Guerilla Writing: Vera Cruz
Spaceliner air always smells stale. Airscrubbers keep it breathable, but do nothing for the smell. The Charioteer Guild always masks it with floral fragrances from Ravenna, or incense from Grail. But in the access corridors to the cargo spaces, you can always taste the air on your tongue.

Stale. Dry. Sterile.

Engineer Falkon's subordinates told me that Lord Ibrahim Juandastaas was found in one such corridor of a shipliner headed for Byzantium Secundus. They also told me that the body had been discovered because the airscrubbers had registered the overwhelming scent of decaying flesh and had sounded an alarm to the shipliner crew and sealed all access to the corridor. Engineer Falkon's subordinates also reminded me that shipliner air systems merely detect and measure the presence of certain particles rather than replicate an actual sense of 'smell' and kept reminding me until I threatened them with Inquisitorial censure.

Technosophy may be a danger to the soul's reflectiveness, but it is also incredibly annoying.

Lord Ibrahim Juandastaas' untimely return to the Pancreator's realm is troubling for three reasons.

First, he was the favorite of Baroness Zee Juandastaas, head of House Juandastaas interests on Pentateuch... a very influential and passionate noble of the lesser Houses.
Second, he was supposed to be on Vera Cruz... months away by jumproutes.
Third, he died because his internal organs were located beside him, neatly arranged... with no sign upon his person that might indicate how they'd violently vacated their natural place in the order of things.

Antinomy, the worship of the Dark Between The Stars, is a favorite and often convenient scapegoat for events with unfathomable causes. This event was no exception. Only the inherent danger of an uncontrolled flame in a spaceliner so far from planet or jumpgate prevented the fiery consecration of the late Lord Ibrahim's remains.

Now Lord Ibrahim's body is now headed to Vera Cruz. I have joined the growing entourage to this dead noble not only as a a former shieldmate of Ibrahim, but also as aide to Sister Delia Istar, noted Orthodox theologian and Inquisitor. She has been tasked to determine how Ibrahim had disappeared from his vacation home on Vera Cruz... and how the late Lord's internal organs had decided upon a most uncomfortable parting of ways with their master.