S02 E09: Chronicles of T'Avaya: Order of the Amber Pendant

 

S02 E09: Chronicles of T'Avaya: Order of the Amber Pendant

(This adventure was inspired by the Mission Brief “Order of the Amber Pendant” from continuingmissions.com.)

          Mission log. Stardate 45133.7. Agent T’Avaya reporting. We are docked at a spaceport orbiting Jira, a Saurian resort planet. Our mission is to find Nakotti, a Saurian scam artist who has valuable intel on the Romulans. The Romulans know he has the intel, and they may already be on Jira searching for him. He is also wanted for committing several crimes involving theft, fraud, and swindling. Our mission is to find and arrest him before the Romulans find him.

          The planet Jira is an independent nation among the Saurians, and they have very restrictive laws which they take very seriously. They have banned most kinds of technology that are common in Starfleet, such as scanners, transporters, weapons, and shuttles. These restrictions will make our mission more difficult. My team will leave our ship, the Shavokh, docked at the spaceport and take a Jiran public transport to the planet.

          We have gathered information from the spaceport liaison concerning the different types of island resorts on Jira. We have reason to believe Nakotti is here to swindle as many people as possible. To that end, we have decided that, for our initial search, Miadere will go to the Yalsa island, Cassandra will go to the Vendm island, and I will go to the Snd Immor island.

 

          T’Avaya got off the transport and walked through the tourist lobby on Snd Immor island. The lobby was crowded with vendors selling various trinkets. Nakotti was a bigtime swindler and would not be one of these small-scale merchants. She needed to go elsewhere to find him. She knew he had tried to sell a new weapon to the Romulans. But this resort planet would not be a good market for weapons. Unless someone was buying them underground. Hmmm. T’Avaya kept her eyes open.

          She heard a Saurian vendor yelling, “Join The Order of the Amber Pendant and find peace, companionship, and prosperity!” T’Avaya looked in the Saurian’s direction. Most people were walking by without stopping. The Vulcan walked over to the Saurian. The Saurian’s reptilian face turned toward T’Avaya. “Hello,” the Saurian woman said. “My name is Sharro. Would you like to know peace and prosperity?”

          T’Avaya was wearing her holo-disguise that gave her the forehead ridges of a Northern Romulan. She answered, “Yes. Very much.”

          T’Avaya looked interested (and actually, she WAS interested) as Sharro described The Order of the Amber Pendant. It was an organization led by a Saurian male who gave daily lectures on lifestyle changes that could supposedly increase health, wealth, and happiness. Results were, as Sharro said, guaranteed. And once you joined, you would always be a member. You would live in their close-knit compound and become friends and neighbors with all the other members. Members of all species were welcome, but you must pass an entrance exam.

          T’Avaya asked more about the leader of this organization. Sharro showed her a picture of a Saurian wearing a white robe and an amber pendant. “This is our Grandmaster, Tokai,” Sharro said. T’Avaya immediately recognized Nakotti in the picture. She had been well trained in recognizing individuals from different species. Many humans thought that all Saurians looked alike, but there were some individual differences. The Vulcan also recognized the amber pendant that was a jewel that Nakotti had stolen from an Edosian. Sharro further explained that Tokai was sheltered and the only way to see him was to pass the test and become part of the organization.

          Then, Sharro got to the last part of her sales pitch: the price. It was “only” two bars of gold-pressed latinum to join. Nonrefundable. The money must be paid before you took the test. Once you were a member, then a monthly fee of 5 strips of latinum must be paid. So, thought T’Avaya, the swindler had found the ultimate scheme: promise people wealth and prosperity for a continuous price.

/************************************************/

          Cassandra Chand looked around. The transport had taken her to an island that seemed deserted. Which was strange, because Vendm was supposed to be one of the more populated islands. She walked down a paved road and picked up a scent. Her enhanced senses told her it was the scent of Saurians, plus a few other assorted species. (Cassandra was a human born of genetically engineered parents.) She followed the scent down the path and through a patch of trees. Then she saw them. It was dozens of people, Saurians and other humanoids, seemingly unconscious. Again, her enhanced eyesight could see that they were breathing very slowly. They were sleeping. Then she heard someone approaching. She saw a Saurian male walking towards her. He motioned her to step towards him, a few feet away from the sleepers.

          He said he was the manager for this area. She asked what was going on. He said in a soft whisper, “Isn’t it obvious? They are sleeping.” He seemed to be earnest, not joking at all. When Cass said she didn’t understand why they would all be sleeping, he said, “Ah. Many come to Jira to relax. What better way to relax than to sleep, peacefully, outside in nature, with no one and nothing around to disturb you.” Cass flinched internally. Of course the body needed sleep, but she had always thought of sleep as a necessary chore. She much preferred to be up and about and being productive. Then another thought occurred to her. She asked, “Do these people pay for this?”

          “Why, of course. They are given the most restful environment in the quadrant. Of course we charge a nominal fee.”

          Right. Cass thought. People will pay for anything these days. Sometimes the Federation’s moneyless society really DID make sense. Sometimes. Then, she got back to why she was here. She pulled out a padd and showed the Saurian a picture of Nakotti. He had not seen him. He let her walk around the sleepers and see if she recognized him among them. He told her she must walk quietly. She was perfectly skilled in being as quiet as a Bajoran church hakah. She was trained to be a warrior, but she was also trained to approach the enemy stealthily and to be invisible when necessary, like a ninja. She walked around the sleepers. She did not see Nakotti. She asked the manager if there were other groups of sleepers. He said there were several all over the island. It would take time, she thought, but she would search all of them. Did she really think Nakotti would come here to sleep? No. But still, he could have come to talk to these people before or after their sleep. Perhaps to make some other deal with them. Or maybe he was the one who ran one of these sleep areas. It seemed like such an easy way to swindle people. She almost wished she’d thought of it herself.

          Cass walked a few kilometers and saw a gathering of about fifty people, mostly Saurians. She walked over to them and blended in with the crowd. There was another Saurian telling them what a restful sleep they were about to have and how this land had been set up just for their slumber. Cass noticed a Saurian standing next to her that was wearing an amber pendant around his neck. She thought the pendant looked very similar to one that Nakotti had stolen on Edosia. She tried to strike up a polite conversation with the Saurian. He told her he belonged to The Order of the Amber Pendant and that it gave him peace and prosperity. He told her she could find how to contact the Order from any of the island customer service buildings.

/************************************************/

          Miadere Loris walked among the street vendors. She saw many street performers working for tips. This was nothing new to Miadere. She had grown up on the streets of Orion, where many poor souls had to perform or outright beg for money or food. The homeless were not picked up by slave traders, as most of the Orion slave traders preferred to get their stock away from the homeworld; for on Orion, there was more risk of picking up an Orion Syndicate spy or some member of estranged royalty whose family  would come looking for them later. But Jira was a resort planet for the wealthy, and these performers had fancy clothes and had obviously paid a lot of money for their training. There was a group of cuttan dancers that caught her eye. She had learned many forms of dance herself and loved the cuttan form for its sheer wildness. The dancers with their powerful four arms and four legs could leap higher than any athlete and embrace each other in ways that challenged any Risian. But Miadere knew she could not afford to get distracted from her mission. The singers, contortionists, jugglers, mimes, mind readers, levitationists, were all so wondrous, she thought. She would love to have joined them.

Then someone tapped her on the shoulder. “Excuse me,” said a young Saurian girl. The girl handed her an electronic brochure and asked if she would like to join a Jiran dance troupe. Miadere was a half Orion/half Deltan hybrid with green skin and a bald head. But she was wearing a black wig, so her green skin naturally gave her away as Orion. And she often got pigeonholed as a dancer because of her green skin. She scanned through the brochure. She saw the troupe had male and female dancers of different species, all different shapes and sizes. Such diversity, she thought. It must be a lovely dance troupe. She thanked the girl and told her she wasn’t interested. The girl nodded and left.

          As Mia continued down the street, she saw someone who looked out of place. It was a robed, hooded humanoid. She had not seen anyone wearing a hood on this planet. The climate was warm and most everyone looked happy and open, not shaded and secretive. The robed one was standing off to the far side of the street. There were many passersby between Mia and the robed one. As Mia tried to make her way discreetly through the crowd towards her target, she saw the robed one turn his back and put a hand in his pocket. He seemed to look down, then to his right. Then he started walking off the street and through a thick grove of bushes. Mia followed him.

          The figure kept walking. Mia noticed he was walking away from all the people. She saw him stop and pull out a device. He started talking into it. A communicator. Not only that, but Mia recognized it as Romulan-made. Personal communicators were not allowed on this planet. It must have been one whose signals could not be picked up by planetary sensors. She remained hidden from his view and listened to him speaking in Romulan. She was fluent in Romulan, and heard him speak of Nakotti. So, he was sent to find Nakotti as well. She had been told the Romulans would be looking for him.

/************************************************/

          T’Avaya looked around the courtyard. She had been brought to another island by Sharro so that she could face the Four Ordeals in order to meet the Grandmaster of the Order of the Amber Pendant. She was told the Ordeals would test her courage, strength, awareness, and fortitude. The Vulcan had no idea exactly what the tests would involve. She assumed the tests were originally designed for Saurians, and she knew her own physical and mental prowess were greater than that of the average Saurian. Sharro told her she must change into the ritual robe. She pointed to a changing area to her right. It was a small curtained booth. T’Avaya stepped into the booth and put on the white neophyte robe. Then she was led to a narrow rock bed that was ten meters long. She was told to remove her shoes. She did so. She noticed over a hundred people had gathered to watch. This Order had gained many members in just five months.

          She was standing at the foot of the rock bed when someone put a blindfold on her. She heard Sharro say, “This new initiate stands before us, ready to start her trial. First, the test of courage. You must walk barefoot over the firestones, seeing nothing but your inner self.” T’Avaya suddenly felt a burst of heat in front of her. They had lit fire to the rock bed. The blindfold prevented her from seeing it, but there was no doubt of the fire. Test of courage indeed. She could do this. There were Vulcan disciplines that trained the mind to endure physical pain. She reached into her mind and summoned the Vulcan mental discipline kor’sh’ta, peace within pain. Then, she slowly stepped forward.

          The rocks were sharp under her bare feet. But she kept walking, slowly and methodically. She could feel the fire to her right and left sides. The rocks under her feet were burning hot. She kept walking. Her hands were folded into the symbol of walking meditation, with the hands at her lower torso, thumbs and index fingers touching. She kept moving forward. Her mind remained steady in concentration.

          Then, it was over. She felt a hand gently touch her shoulder. The blindfold was removed. Her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight. She was standing on a soft rug. She turned around and saw the bed of rocks she had just crossed. The fire had been extinguished. She looked down at her bare feet. They were neither red nor blistered. Sharro stood before her and said, “Congratulations! You have passed the Ordeals of courage, strength of heart, and fortitude.”

          T’Avaya said, “There was no real fire. It was all a holographic illusion, along with a heat generator.” Sharro’s reptilian face drew into a smile. “Excellent. How did you figure it out?”

          “There are no burns on my feet. Plus, there is no gas in my lungs from the fire that would make breathing difficult.”

          “Now you have passed the fourth Ordeal, the test of awareness.”

/************************************************/

          Mia followed the Romulan to an island called Braedar. She had activated a holo-disguise as soon as she started following him, in case he had noticed her face when she first saw him on the street. She followed him off the inter-island transport to another crowded public transport. They arrived at a large, almost castle-like building. Mia followed the Romulan and a few others off the transport. Many stayed on the transport to its next destination. There was a Saurian male wearing an orange robe and an orange pendant. He allowed some people to walk past him, through the gate and into the building. Apparently, it was people who were wearing an orange pendant like his. When the Saurian saw the Romulan, Miadere noticed he was no longer wearing his hood. It wasn’t exactly unusual to see a Romulan on Jira. It was open to all vacationers, and her team leader T’Avaya was on Jira disguised as a Romulan. She heard the Romulan tell the Saurian that he was there to learn about “The Order”. Mia had no idea what that was, but after the Romulan went through the gate, she told the guard the same thing and was also allowed to pass.

          Once inside, Mia saw people in orange robes kneeling in front of a statue of a Saurian. She did not see the Romulan. Another Saurian in an orange robe escorted her to another room. There, the Saurian told Mia about the Order of the Amber Pendant. How she would find peace and joy. How it had been formed by the Grandmaster, Tokai. How she would have to pass the Four Ordeals. The Saurian showed her holographic pictures of some of their happy members, along with a picture of the Grandmaster. He told her that if she passed the Four Ordeals, she would get to meet the Grandmaster in person and know his love. Mia immediately recognized the holo-picture of Nakotti as the Grandmaster. She asked where the Grandmaster was. He told her the Grandmaster was in the building surrounded by his personal servants and only came out to speak with members once a day. Mia had heard enough. She distracted the Saurian and then gave him a quick bash to the head that knocked him unconscious. She took his robe and amber pendant and put them on.

          She left the room and started walking around the building. It was not very crowded. She inferred that most people were communing somewhere or in their private rooms. If Nakotti was somewhere in this building, she needed to find him. She could only hope the Romulan hadn’t gotten to him first. She ran a quick scan with her SI-issued scanner that would not be picked up by planetary sensors. The scanner picked up an energy field on the twenty-first floor. She thought about scanning for the Romulan, but a scan that was thorough enough to identify species would have been detected. She also looked around for any computer terminals that she might be able to glean info from, but she did not see any that were not in use. She found an elevator and rode it to the twenty-first floor.

          When she got off the elevator, she was greeted by another Saurian. The Saurian escorted her down the hall. Mia thought of sneaking away, but then the Saurian woman looked her in the eye and said, “I, Quintus, am nobler in the mind.”

          Mia gave the response, “I, Petronius, have greatness thrust upon me.”

Cass, the “Saurian”, had recognized Mia’s holo-disguise as a random Orion. Their code names were names of Roman Centurions from old earth. And now that they had exchanged the secret team code phrases, and Mia knew the Saurian was really Cass in a holo-disguise, she said, “Have you seen Nakotti?” Mia and Cass knew the irony of SI naming their team “Shadow Centurions”—the “Centurions” part coming from the ancient Roman commanders of earth, but also, no doubt, named for the earth term for a Romulan rank, given that their team specialized in Romulan intelligence missions.

Cassandra answered, “They just escorted him out of his room. I think they are taking him to meet a new initiate. His guards wouldn’t let me follow.”

“We have to hurry,” Miadere said. “There is a Romulan in the building looking for him.”

Cassandra, while still in her holo-disguise, asked a Saurian where the Grandmaster was. The Saurian said he went to meet a new member in a room that was called the “goat room”. The Saurian quickly left before he was able to answer any more questions.

Mia and Cass found a computer terminal that no one was using. They tried to tap into the computer to find the location of the goat room. They were denied access to the computer system. Mia was an expert at cracking computer codes. She sat down in front of the computer and started typing frantically. “That Saurian disguise really comes in handy,” she said to Cass while she worked. Mia could have also had a Saurian disguise, but her experience was that being an Orion female usually worked in her favor. Orion females could typically get males, and some females, of most species to bend to their will. And that was just from appearance and demeanor. Mia only used pheromones as a last resort. “A little too handy,” Cass answered. “I keep getting asked for directions. I should have come as a--”

“I’m in,” Mia interrupted. “The goat room is on the fifth floor. The records show that the person he is going to meet is a new Romulan initiate.” They both knew that T’Avaya was disguised as a Romulan. Had their team leader actually become a member of the Order so she could get to Nakotti? Or was it the Romulan that Mia had followed here? Either way, they headed for the room.

/************************************************/

          T’Avaya was escorted to a private room and told to change out of her neophyte robe into the red robe that she would find in the room. She put on the red robe and the amber pendant they had given her. She left the room. There was another member of the Order waiting for her. He escorted her to another room. It was a small room with a table and a single couch. The person told her she needed to wait here for the Grandmaster and that she could partake of the refreshments laid out on the table. The person left her alone. T’Avaya inspected the room for hidden cameras or listening devices. She found none.

          The door opened. T’Avaya looked up and saw a Saurian wearing an amber pendant. It was Nakotti. “Dearest child,” he said to her, “I am Grandmaster Tokai. You are loved.” He took her hand. He put one claw of his hand gently in her palm. It was a Saurian gesture of friendship.

          T’Avaya was all business as she said, “Nakotti, you are under arrest for three counts of petty thievery, five counts of fraud, and ten counts of swindling. I am taking you into custody by authority of Starfleet Intelligence.”

As Nakotti started to speak, someone burst through the door. It was a Romulan. And he pointed a disruptor at Nakotti. “Don’t move,” the Romulan said.

          “Disruptors are illegal on this planet,” T’Avaya said, as she and Nakotti were raising their hands.

          “Commander L’Mana!” Nakotti said.

          “You nefarious vermin!” The Romulan, L’Mana, said. “You will turn over the specs for our warbirds.”

          “No!” Nakotti said. “I seek sanctuary in the Federation.” He turned toward T’Avaya. “This woman is from Starfleet Intelligence. I am going with her!” T’Avaya looked at Nakotti. She said to him, “How convenient that you want sanctuary NOW.”

          He said to her, “I was just going to ask for sanctuary when he came in. I can give you the plans for the Romulan warbird weapons systems. L’Mana gave them to me so I could install a new weapon I sold to him. I will stand trial for my crimes with the Federation. Just don’t let him take me.”

          Then there was another interruption as Cassandra and Miadere ran into the room. The had turned off their holo-disguises. L’Mana was startled, and just as he turned to aim his disruptor at them, Cass, with her superhuman speed and strength, knocked the disruptor out of his hand and tackled him to the floor.

          “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Nakotti cried. “Now can I go with you?” he asked of T’Avaya. She and her team took Nakotti and L’Mana into custody. She asked Nakotti for the Romulan weapons specs. He told her they were on a data rod in his private quarters and that he would give them to her.

/************************************************/

          The Starfleet security officer, Lt. Commander Bracken, had arrived promptly to take custody of the Saurian and Romulan prisoners. T’Avaya spoke with him while Cassandra and Miadere took a transport back to the Shavokh. Jira’s governor, Lohn, was also there to see Nakotti taken away. Lohn said he did not know of any crimes that Nakotti committed under his jurisdiction. Therefore, he would not shut down the Order of the Amber Pendant if no one wanted it shut down. T’Avaya said the Order was technically a cult, but also it was perfectly legal. Nakotti said that Takonee, the deputy Grandmaster, could take over the Order as the new Grandmaster. The members paid willingly, and they all seemed happy with it. There were many such cults in existence throughout the quadrant. While some of them are sought after by Starfleet Intelligence for illegal activities, there are some that do nothing illegal.

Bracken confiscated the amber pendant that Nakotti had stolen. Nakotti asked Bracken if he would be granted his requested sanctuary. Bracken said that was for Starfleet to decide after his trial. T’Avaya handed the security officer the data rod with the Romulan D-Dederidex weapons specs and told Nakotti the specs would surely help his case. Nakotti thanked the Vulcan and stated that he had always planned that the Order would be his last business deal. He had hoped to be able to live out his life peacefully on Jira, with loyal followers of the Order, but knew the Romulan--and Starfleet--would probably find him.

          Bracken asked the Saurian how he had gotten the specs. Nakotti said he sold L’Mana a new weapon that was so complex that he needed to install it himself. He told them he needed their specs in order to safely install the new weapon. The new weapon worked at first, but after the first shutdown and restart, it no longer functioned. Needless to say, Commander L’Mana was furious. Nakotti had left the Romulan ship before the weapon had stopped working. Bracken asked about the Romulan ship. Commander L’Mana said that he sent his ship, the IRW T’Varen, back to Romulus so their experts could safely remove the weapon that Nakotti installed.

When T’Avaya asked why the Order was planned to be his last business deal, Nakotti said there was an incident one year ago in which his long-time business partner, Criya, was killed by Orions in a deal that went wrong. It made Nakotti re-think a lot of things in his life. Criya had been a loyal friend. Nakotti was never the same after his death. He couldn’t immediately give up the lifestyle all at once. He had to come up with a way to make a peaceful living. The Order was that way.

/************************************************/

T’Avaya, Miadere, and Cassandra were back on their ship. As T’Avaya sipped her coffee, Chio, the Shavokh’s resident pet, curled up in her lap.

          Cass said, “So if the Ordeal was really holographic fire, that means everyone who took it had to pass the test.”      

          “Yes,” T’Avaya said. “Even the fourth Ordeal, which was reasoning out that it was a hologram, was easy to figure out since they didn’t program the hologram to cause real burns. They wanted everyone to pass the Ordeals. They simply wanted anyone to join who could afford it.”

          “So it never occurred to you, instead of doing the Ordeals, to just go to the building and try to find Nakotti the way WE did?” asked Cass. T’Avaya immediately answered, “By becoming a member of the Order, I was able to draw Nakotti out of his highly guarded private room. Remember, you two only found him when he came to meet ME, after I had become a member.”

          Cass mulled it over. “I guess you’re right. That’s why you’re the team leader.”

          “As the humans say, ‘it was all in a day’s work’. And you both did a good job--tracking L’Mana, infiltrating the building, and rescuing Nakotti and me from L’Mana “, T’Avaya exclaimed. Chio raised his head and stretched. T’Avaya petted him again and refilled her coffee cup. The three women raised their coffee cups in a toast to another mission accomplished for their team, the Shadow Centurions.

 

Thank you for reading my Star Trek Adventures: Captain’s Log mission report. Captain’s Log is a solo role-playing game by Modiphius Entertainment.

 

-by the Honorable Kavura