Tylen nods tossing his duffel to the bed. He glances around a bit and nods again, this time in approval, "Thanks Doctor, I appreciate it. Being lost on one's own ship can be a bit troublesome at times...this is nice, definitely surpassing my own needs."
                                  **************************
Just then Jago and Conrad round the bend. He waits a moment as Shui finishes her own business and introductions as is polite. Then afterwords, he reaches out to shake the man's hand, "Hello, Mr. Dietz, I look forward to serving with you. The captain says you are a good man so it's a pleasure."

“It will have to be later on Shui, I’d like Conrad to meet Jett before he leaves the ship.”

“This way Conrad,” Jago leads off to the rear lounge where Kal-Chan and Jett are sitting.

“No hurry, Kal.”

“Jett, this is Conrad who will be taking over as navigator, I wondered if you could find a few minuets to show him round the nav console before you go.”

"Sure, I can do that, Jago.  This way, Conrad."  Jett picks up his coffee and heads for the bridge, leaving Kal-chan with the others.

On the bridge he starts demonstrating the console to the new nav.  "As she stands now, this is my preferred layout.  These boards are Navy spec, all Profit Margin's controls are.  If you hit the yellow pad up in the top right there, and drag the displays and controls around to suit what you like yourself."

"You can save the settings, and rig up a password that will automatically reset the board to those settings, if anybody else uses it.  Like Saskia, for instance, sometimes she'll come up here to run mock Jumps when she's been working on the drives, and sometimes she'll forget to reset the board when she's done."

"So, what you can do is... " and he wanders off into the realms of technical and mathematical arcana...


The last of the containers is placed carefully in the hold, with as much distance as possible between it and the rest of the cargo, which isn't a lot of distance, when all is said and done.  Perhaps a metre or so.  As they get the documentation authorised and thumbprinted, Alex thanks Yas for her help, and Kaylan gives the Security Chief a grateful smile, before the two of them make their way back to the transport, and drive off, leaving Yas to secure the cargo.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 09:55, Sun 19 Feb 2006.

Yas waves the two girls off and then goes to secure the cargo, letting otu a light sigh.  While she would have preferred the catalyst much further away it was nothing to do about it now.  So she begins to fasten the containers one by one, taking care to do it properly.  In case the gravplates gives up she does not wish to go in here and sort out flying containers.

Once she is alone her mind starts wondering again, and unfortunately not to the sunny side of the street, so while she struggles with the attachments of the containers she also struggles with keeping her inner daemons at bay.

Yas gets the cargo all locked down, then does the same to the ship, ensuring that the ramp main ramp is locked, as well as the two airlocks, before heading back to the crew section.

Jett spends his last couple of hours aboard running through the navsystems with Conrad, explaining the normal procedures, and the emergency ones too, such as they are.

Saskia continues to work in Engineering, tidying up, squaring things away, and logging the repairs, just in case an IBSS inspector happens to drop in  unexpectedly and demand to see her paperwork.  It's never happened yet, but you never know...

Tylen gets settled into his berth, unpacking, skimming through the display options for the holographic "windows" on the curved outer wall of the cabin to see if any of the scenic choices take his fancy.

Jago, back in the office, continues with his own paperwork, makes a few calls confirming passenger bookings, and plays, thoughtfully, with the striated orange and brown ball which had been sitting in the metal tray on his desk.

Shui spends a little time reviewing and updating crew medical records, but her eyes keep going back to Corlan's collection and notes.

And so two hours pass, at the end of which Kal-chan goes in search of Jett, and the two of them end up standing at the door to Jago's cabin.  Kal-chan salutes, before he manages to stop himself, "Permission to leave Profit Margin, Captain?"

With an unlit cigar safly out of the way in the corner of his mouth, Jago offers a warm handshake to each men in turn, “you take care now, and look us up when this is all over.” The captain stops himself short of explaining how they should do that, they will find a away if the want to. “Permission granted,” he adds, smiling, in your own time.“

"NOT SO FAST!" the Security Chief barked behind the two men, standing there with the arms crossed over the chest and the legs slightly apart to give an impression of authority.  "I should do a strip search to make sure you aren't trying to smuggle out your cabins or someone of the crew," she rants and cracks into a big grin as the first impression from the two guys finally gets too much for her.

She softens and puts her weight on one foot, although the arms keeps hugging herself, partly because she feels like she needs a hug, sort of, and partly because she is not sure what else to do with her hands.  Two of her friends, leaving, just like that.  Uncertain whether or not she wants to go with them or not, she understands their motivation.

Jett, the lost navigator that was so much fun in the mornings before he got his cup of coffee.

Caution, a colleague from a lifetime ago and later a good friend, with more brains that he would let show and an even bigger heart.

Damn, how she will miss them both.

Tylen finally found a holo setting he liked, a view of the Crab Nebula swirling about the wall. Very nice he smiled to himself. He sat down on the bed and rummaged through his duffel, bringing out a picture of his brother, Alexei and himself, standing about after graduation from college. He laid back for a second and imagined the moment again, so long ago.

Wistfully he came to, sticking the picture back into his duffel, he hauled out his other effects, finding places for them in the cubbies. A chain that his mother and father had given him on his fifth birthday, he slipped it on, he had almost forgotten about that one. The chain had been the only thing from his parents that he had taken with him when he'd left Darria. In fact it had gone with him everywhere over the last fifteen years. Tylen began to finish up his work almost ready to go. He stopped and adjusted his perference for light settings, late night study settings and twilight setting. Then he readied himself to head over to the bay, to pick up the rest of his luggage...

While Yas distracts the two deserters, Jago steps back into his cabin, and a moment later his voice echoes from the intercom system throughout the crew section.

"Attention all crew.  Please report to the forward Crew Lounge immediately.  All crew, please report to the forward Crew Lounge immediately."

Shui, fingering a datachip, blinks as the voice echoes through the ship and the chip squirts out from between her fingers.  Her hand hazes for an instant, then she sets the recaptured bit of plastic and superconductors back down, frowning.  It didn't sound like an emergency, but...every time this happened, on any ship, that same knot hit her stomach.

Could this be it?

Swallowing, she stands and quickly moves to the door.  For an instant Shui considered the pistol in her desk drawer, then shook her head.  She might as well be optomistic and assume this is for a different reason than her.  Essaying a smile, the doctor frowns - plastic, very plastic.  Opening her mouth relaxes her cheeks, and the smile becomes more natural.  Better.

Keying the door, a hint of a smile on her lips, Shui strides quickly down to the forward Crew Lounge.

Tylen immediately stands at the abrupt sounds over the intercom. Grabbing nothing but his Bomber and his gunbelt, he slips them both on as he smacks the pad for his door. What was this, some kind of emergency? There wasn't an alarm that sounded with the intercomm, but that didn't mean something wasn't up. Tylen halted his train of thought, best to find out for myself.

He rounded into the hallway, cutting almost in front of Shui. He looked at her with questions pouring from his visage. He locked his belt into place as they stepped into the Lounge.

Saskia frowns as Jago's voice comes from the PA.  Odd. she thinks, Nothing's running hot enough to blow.  She leaves what she's doing, and makes her way to the lounge.

As she steps out of engineering she catches sight of Shui and the new guy (Tyler?) just ahead of her.  Feeling a little guilty, she shoves her injured hand, with it's dirty and dishevelled dressing into her pocket and calls out to them.

"Hey!  What is it?  What's going on?"

They gather in the lounge, and succeed in trapping Jett and Kal-chan with no place to run.  The two men look stunned, mixed with a certain degree of fragility, in Jett's case.  Kal-chan's face is red, and he looks as though he will burst into flames at any moment.

Jett clears his throat, shuffles his feet nervously, and finally speaks, "Um... we were just going."  He tries to follow up on his statement, and finds that Yas is standing in the exit.

"Right.  You'll be expecting a speech or something then, I suppose?  Being a gentleman, I'll let Kal-chan go first."

"What?" the former gunner's face brightens a couple of shades, "Well, okay, I guess.  But, Jett can say all the fancy stuff, in a minute.  I just want to say, 'goodbye, and I'll miss this ship and everybody on her.'"

A shrug, and a big smile, tinged with a hint of sadness, and then, "Your turn, Jett."

"I fear I have no idea," Shui shoots over her shoulder to Saskia, hopeful in her heart that her answer is true.  She gives Tylen a quick raise of the eyebrow in return, obviously uncertain as to the reason for the summons.

Relief hits like a bullet when she enters the lounge to discover the real reason behind the page.  For a brief, irrational instant, Shui considers hurting Jago.  A lot.  But that passes in a heartbeat - the man has no idea what his call cost her (possibly a white hair or two?), and is doing this for the crewmembers who are leaving them.

She barely got to know them.  It must be so much more difficult for Jago, for Saskia, and for Yasmine.

So she banishes her tension and smiles for the two people leaving and the three who are staying, waiting to hear their final words aboard this vessel to the people who may well have become family to them.  But birds need to leave the nest, and away they fly.  She hopes, fervently, that no owls await them in the night between the stars.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:29, Tue 21 Feb 2006.

"Hmph.  That won't do, not at all.  You will have to have at least one last cup of our wonderful coffee, or tea, before I can let you leave the ship.  Plus, you would not want to waste the cake now, would you?" Yasmine Crow asks with an innocent face and then steps over to a cupboard, from which she pulls out a cake that looks to be worth about five hours of workout under Yas' regime.  She places it on the table and then steps back and looks at everyone now slowly gathering around, giving a wink at Sushi as she point to the cake that surely will be a nightmare for her, of sorts.

"Don't worry, I didn't bake it," she says with a mock glare around the room, "and if you refuse at least a little bit I'll feed it to you myself!  C'mon, everyone, dig in!"  She turns to gather some plates and cups so that everyone will be able to get a share withotu having to hold it in their bare hands.

When Conrad hears the announcement, he saves his settings and makes his way back from the bridge, straight into a farewell party.  He takes a piece of the cake with a smile at Yas, "Many thanks.  Say, what do I call y'all?  Yasmine?  Ms. Crow?  Chief?"  He smiles, and adds, "Please don't be sayin', Sir!  Had enough'f that back in the Navy."

Tylen folds arms as the two men give their speech. It was an odd feeling to be in attendance of the farewell to the men he'd been chosen to replace. The two seemed nice enough but it was a feeling of being out of place or underdressed. So he performed the usual dance of courtesy; taking a bit of cake, coffee. Shaking the mens hands and wishing them luck. Then he slipped out as conversations of 'old times' would undoubtedly begin to errupt.

Once back in his cabin, he slipped out his datapad and began to write. He wanted to remember this day, to look back one day and think about the events that had transpired with an amount of clarity.

Shui leans over to Yas as the woman passes around the cake, a weak smile on her lips.  "Yasmine," she whispers, horribly embarassed, "I apologize deeply but I must ask.  Your cake - does it have only synthetic products in it, or are there any animal products?"  She feels ill - this is an important moment for everyone on the ship, and here she is asking this kind of question.

But she has her rules, and she has to follow them.  Please, please, let it be acceptable cake.  Shui feels like praying, wishing desperately to spare Yasmine her own foolishness at not having spoken up sooner.  Have we discussed this?  Has anyone asked me my dietary habits?  She can't remember.

"I wouldn't dream of having you call me sir.  You can call me ma'am," Yas replies to the new navigator with a small smile.  "You see, in the Marine's we knew to tell men from women, and we were pride of the differences that there are between us," she explains and stretches up as if by chance, makign it clear that, yes, she is female rather than male.

She keeps that face for a few moments and then starts to chuckle, shaking her head.  "My dear Dits, call me Yas when we're alone," she half whispers and nudges him before she concludes, "but in front of visitors Chief will do."

It is kind of hard to not notice the Quadman withdraws, given the number of people in the room - there was a lot more room available suddenly.  But, that was his decision, so she shrugs and leaves it be.

Then Sushi comes up to her to ask something that makes her eyebrows rise a bit.

"Animal products?" she asks, as if never having heard the term before.  "Bueh, well.... Eh, let's see," she says and opens a cabinet, in which the package still sits.  She mumbles and studies the box for a bit.  "No animals harmed when...  No wait, that wasn't it, was it?" she jokes and grins at Sushi.  "Sorry, all synthetic.  I can't afford the real thing anyway.  It still tastes nice, though!"  She winks at the doctor.

Thank the gods.  Shui inclines her head in relief.  "Thank you, Ms. Crowe.  I believe I will have a piece of your cake."  She happily takes one of the slices (looking warily at the copious frosting) and helps herself to a cup of tea.

It is a good thing that Yasmine is frugal.

Saskia stands nervously, as far to one side as she can get.  The cake and coffee are balanced on top of the conduit which houses the main control linkages between the bridge and the drives.  In her mind's eye, the connections inside the conduit are all clearly visible.

She smiles and nods, and makes small talk when required, but her bare feet are shuffling on the carpet, and one hand is jammed deep in the pocket of her coverall, while she picks at her cake with the other.

"Oy, oy, oy, oy!  That's Yas to you, Sushi.  And, anyway, I think I remember something about you not agreeing with some food, right?" Yas chuckles and then jams another bit of the delicious cake into her mouth, once more proving that a Marine fears nothing, not even a cake.

"What's up, Sassy?  Been a naughty girl again and got a hairy palm now?" she teases the engineer after gulping down the cake.

The engineer's face colors, and she poises at that delicate crux between Flight and whatever an alternative is that's less aggressive than Fight.  In the end she settles for screwing her face up and poking her tongue out at Yas, and pointedly looking away.

"That'll show her!  Go Saskia!  Right, su-u-ure.

Her hand, meanwhile, jams deeper in its pocket.

Cake in one hand and cigar in the other, Jago watches his little crew, old and new with a small smile on his face. He will miss Jett and Kal, miss them badly, he’d come to depend on them, all of the crew in fact, far more than he realised until something like this bought it home. Still, he was pleased with their replacements, Conrad he knew of old and was pleased for several treasons, to have him here, and Tylen had excellent credentials and was standing up well to Yasmin’s rather quirky sense of humour.

Jago was under no illusions as to just how lucky he was to have such a crew, even if his smile is tinged with a little sadness. He takes a large bite of cake and promises himself that in the morning, he’ll start on those press-ups.