Traveller Adventure: Slipping Away with Dr. Falken

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Slipping Away with Dr. Falken

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on and around the Pandora Research Station in the Elysium system. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
Dr. Falken wants to bring down the Black Market, but she can't do that under guard on Pandora. How will the characters get her out of there?

Background
After Meeting with Dr. Laura Falken, the characters should realize that leaving her on Pandora is risky at best. Her life is under constant threat and she's close to giving up. If she needs to, she will beg the characters to take her away if they show any inclination toward doing so in her presence.

Adventure
Once the characters decide to get Dr. Falken off of Pandora, things get interesting. The security forces have been tasked with keeping her from leaving, so either some tricky plan needs to work or the characters need to get ready for a fight. Remember that the security forces can scuttle the station into the sun, a process that will take about 2 minutes once the explosive charges go off and push Pandora out of stable orbit.

If the security forces are already on alert through the characters mentioning the Black Market in their presence, they will be much harder to fool with any trick. They will be much more resistant to anything the characters suggest and much more willing to use their standard-issue Snub Pistols to impose their will on the characters. Four guards will be waiting for Dr. Falken outside the conference room when the private meeting with the characters ends.

A quick sketch of Pandora's layout.
The conference room is in Pod E also.

You can roll up and personalize each of the eight security staff on Pandora, but you could just as easily reuse the following stats:
UPP 877767 Blade 1, Snub Pistol 1
If relevant, add 1 other randomly determined skill as needed.

Tricking the guards could work if they're not on alert. The characters could make it look like they're kidnapping Dr. Falken, a fact which will sow much confusion later on since the guards have intelligence that some rich lunatic will make a play for her sometime soon. The guards will not let her out of their sight, so getting her aboard the characters' ship without weapons coming out will be challenging at best, though something as simple as having her enter the airlock and shoving her onto the ship may work if done quickly enough.

Further Hooks
To discredit Dr. Falken, Pandora may be scuttled and evidence placed to indicate that she set the sequence to cover up the Black Market operation. If given the time to prepare, Admiral Greenberg will construct evidence that places Dr. Falken at the head of the entire operation. Having the characters rush to do whatever they're doing next would be a good idea before all those preparations are made.

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