Shui, seated lotus in the medical bay, looks up as the Captain's voice echoes through the room.  Casting off the tattered remnants of her meditative state, she slowly rises and moves to dress herself more appropriately.

Finished, the medic-cum-steward walks quickly to the door, unlocking it, leaving, carefully locking it again (it is the medical bay, after all), and heading down the their 'passanger's' room.  Her feet pad silently as she walks.  Strange man, she considers.  Still, would it be such a bad life?  Moving from port to port?  Never stopping where you have already been?

Thinking about that, Shui feels the situation to be just about perfect.  And as long as they continue to have him aboard...they will continue to fly in that manner.  Which suits me quite well.

With communicator and equipment swinging in one hand, she chimes the door with the other.  "Mr. DeSant," she pages, keeping her voice pleasant, "I am here with your required equipment, and information regarding the world upon which we have just landed."

"Down safely, again?  It's getting a bit boring, skip," Yas teases Jago back over the comm before she takes a seat in the crew lounge, having finished her shutdown of her turret and enjoying a glass of orange juice.

As she sits there her mind wanders back in time about three months, about the rather brief meeting with her sister Tasmin.  It was not something she had expected, but she certainly did not mind that kind of surprise, as it had been too long since last she saw her kid sister.  Tasmin was pretty much like she always had been, but she had some interesting stories to tell, such as about that space station and "the thumper".  Interesting story, and she knows how to tell one of those.  For soem reason Tasmin also had seemed set on flirting with Caution, possibly because of all the stories Yas had related to her over the years.  Trying to make him blush, no doubt. 

"Here's to you, sis.  Godspeed," she says, lifts her glass of orange juice and sips it.

"Jago, I'm going to need some down-time here, remember." Saskia's voice reaches the bridge via the intercom, "With leaving Mjolnir so fast, I never did get a chance to see what the trouble is with the plasma induction field coil.  The power fade was up to 1.7% on that Jump, and if it reaches 2.0, we could lose the drive."

She glares at the case of the offending component.  Maybe, now that they're back in Imperial Space, she'll be able to scrounge some parts.

With its characteristic, and seemingly unfixable, screech sounding louder than usual in the dense atmosphere, the ship's main ramp drops open, and Jago strides down onto the ferrocrete of the landing pad.  He turns at the bottom of the ramp, watching for a moment as the port techs connect the last of the umbilicals.  Jett should now have access to updated navcharts and data.

With battle-groups moving about the Marches, current information becomes even more vital.

Jago moves away towards the bay doors, and soon finds a map of the port, with the Trade Hall clearly marked.

---

Corlan opens the door to Shui, and accepts the print-outs and issued equipment with a grateful smile.  He flips through the documents, mostly descriptions of hot springs, geysers, and similar features found in volcanic regions.  He selects one, "Good grief!  There's a spring here that blasts a jet of scalding water nearly one hundred metres into the air every two hours.  I have to get some holos of that."

He discards the next two, then holds up another one.  "The lanthanum mines and refinery might be interesting too, in a big impressive machinery kind of way."

---

Yas relaxes in the crew lounge.  Jago liked the turrets operational whenever the ship was running in normal space, and with at least one Zho fleet already somewhere in Imperial territory, he's being even more careful.  Of course even with the upgraded computer and armaments, if a battleship comes after them, then Profit Margin is toast.  Still, at least they'll be able to discourage fighters, and some of the other smaller ships from taking too close an interest.

Luckily, for the moment, all the action seems to be three or four weeks' travel away, up around Regina and the Zhodani border.

---

Saskia starts to strip down the plasma coil.  It's an unpleasant job.  On this model of Jump drive, you can see the coil housing without problems.  But actually getting close enough to work on it means crawling under the main phase compensation chamber.  It's hot under there, and cramped, and (not for the first time) Saskia curses the designers.

---

On the bridge, Jett starts his navdata downloads, and contacts the Port Authority to arrange for refuelling.

---

Kal-chan shuts down his gunnery console, then reactivates it to check an odd reading that had caught his eye during the shutdown process.

"Mr. DeSant," Shui cautions quietly, putting a hand on his arm to garner attention, removing it once she has succeeded.  "Please note - this is likely a dangerous world.  While under Imperial Rule, with extensive laws, the laws regarding weapons are quite lax, so it is quite likely people carry firearms or beam weapons openly.  In the current...socio-political climate," she continues, referring to the anxiety regarding the budding war, "the society may be a trifle...tense.  Prone to surges and swells of sudden reaction."

The Doctor smiles, slightly.  "I suggest you request only sanctioned tours, ones with extensive security.  And I insist you wear your mask at all times when exposed to the atmosphere.  Failure to do so may cause long-term damage to your respiratory system.  Please remain in contact with the ship.  And, one final thing.  Do you require a member of the crew to accompany you?"

Quickly, she runs over the list in her head, hunting for things she might have forgotten.  She's new at this, so it's possible.

Saskia curses again, as she smacks her skull on the power distribution core.  Even muffled by being under the drive, her language still sounds impressively like a catfight.  With nukes.

"Hlarapral staetaorylharr htiisssh-haehoarl?" she snarls.

Since rescuing an Aslan ambassador from that hotel fire two years ago, she had made a special effort to learn their language.  Much to her delight, it had turned out to be ideal for cussing in.  Even a relatively innocuous phrase, like, "Which fool left that there?" could sound quite vicious if you got the intonation just right.

Crawling out from under the drive she studies the plasma coil.  Then, with a sigh, she starts muttering notes into the mic of her handcomp.  "Thirteen millimetre buffer valve.  Main field damper, and degausser grid.  Eight millimeter drop vent.  No, Shtohaer!  Make that both eight mill drop vents!"

It's a wonder we ever get out of Jump alive in this pile of junk! she thinks sourly, then adds, out loud, "Sorry, Baby.  I know it's not you."  She pats the side of the drive tenderly, "It's ALL that mean ol' Jago's fault for making you work so hard.  Yes, it is."

Having finished her orange juice, Yas gets up and heads over to her room, where she begins to get gear that she believes will be crucial when stepping ashore.  Once she has got it all, including several nice guns, she heads over to the bridge.

"So, I understand the law here allows me to bring any gun I want, eh?" she asks cheerfully, hoping to rile someone up a little by sounding like the gun toting nuts she almost is.

She pulls out her .50 gun, a beast of 2 kg under 1 G, but here on this planet only 1.2 kg.  Enough power to stop a charging bear dead in it tracks with one shot, with a muzzle energy three times the energy from a measly Magnum .44.

"My little baby," she says with a ominous grin and pats it, knowing full well they probably will not fall for that act again - but it is still fun to tease them from time to time.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:26, Thu 03 Nov 2005.

Jago sets his footsteps towards the trade hall, taking in the sights and sound of this place as he goes. As he’s likely to be stuck here for a while, his interest is more acute than usual and he’s particularly interested in anything that might prove problematic, and any potential sources of entertainment.

At the trade hall, priorities change, now he moves into commercial mode as he seeks out a good price for the fruit he needs to sell, trying  half a dozen agents to get the feel for the market, then openly playing the best two against each other in search of the best price.

Kal-chan smiles easily at Yasmine. Stopping power came from within, from the heart, not from the gun or the hand. Yas likes her toys, so he says nothing.

He turns back to his console, letting his smile fade. Placing his tongue in his cheek for a moment, he frowns at it for several long moments. What was it? Everything looked normaly, now. It could be a hiccup in the system, but he didn't like those. Better to run a quick system check and keep an eye on things for a few  moments, first. Catch up with the others in a bit.

Jago works the buyers against each other and, while it doesn't go as well as it might have done, he eventually walks away with a sale agreement.  Teldar Factors wants the fruit.  Doubtless they will make a nice profit selling the cargo on, but they did offer the best price, and they can arrange collection tomorrow morning.


Kal-chan runs some diagnostics on the systems, careful and methodical.  Still unsure what had caught his eye as he shut the gunnery systems down, he doesn't want to miss it a second time.


Corlan listens to Shui's advice, then nods in agreement.  "Well, that all sounds sensible enough, though I usually prefer not to travel with a bodyguard.  Still, as you say, things are a little different these days."  He considers his options, then asks, "Who would you recommend?"


Jett chuckles as Yas goes into "scary" mode.  He's known her long enough now to realise that it's all in fun, intended to get a reaction from him.  "Nice gun, Yas.  But I'm hoping you won't need it here.  Yes, you can carry it, but I bet they won't like you using it."
"And I... uh oh... this doesn't look good."

He points to the comms screen, where latest news is being downloaded from the port's databanks:

---

Rhylanor/Rhylanor (0306-A434934-F) Date: 201-1107
Word has today been received by fleet courier of the invasion of Regina, the capital of the Spinward Marches.  Naval spokesmen of the 212th Fleet declined to comment publicly, but in private one naval officer expressed the opinion that prolonged resistance on the world was unlikely in the event of a serious Zhodani assault.

Coming only days after receipt of the news of the outbreak of the war, news of Regina's invasion is a heavy blow to hopes of an early victory over the Zhodani.  The fall of Regina could sever the main communications artery to the Jewell subsector, and seriously hinder communication with fleet elements presumed to be fighting there.

---

"That came in today, about an hour ago." he says, checking the time stamp on the file, "But it was released about two minutes ago.  I hope folks don't riot or something while Jago's out there.  I mean, Regina's well away from here, right?  People won't panic yet, will they?"

"Hmm.  Yeah, it's not what you'd call good news, but I doubt there will be much problems here at this time," Yasmine says, trying to convince herself as well as Jett.  "Jago should be just fine, but perhaps we should let him know anyway, and meet up.  There's always the off chance of someone going nuts, be it over the war or anyway."

"Jago, news about Regina's fall just came through.  Shouldn't be a problem, but to be on the safe side, we'll meet up with you," she calls to Jago, with a calm and collected voice, as if asking him to pick up a pair of Etranian pears from the store while he is there.

"Right, one or two of us should go and meet him.  Any volunteers?" she asks with a grin.

Kal-chan shakes his head at the news. Regina. He'd been following the news closer than the others. Were they okay? In some cases, they could handle themselves, that's what they were all about, but without proper guns and armor....? That was why Kal-chan had eventyally left them. Their philosophy made no sense, now more than ever. Well, there was no sense worrying about it. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't leave the Profit, and he'd never get onto Regina now, anyway. But that was the worst of it, he couldn't do anything to help. All he could do is wait and watch.

He shakes his head again, this time to clear his head of thoughts of his family and community. "UH... Yas, have you seen this? There's some sort of power spike in the laser power linkage during shutdown. It's small, but... kind of consistant."

Saskia stretches the kinks from her back, then lifts the coil onto the bench.  "Alright, let's see what we can save, shall we?"  She pulls on a pair of goggles, and snaps the lenses down over her eyes.

"Ow!  There's more fractures than metal in here!  How did you hold together so long?"

Totally by instinct, she reaches for the microwelder, finding it first time, without looking, and fires it up, "Lucky for you I'm so gifted."

”Thanks Yas, it just came through down here. How is Corlan taking it, that’s his home planet? I’m about done so I’ll start heading back.”

Jago stifles the emotional cocktail that threatens to overwhelm him, Corlan is not the only one who hales from Regina. Looking around, he tries to read the reaction on other faces.

Since it would be hard to miss Caution's reaction, Yas replies to Jago quickly to Jago; "I don't know if he knows yet, boss.  I'll check it up A.S.A.P..  Meanwhile, I'll volunteer Jett to go meet you, just to be on the safe side," and grins at Jett and waves a thumb at him to move out as she herself moves over to Caution to begin to study the screen.

"Spike?  It's probably nothing, but have you tried running a deep diagnosis?  We should be on the ground more than enough time to finish it," she says, having placed herself behind him where she can put a hand on his shoulder and be close without appearing as if actually trying to console him, which she actually is.  Her own mind wanders to Tasmin, the one in her family that is likely to feel this more than their parents ever will.

"Yeah, I'll do that," Kal says. "Just wanted to check with you first, you know? It'll keep me from having to find something to do on this ball of dirt, anyway." He tries to laugh a little. And it'll let him keep an eye on the news, which is what he was hoping for.

Shui considers Corlan's question quite seriously.  She doesn't want someone who will get a lot of attention.  Big people like Kal-chan can often be a magnet for fights, especially when situations are tense.  Not that the big man can't handle himself - she bets he can.  But still....

"Ms. Crow would likely be your best choice," Shui informs the passanger.  "I shall page her, request her opinion on the matter."  She smiles, a hint of genuine amusement lurking at the back of her eyes.  "She is likely more qualified than my self to judge, as well."

Her left hand rises, the dataglove a black stain on her pale skin.  A touch, and the holo-icons spring into view, hovering over the back of her hand.  Fingers stab out, through the magnetic fields, and the glove interprets the motion, opening a radio linkage.  Another touch, this time to Yasmin's portrait.

Shui smiles.  "I hope she is wearing her com-unit."  Then she speaks into the glove.  "Ms. Crow, it is Shui - might I have a word with you?"

"You want me to go over there?  Sure, no problem." Jett says, smiling happily.  It's got to be better than watching the downloads.  He swivels his seat away from the panel and heads off the bridge.

"I'll just go fetch some stuff, to be safe.  There should be somebody here to link us up for a refuel in the next little while.  If I'm not back, you'll need to give him an authorization code.  I wrote it down, that sticky on the panel."

He waves a hand towards the console, then he's gone.

"You do that...  Never hurts to be thorough," Yas says and pats Caution on the sholder and then turns to Jett as he speaks.

"No problem, Jett, I'll...  Now what?" she begins as her communicator wakes up.  "Sushi!  A word?  Sure, I'll be right over, so hwere are you?  Ah, right.  Be there in a moment," she replies to the call and chuckles as she signs off.

"I'll need a raise soon if this keeps up," she tells her fellow gunner as she heads over to see what it is the good doctor may want.  Hopefully not another examination like the last, cold hands is not pleasant anywhere unless they are at the end of your own arms and not touching anywhere.

Yas makes her way across to the passenger section, chuckling quietly as a stray memory drifts through her mind of how their old steward, Duke ("Duck", as she was fond of calling him) used to hate it if other members of the crew mixed with the passengers.  Thankfully, the ones since had been more reasonable.


Jett gathers his belongings and heads out to rescue Jago.  The port is well endowed with signs and notices, so he shouldn't get lost.


At the controls of the ventral turret, Kal-chan starts the diagnostic sequence and tries not to worry.  The "latest" news is almost three weeks old, and it would take Profit Margin five or six weeks to get to Regina anyway.  For all he knows, Imperial forces could already be back in control there.

On the belly of the ship, the ventral turret comes to life, moving through a series of programmed exercises and acquiring entirely fictitious targets.


Corlan reads the information on his chosen tourist sights more carefully as Shui makes her call to Yas.  He sighs.  "Well, I have no doubt that Ms. Crow is very competent.  I'm just sorry that I need to take her along.  I'm sure she'd rather be doing something else, other than leading an old man about by the hand."


Saskia continues to work, repairing what she can, and noting the components that need replacing.


Jago stays near the entrance, one eye watching for Jett, the other studying the crowd.

Shui blinks at the sobriquet - it's still new, and she isn't certain if she should be irked at being compared to Japanese food, or not.  "Thank you, Ms. Crow," she replies, politely, deactivating the dataglove's comm-unit a moment later.  Their passenger receives an apologetic smile for the wait.  "If there is some difficulty with Ms. Crow's schedule," she attempts to reassure him, "I'm certain she can select a replacement.  If necessary, I, myself, will go along."

Then she's there, a short, intense woman striding up the hallway toward them.  Shui give her a little bow as she approaches.  "Ms. Crow, I trust you are doing well today?"  Clearing her throat, she indicates Corlan with one hand.  "Mr. Desant is planning some sight-seeing, and there is some concern regarding the volitility of the current situation.  I thought it might be possible to assign him a bodyguard.  What do you suggest?" she asks, waiting to see what Jasmine says.

"I am well enough," Yas replies with a crooked smile and finds it good to hear it has nothing to do with cold hands this time.  But then she shakes her head slowly and motions to a seat.

"If you would, Corlan.  There is something you need to know.  And you too, Sushi," she says, using the name she always uses for him.  He has been aboard for such a long time that he is more like part of the crew anyway.  But now she has to tell him that his homeworld is being invaded.

She remains standing, waiting for him to sit down, her hands crossed behind her back and with a serious expression on her face.

Kal-chan reclines as best he can in front of the console and stretches his feet out, waiting for the report to run. Sure, there are other things he could do, but right now he's more content to just sit and be alone with his thoughts, close to his console and onboard the ship. Just in case, he'd gone to his quarters and armed himself. Someone might call him and need his aid soon, but maybe this would be one of those nice quiet stops. Was it him, or did they seem to have too few of those?

Corlan considers Yas' words, his face dropping, "Well, I can't say it was totally unexpected.  Regina is close to the border, and even with the garrisons and the bases, it'd make a very tempting target, for morale reasons as well as strategic."

He sighs, "I lived through the last one, such as it was, a quarter century ago.  But that was over almost before we knew it had started.  This looks like it might last a little longer."

He picks up a holofiche from the bedside cabinet, studying the images within in silence, for almost a minute.  "Very well.  Can somebody arrange to have all news about Regina, the world itself that is, not the whole subsector, automatically copied to the terminal in here."

"Usually I'd just check the news in the lounge, as and when I get the chance.  But this seems too important for that."

Pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger, and bowing his head, he adds, "It's alright, Ms. Crow, I don't think I'll be needing your company today.  I seem to be developing a headache.  I believe I'll just postpone my tour of the mines."

"Sorry to be the bringer of such news, Corlan.  And I'm sure we can patch it through straight away.  If you wish to have an escort later, just drop me a word and I'll be there," Yas says, nods to him and Sushi and turns around to head back to the bridge after a quick and faint smile to Sushi.

At the bridge she sits down to keep an eye on things, uncertain what button to press to patch the news through to Corlan.  She begins to look through what she knows about it all to see if she can figure it out on her own, thereby impressing Jago a bit perhaps, and even Jett.  Show that she is not just a jar-head, even if they hardly thinks so.  She thinks...