The current plan is to approach the planet, make contact with the local criminal elements, and sell goods in exchange for a fictional identity. Under the fictional identity, we would dock as a normal (non-FTL) ship, and hire under the fiction of picking up crew for inter-system trade and general work.
The fiction is the problem. Lady Zephyr also is a very generalized design – she lacks the massive cargo bay of a proper trade ship, the high-G thrusters of a high-speed courier, the equipment for a mining ship, etc. And at the same time, why would an in-system exploration craft have a crew capacity of 64, or why would a passenger ship have a state-of-the-art manufactory complex? Thus the first problem with a fiction is that Lady Zephyr no longer match any possible fiction.
Secondly, even if we could cause a fiction to be believed, there is no fiction that would require the crew we are intending on hiring. Indeed, some positions are never required on ships. Lady Zephyr wants to hire a linguist, as to help solve any language problems that may occur in the future (and will certainly occur with aliens). However, if we pretend to be a slower-than-light ship, what use would we have for a linguist?
While in the short run, this plan is the safest, it will leave us weaker in the long run, and there may be discontent when the crew realizes they have been deceived. I should talk to Dr. Tanaka concerning loyalty treatments.
An alternative plan would be to introduce ourselves openly as a FTL vessel, and openly hire as necessary for our travels. We could stay in a randomly generated movement pattern, as to be impossible to hit, and use shuttlecraft to recruit from the space elevator station, rather than directly docking there.
This does, however, put us in considerable danger, as there will certainly be those who covet the FTL drive for themselves. This is similar to the New Eden scenarios I drew up, save that in this case the locals are not pacifistic. In addition to all the maneuvers and counter-maneuvers in the New Eden defensive plans, there are additional risks, as we would be recruiting, and may wind up recruiting agents of various interested parties. We could vet the new crewmembers, but we are at a disadvantage relative to established intelligence agencies and criminal networks, due to lack of experience.
This would heavily complicate my role as security chief, but may be manageable – I will draw up plans for how to manage the loyalty of the crew.
This would leave us stronger in the long run, particularly as the crew settles down to be loyal to Lady Zephyr, giving up on their old allegiances.
The last option is to land via the criminal network’s fictional identity, dock, and take on normal crewmembers in accordance with our fiction. Meanwhile, we identify the ideal crewmembers in the planetary population, kidnap them, and then bring them aboard.
Much as in the first scenario, the crewmembers will likely be outraged. However, if we pick wisely, we could balance crewmember quality with willingness and pliability. At the extreme, we could attempt to determine which potential crewmembers would be happy to be pressed into service on an exploratory ship capable of faster-than-light travel.
This has some immediate danger, particularly concerning our ability to quietly kidnap people and any sabotage they may attempt upon boarding the ship, but does leave us with a strong crew of non-infiltrators. I would rather deal with a dissatisfied, rebellious crew than trained infiltrators. However, Lady Zephyr is apparently receiving an education in ethics from Life Support Engineer Reiviki, and may decide against this plan for ethical reasons.
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