Episode 4 - Discovery

Blurb
The four systems of Krayce, Hamak, Teth and Tarn have weathered a difficult eighteen months. Diplomats murdered and ejected from jumpships; parts of an orbital colony destroyed offhandedly by an alien power; war declared between star systems too far apart to reasonably attack each other. In each case, the ten jumpship families have been involved in some way. But now a new discovery could change everything in the four systems. A signal from an unknown race has been received. And they have the technology to build brand new jump drives.

Recap
A meeting took place in the Teth system on board the Vikkil II - a space station belonging to the ruling Teth tribe, four months after the events of "War." In the intervening time, a duo of terrible cataclysms have left the Krayce homeworld in dire straits and a significant proportion of its inhabitants dead.

Attending were representatives from the Teth tribes Veris, Vallas and Vunith, and more Krayce than have been seen in one place at one time at previous meetings of this kind. Some of these number were diplomats, and some traders. Two thirds of those at the meeting were humans, including representatives from the Furies and the Web as well as diplomats and representatives from Hamak megacorporations - the Steam Industries Corporation and Sentinel Corporation. A number of independent traders were also present. For the first time, a member of the mysterious Tarn had journeyed to make contact with members of another race.

Although there was no clear single topic of discussion, there was a lot of communication between various groups. So much so, in fact, that when the JumpShip The Hobgoblin - owned by the Cabal Family - jumped into local space, not a lot of notice was taken of it. Not a lot of notice was taken of a message that was subsequently sent to the space station, to the effect that the Cabal had taken the Krayce system for their own and that outsiders were not welcome. The Valkyrie was dispatched to investigate but returned very quickly.

At the end of the meeting a Cabal agent aboard the Vikkil II was revealed and taken into Teth custody. In the absence of any other transportation, all those wishing to travel on to other systems did so aboard The Valkyrie.