FreeTrav has pointed out that I was bending a few things, but buggrit,
all in service of a good yarn.

---

Shortly after assuming the acting captaincy due to incapacity of
Moustache, Nikki got thumped by a freaking-out passenger and was sent
switchoff.

Curly was thus the only non-incapacitated person aboard with a limited
mate's ticket (Drake wasn't aboard, Moustache and Nikki also had one
each but they weren't here right now, leave message after the beep),
thus he assumed the office of captain.

Now the players were worried.  It was outbound from PROCYON - weirdness
was to be expected.  Two weird things in jumpspace, one streaming-smoke
approach (which opened the game) - Procyon didn't result in warm and
fuzzy feelings.

Curly landed safely on Ys - was a bit of a surprise to the players to
learn how master's and mate's tickets functioned (at least IMISWTU).
Holding a _master_'s ticket permits you to command an
appropriately-sized vessel (subject to additional endorsements) in your
own right, while a _mate_'s ticket , should the holder end up in
command, requires said holder to beat feet to the nearest D class port
or better, then either repair or replace the master's ticket holder.

Because MGT2 partitions starships into capital vessels (5k+ dton),
starships (100 - 5000 dton) and small craft (< 100 dton), I followed
that break up for the tickets, at least in the Terran Confederation.

A limited master's ticket (otherwise unendorsed) permits the holder to
command a _spaceship_ up to 5 kilodton (and an otherwise unendorsed
limited mate's ticket permits the holder to stand watches aboard such
ship).  Adding a starship endorsement to your ticket allows you to serve
aboard a starship or spaceship in those capacities.  Big surprise, you
need the corresponding mate's ticket to go for a given master's ticket.

The TCN Naval Forces handle their own licensing - this is for civvy
street.  Naval/scout tickets generally go straight across to their
civilian counterparts - an active-duty naval officer holding an
unlimited master's ticket suffers no bar from their ticket to command
_any_ Terran-flagged starship or spaceship, civilian or military.

Unlimited tickets remove the tonnage restriction and are comparatively
rare in the 2128 TC - there's a few LASH tenders big enough, but IW2 has
cramped their operations somewhat.  (The players really liked this bit
of background - said it helped with the slice-of-life).

Upon landing on Ys and recovering from the thumping, Nikki attempted to
get her master's ticket and bombed out miserably.  While she was doing
that, Curly had the bright idea to forge the still-switchoff Moustache's
capacity so they could sod off.  Other PCs weren't too keen on that -
they felt the downsides of getting rumbled were way too high.

Nikki looked around to see if she could find anyone with a master's
ticket to work their passage - instead, she found (to much player lulz)
4 dton of jump-drive-grade lanthanum available on spec.

The second week of lookabout found the lot of lanthanum, and a recently
arrived blow-in from Remulak that wanted to go to Terra (played by the
late, great, John Banner) who had ticket, but no ship.  Captain H.G.
Brandtner had heard of the _Paradise_'s previous exploits (such as
landing on Procyon while trailing smoke) and thus was a little nervous,
but beggars can't really be choosers.

NIkki offloaded the previous cargo and found a hold-full of gubbins that
needed to go to Terra.

With everything loaded, fuel sorted out, docking fees paid, and a mix-up
between Brandtner and Curly that had Wombat and Herr Sweep falling apart
laughing sorted out, Herr Kapitan gave the order to lift.

(Yes, looks like it was arriving at Ys).

Entry into jump was routine, and nice and boring continued all the way
to jump exit at Procyon.  Brandtner, Nikki and Curly were all on
tenterhooks until Das Boot docked at Procyon's highport. 

Refuelling (and Eddles grumbling about docking fees) later, jump
outbound to Junction was also nice and boring.  Nothing showed up on
sensors in either jump.

Moustache finally came around under Bert's care on the jump to Terra,
which (thanks to the extra prep that Nikki sold to Brandtner) was also
boring and routine.

To no one's great surprise, the Lunatics learned, shortly after
emergence, that Phoenix Orbital was congested.  They ended up waiting 64
hours for a spot to open up, before Curly rocked out boxcars on the
approach and landed perfectly.  The smug git showed off the _Paradise_'s
thrust vectoring capability by backing into the berth and landing
perfectly flat - all the landing gear feet touched at exactly the same time.

El Capitane met them at the berth, and relieved Brandtner of his
temporary command (EC casting a "WTF?" look at Nikki, as this wasn't the
captain who had taken the boat out from Phoenix Orbital).  H.G.
gratefully disembarked, thanking Nikki for the boring trip.

Moustache also disembarked, to head back to Moustache Ltd HQ (a
hole-in-the-wall rented space in the lower-end commercial concourses of
Phoenix Orbital ) and pick up The Work (the planetoid of paperwork
thrown up by the Goofy Holler and its resulting discoveries) again.

--