I finally got Franz to talk. Well, I got him to talk enough. They've been doing experiments on him, and trying to make him into... something else. I can't get him to describe what exactly. If I look deeply into his eyes, he has circuits there now, in his irises. They glow faintly in the dark. Whatever this is inside him, he doesn't want it, so I've decided we're going to Uncle Ben's lab on Charon at the university.
Maxie says we need to leave because it's not safe to be in Plutonian space now. The royal guard are probably looking for Franz, if not the whole military. But I think we need Uncle Ben's expertise. He served high up in the science ministry for a long time, and he's a polymath genius. If he doesn't know how to fix this, he probably knows somebody there who can.
So, Maxie and I fought about it for a little, but I got my way. I usually do. We don't want Franz to start having issues with the stuff they've implanted in him, especially when we're at space, far from help and resources. We're landing tonight. I'm bringing Franz to Uncle Ben, meanwhile Maxie is going to make a last ditch run for supplies, and prepare us for long distance travel.
We have to go the long way around to avoid the base at the gravitational barycenter. I thought about sending a message to Uncle Ben, to let him know we're coming, but on second thought it's probably better if we just show up. Maxie has us going as fast as we can without attracting attention. Once we get Franz fixed up, we're out of here.