While Icarus, Bane and Hassarian prepared for planetfall, Jace retreated to the holy Venture's observation dome. Peering at the stars through diamond panes and armoured glass, he wondered how in Holy Terra's name they had ended up here. The ritual had been performed correctly- of that he had no doubt. True, the witches might have given him false information, although he doubted it. For one, there was nothing stopping Hassarian and the other rogue trader captains from simply returning to Footfall and eliminating the witches, as retribution for the wild goose chase, which was something the wretched creatures no doubt would've thought of.
So, he assumed the witches had provided the proper intel, and was confident the ritual had worked as intended. That meant there was something about this planet, something important. But what? It was a fine planet, he supposed- Jace had been double-checking his calculations rather than listen to the Explorator's report with more than cursory attention, but from what he remembered, it was a perfectly inhabitable, if unremarkable planet, with some sort of verminous Xenos infestation. Not the sort of thing you'd expect to find at the end of a witch-granted vision.
He spent his time studying the stars, using the terminals in the center of the cold steel room to perform his calculations. Getting here by vision was all well and good, but he wanted to be able to simply follow a chart here as well. He made periodical returns to his Navigator's hub, using his equipment there to determine the location of the Astronomican, before visiting the observatory again and calucaltion their position from the stars surrounding them. Using both as reference points, and consulting the information in his Almanac Astrae Divinitus, he tried to plot a course between Footfall and this newly discovered planet. If Hassarian wanted to colonize this planet, then he'd need to be able to find it more easily than by following a witch's vision.
His curiosity satisfied, Jace went to find Hassarian. 'Captain, if I may,' he began. 'With the ship in orbit, I feel there is little I can contribute here. I therefore request permission to join the landing party and investigate the planet first-hand. ' His jaw tightened at the prospect of walking undeneath an open sky. ' Distasteful, I admit, but it might produce valuable results. Perhaps I can discover why the witches' vision led us here, or perhaps even find a clue as to how we can use this planet to locate the Pearl.' He draws closer, adding, 'I remain confident that this is where the witches intended for us to end up, I just can't figure out why.'
He shrugged, half-smiling, 'Well, other than assuming the lot of them was stark raving mad, and they sent us here because they felt it would be funny. But let's not assume that just yet.'
