Cassandra told Larzuc that Vanderdecker had tried to kill her on getting Leigh's message, and that Ard had saved her. She had then gone straight to the PCs in the hope that they would protect her from Vanderdecker as well as helping her to find Angelos. Larzuc decided to take her to Vega's temporary HQ in Burgers, meeting up with the other PCs along the way. Cassandra told them quite a bit more about the gang. Three were unaccounted for: Leslie, Henta, and a previously unmentioned pilot called Gerry who lived permanently on the Europa, being wanted for something by one of the Cebalrai police forces. The others were all definitely in Nishyoika. Leslie seemed to be the brains of the group. It also came out that one of Leslie's characteristics was to carry a (deadly) blaster rather than a stunner.
The PCs set Cassandra to work trying to get into the records of the Western Territory public teleport to see if Leslie, Angelos, and Henta (all of whom had definitely teleported to the Europa from the Institute of Teleportation) had even left the ship. While she did this, they discussed their next move. Kale suggested simply buying Leslie off, as according to Cassandra her main motivation was money. Kale went to see Richard Rosie to establish exactly how much money they had access to, only to be told that because of the political situation on Cebalrai then bank couldn't provide them with sufficient funds in a strong currency right away, but would have to send for them and this would take six weeks. Meanwhile the others bickered about whether Cassandra should be trying to trace Leslie by hacking into the local phone company's records rather than the teleport station's.
Cassandra announced that Leslie, Henta, and Angelos had not come down in the oublic teleporter and therefore were very likely still on the Europa along with Leslie's blaster. Various plans for boarding and taking the Europa were considered but rejected because of the difficulty of getting into the ship, since any teleport transfer would have to be arranged by the Europa. The Gelejii would not be a lot of help since she was unarmed. Leigh had the bright idea of putting out a contract on the PCs themselves in the hope of luring Leslie away from the ship. However this was met with strong opposition from Bo. It was also suggested that Cassandra try to talk to Vanderdecker and make it up with him, but she refused. At this point the PCs noticed she was still typing away on the computer. Bo got suspicious and Cassandra looked guilty, and then stormed out claiming she was being unfairly suspected. Leigh calmed her down.
At this point Larzuc took Bo to one side and demonstrated his special ability, by changing into an unknown man and then into Helen Pergamon. Larzuc proposed that the PCs get hold of some of the NPCs' DNA, enabling him to imitate them and therefore get access to the Europa.
A short while later Cassandra announced she was going to the Ladies'. No one stopped her but Leigh went round to the outside of the hotel to find Cassandra struggling out of the window. She admitted she had been going to meet Ard, who had offered to try to make it up between her and Vanderdecker. Leigh said he'd go with her. Meanwhile the other PCs got hold of a wide-angle stunner rifle and headed for the house where Cassandra said the NPCs had been staying.
The only person in the house turned out to be Kuczynski, but that hardly mattered because Bo stunned her (and Kale) into the ground as soon as she opened the door. The house proved to be full of interesting things: Vanderdecker's annotated copies of the Journal of Hyperspace Physics; Gates' notes on decoding the sheets; a small titanium sheet; and the whole party's supplies of mood-altering chemicals of various kinds. The PCs cleaned the place out and took Kuczynski and the NPCs' car with them.
Meanwhile Leigh and Cassandra met Ard in Burgers. Ard was prepared to help Cassandra make it up with Vanderdecker but not to further Vega's aims of getting Angelos back. He seemed to think that Cassandra would get over him, although she diasgreed. Ard was particularly keen on not falling out with Leslie. Since it became clear that Ard couldn't/wouldn't help, they all left.
The other PCs brough Kuczynski round enough for Larzuc to talk to her and therefore be able to imitate her voice. He then took on her appearance and phoned Vanderdecker (using the number Cassandra had previously told them), claiming to be holding the Journal of Hyperspace Physics and the titanium sheet to ransom. Vanderdecker fell for it and agreed to meet Kuczynski, apparently intending to solve the problem with violence.
The PCs laid an ambush, which Vanderdecker and Gates fell for. They got enough of Vanderdecker's DNA for Larzuc to do a good impressions of him, and left with Gates, leaving Kuczynski and Vanderdecker tied up in the NPCs' car in a barn somewhere. They took their clothes as well, allegedly for the purposes of disgusing Larzuc.
Larzuc appeared as Vanderdecker in front of Cassandra and successfully freaked her out. He then called the Europa and managed to persuade Gerry (not hard) to let them teleport up to collect Angelos. Leaving Cassandra with Richard Rosie, the PCs set off for the teleport station.
The transfer went smoothly. As soon as the PCs arrived on the ship Kale stunned Gerry. Leslie spoke to them over the intercom, wanting to know what Vanderdecker was doing on the ship and refusing to let him have Angelos. Larzuc tried to take a high hand but Leslie didn't accept this and told them to come and meet her in the place where Angelos was. The PCs started to search the ship. They were disturbed by Henta's coming up behind them. There was a brief firefight which ended with Henta and Kale stunned and the teleporter smelling of burning electronics. Bo brought Kale round.
Eventually they found the bridge and a locked cabin which they suspected contained Leslie and/or Angelos. By this time Leslie had worked out that whoever Larzuc was, he certainly wasn't Vanderdecker. Realising that Gerry and Henta were out of commission, she negotiated with Kale and Leigh. She talked Bo through checking the teleporter and assured them that it was still functional, although some redudant components were damaged. She agreed to release Angelos in return for the PCs leaving the ship. The PCs then tried to trick her by only teleporting part of the party back, but were thwarted by Gerry's ineptitude.
Once back on the planet, Angelos asked the PCs who had sent them. On discovering it was Vega, he told them that they must have been sent by his step-father, Ramon Padding, who was abusing his position. The mysterious Isabel turned out to be his mother, and the phone calls to the orbital station had been to her. He refused to leave Cebalrai without Cassandra and his evidence (unhelpully hidden in Ocherland) but the exasperated PCs dragged him onto the Gelejii with neither.
Later, Vega sent agents to collect Angelos's evidence, but it wasn't where he said it would be. Angelos insisted it must have been stolen by agents of Rayearth group, but Vega took no further action. The local police decided not to charge Cassandra, who Vega had abandoned to her fate once Angelos was safely off planet. The police were happy enough to have Gates, who was turned over to them along with the titanium sheet and the rough location of the cache. They also neglected to do anything about the Europa, declaring the evidence to be insufficient: officially Angelos has never been found, having been taking virtually straight from Europa to Gelejii under the cover of Vega's influence. The local rumour mill asserts that the Europa was in fact left alone because of the the Western Territory goverment's fear of what compromising evidence might be found on her.
The rest of the cache of sheets was rapidly discovered from the disturbed ground and tracks left by the NPCs and is now being translated. Thus far it has proved of great interest to historians but none to those searching for the locations of other Tucana planets. The sheets removed by Vanderdecker have not come to light.
Vega formed a firm and profitable alliance with the Western Territory to operate Cebalrai's only public teleporter. Ocherland's teleporter has not yet been fixed as the Western Territory refuses to supply them with the necessary materials.
Vanderdecker and Kuczynski escaped from the barn and haven't been seen or heard from on Cebalrai since. Neither has Ard. However, the Europa, apparently having had her broken hyperdrive repaired in record time, left the system some weeks afterwards.