards and checks to make sure we had our harnesses firmly secured. Once the stewards were happy they must have given a signal, as moments later we could hear and feel the supercavitating drive start to fire up. The noise and vibrations grew and grew, bearable, but loud until we must have reached some steady state upon which the thrumming reduced to a low drone that was nearly unnoticeable. After that, we were able to unbuckle ourselves and stretch our legs.

There wasn't that far to walk, though, and the viewing windows, though fascinating to look through when we were idling out of port we now practically useless as the bubble of atmosphere from the supercavitating drive created what looked like a wall not far from the windows.

We amused ourselves as best we could, watching vids on the screens on the back of the chairs in front, and trying to get some sleep despite the various passenger noises. The low drone of the drive was actually relaxing, and in fits and spurts I managed to get some sleep.

When I thought the torture would never end I noticed that I must have drifted off into a deeper sleep as we were asked to buckle ourselves once more for the drive to be shut down. We had covered most of the 18,000 kilometre trip in just under thirty hours, which was impressive for under the water. It was just after midnight, Imperial time and according to the onboard information was also night for Moughas. By the time we had docked, however, and moved through the customs checks it would be close to time for the stores to open and I could head to Bascard to pick up the computer.

After the drive had been shut down and we had returned to a normal speed the submarine turned on the exterior lights and the view through the windows was incredible. The water was very clear and the abundance of sea life was amazing. The colours and shapes of the corals and plants that grew from the sea bed, surrounded by fish and jellies and other strange creatures was almost worth the trip in itself. And, as we arced towards our destination, we got our first view of Ash Ra Tempel.

I had expected a single dome, before I had set out, but Ash Ra Tempel was a beautiful sight. There had been a brochure folded into the back of the seat which had prepared me a little, but seeing it with my own eyes still surprised me. There were many layers of domes and curved terraces in a flowing architectural style and the attention to detail and how the buildings almost seemed to melt into the reefs and ridges of the bottom of the ocean was a testament to the engineering that had gone into it. From the brochure it looked as through it had been constructed by Sternmetal Horizons^[2], one of the huge megacorporations, as a show piece of what could be done with their technology, fibres and crystals being the main building materials.

The view was too short to see everything, though, and we were soon gliding into a dock at the base of one of the larger buildings and the notice came that we needed to get ready to disembark.

It took us a little time to get out and then through the customs checkpoint. All was well, though, as this gave some time for Bascard to open their offices. I found an information terminal and looked for directions to their office and checked with James on his plans. James was going to visit the aquarium and see if it was possible to go on a dive tour. He was used to water so that sounded fun for him, but I was more keen to get my computer and keep to the safety of the main domes. We parted ways with a checkpoint to meet back by the late afternoon, and planned to get on the 18:00 return sub. As James headed away I found somewhere that was open, selling coffee and breakfast and waited for the stores to open.

As soon as it was likely that things were open I walked across to Bascard Group, introduced myself and mentioned my order. They had kept the machine in the back for me.

The machine was exactly what I wanted. It left me with a grand total of Cr110 to my name, with all my investments tied up in the trading company. However, it was something I needed. Not just for recording my logs as I am now when I am away from the Kalitá, but the plotting of those astrogation routes.

With the machine bundled in a bag under my arm, held close, I wandered back out into the arcology and found another coffee bar, spending another Cr5 on a large cup, and sat down to write.

#0003 — 038-1106 @ 2000 to 040-1106 @ 1100 IST Ω

With plenty of time to pass, but not much money, I decided to go back to the information point and look up what sights there were for the public to enjoy for free. One of the domes housed a giant park and another contained the Moughas Maritime Museum, both open to the public and both could be accessed without having to spend any money.

I wandered around the park first. Most of the plants and wildlife within the dome had been transported from other planets, little of the wildlife on Moughas was above water. The walk was relaxing and invigorating and I spent quite some time in there, reading the plaques and marvelling at some of the colours and scents of the flowers.

After a while I left the park and walked slowly across to the maritime museum, housed in another enormous dome. The museum told the story of Moughas' colonisation and the battles with the storms and superwaves. The building of the downport and the arcology and the retreat to submariner vessels rather than risk the use of ships for world transport. The beauty of the crystal mines and the dangers of underwater mining. How crystals and fibres could be used to build superstrong materials that could survive the surface storms if they had the right vents and air passages and the lightness and bend to absorb the power of the waves. Some eight hundred thousand people now lived in Ash Ra Tempel, and from what I had learnt so far it was in relative luxury.

The central showpiece for the museum was an old submarine, the first that was used on Moughas even before the colonists had started to arrive. It was an old model, somewhat unique, named the "Surcouf" and was still in active service with the Moughas navy up until 1090 and was even marked as their current ceremonial flagship of the planetary defence forces. There was not much need for a grand wet navy on Moughas from what I could tell, but how they had managed to build the museum's central dome to house such a giant object was startling.

The submarine was a mish-mash of old starship panels and components, bent and beaten, reinforced and plated. It was ugly close-up, but at a distance, as you walked into the hall, it had a peculiar type of charm. There was a tiny aircraft perched on its stern that could never have been used in the thin atmosphere coupled with the chance of storms and winds, but it sat there proudly anyways.

There was an air of pride and progress in the museum and I left buoyed by the experience, trotting back to the main hall of the arcology to meet James.

James was already waiting for me by the time I returned, sat with a large stiff drink. He had managed to get outside of the dome to see the flora and fauna up close with a small diving scooter and seemed very happy. Neither of us were particularly looking forward to the journey back, however.

As we were sat at the bar — James had bought me a drink — we were approached by two large security guards. They started to inquire about our intent at Ash Ra Tempel and where we had already visited. It must have seemed suspicious to them that we had come together on the submarine, yet split up from each other for the day.

We tried to protest our innocence, but they wanted to see our credentials and papers and were starting to take their time in going through them and contacting their supervisors.

The guards appeared to be having some problem verifying our papers, despite our protestations, and were taking a long time going backwards and forwards with questions from their supervisors. With nervous glances at our watches we saw that we only had a few hours before the submarine left and we would need to be passing through customs in only two hours or so. Our nervousness seemed to make them more suspicious. James tried to take control of the situation.

It took a little time, but James finally managed to make the security guards see sense. They gave a less than sincere apology and marched off to harass some other unsuspecting innocent, I'm sure. James and I headed down to customs as quickly as we could so that we could get back on the submarine without any further interruption.

Eventually, we boarded the submarine and flopped down in our seats. It had been a long day, so no doubt we would actually get some sleep, but it had been a successful day.

#0004 — 040-1106 @ 1200 to 040-1106 @ 1900 IST Ω

The return journey felt like it lasted forever. On the back of the previous journey, where there was at least some excitement, as we were heading somewhere new, the return dragged. We were both tired due to the long day we had spent at the arcology, but that made getting to sleep all the harder somehow. I spent much of my time sifting through the backseat entertainment and watching old episodes of Lost Treasures of the Abyss Rift ^[4] and was almost tempted to watchWarrior Princess^[4] until I noticed that watching such a premium programme came with an additional cost.

I must have slept fitfully here and there and at least once James prodded me as I was making noises in my sleep. James spent a lot of his time reading. He'd bought some physical books at the arcology and had the time now to devour them. I wish I had done something similar. I spent my time setting up my new computer and getting to know how it worked. I ran a few test procedures through the new astrogation software and felt reasonably comfortable that when I grabbed a jump tape for our destination it would not take me as long as the previous plots.

Eventually, the low drone of the supercavitating drive started to roar and we knew that we were nearing the downport once more. A quick check of our timepieces indicated we were on time and that we had a good twelve hours before we would be leaving on the Kalitá.

It took us an hour or so to get ourselves back through customs and I headed to the Starport Authority booths and bought the jump tape for Wochiers. With that sealed in my bag next to the computer we both strode back to the Kalitá ready for our next journey.

It was still quite early, as far as IST went, so we quietly snuck back into our respective staterooms. Bizarrely, I was tired and flopped down on my bed for a sleep.

When I awoke, it was to the sounds of cargo being loaded and a quick glance at my timepiece told me that passengers would be coming fairly soon. I headed down to the cargo bay to check on the final pieces of freight to be brought on board and signed the manifest. Otto came by with a smile on his face — he told me that he had managed to make the repaits to the thrusters and the sensors and still had some spare parts left over which was a great bonus.

With that, I headed back to my stateroom, proudly put my laptop in the best position, scanned the passenger list and readied myself for their boarding.

#0005 — 040-1106 @ 1900 to 042-1106 @ 1130 IST Ω

The passengers started to board just after 1200 IST and before long we had everyone's cargo and belongings safely stored. Annie was talking them through the safety procedures whilst James was giving each of the low berth passengers a quick medical check.

As we got closer to our time of departure I contacted the starport authority air traffic control to enquire about storms and whether we had clearance to leave the port.

We had timed our departure perfectly, as there was a gap in the weather, so at 14:00 IST on the dot we pulled out of the dock carefully then up and out of the water and slowly, against the higher gravity, spiralled up through the atmosphere and out into orbit. With a few checks, and ensuring our passengers were appropriately safe, I turned the Kalitá and headed towards the jump point.

Plotting the jump this time seemed to be more accurate than my previous attempts and didn't take me quite as long, so I was pleased with the result. I still had a long way to go with learning Astrogation, however, and would spend some more time during the jump studying.

Not so long after I had finished the jump calculations the newly-repaired sensors spotted a courier ship on a similar vector to us. They were catching up quickly and I hailed them, but there was no response.

I kept a close eye on the ship's trajectory and it hurtled past us at a relatively short distance and I wondered what news or information it might carry to be in such a hurry. Nothing that I could do about it now, though, so I returned to my original course and let Otto know when we were due to slow.

At just after 2200 IST we gradually came to a stop with regard to Moughas and I gave the call to everyone that we were due to jump at 2230 IST. James had already placed the low berth passengers in position and Annie made sure that the other passengers were safe in their staterooms.

Prepping the jump drives took longer than anticipated, leading to some nervousness amongst the passengers, but Otto gave the nod after an hour, we dimmed the lights, and we entered jumpspace.

#0005 — 042-1106 @ 1200 to 042-1106 @ 2330 IST Ω