Jago chuckles, “every component in a navy ship is supplied by the lowest bidder, I don’t suppose they gave us special treatment.”

"Wisdom is oft mistaken for practicality, Ms. Crowe, when one is merely part and parcel of the other," Shui replies, and sniffs once, drawing in the aroma of her tea with pleasure.  "Goodness knows I would never consider you a 'guy'."  She smiles slightly, staring down into her tea, then then studying Yasmine over the lip of the cup as she takes a careful sip.

The doctor glances toward Jago and Saskia as they converse, and Shui frowns.  "I will stay aboard, Captain, especially after yesterday's near-disaster.  Saskia, if you require assistance I might be able to help.  I have spent enough time around engineers to at least be able to pass you the proper tool...with the right end forward."

"Great news, my..." Yasmine had started to reply to the new second gunner, but cut it off when company arrived.  Then she told Sas, "I guess I will have to eat the cake alone then..."

"I'm quite happy with my parcel, thanks," Yas replies to the doctor with a small grin and sips her coffe, before nearly spurting it out as Sushi looks at her over the cup.  "What a relief," she counters once she has swallowed the coffee and chuckles, "or my next physical would have been odd, for sure."

"'Morning off'?  Yeah, riiight...  I got things to do, but thanks anyway, skippy," she then replies to Jago and sighs heavily to let everyone know what a hard, unfair and sad life she had.  The fact that she hides behind all this to avoid thinking about Caution and Jett is not something she let show, though.

Shui pauses at the thought.  "Hm.  I am willing to admit that as finely made as you are now, you would make a most impressive man," she states, deadpan.  "The physical would have been most interesting."  The doctor pauses a beat.  "From a scientific point of view, of course.  I would never compromise my oaths with libidinous acts."

Another sip of the tea.  Then one eyebrow quirks, slightly, and the amused smile reappears.

"See, I told you you are one naughty girl, Sushi," Yasmine smirks and shakes her head, wags a finger and tut-tuts at the doctor, all with a glimpse in her eyes.

"But are you implying I'm not interesting to examine as it is?" she adds after a moment with a mock hurt tone to her voice, taking her turn to peek over the edge of the mug at the other woman to hide the grin.

"I would never dream of saying you were not interesting, Yasmine."  Another sip of her tea.  "I would not wish to invite a terrible retribution upon my head.  But from the perspective of...scientific study," she continues, a drole lilt to her tone, "I must say that you rank further down than 'Yasmine the Man'.  On several...different levels."

Yasmine laughs now and flashes Sushi a naughty look.

"It might be the other end that ends up smarting, but had I been a man I doubt the name'd been Yasmine.  Perhaps Yasir."

"I won't ask what levels you mean, because that's too personal, what you do with those," she teases as she leans back in the seat and relaxes, crossing her legs, right over left.

"You should try some cotton buds, I think your mind needs cleaning, doc," she says with utter conviction as well as a tiny smile, her right foot bouncing lightly.

The conversation and banter in the lounge is interrupted by the sound of the comm siganl from the bridge.

OOC: On the subject of clocks... usual procedure would be to try and adapt to the local clock as much as possible, when in port, since most of the people the crew must deal with are working to that clock.

Ship crews become adept at grabbing rest at odd moments, and if they're in port for a while they switch completely to the local clock (much the same as people with jet-lag adapt to the change in time zone.

If it's a difficult change, then the ship's doctor can issue them with medication to help with the change.

Conrad, dry and decently dressed, steps out of his cabin, catching the chirp of the comm panel, "Y'all want me to get that?"  He jerks his thumb towards the Bridge.  "Might jus' be important."

"Either end, I would certainly not enjoy the retribution," Shui replies calmly, continuing to test her tea.  "In fact-"  She pauses as the comm burbles at them, and frowns.  That cannot be good.  A quick glance to Yasmine, then to Saskia, and Shui puts down her tea, waiting to see what is coming.

Something is always coming, of course.  The question is whether it's a dozen roses or a planet-killing asteroid.  Now, usually it's somewhere in-between, but Shui is always on the lookout for the poles.

They tend to be equally dangerous.

With a sigh, Yasmine stands up as the signal starts to sound.

"Here we go then," she says to none and rolls her eyes as she turns to walk over to the bridge to answer whatever it is.

"Nah, Dits, if it's legit business they might hang up when they realise it's you," she teases the new navigator, looking back at him over her shoulder.  "Finished your shower, eh?  Too bad..."

Yas takes the call, leaving the others to their conversation.  The high-pitched, somewhat nasal voice is almost shouting to be heard over the background noise at that end of the connection, and can be faintly heard, even in the lounge.

"Hello, ah... Miss.  I have passage for six people booked aboard your ship, I spoke to Captain Lanza about it yesterday.  Ah... I'm sorry, my name is Janur, Miles Janur.  As I said, I spoke to Captain Lanza yesterday, and he asked us to be there by noon, for boarding."

His attention is momentarily distracted, and he shouts to somebody beyond the range of the pick-up, "No, the red one!" before returning his attention to Yas.

"Sorry about that.  Where was I?  Oh yes... I was wondering if it would be alright with your people if we arrived earlier." he winces as an expensive-sounding something is dropped and broken somewhere off screen,  "Fine the blue one will do!  Sorry, again, things are hectic here today.  Frankly, we just heard the news, and we'd like to be safely aboard your vessel before word spreads and trouble starts."

"Would that be acceptable."

"Just a moment, sir," Yasmine replies with a polite smile and then mutes the darn thing as she turns to shout, "JAGO!!  Some Mile Sanor or something wants to come early!  Having booked passage!  Says they're expected at noon!  Shall I invite them over now or shoot them if they come anyway!?"

She turns back to the screen, smiling politely again and holds up a finger to show him she needs a minute - and then she turns away again, to make sure she does not make any faces at him or something.

"Can't say I blame them," she mutters as she listens for the reply from the captain of Profit Margin.  She did not expect him to have much trouble with it, but it was not her call to make.

“Yes, let them come,” Jago says, “from the sound of it you’d better remind them of the baggage limitations.”

“If none of you want to go ashore, maybe we ought to push the launch forward,” the captain goes on as he examines his cigar thoughtfully, “I didn’t think the news would make much deference, but if those guys are in a panic, the rest of the population are probably the same.”

 “Conrad, we need a course for Arkadia, I think Jett set one up but you might like to check it, then get clearance for a early lift off please.”

“Yasmin, Tylen, security might get a bit sticky, especially if there is any sort of riot, could you see what you can do please, liaise with port security, see if you can come up with some sort of strategy in case the worse happens, and, sort out some non lethal weaponry.”

“Saskia, you are on top of thinks as always, bit be ready for a lift at short notice.”

“Shui, things might get busy soon and the punters might be a bit hysterical, if you need any help getting people squared away quickly, give me a shout.”

“I’ll be in my cabin, trying to get the other passengers on board early, but the door will be open, as always, and I’d like to be kept informed of any developments.”

Jago sighs deeply and shakes his head, “you new guys will have to get used to this kind of thing,” he says with a little smile as he turns back towards is cabin.

"This is a trifle more than an hour early," Shui notes to the captain with a smile and a nod.  "I should go and prepare for their arrival, immediately."  Apparantly Mr. DeSant will escape his exercises completely today.  A shame.  She frowns.  Still no sign of him.  I hope he is well.  A sick feeling grows in her stomach, and she resolves to check in on the man as soon as possible.

"Mr. Dietz," she says quietly, pausing on her way out of the lounge, "I hope you will find time to stop by the medical area in the future.  There is still the matter of your physical."  Then Shui hurries from the room, walking uncharacteristically quickly.  Corlan's quarters are her destination, and she arrives there in (for her) record time.

One hand rises and without hesitation stabs a finger into the chime button.  She swallows nervously, waiting for an answer.

"Roger that, skippy," Yas calls out and pushes the mute again as she turns to smile at the screen.

"There.  Sorry for the delay.  You are quite welcome now, if you wish.  I do ask you to remember the limits on baggage though, so don't pack too much, sir," she concludes and waits until he has said his and gone offline again.

Then she sighs and turns to walk over to grab her guns.  Non-lethal, bah.  What nonsense.  That would keep no one away.  But a shotgun blast into the air would make most anyone hesitate, and half a dozen shotgun pellets in the limbs would make even those reconsider.  And it was not lethal either, at least not straight away.

AS she passes Tylen she speaks to him.  "Contact port security, will you?  Tell them we need to set something up.  Got any toy guns?  I mean, nonlethal ones.  If not, we might have something in the ship's locker, but bring at least one real gun too," she instructs him onher way to make sure all her guns are loaded, polished and ready to spit slugs if need be.

He listens to the plan intently and then Tylen finishes his coffee and salutes the Chief as she passes by. "Sorry, I only brought the real deal. So I'll stop by the locker on my way after contact. I'll be back there in a jiff, time to earn my keep I guess. Oh, and after we get spaceborn, I'll be joining you for some of that cake if you don't mind..," he says with a smile.

As people begin to move, having been given some direction, he acts on his orders. He heads to the comm station and touching the screen it comes to life. He hits the Security channel toggle on the display and ignoring the FAQs that pop up going straight for the contact button. He waits while the on duty staff no doubt hurry to the signal.

"Heh, yeah, who need toys?" Yas says with a wink at Quad and continues onwards, only turning to call out across her shoulder, "Cake?  Sure thing, it'll give us a chance to sit down and get to know one another!"

And with that she ducks into her quarters where she begins the delicate selection of what amount of firepower to bring.  Big guns.  Yes, they are good deterrents, plus they make a much nicer sound when you fire them.  The automatic shotgun, the .50 and as a backup, her .357 seven-shooter.  Knowing she had no non-lethal she knows that if it comes down to it she will have to aim for limbs and hope to miss any arterias, even if the handguns will leave little if the bullet hits the bone.

However, standing there with the auto-shotgun on her hip should discourage most from even trying anything.

Aa she gears up she gets a small smile on her lips, pretty much like a big cat about to pounce an unsuspecting prey.

"Villis Port Authority Security, Station 6, how can we help?  Please bear in mind that in the current situation, resonse times may be longer than usual."

The officer on the other end regards Tylen somewhat disinterestedly.


"Yes?" Corlan's voice, slurred and sleepy sounding answers the chime.  When he realises who it is, he opens the door, "I'm sorry, Miss Tiesi.  I managed to get some sleep last night, and I'm afraid I overslept."  The man's face starts to colour, "Did I miss our exercise appointment?"

Shui bows.  "I believe the appointment was 'this morning'.  I cannot recall as to whether a time was firmly in place."  Straightening.  "In any case, I must confess the fault this time is mine.  Our Low Berth customers will be arriving early, and I fear this necessitates my attention.  My deepest apologies - perhaps we can remand this until tomorrow?" she inquires, hopefully.

Face is saved on either side.  On the one, the fault is removed from Corlan and his sleeping-in is negated.  On the other, Shui has duties to perform.  Now, hopefully Corlan will see it that way.

Corlan actually almost manages not to look relieved at the realisation that Shui has not, in fact, come to kick him out of his bed for today's exercise routine.  While keen on the idea of getting back in shape, he would much rather be awake before he starts.

"Tomorrow would be perfect for me, and if you have duties today, I'm sure you don't need to babysit me too."

It is, perhaps, for the best that he is unaware of Yas' and Tylen's current activities.

Tylen studies the man's face for a moment, trying to figure out if he's the motivated type or the simply the motivator, "Of course. My name is Tylen, and I'm calling on behalf of the Profit Margin crew. We are going to be loading passengers shortly and we're requesting some security to help maintain some order at our dock if at all possible on the off chance that we get flooded with people attempting to board."

In his cabin, but with half an eye on the activities occurring through the open door, Jago starts calling the passengers on his list in the hope of getting them on board as soon as possible. As he waits for the calls to be answered, the captain toys absently with a brown and orange ball he has taken from the metal tray on his desk while the screen on the wall is tuned into the local news channels to keep abreast of the local situation.

"Well, Sir, we can't spare the personnel to provide security for individual ships.  However, we are aware of the situation, and have tightened security on the port perimeter, as well as increasing the frequency of patrols within the port itself.  Anybody wanting to enter the port complex has to show that they have business there."

The security officer looks at something off-screen, "Things look pretty quiet just now, but if you get any problems, call us, and we should be able to have a patrol there in under a minute."


The local news is full of the Sword Worlds story, but the officer's assessment that things are quiet right now seems to be borne out by the lack of reports about rioting, looting, or other antisocial activities.  The newscaster suggests that it's still early, and people are perhaps in shock...

Finishing her preparations for a bloody war, the Security Chief of Profit Margin grinned.  Let anyone try to cause trouble now and she would be charged with littering the landing bay more than anything.

With the armour in place she makes her way out of her cabin, hoping Jago will not have a stroke when he sees her.  But hey, she is not about to take any risks when it comes to a potentially ugly scene, at least not with her own life unless she wants to.

Oddly cheerful she steers her steps towards the lounge, intent on going over to the cargo hold and the ramp.  With some luck Jago will not even see her...