Found this in my old documents.
It was originally meant to be finished and sent to Freelance as a submission.
Jeff, if it's something you think is worth working on, let me know.

Otherwise, ya'll enjoy.

---------------------------

The Plague Robbery

Sometimes the best summary for a week is ‘an epic cascade of fails,
one after another, until you begin to wonder if you’re actually being
pranked by Hidden Holocam and pray that Alan Funk steps out soon.’

This week was like that.

It was supposed to be a routine courier job - well, as routine as a
rag tag bunch such as ourselves get. We had a full hold that had to be
delivered planetside,  just one jump from where we took on the load. A
bunch of wooden statues, carved by the natives of ______ and meant to
decorate a bar on _____. We found out later the regular Type-A that
did this run had a captain that was the same religion as the
wood-carvers, and he refused to space with them aboard, fearing
bad-ju-ju.

Apparently he was right.

Just as we exited Jumpspace, the portside fusion-to-JDrive plasma
conduit ruptured. Containment held - small blessing - but we’d be
stuck until the conduit was replaced. The part was too big to keep in
shipboard stores, so we’d be stuck in a yard for a week or so. The
latest parts catalog uploads said only 25kcr for the part, another
10kcr or so for labor, which would eat up the profits for the trip.

Once we made radio contact with Traffic Control, we found out how
screwed we were.

This is an adventure in the “Old Scout” series. This series of
adventures are based around a Type-S (the “Snipe”), with a detached
duty Scout in command, and a mixed crew of 3 other players.  If you
intend to be a player in this adventure, stop reading now.

Adventure Synopsis:

The Origin and Destination systems are deliberately left vague to
allow the GM to adapt this to an ongoing campaign. There are various
corporation names and other details that are left vague to allow
integration into ongoing campaigns.  If the players are in something
other than a Type-S, then various sizes/amounts/times will need to be
modified.

An MT-ish task description is used (Easy/Routine/Difficult) for
purposes of not tying this to a particular edition of Traveller.
Descriptions should be used as a guide for the GM to decide on how
hard to make the roll for his players.

The adventure begins as the players in their Type-S come out of Jump
in the Destination system. As they exit the Jump, there's a loud
"CLANG! POP!" from engineering, and they discover the J-Drive has
eaten one of the plasma conduits. The part is not terribly expensive,
but it is about 4 meters long and 1 meter in diameter, making it too
large to fit in the S's limited spare parts locker.

The Destination system has two inhabited worlds:

Aleph, which is about 0.8 AU out and is a hot world. The upper and
lower latitudes are desert, with a central sea that is bordered by
rain forest and jungle.  Aleph does have a Class B port operated by
GenericMegaCorp, though, and they have the part the players need in
stock.

Bet, which is about 1.7 AU out and is cold and dry, with a
thin,tainted atmo. Bet's main interest is a lichen that has awesome
antibiotic properties, but a very limited shelf life (4 days). There's

a small research station on Bet where a group of scientists are
working on making a drug from the lichen that is stable enough to ship
through multiple weeks of travel.

And, of course - the complications:

First, Aleph won't clear the players to land. A new plague has come
out of the jungle, and is raging as an epidemic.  The planet is
quarantined until they come up with a way to treat it.

Second, the research station on Bet is owned by BadGuy,LLC. This
company bid for both worlds, but the Imperium split the ownership of
the system, with the caveat that if either colony fails, then the
other company gets full control. Vice President BadGuy has realized

that if he merely stands pat and obeys the quarantine, then his
company has a strong chance of picking up the whole system....
including all the buildings. They'll just need to come down and clean
up the bodies.  With that in mind, the research station is not eager
to release an experimental drug for use on Aleph.

And, of course, the hook: While orbiting Aleph, deciding what to do,
the players pick up a tight beam comm from someone on the planet. The
guy is a Mafia type, who's strongly involved in the Aleph Black
Market. As an ex-Scout, he knows certain security protocols that allow

him to make a private offer to the players: if they can raid one of
the labs on Bet and get the drugs, he can arrange to get them the
parts they need, plus a nice cash bonus. They'll be saving lives as
well.... but they need to hurry, since every day means more dead
people on Aleph.

Bet has a main base (spaceport, small admin building, warehouses,
barracks for workers and small security force) and there's a dozen or
so small labs scattered here and there where the lichen grows. The
Mafia contact knows which of the Labs has finished product, and can

give the players the coordinates.

The Type-S's ECM will work for sneaking to Bet and landing near the
Lab, as the spaceports sensors aren't the greatest - just minimal
traffic control radar.

The Lab has (players - 2 or so) maintenance staff who have access to
limited weapons, and 3 scientists who are non-combatants. They'll need
to get into the Lab, find the stuff,and get out.

The Lab is 1/2 hour travel by ATV from the main base on Bet, and it's
presumed that as soon as the alarm is raised, an armed ATV with a
dozen soldiers will be dispatched - so the players need to get in and
out quickly, and try not to raise the alarm too early.

Once they achieve that, they’ll need to sneak to Aleph and land at the
hidden Mafia spaceport. There they can trade the drugs for the repairs
needed, and the Mafia Scout will arrange to have the cargo delivered
for them as well.

1. The opening situation

The ship is in a stable parking orbit around Aleph.

There are no passengers aboard, just crew.

The cargo hold is full of decorative wood carvings. (These are
allegedly cursed, but nobody believes in hokey religions and ancient
legends when they’ve got a good sidearm.)

The fusion plant and M-Drive are functioning normally.

The J-Drive is non-functional until a new plasma conduit is installed.

Fuel on board will run the fusion plant at full output for another 403
hours. At ‘economical cruising power’ this can be stretched to 467
hours.

Avionics, flight controls, sensors, and commo are functioning
normally. The ship is in radio range of Aleph and in contact with
Aleph Traffic Control.

Life support has one glitch: several hundred liters of water were used
to help emergency cool the engineering compartment, and evaporated to
space to carry the heat away. There is no immediate danger, but if the
players are going to be aboard for more than another 3-5 days, water
usage should be rationed.

The ship’s computer is acting oddly - nothing that’s a game-rule hit,
but it is occasionally bringing up the wrong entry on library
searches. It is also sometimes opening a “pop up” window behind the
current screen with a library search result that has to do with
archeology and famous ‘curse events’ (ie, Tutankhamen's Curse)

Hull integrity is good. No air leaks, no external hull damage that
would prevent re-entry or landing.

The air temperature in engineering briefly spiked at over 65C as the
shield around the conduit ablated. The compartment is cooling, but the
stench of the ablative material lingers on. Each time the engineering
hatch is opened, the smell expands into more of the ship.

The engineer on duty in that compartment during Jump-exit has ‘that
special sunburn’ on exposed skin, and needs to rehydrate badly. As a
bonus, their hair and clothes are completely permeated with ‘eau de
ablative.’ There is no game-rule damage, but this is a
special/cosmetic effect for the player until remedied. (Lots of
drinking, shower, change clothes... some burn-salve and a week or so
for the ‘glow’ to fade.) (Regarding the shower: see note above about
‘water usage should be rationed’)

The players easily opened radio contact with Aleph Traffic Control
(ATC) and were routed to a parking orbit, with the explanation “you’re
in the queue for landing, please hold.” Curiously, there’s no one else
in the queue, so there’s no reason to be waiting.

After a ten minute wait, they are placed in contact with William
Sonoma, a very mellow, relaxed gentleman who speaks with a definite
Solomani accent (Midwest North America - think “Ward Cleaver” from the
old TV show).

He delivers the following message in that calm voice test pilots use
when something is wrong: “<Ship Name> , ATC. William Sonoma, Chief of
Operations. Look, we’ve got a little issue, we’re going to have to
keep you topside for a while. Say again fuel status and engineering
situation?”

(players response)

Sonoma: “We’re going to have to be creative here to work around that.
For your own safety, and for the safety of other worlds, Imperial
Regulation 2217-4(b)(7)(ii) has been invoked, and I’m sure you all
know what that means.”  Sonoma delivers this with a tone of voice that
is perfectly matter-of-fact, as if he’s convinced that everyone has
memorized all of the regs, and will know off-hand what
IR2217-4(b)(7)(ii) is. An experienced spacer will know that “2217”
covers starport/ship interaction, and that -4 is the part where
“something bad has happened”.

A Routine check against an experienced spacer’s memory - skills such
as ‘Admin’ , ‘Jack-of-Trades’, ‘Purser’,’Trader’ will bring back the
knowledge that the next subsection is vague - (a) is ‘wartime/pirate’
and is more common, but (b) has something to do with “biological.”

Players may make a Difficult roll, they know that 2217-4(b) means a
plague is ravaging the planet, and quarantine is in place. The
(270)(ii) is just the grisly details.

In the event they decide to just use the computer’s library to look it
up, they get:

Sec. 270. Quarantine regulations governing civil  navigation and civil
spacecraft

-STATUTE-

(ii)The Surgeon General is authorized to provide by regulations for
the application to civil navigation and craft of any of the provisions
of sections 267 to 269 of this title and regulations

prescribed thereunder (including penalties and forfeitures for
violations of such sections and regulations), to such extent and upon
such conditions as he deems necessary for the safeguarding of the
public health.  Planetary quarantine may be declared by the local
Surgeon General, with a minimum duration of four weeks. Deadly force
may be used to prevent ships from landing or lifting in order to
prevent the spread of infection.

[2]"As for all men who shall enter this my tomb... impure... there
will be judgment... an end shall be made for him... I shall seize his
neck like a bird... I shall cast the fear of myself into him"

Curiously, (if asked) William Sonoma denies that [2] appears on his
copy of the regs.

The players are stuck - they can’t jump, they can’t deliver the cargo,
and they don’t have enough fuel to wait around indefinitely.

Sonoma does, however, have a plan : “I realize you’re stuck up there,
and we’re working the problem. We’ve already got some pretty bad
things going on down here, and I’m not going to start losing ships
too. It’s not going to happen on my watch. So... We’ve got a cutter we
can operate remotely. What we’ll do is send it up with a full load of
refined fuel, and the hold full of replacement life support supplies
and such. When it’s near you, we’ll open the hold to space, which
should kill the plague bacteria, and you can bring the stuff aboard.
We’ll just bill you for the service, at cr10k a week plus the cost of
fuel.”

This price is about 2.5 times the normal life support cost for the
ship, and adding in the cost of refined fuel makes it even more of a
gouge. (The fine print includes a line about they’ll be paying both
for the fuel they bring aboard ship, and the fuel the cutter uses to
bring it up, and the cutter’s return trip fuel usage.)

If the players ask about the part they need, Sonoma will be glad to
ship one up as well... for 50kcr (about twice the going rate).   If
the crew thinks to ask, anyone with Engineering-2 or above will
immediately realize that installing the conduit is going to take a
variety of shipyard tools that they players don’t have. Sonoma won’t
volunteer that info, and will gladly take their money. Should the
players end up with a 50kcr, 4 meter long, one meter wide object, it’s
their problem what to do with it.

Sonoma will gladly make small talk with the players, but is vague
about the groundside situation... People are dying, a lot of them.
Getting people to come to work means paying huge bonuses to convince
them to come in and (potentially) be exposed instead of staying home
with the doors and windows locked.  The local economy is one big
gouge-o-rama, and if the players had something other than decorative
wooden idols, they’d be in a position to clean up.

2. Don Nullivoni

After signing off with Sonoma, the players have two orbits (174
minutes) to ponder the situation. Rather than waiting this out, the GM
should wait until the player-to-player conversation tapers off, then
mention another comm contact, this one tight-beam and encrypted in a
fairly decent IISS code.

As your conversation tapers off, the comms console pings for your attention.

Someone is trying to make contact on a tight-beam. The starport
probably won’t it, and if the players respond on a tight beam as well,
they should be able to talk with no one noticing. The encryption isn’t
current or super-secret, but it’s better than what merchants use and
should make the conversation reasonably private even if it is noticed.

If the players accept the contact :

The voice is male and heavily Sylean accented (think one of the “Goodfellas”).

“<Ship Name>, this is Don Nullivoni, private contact... please
respond...I’d like to make you an offer you’d be happy to accept.”

“I think I have a win-win for everyone involved. The fourth planet in
this system has a research lab on it - they found a lichen or fungus
or some such that grows there that is a really good antibiotic. The
problem is that every attempt to refine it has resulted in a drug
that’s only stable for three or four days, which means it won’t last
long enough to be transported out of the system.”

“On the other hand, the station is only a day there and a day back -
so you could transport the drug here, and save a whole bunch of
lives... and rack up a good profit as well, while doing a good deed.”

“I’ve been in contact with a … friend.. of mine on Bet. She can’t get
anyone there to sell the drug to us through normal channels. There’s
some kind of corporate shenanigans going on there. I do have a fix on
where you can pick it up, if you’re willing to do some kinetic
negotiation.”