It's a little after 04:00 by the ship's internal time, but local clocks say that the business day has started.  The local clocks may be right, since a couple of cargo haulers just arrived in the docking bay, their attendant loading droids, four in total, are whirring and humming as they climb down and prepare to start transferring containers from Profit Margin's hold to the crawlers.

The droids stand abut three metres tall, with four squat legs and six powerful arms.  No head, just a band of optical sensors around teir "waist" giving 360° vision.  They're painted in yellow and black hazzard stripes, and covered with warning notices.  Not pretty, and not made for delicate work, but they should make short work of the cargo handling.

The human overseers stand nearby, studying the paperwork and discussing who will take which containers from this, and the three other pick-ups they need to make this morning.


Jago is on the bridge as the haulers arrive, going through the replies he's already had for the "Help Wanted" ads he put out on the local networks yesterday.  There seem to be plenty of replies, but few with any qualifications. or experience.  Still, there are a couple of handy-looking prospects.


Jett and Kal-chan step out of their quarters almost simultaneously. having set their alarms for an early start, going to the recruiting offices.  Kal-chan looks fine, in spite of the previous evening, but Jett looks much the worse for wear.  He heads for Shui's quarters first, wincing as the sound of his own footsteps drills holes in his skull.

Saskia comes out of her quarters, barefoot as usual, winding her hair into a loose knot at the nape of her neck.  Seeing the look on Jett's face, she smiles pleasantly, then leans close, puckering up as if to kiss him on the cheek, before shouting, "MORNING, JETT!" right into his ear.

In a more conversational tone, she continues, "How are you two boys feeling today?  All set for our Big Adventure are we?  I might have reenlisted myself, but where'd Jago find another engineer of my caliber?"

Heading for the coffee, she adds, "And even if he could, why should I trust somebody with ten thumbs to look after my drives?"

The mention of thumbs reminds her about her hand, which is good.  The fact that she had to be reminded means it's stopped hurting.  Maybe later she'll speak to Shui about getting the dressing checked.

Maybe tomorrow.

Doing her duty, Yasmine is heading for the ramp to oversees the overseer, carrying her usual scattergun as well as the revolver that could blow a hole in a small moon if need be.  In case one of those loaders loses it, she will make certain it indeed loses it, for good.

"Indeed, a fine morning," she agrees with Sassy with a grin as she watches the soon to be former navigator cringe at the slightest sound.  "ROUGH NIGHT?" she suddenly asks Jett once he looks to have calmed down after the engineers little stunt.  "Oh, yeah, right, I was there.  And I didn't drink much either.  I will remember everything you boys did, or tried to do, for a very long time..."

She smiles that innocent smile of hers, the one that lets people know something is really, really wrong - and that she will use that.

"Hey, Sassy, careful with your tools, or you may end up with only thumbs yourself," she chuckles as she heads over to grab a cup of hot cocoa before going over to the ramp to supervise the unloading.