Dutiful Passage
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In which the crew of the Passage investigate the capabilities of the new weapon pods.

Okay, that settles it: the Passage has been in orbit around Krisko all this time.

There are several possibilities for the author of the message with the chess-based code, but I lean toward the Krisko Portmaster, whom the authors made a point of describing near the beginning of the chapter as an old chess partner of Shan’s.