"Oh, dear."  Shui steps back, taking in the scene.  And here they are, her and Saskia, caught out in the middle of the floor.  "I am certain Ms. Crow can handle herself," she replies quietly.  Despite that, Shui glances around the bar.  There is a moment where she's certain a group of supportive Vargr will show up from nowhere.

Fortunately that doesn't happen, and Yasmine artfully deflects any hostility.  Suddenly a confrontation becomes potential employment - a useful bit of verbal aikido.  Shui relaxes a touch.  "It appears she has the situation well in hand," the doctor whispers to Saskia in relief.  Fist fights are not on the list of Shui's favourite things.

"Rent my ship to hunt pirates?" Yas echoes and tries her best to look the part of a captain.  Then the bartender calls out and Yas waits for the Vargr to reply before offering her own answer.

"Not at all, sir!  Business propsition, that is all.  Thanks," she calls out and turns to look at the Vargr.  Dashing Fuel or something.  Perhaps best avoid using her name.

"Well, we came here to trade, but give me a moment to tell my, er, second in command about this offer while I think it over, he handles the boring figures and numbers, after all," she lies to the Vargr, deciding it might be a bad idea to reveal the truth at this time, and turns to head over to Jago to consult with him.  At least she can give the Vargr a preliminary answer then.

Then she stops and moves over to the Vargr, leaning in to whisper, "Oh, how many credits would this entail, by the way?  It must be worth the risk compared to any trade we can do, after all, if I am to consider this," and smiles without showing any teeth, in case it would be misunderstood.

Conrad is quick to move aside when the Vargr approaches.  It's been too many years since his Naval H2H training, and he's not at all sure that he can handle a small Vargr.  Besides, outside arm's reach means he's at nice range for pistol use, at which point he remembers that his pistol is currently locked away in his cabin.

Nice and safe.

He could hardly be blamed for that one, since he had left the ship for a pleasant evening of socialising, not for a gunfight.

Tylern relaxes, and unobtrusively slides his hand back above the table. still holding his empty glass he follows Yas with the intent of letting Yas and Jago know about the Government offer of bounty on the Pirates.

The Vargr simply tilts her head to ons side and watches as Yas makes her way over to Jago, followed by Tylen.  She doesn't follow, possibly to give Yas some room to hold her discussion with her underlings in some privacy.


The miners, meanwhile, are involved in a long and rambling discussion of what constitutes adequate piloting...
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:41, Fri 21 July 2006.

Having already decided to look in to the piracy here, to asses the practicalities of getting involved, Jago is not in the least bit adverse to someone paying him for doing so. On the other hand he’s determined that any operation he carries out will be on his own terms, and has no intention of doing anything until he’s satisfied that he knows what he’s putting his ship and crew up against.

"Hey, Jago.  Not sure how much you heard, but..."

Yas explains the situation to Jago, keeping her voice to a whisper and avoiding to look over at the Vargr, but making some gestures and such to give a good show.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:14, Sat 22 July 2006.

Tylen whispers also,

"On top of whatever the Vargr will pay there's a 100,000 Imperial Credit bounty paid to anyone who can prove they've cleared the pirates out of the system."

There's something about the wording of that bounty post that Tylen isn't comfortable about, but he assumes it's kosher. It doesn't do small planetary governments any good to renege on bounty agreements, if they do they often find themselves unable to attract a saviour the next time they have a bandit problem.

A grin starts on Jago’s face when Yasmin relays teh offer, but he struggles to suppress it, “five grand,” he whispers, “five thousand wont even cover the wage bill.”

“Let’s not get carried away Yasmin, we’re a trading ship, not a police ship,” Jago says out loud with a little indignation in his voice, “we got lucky last time, but we’d have no real chance in a head to head encounter, heck, we haven even been able to replace the missiles we used.”

“Invite her over to the ship tonight,” Jago reverts to his quite whisper, “but remember, we are posing as a potential target here.”

OOC
Jago is assuming that the operation will take from ten to fourteen days including flight time for a round trip.

”That would be a help,” Jago whispers, giving Tylen a little smile.

"Hey, I didn't make the price, I'm just relaying it, boss," Yas whispers with a shrug and then, speaks up louder with a grunt.

"Oh posh!  You're such an old pessimist!  I'm not saying we should clear the whole sector, or take them on head to head!  I'll ask her over so we can talk about it in private tonight!  And hush about the missiles, will you, by all the space dust in the Omnicron system!"

Then, a whisper again, "If you say so, boss.  I'll make sure to limp as I go back so I look like an easy target," and she winks at him with an impish gleam in her eyes.

Muttering as she walks back to the Vargr, she makes certain to mumble so the Vargr can hear it, as if unintentional, about him being cheap and not stocking up on missiles when they had the chance, but yes, it was not much creds but still a change from jumping around frozen balls of dirt with a minimal profit.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:06, Sat 22 July 2006.

The Vargr listens to Yas as she approaches, and slowly, at first, her tail starts to wag.  "You will do thees?  Hunt aenunel piraates?   Oezzarr will be re-veng-ed!"

"You needs missiles?  Is trader by land field, some-time have such.  Buy them off other ship."


Corlan, who has sat next to Jago the whole time, is beaming after Yas leaves.  "A little excitement next time out, eh, Captain?" he asks, quietly.  "Good.  It might help to keep my mind off other matters."

Tylen grins at Jago, and walks back over to the bar.

"I'll have another of those beers please, you've got a good brew here."

He turns to survey the room, checking for any unusual interest in Yasmine's conversation.

"Well now, let's not talk about it here.  Come and talk at the ship, and please, keep it down about the missles," Yasmine says and "realises" she speaks a bit too loudly about the missiles herself.  She grimaces and then shrugs and gives the details as to where Dashing Fuel can find Profit Margin, and at what time it would be good to meet.

"Then we shall talk business," she says and nods firmly to the Vargr to let her know they will talk more in private later on.

”I’ll make sure to limp,” Jago grabs his drink as an aid to laughter prevention. The Vargr’s tail has a sobering effect, there could be few people in the bar who didn’t know what she was after by now, and that was hardly a sign of disappointment.

“What’s that you say Corlan?”

Some days, the captain wondered why he bothered.

OOC
Did anyone overhear Corlan’s remark?

Pleased that the situation has been salvaged, Shui turns back to Saskia.  An eyebrow quirks, ever so slightly.  "Relief is too weak a word," she notes quietly.  "I feel myself in dire need of refreshment."  Right about now she recalls the snub pistol, and feels weak in her knees.  Disgusting thing, and here she was carrying it during this altercation.  What if someone had pulled out a weapon?

She shoots a look at Conrad, the only one who doesn't appear to be part of the conversation - Tylen appears to have joined into the plotting, whatever it was, and Corlan is now discussing something with the Captain in low tones.  "Mr. Dietz?  Would you like to join us at the bar?"

Then it clicks in her head.  Sometimes Shui can be rather slow on the uptake - it comes from focus.  Focus on one thing, to the exclusion of all others.  It's rare, and only happens in certain circumstances.  This sort of situation happens to be one of them.  It finally sinks in that they're talking about hunting pirates.  Dismayed, Shui pauses.  "Oh dear."

It had to happen sooner or later, one part of her mind argues.  She knew that.  The Profit Margin is a privateer.  There is a war about to break out.  And it's pirates.

But still.

Dhakhingzuel nods at Yas' instructions, a very human gesture, "I will see later at thees ship of yours.  We make deal."  Then, with a scowl at Taynor Horvachi, she leaves the bar.

The miners are still discussing their own business, but after the Vargr leaves, Jockram pushes himself to his feet and beckons Yas over before moving towards Jago.

"Now, I know Yas ain't really the skipper on your ship, and I just wanted to warn you not to trust the Vargr.  Those two ships went way off the main routes, just to get attacked, and I reckon somebody persuaded them to go out there."

"Strikes me that paying them to go out and hunt pirates would be a good way to get them to go way out in the wilds."

"But, if your mind's set on doing it, we might be able to surprise them if it is a trap.  If I were to follow close by, in the Hound, I could add an extra laser to the mix.  If you want?"


At the bar, Horvachi continues serving drinks.

"Oh, there's a surprise.  I've only met one sensible Vargr, really, and that's it," Yas comments quietly as she followed Jockram over to Jago, limping a little and muttering about some old injury.

The rest she leaves to the captain to decide.  She will not tell Jockram anything unless he does so first, after all.  But is sounds good to her, to have an extra little surprise for the pirates - and it makes sense what he says too, and might explain why Never Say Die was so far off the main course.

Then again, for all Yas knows Jockram might be the pirate's right hand, and turn on them just as they spring their would-be trap.

"Why would you do that then, Jockie?" she asks with a grin, not changing the attitude she has had with the miners all along.  It would not do to tip him off in case he indeed was in on the scheme.

"Why?  Because I served on a Naval auxilliary ship, a resupply tender, a quarter century ago, during the last war." Jockram replies, speaking quietly, his voice serious.

"Most of the fighting back then was done by commerce raiders, because the War didn't really last long enough to get the main fleets mobilized.  There were a lot of them, though, that were just pirates taking advantage of the situation.  I picked up a fair bit of resentment for those scum when I saw some of the things they did.  Not just the victims of the raids, but the hardship that they could cause on a world by attacking its trade links."

He sighs then, "Ever seen an asteroid colony, when prices for food, water, and even air start to climb because of piracy?"

“It had crossed my mind that the Vargr might not be kosher,” Jago confides softly, “I understand that there is a substantial bounty on offer, maybe, if there are two of us, uit might be worth the risk, I’ll have to find some missiles first though, right now our turret is just for show.” Jago talks quietly and glances over his shoulder from time to time.

Tylen continued to lean on the bar as he consumed his second beer. He nodded and smiled at those who made eye contact, usually with a friendly "Evening."
or "How ya doin'?". He remained alert, looking out for anyone taking an interest in the "Profit Margin" Crew.

Conrad makes his way across the room, taking a seat at the now empty table where the Vargr had sat.  On his way there he contrives to pass as many tables as possible, occasionally nodding to the patrons, and asking them in a slurred voice (which makes his usual drawl even harder to follow) if they have seen his pal, Daraish.

Slumping at the table, he proceeds to mumble to himself.

Either he can't hold his liquor, or he's a damn fine actor.

All the talk of pirate hunting has Saskia worried.  Even with her Naval upgrades, Profit Margin still isn't a warship, even if she is more heavily armed than some military craft of her size.

The engineer whispers to Shui, "Shotz!  I spend all my frelling time holding the ship together, while certain other people are doing their best to get her kicked apart again."

Shui spares a dubious eye for Conrad as he reels off toward a table.  She can't tell if he's faking, or why he might be, but it's an awfully big coincidence that he has decided to seat himself at the Vargr's abandoned table.

"Apparantly Mr. Dietz will not be joining us," she murmurs to Saskia as they make their way (finally) to the bar.  "I must admit, I do not look forward to this, either.  It will likely end with situations I try hard to avoid."

Violence.  Injury.  Death.

In her own way, Shui is a lot like Saskia.  But her concern rests upon the organic componants of the ship.

"With luck," she says hopefully, "the ship will come through with flying colours.  Perhaps the Pirates will have fled."

Time passes, and things remain moderately quiet in Lenacher's.  A few more customers come in, but approximately the same number leave.  Jago, Yas and Jockram talk quietly, discussing options.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:47, Thu 27 July 2006.