"Goodness," Shui says quietly, following her 'talking to'.  "I shall endeavor to be more careful with my question.  What I meant to say was, have there been any more perdiferous attempts at sabotage, both intelligent or otherwise, upon your vessel?"  She turns to the counter with a small smile of her own, and begins to boil water for tea.

"Thank goodness," she replies, more seriously.  "Yes, your 'remedy' proved quite efficacious.  Hopefully we shall not have a reoccurance."  She takes a nervous glance up at the ventilation tube, imagining more of the 'hungry' sort of bug a-prowl.

"Saskia," she inquires quietly, turning away to deal with the tea, "how have your own experiences been aboard this vessel.  During 'action' as one calls it?"

Saskia considers her possible choices.

There is, of course, the old Navy joke: "Combat is hours and hours of boredom, followed by a few seconds of mind numbing terror amd instant death."

She doesn't say that, going instead for the much less traumatic option of just resting a hand on Shui's shoulder, and squeezing gently.  "Don't worry, Shui, you'll be fine."

She removes the hand, with a nervous smile.

"Sorry, I just got dirt on your jacket."

"That is what my jacket is for," Shui says, with a faint smile.  She brushes at the grease for a moment, but it's not important.  Not at all.  "Thank you," she replies, and means it.

"I have every confidence in the crew," she continues.  "They seem to know their job.  I cannot help but worry, for many different reasons."  She turns to the boiling kettle, and pours herself a steaming cup into which she dips the tea cozy (and the countdown begins).  "I expect it is always this way, is it not?"  She turns away from the counter, leans back against it to study Saskia.  "How do you manage?  Unaccustomed to..."  A wave of the hands.  "...this sort of thing as I am, I do not see how one might get used to it.  And yet you have, Saskia; to some extent or another."

While Jago considers the options, Conrad runs some simulations and checks the solutions for the courses for each of them.  When a decision is made, Jago will have the information he needs available immediately.

Tylen continues to refine his firing solution. Out of interest he runs the data of the approaching ship through all the available databases to see if he can identify the vessel or at least it's class and planet of manufacture.

"That's easy." replies the engineer, with a laugh, "I was Navy for sixteen years.  That's plenty of time to get used to it.  Saw some action - mainly anti-piracy, and some border skirmishes against vargr, up around Jesedipere.  That was when I served on the destroyer that put in at Arkadia just before we left, Shata Lunoqi."

She pauses, thoughtfully, "You're new to all this, aren't you?"

"Sixteen years?"  One of Shui's thin eyebrows rises slightly.  Again.  But her hands twist the teacup, proving her placid exterior to be that, and nothing more.  "Hardly surprising, then.  Dealing with pirates, border skirmishes...yes, that would provide plenty of experience with this sort of thing."

"I am," she confesses, "absolutely innocent to space combat.  I have never, ever, been involved in a battle or war."  The doctor tries a smile - it's a feeble thing.  But she looks ill, not afraid.  "I...have some difficulty picturing how it might go.  Perhaps that is a mercy."

Keeping an eye on things on her end, or her top, as it is, Yasmine operates on automatic more than anything else, going through check-ups time and again to ensure smooth operation, fine tuning and optimising settings.  While doing this she keeps an eye on both their newly arrived arrived guest and their little friend far closer by.

Nothing is ever what is seems, and if it is, then you can be sure it isn't, as her old sergeant would have put it.

"Well, I hope you mind me saying this," comes the answer, quietly spoken, "but I'm hoping we don't get enough chances for you to pick up much experience of it."

Gesturing with her free hand, Saskia indicates the whole ship, in general, "I like her just fine in one piece, without any more dents, bumps and scrapes."

Being what they were, the laws of physics have provided Jago with the luxury of time, to consider the various options, and he makes full use of it, although to all outward appearances, the captain is just lounging in his chair, enjoying the imaginary benefits of an unlit cigar.

After a while, Jago sits up and opens the tight beam and the intercom. “How does this sound Jocram?” he asks the other captain, “we are a single little blip on that guys screen, bumbling along in a straight line, ripe for the picking and easy to ho hit. Once he reaches firing range though, we both burn hard in different directions and open up on him from two sides. Should he chose to go after one of us, he has the other on his tail. If one of us gets hit, we head for the back of the moon down there and the other covers, that sound like a plan to you?”

“A couple of points though, prisoners are preferable to corpses, there are one or two questions I’d like to ask, and so would the authorities no doubt, also a intact ship is preferable to space junk, so I’d prefer, to incapacitate the ship if possible though not if the risk is to great.”

"That sounds good to me." comes Jockram's voice over the tightbeam, "Suck them in close, and then catch them by surprise."

"Don't worry about prisoners.  We specialise in precision cutting.  We'll aim to take out their engines... try to leave them without power for weapons and computers."
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 21:31, Fri 15 Dec 2006.

"Likewise," Shui notes quietly.  "I truly hope it will not be necessary for either of us to practice our respective crafts during or after this."  She fiddles worriedly with her dataglove, putting it back on (taken off for washing the dishes) and calls up the screens again.

Nothing changed.  Much.  Yet.

"I prefer people in much the same way as you prefer the Profit Margin."  A sip of the tea.  "I suppose it would be too much to ask for to have a bloodless end to this situation?" she inquires, mock-hopefully.  Well, truth be told half mock hopefully.

One can always hope.

"Sounds good to me, boss.  We'll sort out what to fire at once we got the details.  Wouldn't to for us all to hit the same spot and blow 'em up, after all.  Since's I'm on the 'shotguns' I'll let you fella's take the first shot and then I'll cover up with my wee peashooters.  How's that sounding?" Yas suggests over the intercom, figuring she would not be able to do much at the distance needed, but be able to wipe out anything once it was in her range.

"By then we'll know what we're dealing with too, I figure.  Oh, and of course, keep an eye open in case this is a decoy.  Nothing's ever what is seems even when it is, as my old sarge would say," she adds, figuring that it was never good to focus too hard on any single target and blind oneself to everything else.

Tylen opened the com to Yas's turret.

"OK Lady Bootneck, I'm tracking them in and I hope to minimise the chances of a miss by getting as much data as possible before we have to shoot. I guess I'm going straight for engineering with a missile as soon as Jago gives the word, then I'm gonna keep her lit up with the Laser until you're in range. After that I'll leave you an your "Shotguns" to pound them while I concentrate on point defence. Sound like a plan?"

"Lady!?  Them's fighting word, son!  Calling me such four-letter words!" Yas replies with a chuckle and then nods, even though he can not see it.  "And yeah, that was what I said, wasn't it?  Thanks for rephrasing it," she teases him, still chuckling, "but yeah, that is the plan, Sir Sandal."

The waiting starts...

An hour crawls by, as Jago holds Profit Margin in a tight loop around the moon, based on figures fed to him by Conrad.  The moon is too small to establish a real orbit around, but judicious use of the thrusters holds the ship, and her hidden partner, in a reasonable semblance of an one.

Shui and Saskia talk quietly in the Crew Lounge, as Saskia takes a break before the trouble starts.

Yas and Tylen man the turrets, calculating targeting solutions.  Only about forty minutes to go now, until their mystery visitor reaches their vicinity.  A little less than that until it's in range.

Tylen opens a channel to Jago and to Yasmine.

"I got an ID on the Bogeye, and it doesn't look good. Basically a standard 'Fat Trader' Hull, but she's got too many legs for a stock model. My gut says 'Smuggler' or 'Pirate', basically a 'Q' Ship. If she's got boosted drives she could have a power surplus so look out for upgraded shields and mil-spec weapons."

He settled into his chair and set the console to count down the remaining moments until they got into range.

“Thanks Tylen, you got that Jockram, Yas?”

“Shui, got anything for indigestion in that magic box of yours?”

"Certainly, Captain."  Shui stands, gives Saskia a quick smile.  "Likely as not, I shall be right back."  She goes into her pouch, finds a basic, over-the-counter solution for an upset stomach, and moves into the bridge area.

"Captain Lanza?  I assume it is indigestion and not a burgeoning flu."  A small smile indicates her feelings on that matter, and she proffers him a pill, along with a cup of water.  "You might want to avoid coffee for the time being," she notes, with a quick glance at all of the screens.  "Though that might seem unappealing at the moment."

“No actually, it’s just an excuse to call you up here without drawing attention,” Jago says with a smile, waving away the medication with his unlit cigar.

“Have you spoken to Dhakhingzuel, what’s your take on her?”

Before she can express her own doubts, Tylen comfirms them.  Listening to what he says she replies to them both.

"Yeah, it might be just a trader looking to scoop some fuel.  It's not like you have much options around here, with the other gasball being where it is."

Then she adds, just to be on the safe side, "Of course, that might not be so.  Just look at Profit Margin, how many would think she's a threat?  Beside, this might be how they haul stuff away, while they have some other ship doing the killing itself.  Yet again still, it might be a trader looking for cheap fuel."

"My opinion?"  Shui's eyebrows rise, and she fights a touch of embarassment at how easily she was taken in by the ruse.  And not even directed at her!  A talent for intrigue, even basic intrigue, is something she evidently does not possess.  Now she considers, long and hard, looking to give the Captain her best, possible opinion.

This is too important to be the steward, and choose a diplomatic route.  For this, she needs to be the doctor.

After a long pause, Shui finally speaks.  "Dhakhingzuel seems to be earnest and honest in her desires, Captain.  From my limited exposure to her, I see no duplicity regarding her plans for us."  She frowns.  "Though given the fact that I fell for your deception, I am unsure as to whether my opinion should count for a great deal."

Tylen frowns slightly at Yasmine's comments,

"Could be Yas, but she seems to be making a lot of headway for a simple trading ship. We'll know in a few minutes anyway."

He checks his console to confirm how long is left before he is in range and in the meantime enlarges the best visual he can get to see if he can spot the engine configuration. Bigger engines make a bigger target.....

"Hey, some people might prefer a good boots in speed to more cargo space, especially if they are trading in the rim or places where trouble is bound to be, that's all I'm saying.  There's also a lot of weird folks out there, and strange ships.  Just look at this one," Yas comments back with a crooked grin.

Tylen smiled a smile of his own. He was never quite sure when Yas was joking. As he scanned the picture of the approaching ship he compiled a playlist from his datapad ready for the engagement, if it ever came. As he did his eyes lit on a title that fit with what Yas had said. He selected it and a simple descending minor scale heralded the start of the piece....

"People are strange, when you're a stranger...."