The airlock seals behind Damon, leaving the lower freight lifts and Pell’s abrupt departure outside. He sets the purchased relay beside the common-area work console.
Serai
A useful component, or a reason to return to the damaged hold?
Damon Ryder
Both. I found Pell at the old-interface bins. He saw my service tag and left before I could speak to him. That feels familiar.
Serai’s guarded attention sharpens. The ship remains quiet around them, systems humming steadily while the relay’s fittings catch the cabin light.
Serai
Vessa and Orun used borrowed access, then avoided contact when circumstances changed. Pell may have recognized a risk, or recognized the person who arranged it.
Damon Ryder
I did not follow him. I bought the relay and left normally. Before I investigate further, I want your read on his behavior and the safest next step.
Serai
Inspect the damaged interface first. Let the repair remain your reason for asking about his schedule and dispatch chain. If Pell is involved, routine may show us where he expects no scrutiny.
Director's note
Keep this methodical and character-driven. Damon is establishing a legitimate repair trail before investigating Pell further; he does not access restricted systems or approach Pell’s locker yet.
“Damon nods and turns to the damaged interface. “Then we make the repair real. If this relay works, good. If it doesn’t, it tells me what I actually need.” He uses the Interface Relay and his engineering multi-tool to inspect the damaged cargo interface, comparing its failure points with the replacement component and determining what additional work or expertise would legitimately be required. While doing so, Damon wants to identify specific technical reasons he could later use to ask about Pell’s availability, assignments, and dispatch chain without mentioning Serai, Vessa, Orun, the transponder, or the locker. “We learn what my ship genuinely needs first. Then I can ask the right questions without pretending.””
SUCCESS (Superb Engineering, rolled +1)
Damon Ryder
Then we make the repair real. If this relay works, good. If it doesn’t, it tells me what I actually need.
Damon opens the damaged interface behind the sealed cargo panel and fits the relay against the scorched connector. His multi-tool traces continuity, insulation, and grounding without reconnecting the isolated power feed.
The relay seats cleanly and restores a stable diagnostic loop. The failure is specific: heat-damaged shielding, a warped connector housing, and a calibration fault that requires a shielded coupler and specialist cargo-interface equipment.
Damon Ryder
We learn what my ship genuinely needs first. Then I can ask the right questions without pretending.
Serai
That gives you a legitimate reason to ask for Pell’s availability, his dispatch coordinator, and whether he handles shielding repairs personally.
Serai watches the diagnostic display as Damon records the relay installation and the remaining faults in the ship’s maintenance log. The repair is functional but temporary, and the entry identifies exactly what expertise the Wayward Star requires.
Serai
Ask which coordinator assigns shielded-interface work, and when Pell usually accepts those calls. Routine details may show us his pattern without exposing ours.
Director's note
Keep this routine and investigative. Damon is using a genuine repair need as cover to map Pell’s dispatch chain, not confronting Pell or accessing restricted records.
“Damon finishes logging the repair and studies the diagnostic results. “Good. Now I have a real job to ask about.” He copies the specifications for the damaged shielding and coupler, leaving out anything connected to Serai or the locator. Damon intends to approach Kestrel through ordinary public channels as a captain seeking specialist repair work. He asks who coordinates shielded cargo-interface repairs, how those jobs are normally assigned, whether Pell handles this work personally, and when he usually accepts those calls. Damon also wants to learn whether Pell’s recent activity fits his normal work pattern, without asking about the transponder, locker, Vessa, or Orun.”
SUCCESS (Fair Investigation, rolled +1)
Damon finishes the maintenance entry, copies the shielding and coupler specifications, and leaves every detail of Serai’s presence and the locator architecture out of the record.
Damon Ryder
I have a genuine shielded-interface repair. Who coordinates that work, how are assignments normally made, and does Pell handle those calls personally?
He submits the request through Kestrel’s public contractor window. A middle-aged woman with dark skin, close-cropped gray hair, and a green dispatch jacket checks the specifications on her terminal.
the Kestrel dispatcher
Shielded cargo interfaces route through technical dispatch. Pell takes older systems when he is available, but assignments depend on the coordinator covering that rotation.
the Kestrel dispatcher
His usual pattern is late-cycle overflow and emergency substitutions. He accepts calls during the second and fourth maintenance windows, usually after checking the obsolete-parts inventory.
the Kestrel dispatcher
His recent activity fits that pattern. Three interface jobs, one reassigned call, no unexplained absence in the public schedule. I can place your repair request with his rotation coordinator.
The dispatcher provides the coordinator’s name, the next applicable maintenance window, and Kestrel’s ordinary request number. Damon now has a legitimate trail to Pell without touching restricted records.
““Put it through his rotation coordinator.” Damon accepts the ordinary service request and records the coordinator’s name, maintenance window, and request number. He does not ask about Pell’s previous jobs or the transponder yet. Instead, he wants to observe how the request moves through Kestrel’s normal dispatch chain: who handles it, whether Pell accepts it, and whether anything about the process differs from the trail surrounding the borrowed transponder. Damon intends to let the legitimate repair bring Pell to him rather than chase Pell again. If Pell arrives, Damon will initially treat him strictly as the technician assigned to repair the Wayward Star and watch his behavior before deciding whether to raise anything else.”
FAILURE (Fair Investigation, rolled -2)
Damon Ryder
Put it through Pell’s rotation coordinator. Here are the repair specifications and the request number.
The Kestrel dispatcher enters the request under the ordinary maintenance queue and forwards it to the coordinator assigned to the current rotation. Damon records the timestamp and keeps his questions to the published process.
the Kestrel dispatcher
The coordinator has received it, but the rotation board is updating. I cannot show you an acceptance decision until the next maintenance window begins.
The public status changes from submitted to pending coordination, then stops. No technician is assigned, and Pell’s name does not appear on the visible request record.
the Kestrel dispatcher
If you need certainty before the window, the service desk can issue a general callback notice. That goes to whichever qualified contractor accepts overflow, not necessarily Pell.
The legitimate trail has not brought Pell forward, and repeating the submission would only duplicate the same queue entry. It does reveal a usable alternative: a general callback can expose who claims the repair without naming him.
Damon Ryder
The request is real, but the coordinator keeps acceptance behind the next window.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure Serai's agreement to proceed with the repair request
Director's notewhole tale
Damon returns to Serai and explains exactly what happened: the legitimate repair request is pending coordination, Pell has not accepted it, and the only immediate alternative is a general callback that could bring an unknown Kestrel contractor to the Wayward Star. Damon does not submit the callback
Damon closes the service request without selecting the callback option. The queue remains legitimate and incomplete, while the Wayward Star’s actual repair need gives him a reason to wait.
He returns through the docking concourse at an ordinary pace, carrying the relay specifications and request number. No restricted terminal, locker, or contractor office receives another query.
Damon Ryder
The request is pending coordination. Pell hasn’t accepted it, and the next maintenance window decides whether he appears.
Damon Ryder
There’s an immediate alternative: a general callback to whoever takes overflow. I didn’t submit it. That could bring an unknown contractor straight to the ship.
Back aboard, Damon places the request record beside the temporary relay. The cargo interface remains safely isolated, its genuine faults documented and ready to support the cover.
Serai
Not submitting it was wise. An unknown technician would create a new witness, and we would have no control over what they notice.
Serai
Wait for the maintenance window. If Pell expects older-interface work then, his response may reveal more than a direct question. If another contractor answers, that pattern matters too.
Director's note
Damon nods. “Then we wait. No callback, no more questions, and we leave the request exactly where it is.” He records the maintenance window and sets an alert for shortly before it begins. Until then, he makes no further inquiries about Pell, Kestrel, the transponder, or the locker. He uses the time
Damon nods once and leaves the callback option untouched. The request remains exactly where Kestrel’s system placed it, pending the next maintenance window.
He records the window in the Wayward Star’s maintenance log and sets a quiet alert several minutes before it begins. No further inquiry touches Pell, Kestrel, the transponder, or the locker.
Serai
Then the ship’s needs remain genuine, and your interest remains ordinary. That protects both of us better than haste would.
Serai returns the request display to its inactive state. Around them, the freighter continues its patient work: pumps cycle, ventilation murmurs, and the isolated cargo interface holds its temporary diagnostic loop.
Damon spends the waiting period on routine maintenance, checking fuel reserves, securing loose equipment, and reviewing the Wayward Star’s repair records without adding anything unusual.
Serai
If Pell answers through the normal chain, we may learn who still considers this ship useful.
The alert waits silently in the background. For now, no one arrives, no system changes, and the next move belongs to the station’s ordinary schedule.
Quest Complete
Secure Serai's agreement to proceed with the repair request