Required Equipment: Grav Vehicle or Small Craft
3014 Apinanto E431432-6 Ni Po 303 Na
Apinanto is a backwater system in the Saphi Cluster of Fessor Subsector of Foreven. Overlooked by nearly everyone, even the mainworld is largely ignored because fuel is only available from skimming the Gas Giants.
Nine months ago the only inhabited area of the planet, the Apinan River valley, suffered a drought due to a weather monitoring and control satellite incorrectly changing the evaporation from Clark’s Sea. Following this, and because a number of lost resources were recovered from the river, the Jose Council decided to instigate the building of a railway. This was judged as the most efficient use of resources allowing an alternative to river transport in a time of need. Nearly all the population of Apinanto have been involved in its construction, from sowing the seat cushions for the passenger carriage, cutting and preparing the track route, to casting the tracks and building the engine. So far the railway goes from Clark’s Town to Jame’s Town through the villages of Jimstead and O’Hare’s Drift. For the last month the rail service has run once a week between the towns with the engine pulling a single flat bed carriage carrying goods.
In addition to the railway the drought brought about an additional phenomenon, that of an increase birth rate, and Apinanto’s doctors and nurses are struggling to cope with this additional demand on their services.
The council have also been looking at the data they have obtained from the satellite and have noticed another area of the planet where there is rainfall. About 550 km south of the Apinan River valley is a slight depression in the hills, which eventually become Clark’s Mountains, that has been named the Gratia Basin.
The players have made their way to Apinanto for some reason, and they are currently at Apinanto Down. The council approaches the players for help and while the PCs may wish to do so the council can offer little in payment. Their stocks of grain and alcohol are dangerously low due to the drought. They offer a waiver of the landing fee, which is their only real source of off planetary income, and food and lodgings will be free for up to a month if the PCs wish to stay. If the players really are heartless there is about a ton of wood that is earmarked primarily for railway sleepers to extend the railway but also for a passenger carriage, which has a base price of Cr 1,000. There are a number of jobs a party with a grav vehicle, small craft or access to advanced technology could do:
Moving doctors and nurses. As those who are due start to give birth in greater numbers the call on the 15 doctors and 60 nurses of Apinanto increases significantly. The majority of the medical staff work in Clark’s Town Hospital, with only a handful in general practice in other areas. The amount of pregnancies mean that the mothers can’t be brought to hospital as would normally be the case so home births are now the rule. While river transport would normally cope there isn’t enough of it and it isn’t quick enough to move the doctors and nurses to the places they are needed. The players will need to set-up some type of communications to co-ordinate and prioritise the medical staff and use their high speed transport to move them to where they are needed, while still providing cover for those patients in hospital. If the party has medical staff of their own the hospital will be happy for any help they can get, either covering shifts at the hospital, delivering babies or just acting as a mobile spare.
Civil Engineering. The railway needs to progress further up the valley and the sides of the gorge protrude into it a few miles west of Jame’s Town. The Council would like to tunnel through, and while they have the means and expertise to do so they would require a considerable amount of time in which to do it. They know that the application of advanced technologies will be able to considerably speed up the process. If the players have the means they would like them to assist.
Surveying. While the Council has a scan on the planet that they received when trying to deduce the cause of the drought they would like a more detailed one of the Gratia Basin. They will ask if the Players would transport a specialist along with ½ a ton of topsoil, ½ a ton of organic fertiliser, and significant grass and weed seeds to the basin where they wish a more detailed scan to be done and where the specialist will direct the depositing of the cargo for its best effect.
Image from wikimedia. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Generic license.
