Patron: Noble
Required skills: Advocate, Broker
Reward: Cr 1000, or up to 1% of sale cost per level of Broker skill.

Players’ Information:
A local noble, Sir Robert Frederick Williams, approaches one of the crew members in the starport lounge, seeking a skilled negotiator and broker willing to represent his interests in a real estate transaction. He is selling his private asteroid estate to Captain Karen Harris, owner of the far trader Lucky Strike, who wants to make it her new base of operations and private starport. He insists that the purchase take place as quickly as possible, and needs a broker that can act on his behalf. Upon request, he offers his credentials and a copy of the deed, which identifies the owner of the property as Robert F. Williams. Under a cursory examination, the situation as presented appears to be legitimate.

Referee’s Information:
Setting up a meeting with Captain Harris proves to be easy, as she is eager to complete this transaction. Although the property itself is valued at 20 MCr, Sir Williams is willing to let it go for a significantly reduced price, so long as the payment is made immediately and in full. Captain Harris is well aware of Sir Williams’ desperation, and will bid significantly lower in hopes of getting the property at a steal. She cannot go above 6 MCr without putting a loan on her ship, which she is quite reluctant to do. As the negotiations appear to be coming to close, another man, identical in appearance to Sir Williams, bursts into the room with a few security guards, claiming to be the real Sir Robert Flynn Williams, and that the other man is a clone posing as him. There is obviously a lot of enmity between the two men as an “aggressive argument” ensues. In all of the options presented below, further development is left to the discretion of the Referee.

1. All is as it now appears. Robert Frederick is indeed a clone of Robert Flynn, and desires his freedom from the cruelty of the “indentured servitude” imposed on him by his donor-father. He longs to have the same rights and freedoms as non-cloned humans, but local laws do not support Clone Rights. His ultimate desire is to escape into interstellar society, where he hopes to live outside the boundaries of clone slavery.

2. Robert Flynn is actually a clone of Robert Frederick, and is trying to take his donor-father’s place in society. Tweaked to be more aggressive by virtue of his creation, Robert Flynn has been secretly shifting legal paperwork to insure his role as the legally recognized patron. Robert Frederick discovered the situation, and is attempting to flee offworld before he is hunted down and either enslaved or killed by his more aggressive clone.

3. Both Robert Flynn and Robert Frederick as clones of Sir Robert Francis Williams, who has disappeared when his yacht misjumped. Robert Frederick desires to seek out their lost donor-father, while Robert Flynn wants to preserve the estate of Robert Francis in hopes of their donor-father’s eventual return.

4. As Option 3 above, except that Captain Karen Harris is actually heavily involved in smuggling and piracy, and wants the asteroid to serve as her base of operations. She will attempt to engage the party in supporting Robert Frederick’s right to sell the property, and is not above performing illicit activities in pursuit of her goals. At some point, the Imperial Ministry of Justice or similar law enforcement group become involved, assuming that the crew are in league with the pirate captain.

5. Both Robert Flynn and Robert Frederick are clones of the megacorporate regional manager who created them as potential heirs to his fiscal legacy. The original Robert Williams is monitoring the progress of his clones to determine which one will have the best temperament to take over his responsibilities. This estate sale is one of Robert Frederick’s maneuvers to undermine Robert Flynn’s position in the evaluation process.

6. Neither Robert Flynn nor Robert Frederick are clones. Each has been indoctrinated with the belief that his twin brother is actually a clone as part of an unusual experiment by a deranged research scientist, Dr. Lucius Van Erlenmeyer. A war criminal in hiding, Dr. Erlenmeyer has been exploring various avenues of psychological manipulation and indoctrination, including the implantation of false memories and artificial personalities. He is actively monitoring the escalation of aggression between the two men. Should Dr. Erlenmeyer’s presence be exposed, the war criminal will stop at nothing to remove evidence against him and escape into obscurity. The reward for the capture of Dr. Lucius Van Erlenmeyer, dead or alive, currently sits at MCr 2.