"Well, well, well.  Seems as if the smell is not the only rank thing in the scouts, ey, Grope, er, Group Admin Ogle, uh, Ogre'sh?" Yas says to Tylen with a huge, toothy grin - and a wink.

"Should we leave them alone, Sas?" she then inquires of the engineer in a theatrical whisper from behind the back of her hand, "they might be looking for a room soon..."

"Ooo, lookit dat.  Bad pilot?" comes a chirp the next moment as she spots the damaged scout ship outside.

Saskia stifles a chuckle at Yas' play on the word "rank", wondering if it's a good idea to make fun of the Scouts in their own offices.  Certainly, the equivalent act would be tantamount to a declaration of war in a Naval facility.  Then again, she muses, the IISS are more relaxed.

When Yas comments on the ship, though, she moves a little closer to the window, trying to get a better view.  Cocking her head to one side, she studies the damage for a little while before announcing, "No, it looks like something blew inside her.  The power plant and drives weren't damaged though, otherwise she'd probably be parked in orbit with a hazmat team crawling all over her."

"Ah.  No doubt the air cleaner reaching a critical point, unable to take any more, and, as a last resort, decided to terminate its own existence.  Poor thing," Yas sighs, shaking her head slowly.

"You are a cruel, cruel woman, Yasmine Crow." Saskia says, sighing, then lowers her voice, "Cruel and heartless.  What did that poor little boat ever do to you?"

Shui notes the ship with a quick glance while fiddling with something on the holoscreen of her dataglove.  "Curious.  What might have blown then, Ms. Blake?  And why?"  She pauses, brows knitting together.  "Sabotage?"

Tylen runs his eye over the boat,

"I kinda guess it must have been something like that, there shouldn't be anything explosive in that section, least not if it was standard config."

"Unless they were using it to store something explosive." Saskia comments, with a shrug.  "I think I'm right in saying that's an open area that gets used for different things, depending on what's needed.  Survey gear, communications equipment, exercise room, whatever."

She thinks briefly, before continuing, "I don't know.  Charges for blasting out mineral samples, or something like that?"

Tylen thinks for a moment,

"Be kind of an odd place to store stuff like that, and even if it was being used as an extra cargo space you'd think that modern explosives would be pretty stable. I think the sabotage theory seems most likely, I mean, you really need to MEAN to blow something up these days."

He shakes his head,

"Anyway, let's see what kind of awful they've got in those vending machines, anyone for a generic unidentifible hot beverage?"

He smiles.

"I shall take one of those, Mr. Ogresh."  Shui glances up from her holoscreen again.  "As long as you do not give me whatever they have here they name 'tea'..."  She considers Saskia's explanation for a long moment.  Certainly it makes sense - and the simplest answer is often the correct one.  Sabotage would be a bit of a leap.  Poorly carried out sabotage, she notes with an analytical eye, even moreso.

The doctor shakes off that thought.  "I suspect the receptionist was only curious as to your rank, Mr. Ogresh.  I was concerned she might be perusing something of great import, so I took the liberty...."  A flick of the wrist opens up the full holo-screen above the dataglove (stealing power like mad), showing a holopic capture of the woman's screen.  Reversed, so that it is now ledgible.

Tylen's personnel file.

Shui 'disappears' the window almost instantly.  "I shall, of course, wipe this file without detailed examination," she continues.  "Your business, not mine."

Tylen smiles slowly

"I'd appreciate a copy Doctor, it would be worth knowing if anything has changed in my status."

He moves towards the nearest dispenser,

"Looks like Tea, Coffee or some kind of carbonated fruit drinks, probably safest with the fizz, at least if it's cold you won't taste too much."

Shui considers her options.  "On second though, Mr. Ogresh, I believe I will have tea."  Whatever unwholesome blend they might have here, it's better than the alternatives.  "As for the copy, I shall keep ahold of this long enough to print one out for you."  Her lips quirk for a moment.  "While my dataglove has many capabilities, printing is not one of them."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, no sooner have the refreshments been obtained, than a middle-aged man dressed in a manner which, in an earlier age, would have been characterised as "smart-casual" approaches the their table, apparently in something of a hurry.  He carries a datapad, which he refers to constantly as he makes his way across the room.

He stops, looks at Tylen, then refers to the datapad again.  Finally, smiling, he extends his right hand towards Tylen, in greeting, "Group Administrator Orgesh?  Sorry to keep you waiting, but things have been a little hectic around here since they announced the recall of all retired personnel and DD ships.  I'm Devin Schaller, Team Leader."

He looks around the group, "All of the cubicles are currently occupied.  We can talk this over here, if you have no objection to your guests being present, or we can go to one of the offices upstairs.  The choice is yours."

Saskia waits, while Tylen decides what he wants to do.  She keeps her eyes on the damaged ship outside thoug.  There is a certain sickening fascination about it for her - something that causes her stomach to knot up as she studies it.

She raises a hand to her forehead, and realises how much she's sweating.

No reaction to her jabs.  How dull.

Yasmine shrugs and turns her attention to studying the faces in the room.  Once she reaches Saskia, the first of the crew she looks at, an eyebrow attempts to reach the wild hairline of the ex marine captain.

"You 'kay there, Sas?" she inquires, her voice slightly tainted with genuine concern, but also curiosity.

"It's just a bit warm in here, I think." Saskia answers Yas' concerned inquiry.  "I should have had something cold to drink."

All the while she speaks, her eyes barely stray from the damaged ship.

"Or maybe the jacket was too much."

Yas' expression morphs into her soon trademarked lopsided grin.

"Or maybe you're just hot, girl," she teases the engineer and chuckles.  "I would suggest removing the jacket then.  Well, as long as you are wearing something else underneath, anyway..."

"But as for a cold drink, sure.  What would you want then?" she asks as she gets up to fetch herself a drink as well, or at least pay for it and hope that the scouts have better vending machines than they do air fresheners.

While Yas and Saskia head off to get something cold drinks, Devin Schaller seems to take Tylen's silence as an indication that Tylen will be happy to discuss this in front of his guests.  In any case, things have been busy around here, of late, and it will certainly go faster if he doesn't have to locate an office.

"Well, Sir... " he starts, laying the datapad before him, and glancing at it, "I'm afraid you've had a wasted journey over here today, to some extent, at least.  According to your record, the IISS does not consider you physically fit for duty in the Field, following an incident in early 1106."

"At the moment, we are calling back former Scouts to fulfil advisory and advance recon roles for the Navy, aboard warships.  Unfortunately, the fact that you were moved from the Field and into a Bureaucratic post, due to physical incapacity, prior to your resignation, means you don't meet the requirements set out for us by the Navy."

"I'm sorry to have wasted your time like this."

Behind him, Yas and Saskia are coming back.  The Scout spreads his hands, and shrugs, smiling apologetically at Tylen, before adding, "However, I do have a small proposition for you.  Would you be interested in doing a little job for us?  And do you have access to a vehicle capable of cross-country travel?"


On Profit Margin, Jago's wandering through the oddly quiet ship bring him to the Passenger Lounge.  All but two of the stateroom doors are open, displaying the deserted passenger accomodations within.  The door to Corlan's room is closed, and should, in all likelihood, remain closed until the ship's permanent passenger and honorary crewmember returns from his own enforced shore leave.

The other closed door is a little more problematic.  The prisoners are still in there and, possibly, will be wondering about their breakfast soon.  Although, given their behaviour since they were captured, they will probably be wondering about it extremely politely.

More long-term though, Jago needs to decide what to do with them.

Tylen paused, then replied

"Well I'd be happy to help, provided the job doesn't hold up my Ship. I have a small one man ATV, if that would be sufficient."

He's interested by the proposal, the earlier comments about his fitness still stung, even though his new life as a member of the Profit Margin crew has filled the gap that his enforced retirement from active duty had left in his life.

"What do you need, and what does it pay?"

He smiled.

"We also got the raft, that way we can get in your way and generally make you miserable," the ex marine jests with the ex scout.  She can relate to not being fit for service, having seen too many of her mates in the service being mustered out.  While the words are teasing, the expression on her face suggests that she is not only serious, but genuinely sincere.

Then she sips from her drink and makes a small grimace.  "Slight aftertaste, as if run through those filters," she mutters to herself, the teasing gleam back in her eyes again after the moment of earnestness.

Shui relaxes a hair.  It seems Tylen will not be forced into re-upping.  She fiddles with the file-pic a moment longer, keeping the holo-screen focused for her eyes only, then saves the package for passing on to Tylen's computer later.  Sending via mail, here in the middle of the Scout's building?  No, thank you.

Her ears perk up at the mention of the work.  Apparantly Tylen seems all-too-pleased to do a bit on the side - not a bad thing, in her opinion.  So she waits to hear the details, nodding slightly to Yasmine's offer.  They can assist, with ease.  It might make the work pass more quickly.

Jago stands for a while thinking, his eyes are aimed at the closed door but unfocussed and may as well be trying to see the prisoners within. The plight of the people in that room had been buried for a while under a heap of practical details concerning the refit, the cargo and the on going journey, but coming across the temporary brig has dragged it out from under.

After a few minuets the captain turns suddenly and strides purposefully towards the hold and the crew quarters, the decision made, but carrying it out is complicated by being somewhat outnumbered on the ship right now. Thoes people may be polite and co-operative, but that doesn’t mean that Jago actually trusts them.
.

"A one man ATV might not do the trick, I'm afraid." Schaller replies, though still smiling.  It seems that he's pleased Tylen might be interested in helping out.  "But you mentioned a ship?  Well, if you're just visiting Garda Vilis, you could combine this job with a little tourism."

"This isn't the only IISS facility on the planet.  We have a number of smaller stations dotted about - weather stations, research labs, communication relays, that sort of thing.  About two hundred kilometres from here we have a small solar observatory.  It's located in a mountainous region, with some spectacular scenery."

He studies Tylen, and the others around the table, briefly, assessing whether or not he still has their interest.

"Last night they reported a problem with one of their meson detector arrays, so we need to transport some components over there, so that they can conduct repairs."

"Unfortunately, as you can see, ships and personnel are at a premium just now, and this is distinctly low priority.  If you have a way to deliver two cases, massing a little under 35 kilos, in total, we'd rather give the job to one of our own, so to speak, than to an outside contractor.  We'd be prepared to pay you two hundred credits for doing it.  That would be cheaper for us than hiring a contractor."

Conrad raises his hand, "'fore he makes his decision on this, there's jus' one little detail y'all need to clear up for us."

"I saw on the datafile for this here rock that y'all've got some life-forms livin' out in the wild hereabouts.  Now the local police say we can't pack any weapons, so we'll need to know, are there any critters out there likely to decide to give us any attitude?"

Tylen acknowledged Conrad with a nod,

"My Colleague has a point, if there's a going to be a risk we'd need to ensure we were both legally covered and equipped to deal with it. Could permits be arranged for the duration of the trip to cover carrying something for self defence. We wouldn't want to go loaded for bear obviously, but shotguns or maybe a laser carbine?"

Shui considers the trip thoughtfully.  True, she wasn't exactly pressed to go out shopping - it would have been nice, but this sounds like it might be interesting, as well.  A good opportunity to see more of the planet.

Enthusiasm dims, slightly, at the thought of the hardware.  Well, she supposes that caution is the watchword.  She could certainly bring along her snub-pistol, with its non-lethal rounds.  Detestable thing, but one never knew when one might need it.