Profit Margin hangs, suspended, low over the wide scar in the surface of the ice moonlet.  Ore Hound keeps station less than a hundred metres away.  Both ships are inverted, in relation to the moon's surface, their drives, assisted by the lifting thrusters, working hard to hold them in an orbit which would be impossible if they were to depend on purely natural forces.

Below (above?) them, the wreckage of a large ship lays, partly buried in the ice.

Jockram calls in, "Jago, from this angle I'm picking up some hull markings.  Name looks to be Marcu- something... the rest is buried.  And there's a partial number on her too...  Em cee dash five something something three sixer.  She looks a bit out of shape, and there's a lot of torn and stretched hull plating."

"I'm guesing she hit hard."

Jago's view doesn't reveal a name or number, but he can see some large tears in the hull, and an extensive debris field.

“Best keep a weather eye on the horizon, this is probably the ship the ‘Big Deal’ came out to look at,” Jago says thoughtfully, “what do you estimate her tonnage to be Jockram?”

Jago scans the stricken vestal for any details it might reveal, and also evidence of previous visitors.

“You getting anything Conrad?” he asks.

"I'm showin' 'bout nineteen hunnerd dispacement, Jago.  Call it twen'y five thousan' tons deadweight.  I'm runnin' the name an' num'er Jockram gave us through the search routines, see if we can find anythin'.  Her profile is all outta shape, so silhouette ID isn't gettin' anythin'."

Conrad marks part of the sensor image with a rectangular frame, and bounces it over to Jago.

"See that?  That don't look like combat damage.  See how it sorta bulges out some, then there's this hole with the edges all pushed out?  Looks like somethin' blew inside her.  I'll flip this down to Sas, see what she thinks."

Frell frell frell frell frell frell frell frell!

Saskia studies the image from Conrad, with dismay.  Nothing makes her sadder than a dead ship.  And this one is dead.  Really dead.

"The position of the bulge on the hull is close to one end, so it's probably engineering, since the bridge doesn't usually have anything that will break the hull if it explodes."  There's scorching there too, across the bulge of the hull, in a geometric pattern, though a bit distorted.

Her heart leaps into her mouth, and she suppresses an urge to go and hug the Jump regulator.  For now, at least.

"I think she misJumped.  The burn marks on the hull follow the probable layout of the hull grid.  I saw two like this in the Navy.  Something went wrong, and her J-drive overloaded.  The explosion ruptured the hull, and burned out a section of the grid."

Her voice is calm as she relays the information to Conrad and Jago, but inside her head, she's cursing repeatedly, Frell frell frell frell frell frell frell frell!

"With the grid damaged, she probably couldn't hold a Jump bubble.  She just got forced out somewhere at random.  The crew were probably dead before that happened.  People don't survive exposure to J-Space."

There.  All done.  Just a few more seconds, and she can shut down the comm, and have a frelling good cry.

Listening in on the conversation, Yas grimaces as she hears Sassy.  After years living closely together the ex Marine knows only too well how it can affect her and while she may want her peace she can also use something else to think of as well.

"Hey, Sas," she says over the intercom, "I couldn't help but think of that old space trudger we saw way back on Oredian Blue, you know, the one that looked like it had been in a highway collision with about ten others, with the paintwork to match?  But it was designed that way, you told me, and we almost came to blows about why anyone would 'design' anything like that!"

She chuckles at the memory and adds, "But, I'll admit, it was kind of cute in that ugly way!  Er, but now I ramble, again!"

With some luck it would at least plant a more pleasant memory in the head of the engineer to ease the feelings over this one a bit while Yas continues to watch her bit of the "sky", such as it is with the ship inverted.

The computer chirps, calling for attention, and Conrad glances over the output, and lets out a long, low whistle.  "Now that's int'restin'."

He calls up more information, and relays the hilights to Jago,  "Got us a possible I.D., an' it fits well, too."

"Leviathan class merchant cruiser, Marcucci, registration MC-51336.  Owned by Tukera Lines.  Taken by corsairs on 135-1095 at Quare - that's 'bout, lessee, four parsecs from here.  She was later spotted a few times, takin' part in pirate raids.  Present fate unknown.  'Ceptin' to us, now."

Conrad compares the data to his own sensor readings, "The details match with what Jockram reports, an' the size is 'bout right.  'ccordin' to this, her cargo hold's jus' a touch smaller'n double ours.  I guess Tukera didn't care none that she weren't profitable."

"Says here that some twen'y Leviathans've been built at Bilstein Yards, at Glisten, designed jointly by Bilstein and the Baraccai Technum.  Seems they're built for trade an' exploration.  Seekin' out new trade routes, that sorta thing."

“Question is, how are we going to make money on it?” Jago muses, “I wonder if there’s any chance of an intact cargo.”

“Yasmin, could you spare me a minuet on the bridge?”

OOC
Is there any salvage value to this ship, just as scrap metal?

Jockram calls in again, "Heh!  I just got the same ID readout here.  Still no sign of trouble, but if you want to go take a closer look, we can run high guard duty for you.  She doesn't show as hot, if you want to get down there."

"Even if she's lost her cargo, the boys at Tukera might pay a reward to find out what happened to their... " a moment of stunned silence, and then, "... thousand megacredit investment."

"Not to mention that the Navy might be interested in crossing off a big pirate ship from their list.  I can't believe Tukera paid that much for a ship that couldn't run at a profit."

Whistling as she hears the details about the ship below, Yas barely hears Jag at first, trying to with a near complete unknowledgeable knowledge figure out what it might be worth in its current condition.

It takes a whole two seconds to respond.  Luckily she is no longer in the Marines.

"Be right over, Jago.  Trigger, stay alert," she replies and gets up from her gunnery position, opens the door and steps out onto the bridge with a big grin on her face.

"Do you think we might be that lucky, boss?  If so I'll be happy to buy you a drink or two when we land," she tells Jago and winks impishly.

Tylen toggles his com sending a single blip to Yas to confirm he is in position. He scans the surrounding area, his turret sensors set as wide as they can cover whilst he maintains a visual scan of the wreck site.

Finally emerging from the dim silence of her laboratory, Shui moves with a purposeful stride toward the Galley.  Her mission?  The usual.  Beverages for the crew and for any interested onlookers.  After that, perhaps some small foods for the 'passengers'.

+ Would anyone wishing beverages, please inform me, + she pipes into the crew com, and the quarters of their official passengers.  Then she switches to a secure line to the Captain.  + Captain Lanza, thanks to the assistance of Mr. Ogresh, I have the full report prepared.  In brief, there is nothing wrong with any of the crew of the Harper's Dream that a bit of rest and decent food would not fix. +  She makes a face.  + A decent long-term diet, as well. +
This message was last edited by the player at 15:25, Tue 17 Apr 2007.

While they are (somewhat) less interesting than her duties as Profit Margin's medical officer, Shui takes her duties as the ship's steward seriously.  Good morale is an essential for health, so, in a way, her two roles are interconnected in the drinks that she prepares for the crew, passengers, and prisoners.

Conrad continues to study the downed ship, using all the sensors that Profit Margin can bring to bear.  As mentioned by Jockram, the radiation down there is well within safe tolerances... little more than normal background levels.  Above his head, the bridge ports of the inverted ship frame the broken surface of the icy moonlet.  There is definitely room to land a ship of Profit Margin's size next to the hulk, or even on top of it, which'd let Jago use the grapples again, to hold the ship in place in the snowball's microgravity environment.

Saskia, glad to have work to do, which distracts her from thinking about the wreck, calls up schematics for the Leviathan, and starts marking places on the hull which she believes would take the strain of having another ship perched on them.  There are quite a few useable locations - Leviathans were, it seems, constructed for sturdiness.

Tylen sits at his station.  From where he sits he does not have a direct line of sight to the wreck, but he is able to patch through a visual display, overlaid with data readouts, from the Yas' turret.  In many ways, it's even better than the results from a Mk 1 Eyeball.  Meanwhile, electronic senses sweep out for hundreds of thousands of kilometres around him, degraded slightly, at maximum range, by the magnetic field of the nearby gas giant, but still more than sufficient to give ample warning of danger.  So far, they show all clear.

Meanwhile Yas, steps onto the bridge, in response to Jago's call...  There are decisions he needs to make about how to deal with this.

“Thanks Jockram, high guard would be useful.”

“Nearest thing you’ve got to coffee please Shui,” she actually makes dammed fine coffee, as he’s told her many times, and Jago isn’t one to baulk over the cost of beans.

“Ah! Yasmin,” Jago stands as his security chief comes in, lifting himself heavily from the contoured comfort of his well worn pilots chair, then parking his unlit cigar into the corner of his mouth, while he straightens his jacket.

“I have a hankering to go down to this one my self, but I think I’m the only one on board who can fly this tub, so I suppose  I have to let you have all the fun, again,” Jago says, ending his sentence in a way that invites comment.

+ Certainly, Captain Lanza. +  Entering the galley, she begins preparations for the orders - both those of the crew, and those of their passengers, willing and unwilling.  It is, of course, an easy guess as to whom receives priority.  The crew - first in all things.

Working in the galley, she can't help but overhear some of the conversation in the cockpit.  Shui frowns for a long moment, then flicks the *brew* switch on the coffee pot.  The next switch is on her dataglove - another private message, this time to the Captain.

+ Captain Lanza...I should inform you that while I have certainly never piloted a ship under combat conditions, I am skilled enough for simple flights within a star system.  On the Bonaparte, some two ships ago, the Pilot enjoyed my company.  He made it a point to...attempt to keep me in the cockpit as long as he could, eventually through the use of piloting lessons.  While I do not have a license, and likely will never achieve the kind of proficiency you possess, I am capable of piloting the ship.  Technically it is illegal.... +

She pauses, considering.  + Mr. Ogresh, as a former scout, may possess similar training, likely superior to my own.  But I understand he is needed either aboard the wreck, or in his turret. +  Ugh.  How horrible must that be.

"So, you think it is fun, eh, skip?  Putting on that trabbing suit, walk around with a trigger happy scout next to you or behind you, navigating dangers that could cause a slow, painful death or worse?" Yas asks with a chuckle and then, after a brief pause, adds, "You darn right it is fun, boss!"

Then she hears Sushi mentioning that she is skilled enough to at least fly it straight - hopefully - and she chortles as she says loudly so Sushi could hear her in the crew lounge, "I won't ask how he enjoyed your company, girl, but you just gave Jago the excuse he needed to go exploring, making me having to babysit him!"

She winks at Jago and shrugs.

"It's your call boss.  With Jock watching from above we can easily land, and there's people aboard that can fly in case you stub a toe.  Trigger, Ditzy and even Sushi now," she concludes and dons her crooked grin again.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:40, Thu 19 Apr 2007.

"I can handle gunnery, or pilotin', if'n y'all need somebody to stay aboard." Conrad says, adding his own input to the debate.  "With Jockram hangin' over the site, we should get us some warnin' of any trouble comin' in though."

He starts running his hands across the console, "Want I should see if'n I can get some plans of that ship?"

"I just hope they don't ask me to go." Saskia whispers, sitting at the master engineering console, where the crashed hulk is displayed at minimal magnification, so that she can't see it too closely.  Not that she looks at the screen.

"It'll bring bad luck.  I'll go aboard, and the bad luck will follow me back, and infect my drives.  I've seen it happen, but I won't let it happen here."

She slides up the volume on the intercom, just in case anybody needs her for anything, though she won't answer if it's a call to visit the other ship, oh no, and then moves away from the panel.

She pads across, barefoot, to the fusion plant, and sits on the floor with her back against the plasma containment vessel, head tilted back to resting against the housing.  She closes her eyes, and listens to the drives murmuring to her, a 20Hz voice in the back of her skull.

Conrad's efforts soon turn up the blueprints of a Leviathan class transport.  There is, however, an attached note that the, while the main structural elements of such a ship are fixed, individual ships may vary somewhat in the layout of the non-load bearing partitions.  To say nothing of the mess a collision with a small moon might have made.


The data from the sensors continues to stream in.  The wreck seems longer than it should be, buut there is a lot of debris on the ice behind the main hull, perhaps indicating that it perhaps struck fast, and at a low angle, leaving a lot of stuff behind as it slid to a halt.

There are no power readings, which is hardly surprising, considering that the hulk might have been on the moon's surface for a decade, or so... plenty of time to burn up any fuel, even if the power plant survived the crash.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:09, Fri 20 Apr 2007.

Tylen pulled up the menu on his datapad and flicked through his music selection. He found a header marked "Painful" and gave a wry smile. Moments later the strains of "Forget Me Not" floated through the tiny capsule.

“Well done Conrad.”

Jago sucks thoughtfully on his cigar as he studies the plans, then casts his eyes to the infinite star field ahead, with the wreckage hanging upside down under the vast icy rock that’s suspended above them.

Eventually, he nods to Yasmin and gives here a little smile, “OK then, I think I’ll take a look round this one.”

“Any one want to take a look at this wreckage with me?” Jago asks of the intercom, “I’d like either yourself or Tylen to stay onboard the Profit Margin he adds as an aside to Yasmin, “on account of the prisoners.”

"Well, I must say one thing, boss," Yas starts with a grin as well as a shrug, "or three perhaps.  First, at least two should stay if anyone stays.  Second, the more eyes we got down there the quicker it will go, so the less that stay the better.  Third, we don't we freeze the lot?  They've had a chance to freshen up and that, and unless you plan to ask them anything more I'd recommend to stick them in the ice box, for the safety of us as well as them.  Either that, or we charge them for the service they receive," she rounds off, with only the very last being in jest.

"In other words, with our eye in the sky and the likelihood that these shmucks indeed work solo, I'd say we all can go take a look.  It's an awful lot of ground to cover over there, and an extra pair of eyes makes a big difference, beleive me.  I've been through searches before."

"Oh, and I can go take a vow of our Vargr passenger that she will behave.  I believe she will, as it is in her own interest to see us catch those responsible for her brother's death," she ends.

There's a slight pause while Shui digests this.  Then she comes back online.

+ I would be pleased to assist in anyway possible, Ms. Crow.  Should it be necessary for yourself to stay here, I can function as a reliable pair of eyes in the derelict ship.

It might even be better - I could take a first-hand account of the condition of any of the crew, and possibly give an estimate as to how long ago this took place. +

Another pause.

+ On the other hand, I am more than willing to allow the bulk of the crew to leave the ship - I can easily take matters in hand up here. +
This message was last edited by the player at 13:04, Mon 23 Apr 2007.

Tylen sat in his capsule and flicked through his collection, the tortured sound of an electric Guitar wailed the start of the chorus...."You call me greedy, 'cos I keep a piece of me..."

He sat back and watched his moniter, confident that the A.I. was smart enough to warn him of any approaching trouble.

Data continues to flow in from the sensors of the two ships.  Ore Hound's sensors, calibrated for metallurgic analysis, feed additional information to Profit Margin over the link.  And every byte of data seems to confirm the identity of the wreck.

Hull composition, mass, density, configuration... all match the parameters of the missing Marcucci.

And still there is nothing else in the sky, other than Profit Margin, Ore Hound, and the ice moon, with its frozen passenger, all of them sweeping around the gas giant, where storm patterns as big as some worlds rage through the atmosphere.

“I don’t rely want to freeze those guys Yas, it’s dammed expensive firing up those low births. I’ll take you with me down there, but we’re not necessarily exploring the whole ship, I’m just looking for some means of making a profit here, so far this operation has cost a packet”

“Do you want to stretch your legs Conrad?”

“Shui, would you ask Corlan if he’d like to take a nose round, if so, find him a vac suit and make sure he knows how to use it, we’ll bring him over once we’ve had an initial look round.”

"Well now, I dunno, Jago.  If'n I wan'ed to do a lot of walkin' 'bout, I'd've joined the Marines, like Yas." Conrad replies, grinning, "Why don't y'all take Tylen?  He's a Scout.  He's into all that explorin'n' everythin'."

+ Certainly, Captain Lanza. +

She still has to deliver the food...but the dataglove is not an option.  Shui leaves the smallfoods for now, and heads the short distance necessary to arrive before Corlan's door.  Once there, she chimes the door and awaits answer.

Corlan opens the cabin door, and invites Shui in.  Once she is inside, he listens, with growing interest, to the offer to accompay the landing party into the wreched ship.

"It's been some time, Miss Tiesi, but I did once consider the idea of a pleasure trip around the Regina system.  And I learned to use an environmental suit, in preparation for the trip.  Sadly, business got in the way, and I never took that particular vacation."  He smiles, a little wistfully, "Story of my life, I'm afraid... but I'm sure I can remember the basics, at least."

Jago uses thrusters to gently lift the Profit Margin, flip it right side up and lower it feet first onto the icy bolder, he lands next to the stricken Murcucci and lets the landing legs sort out their own anchor points.

“Right, anyone who wants to come, I’ll see you by the dorsal air lock, I don’t want to evacuate the whole cargo bay again.”

“Saskia, what do you think about installing an air lock up here by the bridge, between my cabin and the computer core, Is that doable?”

Jago stands, stretches and makes his way back to his cabin to shake the moth balls out of his vac suit.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:56, Fri 27 Apr 2007.

"Mr. DeSant."  Shui bows to the man, and listens attentively.  "Seeing as it has been some time," she says cautiously, "perhaps it might be best if I assist you in suiting up, and we check with the Captain.  I doubt there is anything seriously wrong with the derelict after this time under hard vacuum, but one never knows."  She catches Jago's intercom announcement, and nods.

"Evidently you need to be at the dorsal air lock - perhaps we should commence moving in that direction, to expediate your preparations?"

+ Captain Lanza, Mr. DeSant informs me that he is knowledgeable in the basics of vac-suit operation, though it has been some time.  I can assist him in getting into the suit.  Please confirm whether his presence is acceptable. +

Jago smiles, “yes that’s acceptable Shui, we will just take a quick look round, then come back for him so there’s no rush.”

Saskia pushes herself back up again and moves across to the intercom.  "Not sure exactly.  If you're talking about cutting through the hull, I'll have to take stress readings, check for EPS lines, and run a ground test on the Jump Drive, see how the Field Grid looks around there."

Her voice takes on a hopeful note, as she adds, "I can save some time on that part, if I run the ground test while you look around the dead ship.  I just need to run a trickle of power, barely enough to light that cigar of yours, into the drive, and see exactly where it flows in that area of the hull."

"With luck there should be a clear section big enough to poke an airlock through."

At the news that he will be allowed to visit the crashed ship, possibly frozen on the surface of this moon for twelve years, Corlan's face breaks into a broad smile.  "That would be most satisfactory.  Can I assume that there is a suit available for me to borrow?"

+ Thank you, Captain. +  She switches off her line to the Captain, and nods to Corlan.  "Certainly Mr. DeSant.  We have several in the ship's stores - perhaps it would be best if we moved down there now, so that you could familiarize yourself with the operations while the Captain and crew conduct a premliminary check of the starship?"

If assent is given, Shui leads Corlan off to try on his new clothing.

Profit Margin rolls, and starts to descend... if a movement through the moonlet's microgravity can be truly called a descent.  With a surface gravity only about 1% of standard things don't fall, here, so much as drift in the general direction of the surface.

No atmosphere.  Though there is a cloud of ice particles, dust-fine, around the main snowball.  Probably kicked up by the impact of the huge starship, and still settling, even without atmospheric resistance to slow them.

Cold, dark, icy, and with a constant snowfall (of sorts)... it's a regular winter wonderland.

Profit Margin descends, feather-like, into the crater, Jago using only the fine attitude adjustment jets to control her drop.  Even so, it's a slow, paistaking process.  Finally the landing gear touches the ice, close to the wreck.

"Ore Hound to Profit Margin... nice landing.  We're still showing nothing up here.  Just a chunk of rock, maybe five metres long, out at extreme range.  Reckon it's going to pass by... oh... I'd say about four thousand klicks out.  Apart from that, you've got clear skies."

"Lovely day for a stroll in the park."


Shui takes Corlan across to the crew side of the ship, and to the row of lockers just outside engineering, which serves as Profit Margin's.  Once there, they start the process of picking out a suit for the man, and making the necessary adjustments so that it will fit him properly.  Luckily, his training seems to have been thorough, even if he never used it, and he is able to do most of the fitting himself, though Shui keeps a close eye on him.

Shui requires Corlan run through the procedure of suiting up until she finds it sufficient for safety's purposes.  One never knows, and that simple procedure will ensure Corlan be more wary of the suit itself when he moves about in zero-gee.  Then she sits and goes over the basis of zero-gee movement with their passenger, to ensure he is prepared.  It's likely he is capable, but for safety's sake, Shui needs to be certain.

OOC-Whoops almost missed the warning!

As Tylen's system bleeped he hit the transmit switch.

"Captain, we got incoming! Moving fast, 'bot 300 klics per second!"

He powered the Laser and brought the turret to bear. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he set the Computer to identify the incoming ship and to give him a firing solution for a missile.

"Ready to fire when I have range Captain."

He would wait for the command this time.

"That'll be the same thing Jockram jus' mentioned.  't'ain't nuthin' but a rock, Tylen." Conrad's voice is calm, as always.  "He's sendin' me a feed, right now.  Looks like mostly silicon, some iron, an' a little bit of nickel."

As she leaves her turret, Yas steps over to Conrad and pats him on the shoulder.

"Admit it, you're just too comfy in that chair to be asked walking, eh?" she teases him and then gets to business the next moment, "I wante to ask you to set up a link to my comm unit so I can get reports about the distance of that bogey without you having to sue the comms.  Call it a precaution," she explains and adds quietly, as if anyone who should not could overhear them, "So far so good, eye in the sky and all, but call it too many years in the Marines - if this indeed is a trap, this would be the best opportunity, so the less said apart from regular contact, the better...  Buy you keep an eye on it too."

Of course, should something be on the other side of the planet they would get little warning.

She then turns to the intercom, for Jago and all the crew to hear, "Skipper, I'd strongly suggest we bring along Trigger and Sushi, they'd be more useful down there than in here.  Conrad's our link and can move the old gal if need be and Sassy, well, I figure she's busy as it is," it comes, avoiding intentionally to mention the fact she suspects Saskia might get a bit too upset with the state of the ship, and having known her for some time, the engineer would probably claim it was haunted as well.  "Of coruse, they're welcome to join if they want, but I'd suggest we're at least four.  Wandering off alone is a bad idea, for one thing.  I'll be joining you shortly, skip.  Over and out."

Parts of her falls back on hold patterns when she feels things are getting serious - it is hard to ignore training that is meant to replace your instinctual reactions, after all.

Tylen hears the dismissal of the object, but his paranoia kicks in. He focusses all the sensors at his disposal on the "Meteorite" checking for any anomaly. The Laser remains powered. Opening a private channel he hails Saskia.

"Ms Blake, I'm not too comfortable about this meteor. Any chance you can give me the boost you managed earlier at short notice?"

"Well, I could do it for you.  But we're on the ground, at the bottom of a frelling big hole," Saskia replies, "and, while I commend your enthusiasm, I don't think you can do much with the belly turret from down here."

Jago must have developed a bit of muscle since last time he used that suit, id didn’t used to be that snug, he stands poised with diagonally opposed limbs in there respective places in the suit, trying to finger out how to get his other leg in without falling over, or painfully ruining his chances of ever procreating when Tylen announces an incoming bogie, ‘oh great’. Fortunately, before he has figured out whether it would be quicker, and safer, to finish putting the suit on, or try to extricate himself, Conrad comes to the rescue with a counter announcement.

“Just you and me at first Yas, we’ll take a quick look round then come back for Corlan. Shui, I’d like you to accompany Corlan please, when he comes across, he can explore as much as he likes then.”

Shui listens to the back-and-forth planning as she assists Corlan with the suit, pausing a moment when Yasmine again switches her name with a Japanese staple.  She sighs inwardly, glad her father and brothers weren't around; likely as not they would have taken it quite personally, and explained her anscestry to the woman most carefully.

Then again, she knows quite well that to most round-eyes 'they all look alike' - Yasmine simply isn't aware of her origins.

"Well, Mr. DeSant - it appears as though we will both be going aboard."  Shui keeps her voice light despite her misgivings - the Captain makes good sense with that idea, and she understands, even if she doesn't entirely enjoy the prospect.

With Jago and Yas suited up, they step into the dorsal lock, and up the ladder onto Profit Margin's upper surface, crouching low, at first, to avoid hitting their helmets against the long range sensor attay housing, which sits almost directly above the outer hatch.

In this gravity, even Jago is light on his feet, and the two make their way across the hull, assisted by the gentle magnetism of their boots, before dropping, slowly, to the ice below.

The walk across the ice seems easy enough, and with the quantity of metal wreckage frozen to the surface, the boots are even of some help in this too.

"Aw... look at the young couple, out for a stroll in the starlight." Jockram's voice crackles over the link, and a couple of seconds later, poweful spotlights flare on the mining ship, illuminating the surface that the pair must cross, and negating the shadow cast by the hulking wreck.  "Might make things a little easier for you. if you can see where you're walking."

The light flows across the hull of the wreck, picking out details.  Details such as the sealed hatches, and the gaping wound in her side, just about four metres above the heads of the approaching explorers.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:38, Sat 05 May 2007.

Corlan finishes suiting up, though he doesn't bother locking down the faceplate just yet, instead he runs through a checklist with Shui, explaining what each item on the list is for, by way of demonstrating that he does know enough to be able to operate the suit safely.

There are a few moments where it becomes apparent that he learned with a different model, but those are all minor things, such as the current suit possessing features that weren't on the older one.

"Well, if I'm not sure what something does, I'll just leave it alone." he finally announces, "But I must say that the readouts on this model are much easier to understand."

"I think the man in the moon is a Peeping Tom," Yas comments and shakes a fist up towards the light, chuckling.

"Remember to keep your eyes on the stars, and stop staring down my cleavage," she teases him and shrugs to Jago.

"Men," she says, winking at her captain.

Behind his face plate, Jago grins and nearly drops the unlit cigar from the corner of his mouth.

The beam from the Ore Hound, lights up the surface and glares back from the ice, while overhead a haze spoils the perfect contrast of stars on a black sky but such is the needs of the practical over the poetic.

”We’ll try the hatch first,” Jago says, moving towards the hatch, and trying it.

The hatch is just a metre above the ice, and the controls are reachable, but not operating, possibly due to a lack of power.  A moment's study shows a panel just below the controls, which (once the thin veneer of ice is cracked) opens, to reveal a manual release lever.

Finding that the magnetic fields are stronger than the moons gravity, Yas walks up the hull of the ship, getting into position where both she and Jago can operate the lever without getting in each other's way.

Years of low temperatures have frozen any traces of lubricant on the lever, but between the two of them, the pair manage to shift it.  There is a brief instant of sparkling light, as ice buckles and shatters, and the hatch pops open about five centimetres.  Cold-stressed metal cracks, and the pair are left holding a half metre length of metal, as the lever snaps.

The hatch might only be slightly ajar... but something could be used to pry it further open.


Corlan finishes his suiting up, rather pleased with how easily everything came back to him.  Then he smiles, as he holds up his holocam in one gauntleted fist, and points it at Shui.  "Smile, please, Miss Tiesi."


Conrad waits on the bridge, monitoring the communications channels, though quite what he'll do if Yas and Jago get in trouble, he isn't sure.


Saskia passes Corlan and Shui, taking a selection of tools and instruments with her to study the feasibility of putting in an extra airlock, closer to the bridge, and less inaccessible than the one which requires people to climb about on top of the ship, and risk braining themselves on the sensor array.


Tylen sits in the turret still, even though with the ship down on the ice moonlet, he won't actually be able to shoot at anything, even if it appears.

Realising that his turret position is pretty much redundant Tylen leaves his monitering system active, but slaved to his com link and leaves the turret. Having made sure the carbine is back in his cabin and on charge he straps back on his revolvers. The only job he can think of left is security guard, so he patrols the ship, ensuring all is well, before heading over to the Galley in search of Coffee.

"Hey boss, handy that we got us a crowbar from the handle, uh?" Yas says and then chuckles;  "Let me show you what us Crow's can do with this kind of bar, skippy!"

She moves down to the side of the hatch that is somewhat open and starts to work it in on a suitable location, leaving the larger portion outside.

"Now then, let me try this first.  If I fail you can always try jumping on it," she jests and then pushes as hard as she can without risking to lose her footing - which was the real trick here.

Saskia nods to Tylen as he passes her, smiling at him.  Then she turns her attention back to what she's working on.  A section of the hull, directly adjacent to Jago's cabin, is divided into squares, using a grid of what is universally known, throughout the Imperium, at least, as "MacGuyver tape".

The origin of the name is lost in the mists of history, but the tape is pretty much a staple for any engineer.

She has several short strips of the tape stuck to her coverall, and as she runs a variety of instruments across each section of the grid, she peels off one of the strips, and slaps it onto the metal, before moving on to the next section.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:14, Tue 08 May 2007.

Shui smiles for the camera, her eyes instinctively studying the gauntlet for an instant as he points it in her direction.  Old habits die hard.

Assuming the picture goes without issue, she motions for their guest to exit.  "If you wish, we can remove the suits while we await the go-ahead to enter the ship, Mr. DeSant.  I am certain I can find something for you to eat, should you so desire, though I do not reccomend the consumption of coffee or tea before we exit the Profit Margin."

Delicately put.

Corlan starts to remove the suit, "I probably shouldn't eat too much, this late in the evening." he explains to Shui.

"Having said that, though, I probably shouldn't be exploring derelict starships, laying on the surface of frozen moons, this late in life.  In the face of that fact, eating too late, and risking indigestion, probably pales into insignificance on the Living Dangerously scale."

He checks the holocam, and slips it into one of the pockets of his shipsuit, "So, yes, a light snack would be most welcome."


Yas demonstrates that Marine Corps training isn't just good for killing things... sometimes it can be useful for a simple breaking and entering job.  Bracing herself correctly against the hull, she forces the end of the snapped lever into the small gap at the edge of the door, then applies a little muscle power.  The door swings open a good thirty centimetres, before she loses the mechanical advantage, and the frozen hinges stip it opening further.

From there though, both she and Jago can get a solid grip on the portal, and swing it the rest of the way, against the resistance of the hinges.

Light, reflecting from the ice, dimly shows the interior of a typical airlock (though the open lockers, and their spilled contents, are probably not so typical of most ships.  The inner hatch already stands open, but there is only darkness visible beyond.  Just above that inner hatch, lettering can be dimly seen through the layer of ice which covers everything... "E DECK AIRLOCK".


Tylen makes his way across to the passenger lounge.  After all, from there he can check that the prisoners are securely locked away.  Not to mention that the coffee is probably better over there.  As he enters, Dhakhingzuel looks up from a datapad.  She asks "You not go with to wreck?  This is good thing.  Some-body will be guard piraates here."

"There you go.  Forced entry, it is called, but in the Marines we used to call it 'improvised ingress'," Yas laughs as she starts to make her way inside.  "Careful where you step here, seems like they forgot to clean up after the crash.  Looks as messy as a Scout ship, almost!"

"Oh, and it looks a bit slippery too," she adds as if on an afterthought.

Slowly and carefully she looks for the safest places to step as she attempts to go further into the wreckage.

"E deck.  How far is that from our primary goal then, Skip?" she asks her captain as she reads the inscription.

Some what breathless from his exertions with the hatch, and with his faces plate misting up as a consequence, Jago just grunts at Yasmin’s quips.

Breath, visibility and humour are all quickly restored however, ”the hold is on E deck, should be right through here.”

Then, after a moment of picking his way through the junk on the floor he asks, “you don’t suppose that we are the first here since it crashed? That would be a turn up.”

Tylen nodded at Dhakhingzuel,

"Yeah, the Captain likes everything run nice and tight."

He made no mention of the Captains name or sex as he was not sure what their guest was still being led to believe.

"Certainly, Mr. DeSant," Shui replies, with a wave of her hand.  "However, you may have misjudged my intent," she continues as he removes the suit.  "I was speaking of the fact that, confined in the suit, you will not have access to 'facilities' beyond which the suit provides."  She offers a small smile.  "Hence, my words of caution regarding eating or drinking a great deal."

The Steward quietly leads the way back to the galley, already considering what she might prepare for their passenger.  However, her estimation of what might be required jumps by 200% when she notes that the galley already contains a pair of familiar faces.  Their other passenger...and it would seem that Tylen has decided to remove himself from his cave!

"Dhakhingzuel."  A short bow, though Shui does not take her eyes from the woman.  There is politeness, and there is submission - this is the former, not the latter.  "Mr. Ogresh.  A pleasure to see you both.  I was about to make a small lunch for Mr. DeSant - perhaps I could interest you in something?"

"Is good.  Cap-tain run best ship I am trav-vel on." Dhakhingzuel replies, her tail wagging from side to side, ears pricked up and forward.  "This Hoomaan crew treat I well.  Most fair.  Most pol-ite.  Many Hoomaans not treat Vargr so well."

Her head tips downward, half a bow, half a nod, "I rem-mem-ber this when I goes home.  Will talk to Vaekhugan, what you call auth-ori-ties, poss-ible is rew-ward."

"I have query if you have to list-ten time?"

The arrival of Shui and Corlan seems to interrupt her train of thought, at least for a while.  "Food now be good.  Vargr req-uire small meals, more times than Hoomans.  Would eat soon even if you not offer.  Can eat Hoomaans' food.  Can drink... what is word... ah... tea if not too hot."


Saskia continues her scanning of the hull, checking that it has a large enough clear section to run an airlock through.  Just a little distance away from her, on the bridge, Conrad watches Profit Margin's sensor displays, and the feeds from Ore Hound's scans.


Jago and Yas are inside the ship now, beyond the inner hatch.  All is in vacuum here, cold and still.  Their suit lights reach out into the gloom.  The chamber is cavernous, vast, and there are at least a couple of dozen cargo cannisters piled haphazzardly against the forward bulkhead, many of them crushed or buckled.

“Well now, we have a dead guy here,” Jago says for the benefit of those back on the ships, “he seems be partially incorporated into the fabric of the ship, the miss jump no doubt. There are cargo pods here, a score or so, but some of them are badly damaged.”

Jago skirts round the frozen body, and moves forwards to examine the cargo.

Listening in on the open channel, Saskia almost drops her handcomp as she hears Jago's report.  There is a brief moment of fumbling before she can regain her grip on the instrument.

Briefly, she considers sticking her fingers in her ears, and singing very loudly, so that she can't hear any more of that stuff.  Professionalism wins out over that impulse, and she carries on working, though she turns the comm volume down a couple of notches, just to be safe.

Now she shouldn't be quite so startled when the screaming starts.

"Let's hope he wasn't the lucky guy, uh?" Yas says with a firm detachment, having set herself to see some potentially gruesome sights even before they entered the wreckage.

"Think we got something here, Skippy?" she asks as she follows Jago towards the cargo, content with keeping an eye on the surroundings for now while trying to spy any natural as well as natural exits through which they can leave - and possible anything else enter.  Remote as the odds are, her guard is never fully dropped except when in alone her quarters aboard Profit Margin.

Tylen smiles at the Doctor,

"Hi Doc, a Coffee and something to eat would go great about now for me also."

He feels somewhat embarrassed at asking as his Scout training has taught him to be self suffcient, but he really wants to hear waht the big Alien wants to ask.

"So, Dhakhingzuel, what is it you would like to know?"

He is careful how he pronounces the name.

"On the jour-ney here, I had little to do.  I use term-minal in cabin to pass time.  There is picture in file of ship's lib-rar-ry, shows Vargr piraate ship hit by shot from thees ship." Dhakhingzuel's gaze is intense, as she speaks.

"Today, friend Cor-laan, speak to me.  He invites me to cabin, where I see same picture, but hard-copy in frame.  Thees ship make habit of hunt piraates, and take pride in job.  Thees is a good thing... brings much dhuzotzok...  Idea is not all tran-slate right, but dhuzotzok sim-mi-lar like hon-nour for Hoomaans."

"My quest-on is as thees: if thees ship find piraate that kill Oezzarr, do you think Cap-tain will send sim-mi-lar picture, like that one, to me?  Can you ask her to do thees?"


The cargo containers are, for the most part, intact.  Many are dented or buckled by impact with the bulkhead, but only a couple of them have actually split open.

Tylen tenses a little at the mention of the picture, it not being the most diplomatic piece to display in front of the Alien who was hiring them. He relaxes visibly upon hearing the request.

"Ma'am, if we can get the image then I'm sure the Captain would be delighted to have a copy made for you. In fact I'll put a request in for you straight away."

He makes a note on his datapad and sends the request through to the Captains e-mail.

Shui bows in acquiescence to Dhakhingzuel's request.  "Certainly.  Perhaps some tea, with coffee for the men and sandwiches for all."  She touches a holocontrol on her comp.  + Ms. Blake - we are having tea and sandwiches in the Galley, + she pipes to Saskia over the intercom.  + Should you so desire, I can bring some down to you. +

A quick smile to Tylen, and Shui offers another bow - a small nod of the head, really.  "Of course, Mr. Ogresh.  It would be my pleasure."  She runs through his own menu in her head - she does keep track, and does a quick cross-reference as to what sort of sandwich Corlan has preferred in the past.  Not having much to go upon, Shui nevertheless comes up with a decent, educated guess, and moves to the preparation area with great enthusiasm as the others talk.  Hopefully her choice is correct!

But the enthusiasm dims as Dhakhingzuel inquires as to trophy pictures.  Fortunately one would have to be standing in front of her (on the counter) to see her crestfallen expression.

"I'm good, thanks, Shui."

Saskia studies her grid with a critical eys.  She'll have to check up on the stress specs for the hull, but so far it's looking like Jago's idea might work.  The ship will need to put in at a half-decent port to get the work done, but it doesn't look like there will be any major problem.

She tilts her head to one side, then lays the palm of her left hand against the metal, fingers spread wide, and smiles.  "Don't be silly.  We'll get the best people we can find.  I'm sure it won't hurt at all."

“Connrad, could you do a library check for me, Saskatchia Tea, what is it and is it worth anything once it’s been deep frozen for a decade or so.”

“Yas, there should be an Air Raft over there somewhere, can you see it?”

As he talks, Jago works his way systematically through the containers, looking for something other than Saskatchia Tea.

"The image would show other litter-mates that not need to hunt Oezzarr's killers, and show Oezzarr that he is not for-got." Dhakhingzuel explains to Tylen, "Much import-tance to my people.  Proof that matter is end."

Then she reaches out and quicly takes Tylens hand, raises it to her muzzle, and inhales deeply.  "I remem-ber scent."


In the darkened cargo hold, illuminated only by the suit lights, Jago starts searching through the cargo cases, while Yas is sent to find the air raft.

Corlan, waiting quietly for his late night snack, pulls the holocam from his pocket and displays the latest image.  Shui appears, exactly half-sized, in the air above the device.  While she is crystal clear, the surrounding details blur into indistinct haze, and fade out completely, a little over a metre from the centre of the projection.

"There you are Miss Tiesi.  All respectable professionalism."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:15, Thu 17 May 2007.

"Jus' a minute, Jago.  Lessee - Okay, looks like it's could be valuable in the right market.  Says here it's hard to get ahold of, an' regarded as somethin' of a luxury item."

Conrad skims through the library entry, looking for interesting snippets of information.  "Looks like it gets frozen for long term storage an' shippin' anyways, so the cold won't have affected it too bad, I'm guessin'."

"What else?  Ah, here we are  - oh - no!  That's sick!  It's called tea, but it's got no tea in it.  It's really made from tiny, crushed-up bugs."

"Sure thing, Skip, I'll go find that raft for you," Yas says with a nod and then laughs out loud as she hears Conrad's report about the tea.  Shaking her head, although no one can see it, she comments, "People can be so funny sometimes.  They taste somethign great, but when they find out what it is they might get sick and throw up even.  As long as it isn't something sentient, I don't care what it is as long as it is tasty.  If it comes down to survival I'll even eat most of the untasty stuff that won't kill me right off!"

Walking on she spots the raft up ahead and reports in, "Found the raft, looks like it might have made it safely, secured and all as it is.  More than I can say for the person inside this pillar, though.  Well, I assume it is a person, unless it is the pillar growing human hands!"  She chortles briefly, shaking her head.  Sure is good to not be the one in a jump mishap.

She makes her way closer to the pillar to have a look at the hand to see if she can make any kind of judgement about who the hand might belong to, the age of it and anything else of interest.  The raft will not go anywhere in the next few minutes, she figures.

“Bugs, four tons of dead bugs. Well, it’s a start. I’ve got some explosives down here Jockram, don’t know what precisely, but you guys might be able to use them.”

“Shui, is Corlan aware that there are bodies fused with the ship here? He might want to change his mind about coming. There are a few of containers of ‘delicate’ medical supplies here, perhaps you’d check them over when you come.”

Jago turns to look for the secondary hold that should be on the rear bulk head of the main hold.

Shui comes over the line.  + Captain, I will certainly inform him of this fact.  He may indeed change his mind, though if there are medical supplies and bodies, I will be coming over myself as soon as you judge it safe.  Mr. Dietz, my apologies - do you wish refreshment where you are at the moment? +

What a terrible way to die.  Shui hopes it was quick, but there is a distinct possibility it was not.  Should a non-essential part of the body be 'stuck', and shock not kill oneself....

"We'll certainly take a look at them, Jago." Jockram answers over the open channel, "Even if it turns out they're no use to us, I have some contacts who might buy them.  Not everybody works the belts, and for dirtside mining, where there's less chance of knocking your claim into an unstable orbit, or a hundred different orbits, explosives can be useful."

"Coffee'd be good for me, thank you, Shui." Conrad answers the steward's call, "Somehow or other, I can't face the thought of tea, right now."

Having ignored the chatter for as long as she can, Saskia finally feels the need to say something.

"I - I know - " she starts, quietly hesitantly, before getting a grip, and trying again.  "I've got a good idea what happened.  Their drive must have failed, catastrophically, during the Jump.  The field would have collapsed, and J-Space would have intruded into the inside of the ship."

She draws a deep breath, before continuing, "Kalyushin radiation would have killed them instantly, and what passes for physics in J-Space would have done the rest.  Doesn't happen that bad very often, but it does happen."

"The only good thing about it is that, unless they had a warning that the drive was failing, the wouldn't even have time to know they were dying."

Jago stops what he’s doing to listen to Saskia’s explanation, and stays still and silent for a while after she’s finished.

”Stuff happens,” he says quietly.

Then goes on ain a more cheery note as he resumes his examination of the air lock he’s found, ”The best defence is to make sure you have a really good engineer, do we know anybody?”

”Just joking Saskia, they don’t get any better than you," he adds quickly with a chuckle in his voice.

”Yasmin, could you give me a hand with this door.”

Shui calmly doles out the prepared food to the people in the galley, offering sandwiches and whatever beverages desired, and pours out an additional coffee for Conrad.

She pauses beside Corlan for a moment.  "Mr. DeSant...it would appear that there are some rather unpleasant things to be seen aboard the ship.  Apparantly the accident which claimed the lives of the crew left their bodies presereved.  Might it be better if you stayed aboard the Profit Margin?  I am uncertain as to whether that is the sort of wreck you wish to peruse."

The Steward shoots a quick, entreating look at Tylen, hoping he might persuade their aging passenger the wisdom of remaining aboard their ship.  "Excuse me - I have to bring Mr. Dietz his coffee."  Then she slips out of the galley, into the hallway, heading for where Conrad awaits his caffinated beverage.  Once out of sight, she closes her eyes for a moment, considering the dead aboard the wreck.

'At least it was quick.'  Small comfort, but one takes what one can get.

Reading the message in the Doctors look, Tylen turns to De Sant.

"From the chatter Sir I'd say it could be pretty ugly,"

He thought back to his Scout training and the theory on surviving a Jump Drive failure....'basically you don't.'

"Saskia figures they suffered a catastrophic Jump Drive failure, parts of the ship and the people who were on board are gonna be occupying the same space if you get my drift."

He sucked in his cheeks then exhaled.

"Can't say it would be exactly something I would fancy looking at."

He shuddered.

"Jago!" Saskia crosses her fingers and puts her hands behind her back.  Then, with her eyes closed, she turns a complete circle, clockwise.

"Don'r ever joke about misJumps.  It's just tempting bad luck."

Working together, Yas and Jago manage to open the first hatch of the huge, manually operated airlock which seals the downed transports exotic cargo hold.  Beyond it the second hatch stands ajar, the massive metal hinges buckled out of alignment.

Corlan considers the talk of horrific finds on the other ship, and reconsiders his decision to visit the wreck.  "Well, that all sounds a little gruesome, but I think I'd still like to take a look.  Perhaps a route can be found through the wreckage which avoids the bodies?"

”Sorry Saskia, wont do it again,” Jago says grinning broadly behind his face plate.

He stands on the brink of the inner cargo hold where the more exotic goods would have been stored, and rubs the chin area of his helmet thoughtfully.

”It looks like we might be here for some time people,” he announces over the open net, ”a couple of days, maybe more, are you in any sort of a hurry Jockram?”

”Shui, you can bring Corlan over now, also there’s some ice here, I’d like to know what it’s contaminated with before I go poking about in it, could you grab a sample while you’re here.

”Come on Yasmin, lets go and look over the rest of this boat, bet the captain has a safe full of bullion. There should be a floor hatch back in engineering somewhere, I want to go downstairs first and see if the shuttle is intact.”

"Yeah well, either way it is a bit too late to save these folks anyway," Yasmine says as she removes the watch from what she assumes is the arm of a human female.  She turns the watch and studies it, shaking her head.  As she sticks it in a pocket on her suit and seals it she sighs with a small grunt.

"Be right there, Skip," she replies to Jago as he asks her to join him again and she wanders over to the entrance of the inner cargo hold.

"So, want to keep the wusses away from here and leave all the fun to us then?" she jokes with Jago about exploring this, just the two of them, for a couple of days.  "Sure, just let me have a look at this thing here first..."

She steps up to the plastic wrap thing, carefully, and examines it from a short distance, trying to discern something more about it before touching it.

Shui, caught in mid-delivery of her coffee, raises an eyebrow at Conrad at Jago's request.  + Certainly, Captain Lanza.  I shall bring him across immediately. +  She shrugs to Conrad.  "Apparantly Mr. DeSant still wishes to explore the wreck," she notes.  "I hope things are going well with you here, Mr. Dietz?"

She caught the beginning of Tylen's attempt to dissuade their passenger - a good one it had been, but apparantly not sufficient.  Oddly, the only thing she feels is sorrow for Corlan.

Saskia, for her part, sounds a trifle disturbed by the entire situation.  Shui can't really blame her, not at all - if she stumbled into a ship rendered lifeless through disease, she might be nervous as well.  While this jump failure worried her, it was a little too far out of her experience to engender panic.  Besides, Saskia would keep that from occurring.  Wouldn't she?

The Steward keys her glove.  + Mr. DeSant - if you would meet me at the airlock?  We can begin preparations to cross. +

With a sigh, Corlan looks at the remaining sandwich, and quickly gulps down another mouthful of tea, before heading across to the airlock again.  Not that he's keen, or anything.  He's just too polite to keep a lady waiting.  That's all.


Yas examines the odd-looking crate. 

A quick look reveals all there is to see, so she moves off after Jago.

Heading aft, through the narrow corridors, Jago opens doors as he passes them, while Yas fills an overwatch role, just in case.  Several cabins, and a fresher are passed in this way, with no signs of any problems.



Corlan arrives at the airlock, flushed with excitement.


Still in the passenger lounge, Tylen finds himself alone with the Vargr once more.  She looks at him, and asks, "How much long you are ser-ving on thees ship?"

It would be unfair to say that Shui's opinion of Corlan has plummetted.  It hasn't, not really.  Shui knows people, knows how they are.  Corlan isn't really doing anything differently than most would.  The desire to slow down as one passes a vehicular accident is strong within humanity.  Their guest will continue to receive the same politeness, the same care, the same genuine compassion as before.  Even the same exercise program, should he so desire.

But emotionally, a part of her has distanced itself from him.

Still, her smile is broad and genuine.  "Please prepare yourself for vacuum, Mr. DeSant.  You might consider this a final test."

“Saskia, I have a hole here, actually, what looks like a sphere of stuff that just missing, it cuts through the floor plates of at least three decks and seems to be centred on ‘D deck’, main drive area. It’s internal and doesn’t cut through the hull plates, but all the floors, bulk heads and equipment just stop at clean, shiny edges that seem to mark out a sphere. Any thoughts?”

Skirting around the hole in the floor, Jago seeks a more deliberate access to F deck.

“Watch those edges Yasmin, I bet they are like razors.”

Saskia is suddenly interested, in spite of herself.

"That sounds like - no, that wouldn't do that.  Ah!  The edges are very clean and sharp?  Not an explosion then."

She frowns, concentrating, and starts feeding data into the handcomp, "My best guess would be that, when the Jump went wrong, a second bubble formed somehow inside the ship.  Maybe everything inside that bubble got Jumped to somewhere else."

"Assuming it wasn't just annihilated."

Looking at the figures on the screen, she tilts her head to one side, then, "That's just a guess though.  It could just as easily have been eaten by a giant mutant stargoat."

Or worse.

Corlan keeps up an endless stream of chatter, while suiting up with as much haste as possible, consistent with safety.  Most of his remarks are concerning the fact that he seldom gets to go planetside, except inside starports, or on visits to nice, safe tourist spots.  He really hopes that he doesn't hold things up, or get in the way, and give Captain Lanza any reason to veto his joining landing parties in future...

Shui, for her part, gets herself ready, and checks, one last time, that she has a good supply of sample containers and specimen collectors, and that the hand computer from the medlab, with its analysis software, is fully charged.


Meanwhile...

Jago finds the hatch he seeks, and descends to the lower deck, with Yas following behind him.

Conrad continues to monitor the long range sensors and whatever comm chatter he can pick up through the gas giant's magnetosphere,  Suddenly he yells out to Saskia, knowing she's just outside the bridge.  "Saskia, get in here!"

Saskia doesn't wait.  She leaves the bridge, gathers up her equipment, and gives the marked section of hull another reassuring pat, before almost running back to Engineering.

Where she finds Shui and Corlan by the airlock, preparing for an EVA.  They don't know.

She smiles, "Hi, Shui, Mister DeSant.  How's it going?  Shui, can I have a word, please?"

She beckons the medic to follow her, back out into the crew lounge.  "It'll just take a minute, Mister DeSant, but its - personal.  Yes, personal, that's it.  Um - a personal medical thing."

"Ms. Blake?"  A touch confused, Shui turns toward Corlan for an instant, but then her demeanor firms.  "Please attend for a minute, Mr. DeSant.  I should deal with Ms. Blake's issue first."  It might actually be a medical issue, for all Shui knows.  She doesn't think so...but assumptions were a poor substitute for reality.

She steps into the crew lounge, still half- suited up.  A quick glance behind her revealse no followers, and she moves up to where Saskia awaits.  "What is it, Ms. Blake?" Shui inquires, her voice low and quick.  "Hopefully I can assist."

Whatever it might be.

Reaching past Shui, Saskia mashes the door release with the heel of her hand, and waits as it irises closed.

"Not sure if you'd want Corlan to overhear any of this, but I just thought you should know that the destroyer that put in at the mainworld for repairs, just before we came here, is currently taking on a Sword Worlds escort group, in orbit over the port."

The engineer sighs, and looks past Shui, just for a couple of seconds.  "I served on Shata Lunoqi, back in the Navy, and I reckon she can win, even though she's damaged.  She's state of the art, and her captain knows how to use her.  Swordies best equipment's at least a hundref years out of date, compared to what Shata L can turn on them."

A smile, though there is a hint of worry behind the eyes, "As of two hours ago, the battle was still going on, and Conrad's monitoring it.  Whatever happens, we're at least sixty hours away from the fighting.

"But I thought you should know, since you're taking Corlan outside.  If Jago, or Yas, says to get back here, just do it, and double time it.  Put Corlan in a frelling arm lock and drag him back if you have to.  Just get back aboard, safe and sound."

Shui nods slowly, her face growing slightly pale as she considers the situation.  A full-scale, space battle.  The casualties from such an exchange will be horrific, especially the longer the battle drags out.  "Understood," she whispers to the tech.  "Should I receive the order, we will leave the ship immediately.  I strongly doubt Mr. DeSant will require any 'motivation' - he seems most cooperative."

Reaching out a gloved hand, she touches Saskia on the arm.  "Thank you for the warning...Ms. Blake, I hope your former crewmates come through this.  You must be terribly concerned for them."

"Corlan's been aboard long enough to know what's what." Saskia confirms, nodding, "But he's a tourist, at heart, and sometimes he can get distracted."

She wraps her arms around herself, and looks down at the gloved hand touching her arm, then says, "The fight could be over already.  The messages Conrad's getting are two hours and something old.  Shata Lunoqui's got some big guns, and a good tech advantage.  She'll be okay, and she'll take care of her crew, as well.

"You go and enjoy your stroll, and I'll see you when you get back."

The smile still holds a touch of worry.

"Ms Blake -"  Shui pauses.  "Saskia."  She smiles - a small, warm expression.  "You know ships.  If you believe your friends can win this, then I see no reason they should not."  The smile slips, recovers.  "Yes, it will be terrible.  But why, in the end, should they not prevail?"

Her fingers squeeze the Engineer's arm, lightly.  "For me, it will not be an enjoyable stroll, but I will keep a close eye upon Mr. DeSant."  Her fingers release Saskia's arm, carefully.  "Please - there are sandwiches in the lounge, if you wish them."  Shui cocks her head to the side.  "Perhaps we can talk when I return."

A pat on the arm - reassuring, rather than condescending - and Shui slips away, irising open the door to head back to where Corlan awaits.  Her face remains calm, collected...but now, a sick feeling gathers in the pit of her stomach.  Why can she not believe her own words?

Poor Saskia.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:10, Tue 05 June 2007.

“Hmm, it doesn’t look good for the ships boats, these lower decks are carrying serious impact damage. There is some heavy debris blocking the access, if we can’t shift it by hand, we’ll come back with a big hammer or something.”

“There no gravity to speak of here Yasmin,” Jago says, still speaking on the open net, but addressing his words to his companion, “and bugger all friction on this ice, but that thing still has a lot of mass, and is more than likely jammed in. You take that corner there and pull it upwards and left, I’ll try do the same on this side, if we can lift it over that lug, it might shift, if not we’ll come back with some pulleys, jacks and a cutting torch.”

The silence that follows is punctuated by an occasional grunt off effort, then for a while, Jago’s open channel goes off line.


“Saskia,” he comes on again after a short pause, “I’ll need to open the cargo air lock on E deck, any thoughts on that?”

Following along, Yas helps Jago with what he asks and then, once it is done, she mentions as if in passing, "That odd crate I looked at, it looked firs t as if it had a lid like the others, but nope, nothing to secure the lid, just wrapped up in that plastic that usually goes on the inside of them.  Beats me what it is about."

Jago’s response is immediate but confusing, he makes a sharp noise that might be laugh, a chough or possibly even a chocking sound while his expression is a sort of horrified grin.

“Hak! Dammed thing has turned inside out; I bet that yellow stuff all over everything was the contents, maybe it is what took the inner door off its hinges.”

"Just a second, Jago.  Hey, Conrad, can you dump me over the plans for that heap.  Thanks." Saskia waits for the file, then locates the hatch that Jago's talking about.

"Let's see, then.  Okay.  It looks like it's a regular hatch.  The only EPS feeds I can see on it are for sensors, alarms, and stuff.  It's got a manual lock, and hydraulics so that it opens vertically.  You're in luck, its designed to drop, ao it can act as a loading floor for the telescopic airlock.  I bet that the hydraulics are frelled after a bad landing, and years of neglect, so there's probably nothing much holding it shut.

"If you can unlock it, and hit it hard enough to crack any ice that's sealing it, it should practically open itself.  Well, maybe it'll need a little push."

The engineer goes over the schematics again, noting the comparitive sizes of the ship and the hold.  Bad design.  Would lose money on most trips, and only just break even on the rest.

"Just so you know.  I just saw Shui getting Corlan suited up.  They should be with you, any minute now."

Shui finishes her preparations, and sees that Corlan makes it up through the airlock okay, ensuring that he remembers to duck once he's outside, to avoid hitting the sensor array mounted above the hull.

Crossing Profit Margin's hull is easy, even with gravity only about 1% of ship normal, thanks to the magnetic grapples in their boot soles.  Stepping off the top of the hull, and falling the six metres down to the ice has Corlan laughing all the way, taking almost a minute for the drop.

"That was... fun." he comments, as he starts across the surface of the moonlet, to where the crashed hulk towers like a vast metal cliff.  "Funny... I never realised before that Profit Margin is quite a small, compact ship."

There is enough scattered metal, imbedded in the ice, to provide some grip for the magnets, and they cross to the wrecked ship without difficulty.

The first obstacle looms.  A climb up the hull to where an airlock stands open.


In the passenger lounge, Tylen and the Vargr passenger finish the coffee and sandwiches, and the gunner discovers that they have something in common.  The Vargr served in the Scouts for four years, before cutbacks in the local branch forced her out.


Inside the hulk, Jago and Yas work hard clearing the heavy plate of metal away from the door.  Eventually they manage to shift it a metre or so, but then it becomes firmly wedged.

"Things often appear differently when put into perspective," Shui notes, offhanded.  She wonders if that will be the case once Corlan actually enters the ghost ship, and discovers the bodies.  Her own boots click onto the surface, and she stares up at the other vessel, a frown on her face.

The ship appears...stretched.

Shui toggles her comm-unit to page the Profit Margin, bemoaning her inability to utilize her dataglove.  + Ms. Blake...this ship, to my inexperienced eye, appears stretched.  Twisted.  Would this be the norm for this kind of occurance? +

"We have a climb now, Mr. DeSant.  Fortunately, due to the gravity, it should be relatively simple.  But please be careful."  She begins the arduous task herself, intent on arriving at the airlock to prepare it for Corlan.

“Dam, it’s jammed now, but I think I can squeeze through.” Jago ducks under what must once have been the lifting bed of a freight elevator and finds enough space to ease his not inconsiderable girth through to the other side where he is able to open the hatch through to the boat bay.

“Woa! Watch your self on this gantry Yasmin, some one has been playing ‘Jenga’ with it and it won’t last another turn.”

“Both boats are here, there’s a shuttle that looks to be just a little but beyond economical repair, and a pinnace that from here, looks OK, I’m going to see if I can get over to it.”

Jago attempts to do just that, picking his way very cautiously across the buckled and swaying platform that is on the same level as F deck, and some fifteen or twenty feet above the badly damaged floor of G deck, where the auxiliary craft are sitting. When he reaches the edge, he steps off and drifts down.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:46, Sat 09 June 2007.

"Shui, there is no such thing as the norm for a misJump." Saskia replies, all calm and professionalism, despite the thoughts that every mention of the wreck inserts into her mind.

"Normally there'd be a protective bubble around the ship in Jump.  If that breaks, the ship gets exposed to J-Space.  Problem with J-Space is that the Laws of Physics are more like Suggestions."

She thinks for a moment, "In theory matter can't exist there, and Space and Time are only approximations, which is why all Jumps take about a week, no matter what the distance is.  Gravity exists, but only as a field propagated from mass located in normal space, and its effects are radically altered."

She is about to go on, and then decides on a different approach, "Oh, frell, I'm blathering.  Sorry.  Shui, the simple answer is that nobody knows what the norm is for misJumps, because they haven't found enough of the victims to make a valid statistical analysis.  Mostly they never come back, at least nowhere in Known Space."

Shui and Corlan ascend the hull bt the simple expedient of walking up it.  The magnetic plates in their boots are more than capable of holding their weight against the minimal gravity that the moonlet is able to generate, and the climb is no more difficult than walking into a mild breeze.

The tricky part is the getting around the edge of the airlock.  Shui manages that easily enough, thanks to a certain degree of general fitness, and Corlan succeeds with a little help from her.

The inner hatch is open too, and Corlan gazes at it, his expression difficult to read behind the faceplate.  When he speaks though, the nervousness is obvious in his voice.  "Miss Tiesi, I overheard the Captain asking you to collect samples of something while we're here.  Should you require me to record what we see here, my holocam is at your disposal."


Jago drifts downwards, having a surprisingly long period of time in which to grow bored with the experience.  Eventually he does land, with scarcely any more impect than stepping down from a stair.

Yas follows close behind him, resisting the temptation to check the chronometer on her suit's wrist panel on the way down.  Low gravity operations are all part of her Marines training, but impatiently tapping one's foot in mid-air is tricky.

As Shui ascends into the ship, she listens carefully to Saskia's litany of disaster.  Pleasant thoughts.  Then the woman chastises herself, and the doctor pauses for a moment.  + Please, Ms. Blake - hardly blathering.  Technical knowledge teaches me.  I understand...some of what you say, and each explanation certainly leaves me with more answers. +  A small smile, despite Saskia not being here to see it.  + And certainly more questions. +  The smile fades.  + It sounds terrible.  It must be horrible for the families of the missing people, to never know for certain what transpired. +

Then it's through the hatch and looking down.  Shui activates her own recorder, and studies Corlan for a long moment.  "Certainly, Mr. DeSant.  Assuming you have sufficient capacity, the more camera angles the better.  Please be careful upon entry."  She pauses.  "If at any time you find you wish to leave the ship, please let me know.  It would be only a short trip for me to assist you in returning, and no difficulty whatsoever."

"I should bloody fire my gun so I can get down quicker," Yas complains with a chortle as they float downwards, but she does not do it.  Never know what she might end up hitting, or where the bullet may go - it might even ricochet, for all she knows.

"Welcome aboard, Corlan.  Enjoy your stay - but I fear coffee and cookies will have to wait until we are back aboard the Margin," she then says over the comm to Corlan to help take some of the edge off his nerves, in order to prevent of his nerves to be taken off him by one of the edges.

Tylen was suprised how much he had in common with the female Alien, she even knew some of the distant aquaintaces he had made and had heard some of the same anecdotes. He felt a pang of loss for the comradeship of the service, but knew in his heart that the Profit Margin was now his home.

Once on the decking again, Jago takes a stroll around the Pinnace, checking secondary thrust nozzles and hatch seals, just as if he were doing pre flights prier to take off, hr stops when he reaches the main access hatch, and examines the manual opening system.

Corlan nods his understanding of the instructions, and then realises that his face might not be that clearly vixible.  "I understand, Miss Tiesi."  He removes the recorder from the pocket, and activates it, ready for use, then gestures for Shui to move further into the ship.

"After you...  Unless you want me to go first?"


Jago and Yas move forward between the two auxilliart craft.  The pinnace looks as though it might be flightworthy, but the shuttle looks worse with every step.


Back aboard Profit Margin Tylen and Dhakhingzuel are swapping service yarns.  Though they've never been assigned to the same bases or ships, they do seem to have seen a lot of similar things.  It seems that Scouts tend to do a lot of the same stuff.

The Vargr finishes a long and particularly involved story, made all the longer by her need to slow down and rephrase some parts, "... and the Super-vis-or is have on pants belong his assist-tant, and both try make like all norm-mal.  But assist-tant is not Hoomaan, is Newt.  Pants haves big hole in back, for tail!  Nobody be-lieve that base laundry mix up clothes!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:15, Thu 14 June 2007.

Tylen slapped his thigh and howled with laughter.

"Now that's a good one Dhakhingzuel! I never heard that one before."

He wiped his eye.

"Seriously now, I guess I'd better go check on the prisoners, else the Captain'll tear a big hole in the seat o' my pants later!"

He laughed again and made his way back to where the prisoners were locked up. He drew his left hand gun, and opened the door.

"I want you all back up against the far wall where I can see you."

He announced from outside the room, gun held ready.

“I’ve seen enough here,” Jago says, “I’m going to make my way up to the bridge and check out a few things on the way. There must be a safe or something on aboard, and a small arms locker somewhere.”

As he makes his way back to the rickety gantry he observes, “it’s all pretty much wrecked down here, but the stuff on the top decks might have survived. They should have a life boat up there, the computer, a turret or two, once we’ve had a look we’ll head on back and have a consultation with Saskia, she’ll be key to getting any of that bigger stuff out.”
This message was last edited by the player at 19:27, Fri 15 June 2007.

The prisoners, who are, to be fair, currently housed in conditions a little better than those they are used to, are happy to comply with Tylen's request.  Only the man with the broken arm doesn't dutifully raise his hands as Tylen opens the door and looks in on them, gun held ready.

Even then, he raises the one that he can raise.

From close behind him, Dhakhingzuel growls, "They not much fear-some.  Is more fear-ful!"


On the wrecked ship, Jago starts the climb up to B Deck, the bridge, and the Captain's Office.  At least in the low gravity, the climb should not be too arduous.

Meanwhile, on E Deck, Corlan and Shui locate the small cargo hold, used for storing goods requiring exotic conditions.  Without power, and with the hatch open, of course, conditions are exactly the same as in the rest of the ship... a cold vacuum.

Tylen glances round, then withdraws, confident the prisoners are secure. He takes etra care however in locking the door and resetting his alarms.

"Ok Dhakhingzuel, they're safely stowed, let's get back to the longue."

"I think it would be best if I went first, Mr. DeSant."  A small nod to the man's offer, so as not to simply dismiss it out of hand.  She waves for him to follow.  "The area which Captain Jago wishes for me to sample is along this wall.  Please stay close to it - we will have to move around a little to get down to it, but it should not pose a problem."  There are stairs, after all, on the way.

"Additionally, please stay close to me."  She checks, from time to time, to ensure Conrad isn't wandering off.  That could be disastrous, Conrad being crippled on a quest for corpses.

OOC - Moving down to where I can get to the sampling area - keep it in a reasonably straight line, so as not to stray too far into the cargo area, in sight of the bodies near the front.  Thanks for the schematic, boss.

"Right behind you, Skip," Yas says and takes up a position behind Jago as he starts to climb, making sure not to get too close so her view of the above areas will not be completely blocked out.

She also keeps an eye on everything below, just in case.  Never know if things happen when they think you are not watching.  Things as in things that usually do things, of course, not things that never do anything but sit there, since that would be even more eventless than watching paint dry.

Tylen and Dhakhingzuel returned to the crew longue and continued their conversation.

"I prefer a revolver for in close work,"

Tylen stated,

"It's easier to strip than a semi-auto, and usually packs a bigger round. Now Yasmine,"

He remembered the ruse,

"That is I mean, Captain Crow, she prefers that big ol' Shotgun. I can't fault her in terms of damage done, but I find a scattergun a bit too random. At least with one of these,"

He spun his right hand pistol on his finger, before returning it to his holster,

"You got precision, that is if you make the effort to practice. What do you use?"

With a grin which shows rather too much tooth to be polite, at least if her audience had been Vargr, Dhakhingzuel replies, "I am not own gun now.  As Scout, I like snub pistol.  Low velo-city, so safe for use on ship is,  Can use tranq round for deal with board-ding party.  If tar-get is in armour, then use AP round.  If not worry about damage, can use explo-sive round,  Vers-sa-tile much."

Shui leads Corlan to the exotic cargo area, which is as Jago had described it to her, covered in a thin layer of yellowish ice.  The internal airlock to the area is open, both doors.  The man sticks close to her, recording everything.

Inside there are a number of broken cargo containers, and one which looks a little odd.  It gas bo markings, hinges, or latches.  It doesn't even seem to have any of the locking points which usually serve to secure such containers, and stop them moving about during maneuvers.  It also appears to have been sealed in a heavy, clear polyethelene wrapper, of the sort which usually serves as a liner in containers which hold liquids or powders.  The outside of the wrapper is thinly coated with more of the yellow ice.


Jago and Yas make their way back into the cargo hold, on their way up to the bridge, and officer territory.  Crossing the cargo floor, some of the shadows dont seem to be moving correctly...

Saskia suddenly remembers something.

She goes back to Engineering and grabs some tools, before heading across to the passenger side lounge.  Once there she finds Tylen in conversation with their vargr passenger.

"Hey, Tylen, can you give me a hand?  I need to fix that dodgy primary EPS feed in Corlan's cabin.  He reminded me about it just before he went ashore, and I promised I'd straighten it out for him.  I just need you to hold some stuff for me, while I'm working in the overhead.  Thanks."

Making sure her back is to the vargr, she mouths the word "Please" and does her best to look really worried.

"It'll just take a minute.  If that."

Tylen nods at Dhakhingzuel's comments.

"You got a point there."

He looks up at Sakia's approach.

"Sure Sass, excuse me Dhak, looks like I got a bit of donkey work to do."

"Mr. DeSant, if you would stay back at the opening of the chamber, there?  Please use your camera to record this."  Shui's voice is remarkably calm, given the thoughts going through her head.  She doesn't like this - not one bit.

The doctor slowly moves into the hold, attempting to avoid the odd-coloured ice wherever possible.  Her lips thin as she examines the strange container, without touching it.  Finally Shui moves closer, hunting first for a label, then for an easily accessed area where she can scrape away a substantial sample of the ice for analysis.

That'll go into a sealed container, to be taken aboard the Profit Margin and examined in sterile, sealed conditions.

When she finishes, the doctor takes a long, slow look around this area, searching for anything else that might provide an explanation for this strange situation.  "Mr. DeSant - you have not seen anything out of the ordinary?"  She checks herself.  "Out of the ordinary for this situation, so to speak."  An old fragment of her training bubbles up, and she turns in his direction.  "Better still - please describe to me exactly what you see in the hold, in as much detail as you can."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:31, Thu 21 June 2007.

"Damn weird," Yas mumbles and moves her light about, watching the shadows.  She peers at them and shakes her head, mumbling something probably best left unheard.

Moving up closer to an object she moves the light about and studies the shadow to see if she was merely seeing things or if it indeed is the way is seem to be.  She considers asking Saskia about it, but in the end she does not, suspecting she would get a reply along the ship being haunted or such - wrecked ships are a sensitive area with the engineer.

But this still requires some looking into, so she begins her own little amateurish investigation of the phenomenon - unless it is just her own mind playing tricks on her, of course.

As soon as Tylen is in the cabin with her, Saskia closes the door, and turns to face him, with her back pressed against it.

"Just thought you should know," she starts, her face deadly serious, "there's a battle going on in orbit above the main world.  A Sword World's escort group came in, probably looking for that damaged Imperial destroyer, Shata Lunoqi.  We're at least sixty hours away from the fighting, and should have plenty of warning if any of it looks to be coming this way."

She bites her lip, trying to think of anything else, then adds, "Conrad's monitoring the comms traffic, and has Jump courses to everywhere in range plotted.  We can be out of the system in two or three hours, tops.

"There's nothing to worry about.  Shata L looks to be giving them a bit of a mauling.  Outnumbered and damaged, she's still at least a century more advanced than the best the Swordies can throw at her.  Better sensors.  Better weapons.  Better defences.

"Only thing is, don't mention this in front of any of the passengers."

Jago stops to watch Yasmin’s experiments, not spooked by the unexplained, but certainly cautious of it.

“Shui, Corlan, come out to the main hold and give me your opinions please.”

“Saskia, have there ever been cases of strange effects lingering after a miss jump?

Corlan looks about the interior of the exotic cargo area, and starts to dexcribe it as best he can.

"Let's see.  The area is about... six metres wide, by roughly four or five long.  Ceiling height is approximately two point five metres.  There are a number of cargo containers, of various sizes, laying against the forward bulkhead.  Several of them are damaged, as is the inner door of the airlock, possibly due to the impact of some of the cargo containers."

Corlan continues to move his recorder, and his light, about the chamber, focussing on details as he notices them.

"A number of cargo straps are still attached to eyelets on the walls, but most of them have snapped.  Some of the eyelets appear to have either torn loose, or broken, releasing the loads that were secured by them."

"Everything in this room is covered by a thin layer of ice, which has an odd yellowish colouration to it.  It could be something which escaped from a cannister of some sort, as a vapour, then froze."

Beyond the open door, two suited figures can be seen moving across the main hold.  Corlan turns his attention to the major oddity in the room.  "This container has no markings, and no external fittings of any kind.  There is a seam around all four sides, at one end, possibly marking the edges of a lid, but there are no hinges or latches fitted.  It has been wrapped in a clear plastic bag, which is, as far as I can tell, completely sealed."  He pushes the wrapped container with his boot, and it moves easily.  "In spite of its sealed condition, it seems to be empty.  Ships wouldn't normally carry unmarked cargo, would they?  Oh, and this too is covered with yellow ice."

"There is... " Jago's call interrupts his running commentary.

"Ah.  That explains it.  I got it figured, Skip," Yas says with a chuckle and shakes her head.  She knew there had to be some natural explanation to it, and, indeed, there is one, right nearby.

"See that over there?" she asks Jago and points towards another light, from outside the cargo hold.  "There's the lingering effect, even if I doubt he would appreciate being called that," she chuckles.

+ I shall be there momentarily, Captain.  If it is an emergency, please appraise. +  Shui turns back to Corlan.  "Mr. DeSant - please continue."  Sometimes it's useful to see what other people see...as there is no possible way one can capture all of the details oneself.

Certainly there will be some overlap.  But it's the little things that count.

"Uh, Jago,  Got an update for y'all." Conrad's voice comes in on a crew-only emergency channel, scrambled, and not accessable to anybody who doesn't have the right codes.

"Seems like the Swordie destroyer, Isolde kindly offered to take Shata Lunoqi's surrender a li'l while back.  Shata Lunoqi's response was to hit Isolde with ev'rythin' she's got, and swat her out of the sky."

"Then her captain only up and warns the Swordies that she'll do the same to anyone else who's got, quote, any more stupid ideas, unquote.  She finished off with a polite request that the Swordies should surrender to her, before she gets annoyed at 'em."

The man can clearly be heard chuckling.

Corlan looks at Shui, then out into the main hold, where the Captain and Yas wait.

"I was just going to say that there is really nothing else I can add, Miss Tiesi.  Sorry."

Shui closes her eyes at Conrad's explanation.  Certainly it's a fine thing that the aggressors have been driven off, but...the loss of life aboard the ship that came under fire could have been horrific.  She hopes the Shata Lunoqi was able to carry out its 'deterring' without targeting vital componants of the enemy ship.

Unrealistic, perhaps - she knows this.  But one can always hope?

Her eyes open.  "Thank you, Mr. DeSant.  Perhaps we should see what the Captain wishes?  I must warn you, there may be bodies visible in the main hold."  She motions to the man to follow her, for the moment, and moves off to rendezvous with Jago.

Out in the main hold, the flickering, jumping shadows stablise, as Corlan and Shui stop moving about in the smaller chamber.  Only to start again as the two move out into the hold, which now just looks cavernous and mostly dark, as opposed to cavernous, mostly dark, and menacingly eerie.

From the forward end, there should be access to the bow section of the ship, and from there a way up to the bridge.

Jago moves to the front of the cargo hold where the stairs are and sort of glides up them, he was getting the hang of this now, getting into the right frame of mind. It was a mistake to consider that this little moon had a gravity, it was more zero gravity, but with an up, down orientation. Jago was accustomed to zero gravity.

At the top, he tries the hatch.

Shui pauses after passing the body, bending to study it for a long moment, her pale face nearly bone-white behind the visor.  Then she straightens and with slow, deliberate motions, keys the Captain.

+ Captain Lanza - for what exactly should I be searching? +

A smile comes over the radio along with Jago’s voice, “oh that’s discretionally. Just follow Corlan round, and pull him out if he gets into any trouble. You’ll know if you see something that needs reporting.”

Shui frowns.  Discretional?  She slowly turns in place.  + I have located a body, of course - half in the hull.  Was there more? +  The doctor begins to move forward again, now hunting for signs of anything 'out of the ordinary'...as if this could be considered ordinary under any stretch of the imagination.

"Mr. DeSant, please let me know if you see...anything."

Corlan stops in his tracks, and turns to face Shui.  "Anything?  I'm on an expedition to the interior of a downed freighter which, according to the Library Data aboard Prpfit Margin, was last known to be in use by pirates, and which seems to have suffered a catastrophic misJump."

"Everywhere I look, I see something, Miss Tiesi.  Can you be more specific, please?"

His tone, at least, sounds cheerful.  He turns away to study the cargo piled haphazzardly against the forward bulkhead.  "Tea!"


Upstairs now, Jago works at the door.  Iris valves are normally hard to force, so long as they have power, haven't been damaged by a crashlanding, and made brittle by years of exposure to extremely low temperature.  Eventually one of the panels breaks, under the not-so-gentle attention of a prybar.

Jago and Yas have access to the forward section of the ship.

Tylen listens carefully to the Engineer's words, then nods.

"Got it Sas. Are you gonna get the ship ready to flit if Jago squawks? I'dkida feel happier if we were warmed up and ready to go."

Shui arches an eyebrow behind her mask.  Her own voice, when she speaks, is also amused, despite the gravity of the situation.  "Of course, Mr. DeSant.  What I meant is, beyond the fact that we are currently within a derelict vessel that has suffered failure during jump, we should be on the watch for things that do not..."  She pauses at Corlan's newest discovery.  "Tea?"

Suddenly, within her gloves, Shui's hands are trembling.

The doctor slowly walks to the indicated cargo - almost too slowly.  Deliberately.  She studies the crates, hunts for labels on the sides.  Checks if any have split open.  All in total silence.

"Are we there yet?" Yas asks Jago in her very best annoying tone of voice she can muster.  Bringing up the rear of their micro-column she still keeps looking about as if expecting trouble to jump out around the corners, stick its tongue out and blow them a vacuum raspberry just for the sake of it.

Old habits die hard, and these are part of her basic instincts after years in the service of the marine corps.

Then she chuckles at the fresh memory of almost having been smitten by superstition for a moment back down in the cargo hold.  Tricks of the light, that was all it had been.

"Relax.  She's all ready to go." Saskia reassures the gunner.

"I never power her down completely anyway, unless we're in port and I know we'll be there for a few days.  Fusion plant is just turning out enough power for life support, right now, and instruments, but I can turn her up again as soon as Jago lets us know he's coming back, and be at full power by the time he's aboard."

A cheerful smile, she's always more comfortable talking about ship's systems, "We can be flying in under a minute after that.  And most of that minute is to let Jago change his shirt, in case we have company drop by."

Corlan holds the light steady, illuminating a section of one of the cases where a layer of ice crystals has bben wiped away to reveal a shipping mark underneath.

"It says that it's tea.  Saskatchia tea, container four of sixteen, 250 kilograms.  There's another there.  It's broken open, but it has an inner liner, and that looks intact."


"There's one that says it contains medical supples.  I'm afraid it's also marked as being fragile, though.  Ah... we have more tea."

He sweeps the light over some of the other disorganised containers.  "Computer data modules...  That one looks as though something burst it from inside.  Ah... yes... it has hazard markings for explosives.  Another there, marked as explosives too, but still in one piece."

Jago chuckles quietly into his helmet at Yasmin’s winging.

“Lift shaft, that’s handy,” he says as he squeezes through the broken panel, “I’d like to head up two floors the where the bridge and the captains cabin are, I don’t think we need to check out C deck until we are on the way back, what do you recon?”

"Skip C deck?  C as in Chaos, Carnage, Catastrophe, Corlan, Chocolate and Kill?  Where I would hide, were I am space monster and not a damn good looking and way too friendly ex Marine?" Yasmine replied in pretended shock.

She sighs heavily and then mumbles something, before saying, "Fine, but if we ends up dead because of that I will demand you pay me now so I can enjoy the fruits of my hard labour!"

However, she follows after him and makes no move that suggests she will do anything else.

Tylen listens to the Engineer.

"Well that's good to know."

He checks his chronometer.

"How much longer are the guys outside gonna be I wonder? That ship ain't exactly huge, I wonder what they're up too?"

"It's about five or six times bigger than the Margin, I think, and the schematics Conrad found show it as being like a maze in there.  Spread over eight decks, too.  With no power for the elevators or the doors." Saskia shakes her head, "I just hope they find something over there that's worth sitting this close to that frelling pile of junk.  Makes me feel sick just thinking about it."

Tylen nodded thoughtfully,

"I guess it might at that."

He knew how the engineer looked upon the 'Profit Margin' almost as a living entity, he supposed the proximity to the derelict would be like having your favourite pet close to the body of something that had died from a disease.

"Don't worry Sass, the 'Margin' has you to keep her healthy."

She has heard of that kind of tea, but doesn't recall much.  Her parents were particularly disparaging of it - Shui recalls some acidic comments when they thought she was not near enough to hear.

Her parents valued politeness, and would never have openly criticized other tea-makers before the children.

She moves to the crate of medical supplies, verifies it is still closed.  "One would be surprised with what can survive an impact.  Fragile things are often packed more securely than sturdy objects," she murmurs.  "Explosives?"  The doctor hurries to the other crates, looking them over one at a time.  "The cargo seems a mixed bag.  Perhaps they were resupplying a mining convoy?"

She flicks onto the ship's channel.

+ Pardon me.  Has anyone ascertained the planned destination of the ship? +

Corlan continues going through the packing marks on the containers, but mostly finds nothing new.  Until he finds one odd case.  All of the others are fairly similar - standard designs, kept to regular sizes in order to maximise their ability to stack tightly in a ship's hold.  They are all made of either a metallic composite, or a tough plastic.

Except this one.  It has no markings, and is an non-standard size.  It appears to be made of...

"Wood." Corlan says, his eyes drawn to the strangeness of the container.  "It looks like painted wood."

The case in question is definitely non-standard.  It is red, about 70 x 20 x 20 cm, with a folding metal handle attached to each of the two smallest sides.


Elsewhere, Jago and Yas start to ascend the elevator shaft.  A job made much easier by the fact that neither of them weighs much more than a kilogram here, and one of them weighs something less than that.  It doesn't take them long to reach the top.

"Wood?"  Curious.  Shui moves to study the box held in Corlan's hands.  Interesting.  She glances up at him for a moment, then nods.  "Perhaps we should bring this with us, Mr. DeSant.  It might be some personal effect from the crew or passengers - identifying marks might allow us to discern the exact owner."

And then...shipped home to the family.  A sorrowful thought.  Shui wonders if anyone would someday ship her own personal effects, her small collection, home to her family.  She hopes not.

Better that they think of her as dead long ago.  Or forgotten.

"Shui.  The last anybody knew about that ol' ship, she was under the control of pirates, but that was 'bout ten years gone." Conrad is desperately running through Library data in an effort to find something, anything.

"What she has in her hold now could've been taken from a coupla diff'rent ships, some time 'tween her being taken, an' her vanishin'.  'Fore she was taken, she was runnin' a mixed cargo to about twenty worlds outside of the Imperium, tryin' to find new trade lanes.  That's what she was built for.  Leviathan's couldn't make a profit.  All the profit came from the ships the owners would send after her to exploit the tradin' contacts she made."

"Accordin' to what I'm seein' here, she cost so much that the company almost went bust when they lost her."

+ A very swift answer, Mr. Dietz. +  Shui smiles inside her helmet - quick work, that.  + Very interesting.  Cargo outside the Imperium?  Some of that cargo might well still be aboard. +

Now that...interesting, or worrisome?  Or both?

+ So this is a long-range, merchantile reconnaisance vessel, so to speak?  Contact and immediate trade, as it were.  Cutting out the middle man of the scout. +  Fascinating approach...and dangerous.  Look where it got them.  + And then piracy. +  She wondered if the crew had received the same ultimatim as that of their 'guests'.

+ My thanks, Mr. Dietz, for the pertinent details. +

As soon as Shui finishes speaking to Conrad, Corlan, gripping the handles, even though the box still sits on the deck, speaks up, "Whatever's in here, Miss Tiesi, it has a very high mass.  I can't pick it up, or even slide it along the floor."

After a moment's thought, Corlan gets on the floor, seated between the strange box and one of the containers of tea.  With his back against the container, and his feet braced against the box, he pushes.  And pushes.  And...

... almost falls over backwards, as the tea container moves.

"It seems that this small box masses considerably more than the 250 kilograms the tea is labelled as."
This message was last edited by the player at 09:24, Fri 06 July 2007.

Saskia smiles nervously at Tylen's compliment to her skills, "Oh, I'm confident I can do a good job.  But an engineering problem is one thing.  A jinx is a whole different kettle of smooms."

The Captain's cabin door stands open.  It would be impolite to refuse the invitation.  Through the doorway, a safe can be seen, apparently fastened to one of the walls.  Most of the rooms other furnishings have been piled up against the forward bulkhead, with the exception of the bunk, a fitted one, built into the cabin itself, and surrounded by storage cabinets.

There is a body in the bunk, and in the limited illumination provided by the flashlights, it doesn't appear quite normal.

Just outside the cabin door, there is a ladder offering access to a ceiling shaft and, beyond it, B Deck.  By moving a little away from the ladder, it's possible to shine a flashlight up through the opening and see the closed entrance to the bridge.

Trudging along, as well as it is possible in such a low gravity, Yasmine peers into the cabin and shines her light at the occupant of the bed.

"What do you say, shall we let him sleep a bit longer and go up to B deck as you wished?" she asks Jago, looking over at him.

She does not really care either way, but there is this morbid curiosity to see what state the body might be in.  Gruesome as it is, it is not often she gets a chance to see any of the effects of a mis-jump up close.

"Curious."  Very curious, that even in the low gravity Corlan finds himself unable to move the small box.  "More than 250 kg?"  Frowning behind the faceplate, Shui crouches beside the box.  She studies it for a long moment, then decides it would be a better idea to inquire of others who might be more knowledgeable in these matters.

So she switches to general crew com.  + Apologies for the interruption, but...Corlan has discovered a small box that appears to weigh more than 250 kg.  It is possible it contains something such as gold or platinum, but I am unsure if it would be safe to open.  It is of wood, and appears to be in excellent condition - a box taken during an act of piracy, perhaps.... +

Her voice trails off, then returns.  + Is it possible for wood to have survived under these conditions for so long?  And why make a box out of something that can barely hold the weight of its contents? +

Tylen looked thoughtful,

"Well I ain't rightly sure I believe in Jinxes as such Miss Blake. Seems to me that most things have an explanation grounded in Physics or Chemistry or some such if we look hard enough and long enough."

He paused,

"Mind you, I knew this one guy back in the scouts who had the Devils own luck when it came to getting hurt on Patrol, never did find out why it was always him but my guess would be Biology rather than Luck, I reckon he was just genetically a klutz."

He grinned.

"Don't worry, I don't think anything's gonna happen to your baby that you cain't hex away for us Sas."

Smiling still. though looking a little more nervous than previously, Saskia nods at Tylen, "I ought to get back to work, just in case."

Hitting the door release, she adds, loud enough for anybody in the lounge to hear, "That was easy.  Hopefully Corlan won't have any more problems with it.  Thanks Tylen."

Saskia exits the cabin, with a smile for Dhakhingzuel as she passes, making her way back towards Crew Side.

The Vargr female is using one of the entertainment consoles, playing some sort of game involving the fitting together cubes into a complex tridimensional latice.  The cubes are all garish colours, clashing badly to human eyesight, so the game is probably of Vargr manufacture, since the canine aliens have poor colour vision.  She looks around as Tylen exits the cabin, "Is all good now, yes?"


Corlan gets to his feet, and studies the box, then looks at Shui, "I think that it's even too heavy for gold.  I've seen holovids where men can move crates of gold that are approximately this size.  But it has no markings, the only way we can find out what it is, is by opening it, I suspect."


Up above, Yas and Jago are still outside the cabin.  In the beams of the suit lights, the body in the bunk looks... a little odd, though it might be a trick of the light.  The safe looks perfectly normal though.

Tylen nods at the big Alien,

"Sure, we're OK now."

He thinks about the approaching ship.

"Hey Dhakhingzuel, could you give me a hand? I need to replenish the magazine after all those missiles we shot off. I could sure use a little help."

Behind the face plate, Jago’s eyes flick between the body the safe and the ladder leading up, the unlit cigar follows his gaze, apparently of its own accord.

”OK we’ll go up,” he says after a moment, “this can wait a little longer and it will be interesting to see if we can get anything for the computer.”

Standing back from the ladder, Jago lets Yasmin go first, purely as a gesture of common curtsey, of course.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:59, Fri 13 July 2007.

Shui, receiving no answer regarding the box, studies it for a long moment.  Apparantly the decision is up to her.  "Assuming it does not contain something as patently ridiculous as a portable black hole," she states quietly, moving to the box, "out here, in vaccuum, off the ship, would be the best possible place to open it."

She slowly kneels down next to the box.  "Mr. DeSant, would you please move some distance away and record this?"  Her voice drops a touch.  "It might...be handy later, should something go wrong."  She waits until he comlies, then slowly searches for the opening mechanism.

Noting that Jago does not answer Sushi, she pauses a moment and then says, over the comms, "Wood does not really age in vacuum, Sushi, as there is nothing to break it down - usually - and it is no doubt deep frozen like most anything else.  As for the weight, it can be anything - I rather have Sas check it up for any oddities before any attempts to open it.  For all we know it can be put there for the soul purpose of self destruction of this ship."

"Then again, it might just be all the missing, unwashed socks in the universe, freeze-dried and mega compacted.  Mis-jump and all.  Now that would be a much worse way to go," she finishes her reply to Sushi with a chuckle.  She then turns to Jago as he gives his "orders.

"Are you sure?  The poor fellow has waited an awfully long time," Yas chortles and then peers at Jago as he offers her right of way.  "So, you want me to go up the ladder first, allowing you to admire my posterior while pretending to be a gentleman, or even sneaking in there to steal all the valuables in the safe for yourself?"

She manages to keep a serious face for a whole second after the finished the sentence.

"Sure thing, boss.  I'll take point and blast any ghosts," she says and moves up to the ladder, pulls hard on the rungs with one hand and more or less flies upwards, her feet trailing the outside of the ladder as a sort of improvised break while she steers with the other hand.

The gun is ready to blast any ghosts or anything else that may appear slightly offensive to her, as always.

Shui is already prying at the edge of the lid, when Yas' warning comes back to leave it.  The wood breaks, a thin strip peeling off to reveal some sort of metal underneath.  The wood seems to be no more than a thin covering for something else, which apears to have letters, or symbols of some sort, at least, stencilled onto it.  Through the small gap, it's impossible to see more than a part of any symbol.


Upstairs, Yas and Jago manage to force the door to the bridge, and step through it.  Beams of light sweep across the chamber as they enter, revealing that a number of people had been on the bridge, and had been killed, by either the misJump, or by the subsequent crash.


Dhakhingzuel indicates that she is definitely interested in helping to restock the magazine, and follows Tylen to the hold.

Tylen leads the big Alien down to the Hold. He show's her where the missiles are stored and swings open the door to the Auto-Loader.

"Just a quick top up,"

He grins,

"So next time we see a pirate we can give them an equally big suprise!"

He partially slides the first missile from it's rack, holding it balanced until Dhakhingzuel can assist him.

+ Very well, Ms. Crow.  Be advised that I have peeled a small strip of wood from the box.  The wood appears to be a veneer over metal, with curious symbols etched into the metal.  I cannot, regrettably, make them out. +  She turns to Corlan.  "Mr. DeSant?  If you could film these symbols for me, close up?  Thank you."

She slowly stands.  Looks like no more exploration of this area.  Perhaps it would be best to simply ask directly.  + Captain Lanza - for what, precisely, should I be looking?  Did you notice something odd in this compartment? +

Aside from the bodies, the box, and sundry other 'oddities', of course.

“Your enthusiasm is commendable Shui, but once you have your samples I’d just like you to keep Corlan company, and make sure he doesn’t run into trouble.”

“We’ll give it about an hour then head back to the Margin.”

As he talks, Jago follows Yasmin onto the bridge, looks around at the cold, dead instruments and shudders.

“The computer, and the captains day cabin should be back through here,” he tells Yasmin as he turns abruptly towards the stern, dragging his eyes away from the empty pilot seat.

Shui raises one eyebrow, then nods.  + Certainly, Captain. +  Of course - it's likely better to simply keep out of the way of the professionals.  She relays this to Corlan.  "Mr. DeSant - once I have my samples, the floor is open for suggestions.  I merely ask we keep an eye upon our air supplies, and head back to the ship with plenty of time remaining."

Then the Doctor quietly goes about taking samples of everything she believes relevent in the hold...including the tea, and the yellow condensation.

The computer is a fairly typical model, dead of course, for the moment.  Panels on the front of it give access to equipment racks inside, holding crystal storage modules, processors, backup systems.

Like many Imperial systems, they are pretty universal, at least on Imperial ships, designed for simple removal and replacement.  A few parts have been jolted loose, probably by the impact, and lay, damaged, on the floor of the housing.  There are signs that there may have been a small fire in here at one time, obviously before the ship lost its atmosphere.


Corlan and Shui are hard at work in the hold, when the woman hears a strange noise.  After a few seconds it becomes clear that Corlan is whistling quietly to himself as he works, recording everything, and helping to shift items so that Shui can move around them more freely.  After a few moments, the whistling stops, "Ah... I apologise if you found that annoying, Miss Tiesi.  For some reason I've always found that work, particularly physical labour, gives me an overwhelming urge to whistle.  Or hum.  Or occasionally sing, quietly."


Elsewhere, Tylen and Dhakhingzuel are hard at work too, moving missiles from the stores to the loader.  At around 50 kg each, they are awkward to vove, even after Tylen dials down the grav plates in that area of the hold.  The Vargr soon takes her jacket off, revealing a bright yellow and black chequerboard shirt beneath.  She is panting hard as she slides each missile home.  Some Vargr are bigger than others, but Dhakhingzuel fits the typical pattern of being weaker than a comparable Human.

Still, her tail is wagging the whole time.

"Piraates learn, not fight thees ship, yes?"


"This is Jockram.  I'm picking up something strange over towards Arkadia.  You've got better eyes than us, Profit Margin, what do you make of it?  Oh, and do you follow that Swordie language?  They seem excited about something."

"I hardly think that a little whistling should produce an apology, Mr. DeSant."  Shui takes a long look about the cargo hold as she works.  "I am most appreciative of your efforts, and this place...."

Bodies frozen, forever locked in ancient graves.  Strange mysteries, possibly never to be solved.  A ghost ship, found too late.

"...this place would do well to have some music," she finishes quietly, before returning to her work.

"Looks kinda like Shata Lunoqi is handin' out a severe whuppin' over there.  Near as I c'n make out, 'sich die Reichsregierung Schiff stellen', or however they say it, means at least one of 'em wants to surrender.  Their own commander ordered him back into the fight." Conrad answers Jockram, unable to disguise the pleasure in his voice.

"Then y'all got yer basic neutrino burst, but not a nuke, since it's been happenin' for a bit.  Reckon there's a ship over there leakin' radiation from a busted fusion plant.  An' the fightin's still goin' on."

"Let's see what I can make of this then," Yas says and crouches down at the computer to see what could be salvaged, and if she even might be able to MacGyver some kind of temporary solution to the it running, doubtful as that is.

"Some of these we can bring back, at least," she comments mostly to herself.


OOC:  In case required:
Yasmine Crow rolled 7 using 2d6+1. If it's broke and can't be fixed, don't.

The work on the derelict contimues.

Corlan records everything that he thinks that others might be interested in and, since he has no idea what might capture their attention, he does his best to capture everything.  Still quietly whistling something classical

Shui takes her samples, particularly of the yellowish ice in the exotic cargo hold, neatly marking each phial before storing it away in her sample bag.  Samples of the tea are also taken, along with anything else she can fit into a phial.

On the upper deck, Yas goes through the computer core, pulling anything that she believes is salvageable and useable.  One thing that she does find is that the data crystals which serve the ship as a flight recorder all seem to be intact, and still locked in to their rack.  She looks around, but finds that Jago has not followed her into the confined space.

Jago is, in fact, in the Captain's day cabin.  Most of the stuff in there has moved, violently, during the rough landing.  A framed hologram of the ship hangs on one wall, its mountings damaged, so that it is now suspended by one corner.  The small safe behind it is clearly visible.

Jago clears a path through the debris with deft little flicks of his boot and sort of glides across the frozen carpet to the safe on the wall. For a while he regards it with his head on one side, then the other, he locks this thickly gloved fingers, flexes them, then rubs his palms together, the ritual preparation of safe crackers since time immemorial, though somewhat awkwardly performed in a vac suit.

Resting his helmet on the cold metal, so as to hear the tumblers fall, Jago turns the dial first one way, then the other, very carefully.

"Figures that the old man wanders off.  If he gets stuck in a hole in the floor I'll let him stew for a bit," Yas comments to herself as she puts away the salvageable parts of the computer.

Then she spots it.  The flight recorder.  It has to be, nothing else would look that stupid where it sits.  With a big grin on her face she starts on working the crystals loose - this is a good find, and will tell them a lot, giving them a significant advantage in the continued search of these would-be pirates.

Kind of foolish of them, hiring any ships that moves, like the one taking on Profit Margin.  It would be like recruiting Marines by yanking them from bars or some other stupid idea - ending up with all kind of people that were either incompetent or simply did not get along.

The last of the Missiles loaded, Tylen wipes the sweat from his brow and dials the gravity back up.

"Well I reckon we should let them attack us a few times more, give us chance to chastise them a little before word gets round that The Margin ain't no pushover."

He grins back at the Alien.

"Finished," Shui declares over her comlink to Corlan.  There is a certain satisfaction in her tone - the pleasure of a job well-done.  "Mr. DeSant - have you any requests for further exploration?  Do you wish to continue deeper into the ship?  We have sufficient air, should you so desire.  Alternately, we can return to the Profit Margin."

She frowns, glancing around the hold.  "I will...accompany you either way, though I may be required to return here, should Captain Lanza find it needful."

Corlan shakes his head, then remembers that Shui probably can't see the movement too clearly.  "I think I've had enough excitement for one day, Miss Tiesi."  He glances at the chronometer attached to the suit's wrist comp, and adds, "And part of the next day too."

"Still, it was interesting to be able to help, even if only a little, rather than only leaving the ship when she is in port.  To be quite honest, it hadn't occurred to me just how alike starports on different worlds could be."


Jago, confronted by an old fashioned safe, chooses to demonstrate the positive aspects of a misspent youth.  Even with the somewhat muffling effect of the helmet, it takes him less than twenty minutes to crack the thing.  At the end, he has to do precisely that, bracing his feet against the wall, and yanking at the handle, to break a seal of ice around the door.

Meanwhile, Yas continues her work in the computer core.  Soon she has all the crystals worked loose, and tucked away in a pocket.  Next, she checks the motherboards.  They turn out to be older models, probably no good in Profit Margin's upgraded system, but they might be worth something, to somebody.


Aboard Profit Margin, Tylen finishes the reloading, and seals the storage chamber again.  Dhakhingzuel yawns.  "I should sleep.  It gets late, and Vargr physi-ology require short sleep, often.  Thank you for allow me help.  You are inter-resting Hoomaan, Tylen Org-gesh."

Elsewhere, Saskia moves about in Engineering, barefoot as usual, and checks the systems that will be needed if the ship has to lift in a hurry.  On the Bridge, Conrad listens in on the radio chatter coming in across all the cold distance between here and Arkadia, where the battle continues.


Far above, Jockram hands his seat over to Banster, and goes to grab a little rest, leaving strict instructions to wake him, if anything happens.

"Maybe Sas will have some use of them, and if not, maybe Jago will put them on display like that other weird thing of his.  Whatever happened to that anyway?"

Talking to herself, Yas gathers her findings and heads back towards where she suspects the good captain of Profit Margin might be hiding out.  She figures he might need help since he has been gone for a while.  Maybe he is indeed stuck in the floor somewhere, having stepped through even in this gravity.

"Indeed?"  Shui raises an eyebrow.  "You may very well be correct with that, Mr. DeSant."  She considers all of the starports she has seen - nowhere near as many as Corlan, but still growing more and more familiar with each passing one.  Perhaps, she considers, it is time for a change.

"You might inquire of the Captain if there is anything you can do to assist in the future," she continues quietly as they slowly move back through the ship on their way out.  "It might prove to be a welcome break in the routine."

"OK Dhakhingzuel, you get your rest. I'll just run a check on the turret systems, make sure everything's ready to rock."

Taking his leave of the Alien, Tylen makes his way to the turret and ensures that the missiles are correctly loaded and registering with his fire control systems.

Yas finds Jago easily enough, her suit looking like some sort of armour, now that the pockets are filled with mostly rectangular computer components.  Jago, she discovers, is having no problems, but is busy going through the contents of a small safe.  Mostly it seems to be paperwork, but there is also a snub pistol, and a small box.

Corlan follows Shui back to the open airlock, and the pair simply step down to the ice below.  With gravity at a mere 0.01 G, they have plenty of time to enjoy the journey, as they fall the short distance.  The sun rises above the crater rim, and moves rapidly across the sky as the tiny moonlet spins beneath their feet.

Back in his gunnery station, Tylen runs some checks on the load.  He has green indicators all across the board for all of his systems.  The launchers are showing full loads of missiles and sand, and the laser's capacitors are fully charged.  If any trouble comes their way, Tylen will be ready for it.

“Yasmin,” Jago says cheerfully as she steps into the room, “not exactly pay dirt,” he indicates the stuff he’s holding, “but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. How did you do?”

As he talks, Jago gathers up the stuff, including the papers, “I’ll have to thaw these out before I can read them,” he remarks conversationally, “it’s like trying to fold a chapatti while they are in this state, come on, lets head back, we’ll check out the captains cabin, then return to the Margin to take stock.”

“Jockram, do you want to come over for that?” he adds, not knowing that the man has retired.

Shui immediately cuts into the main com-line.  + Pardon me, but we have a situation. +  Then back.  "Mr. DeSant.  Please take hold of me, immediately."  + We have encountered a possible danger -+ she twists in the near null-gee, attempting to bring her feet into contact with the hull, to allow the magnetic grapples to do their magic trick +- an amorphous discolouration of the ice -+ if the boots contact, Shui attempts to snag Corlan +- which is apparently seeking us.  Attempting to avoid. +

Her voice remains calm, almost empty as she rattles off the situation.  But a cold sweat breaks out on her brow as she considers the ramifications of missing.

Jago steps aside so that Yasmin can go first, she’s faster than he and would be more effective once she gets there.

“Tylen, can you see anything from the lower turret, one of those lasers might be useful against an ice thingy, if you can use it without frying any crew or passengers.”

Tylen drops into his seat and powers up the turrett. He swings it in a slow arc, sweeping the area, attempting to use all of the short range scanning devices available to him.

Corlan manages to get his feet close enough to the wreck's hull for the grapples to take hold, though he requires a little help, and is not quite so nimble about it as Shui.

Turning, he looks down at the ground below/ahead of him, and soon spots the splash of colour.  A grayish blue blotch, about half a metre across, which flows across the icy surface.  He removes his recorder from his pocket, and starts to film the thing as it slides along the ice.

Tylen can see the thing on the display from the turret's visual light cameras, but not in any other part of the EM spectrum.  It doesn't show up on neutrino sensors, radar, or passive infrared. 

It continues to move along, almost parallel to the hull, until it is almost directly beneath Shui and Corlan...  If not for the fact that it is sitting in direct sunlight, it could almost be mistaken for a faint shadow on the glittering ice.

Corlan leans back a little, and points towards Profit Margin.  A second of the coloured patches is skirting around the edge of the ship's shadow, until it gets to a point where it starts to move parallel to the course taken by the first one.

Shui activates her com again, instantly, and this time the stress flows into her voice.  + Another spotted, moving closer along a similar vector.  +  She considers briefly, then a thought springs to mind, and she raises up her eyes, searching space above the stains on the ground, on a line between them and the solar light source of this system.  Especially 'in front' of Corlan and herself.

From a biologist's point of view, were a semi-transparent creature floating in water, it would still cast a 'shaded' area of sorts upon the ground below it.  These patches in sunlight - might they be caused by some kind of 'cloaked' object?  Were that the case, given the size of the patch the object would by necessity be small, and close to the 'ground'.  Perhaps very close to her and Corlan.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:28, Tue 31 July 2007.

"Got some data crystals, and, best of all, the flight recorder - that's a find, for sure - and then some bits and pieces that I'm sure will be handy at some point to someone, if not us or Saskia," Yas chuckles at Jago as he greets her, patting various pockets - very gently - as she speaks.

Then they set to head back, and the call comes through from Sushi.  Even as Jago starts to move aside for her, the former Marine kicks into action and she launches herself forward, already set on getting to them as quickly as possible.  Passing at minimal distance between the hull and her captain, she grabs onto anything and everything to help her speed up and manoeuvre through the ship.

"Hold onto your space pants, I'm on my way," she calls over the comm, a dead calm ruling her voice, a telltale sign that she has switched into her Marine training.

Using all her training she attempts to move as quickly as possible through the derelict without losing control.  Getting stuck will help no one.

"Doc, Corlan, let me know if you can gleam any more info about them, such as rough size, any features and so on," she requests, attempting to keep their mind busy on something else other than sheer fear of the unknown.

He triggered the comlink

"I've got no reading on my scans Doc, and anything that's out there would be too close for the Laser, too much chance you'd get boiled when the ice vaporises."

 He slammed his hand down on the arm rest in frustration, then triggered the button again.

"Jago, you want me to suit up and come out tooled up?"

He figured that the Laser carbine would be a better weapon against any creature that lived on the icy surface than any that were already outside.

+ It is a gray-blue spot approximately half a meter in diameter.  It moves like a shadow, but there is nothing to cast it.  Currently it is directly below us. +  Her hands are free, but Shui has no weapon - the snub pistol would have been useless in the vaccuum, in any case.  + The second shape is now moving away from the Profit Margin, tangentally to its shadow and parallelling the course of the first shape. +

Her smile is weak behind the faceplate.  + I will most certainly inform you should the situation become so grim that I prefer boiling, Mr. Ogresh.  Until then, I appreciate your prudence. +

Jago makes his way towards the air lock, “thanks Sjui. Lets not overact people, these might be evil ice moulds intent on universal destruction, or sentient beings who just want to say hello.”

“Getting suited up is a good idea Tylen, but don’t come over just yet. See if you can find something warm, I’d like to see if its heat that attracts them, any bit of trash that is at ambient inside the Margin.”

“If any of you drop the ramp, keep it up off the ice, we don’t want to give them an easy way in.”

Yas steps out of the airlock, swinging around easily onto the outside of the hull.  She looks to the ice below Shui and Corlan, and steps to one side, just a little, to get a clearer view.

As she does so, her shaddow falls directly across the blue patch.  The thing recoils, moving rapidly away from the hull until it is clear of the gunner's shadow.  This, coincidentally, moves it closer to the other patch.

Then, something odd happens.  Both of the patches stop moving, just for a few seconds.  When they start again, they are moving towards each other, and the colour is changing, still blue, but with orange circles pulsating across their surfaces...

Tylen goes to his cabin and draws on his suit. Carrying the helmet he walks down to the galley. He takes a ceramic cup and places it in the microwave oven for a few minutes, then takes it with him down to the cargo bay. He puts on his helmet and opens the ramp so it forms a level platfom to stand on, then walks out onto it. He coms Jago.

"OK boss, I got a heat sourse, where shall I drop it?"

"Made some new friends, eh?"

Yas chuckles as she watches the spots move about, and then, as it flinch away and moves towards the other one she chuckles again  "Clearly I'm not his type, or he knew I would kick his butt if he tried anything."

"My guess is, either they just fell in love or they are about to try to kick one another's butts.  Let's hope they will go off together to make some more little baby patches, eh?  I love happy endings, 'cause there's way too few of those in life as it is."

She sighs and says, with a hint of melancholy, "I hope I am a good matchmaker, at least."

"Let's wait and see how it plays out, folks, keep your calm," she urges the others.  "They might leave, or might be too busy to take note of us going back to old Profit.  Beside, they are scared of shadows, so in an emergency we could simply leap into the air to let our shadow fall on them, should they approach from the wrong direction and... ...now I am getting ahead of myself.  Let's wait and see."

"I am more concerned with Mr. DeSant's safety, Yasmin," Shui responds quietly, still watching the spots move.  She notes the curious reaction to the shadow, and the even more curious colour-change.  "Should anything untoward occur, I trust you will return him to the ship?"

Their passenger has priority here, higher than her.  Ship first, essential crew second, paying passengers third.  Doctors and Stewards fall somewhere near the bottom.

The two flickering shapes slide over the ice towards each other.  They come into contact, and as they do, their pulsating colours synchronise.  They flow into each other, until there is only a single, perfectly circular patch, larger than the original two.

The pulsing stops, and the colour is back to the original pale blue.

The thing is sitting perfectly still, at least, as far as human eyes can see.

After a few seconds of this... activity... a shudder seems to pass through the blue shape, and the colour fades to a much darker shade, almost verging on black.

"Don't be daft, Sushi.  No one is more or less important, and no one is going to be left behind, period."

"Oops, look away kids.  Looks like a private moment is coming up.  Or a death," Yas replies and shifts her attention to the creatures for a moment, even if she never did look away from them completely.

"Good thing Ridge isn't here, he's start humping someone's leg by now," she mumbles as the show seems over.

"Unless I'm mistaken that might be the first sign of a baby splotch," she comments louder and keeps watching in case of any further development takes place.  They cannot stay here waiting indefinitely for the creatures to move in case they will not, but for the time being that seemed like the best option.

Jago catches up and peers out of the air lock, “what do you think Yasmin, is it dangerous?”

Jago tries to asses the distance to the Profit Margin’s ramp as he mulls over various strategies for reaching the ship without touching the ground.

"So far it does not seem so.  It knew by instinct that we Marines, even ex ones like myself, are bad-arse, so it avoided my shadow even.  Then it either hooked up with its love, or killed its nemesis.  Hard to tell without asking.  We give it a while, and if it seems to remain we will try crossing, I say," Yas replies to Jago.

Tylen wraps the cooling mug in his gloved hands to save some of the heat.

"You still want me to drop this heat source anywhere boss?"

He enquires of Jago over the intercom.

"I am more capable than Mr. DeSant regarding my own mobility and protection," Shui notes - quietly delivered, but to the point.  "Regarding assistance, he is the priority."

Then she falls silent as the other members of the group go to work.  The doctor continues to observe, watching the creature as it passes through several changes, waiting to see where she might fit into the crew's plans.

Jago signals that Tylen should wait a moment, until they're sure exactly what is going on.

A few seconds later, the patch seems to become extremely agitatad, and starts changing shape rapidly.  After about four or five seconds of this, it begins to split into four parts, all of roughly equal size.

One part breaks away completely, while the others are still connected, and it immediately moves away, heading in the same direction that the two original patches had been moving in.  Its colour starts to fade back to a lighter blue, and it assumes a roughly circular shape.

Behind it (if an amorphous object can truly be said to have a "front" or "behind") the other three continue their efforts to break apart, and the links between them grow more tenuous...

"Hey, look, either that's the offspring, or whatever they would call it, or they literally tore one another to pieces," Yas says cheerfully, despite the quite different connotation of her two theories.  "Let's hope they clear the area.  Wouldn't want to start killing young ones at my age."

She continues to observe and wait, knowing that if she needs a heat source that she is carrying several of them already, in the form of currently cool slugs in her slug throwers.

Tylen waits patiently, clasping the still cooling mug.

With a sudden violent movement, the remaing cluster breaks into three separate parts.  All of them slither off across the ice, heading away in roughly the same direction as the first one.  None of them are now heading towards Profit Margin, or any of her crew.

"That's that, show's over, folks, unless they are going home to get their flatguns and shoot us with flat bullets, of course," Yas says with a happy but firmly convinced tone of voice.

"Just a few moments longer and they will be out of sight, then we can make our way back.  I can keep an eye out for them from here where I got the height advantage," she suggests and looks around to see what the others might think of that idea.

"Or we could all run flat out and then see who can skid the furtherest along the ice on our rears?"

An impish grin appears on her face.

+ I believe I prefer the former options, Ms. Crow, + Shui notes quietly over the com-link, watching the strange creatures move away.  She turns toward Corlan, switching to the short-range com.  "Well.  A great deal of excitement, and nothing comes of it save used air."  Speaking of which...she quickly checks her air supply.  It should be fine, but one never knows.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:18, Fri 17 Aug 2007.

The immediate excitement over, Tylen checks his com link tothe gunnery computer to see how the battle is progressing. He selects the most powerful sensors he can access from the remote whilst he walks back to the airlock to return to the turret.

"They might be something that's never been seen before.  This moon is pretty remote and insignificant." Corlan says cheerfully.  He turns to take a few more shots of the strange coloured patches, then lowers the recorder.

"I wonder why they're so keen to travel in that direction all the time?"

"Bah, spoilsport," Yas tells Sushi with poorly acted grumpiness as she pictures the good doctor sliding across the ice after coming on her ar...rears.

"Who knows?  Magnetic fields, rotation of this lump, the pizza place is that way..."  She offers a few ideas to Corlan and smiles at him.

"Now, don't got posting those images of their love life all over the galaxy, we might make first contact some day," she continues to joke with him, feeling in a rather good mood currently.  She got to rush like in the good old days, that were not all that good back then, and then witness something unusual, probably unseen by anyone before them.

"As Ms. Crow states, many possible reasons Mr. DeSant.  Perhaps when the ship is mobile again, we should do a...flyby, I believe is the term," Shui replies to th man quietly, waiting for the creatures to vanish entirely.  "Please prepare yourself - we will be moving soon, and I would rather reach the ship in good time on the off chance the beings return."

The blotches of colour slide away across the ice, climbing easily up the wall of the impact crater.  As they cross the lip, Jago gives the word, and the group of explorers drops to the surface of the small moon and hurries across to Profit Margin, just as quickly (though in a different direction) as the alien life forms had moved away.

Within a matter of minutes, all of them have cycled through the airlock and are in the process of removing vacc-suits.

Corlan keeps talking, and seems hard pressed to decide which he found more exciting... the chance to actually help document the wreck, or the encounter with the moon's inhabitants.

Finally though, he starts to run out of steam, and suddenly seems to realise how late it is...

Tylen slid back into his familiar couch inside the turret. A quick flick through the scans confirms what the relayed information tells him. He relaxes a little seeing that the imperial vessel still seems to have the upper hand.

Saskia makes her way around to the airlock, and waits.

As soon as Jago takes off his helmet, she reports, "I've got everything primed and ready to lift as soon as you give the word."

"Also, I checked up on that idea you had.  We can fit an airlock in that space near the bridge, without frelling anything up.  There's no wiring or anything in that section of the hull, and none of the Jump grid runs through it.  All we need to do is put in at a decent port to get the work done."

“Thanks Saskia, it’s good to know that we are ready to go, but if we don’t leave for a couple of days, will that be a problem?”

Listening to the news about the new air lock, Jago beams as he takes off his helmet, “that will save trekking through engineering if we want to go outside when in space, and give us an option to opening the main hatch when we are on the ground.”

The captain ruefully studies it’s rather sodden end of his cigar, “there’s a pinnace over there that looks to be in one piece, do you think you could take a look and tell me firstly if it’s worth salvaging, and if so, how we could go about doing so.”

"You want me to go over there?" Saskia's face drops. Frell!  Dren!  Yotz!  Mivonks!

"Sure.  That'd be no problem."

She turns away from Jago, perhaps a little too quickly, and hurries back to her quarters, where the sliding door refuses to slam behind her.

Saskia seems perturbed; Shui resolves to go speak to her as soon as she finishes assisting Corlan.  "Mr. Desant," she says, packing his vacc-suit.  "I hope you enjoyed your day - it certainly seems that way, in any case.  However, something seems to have come up.  I can have dinner ready in a short time for yourself, and for any who wish it so-" this to the entire group "-but if you will excuse me?"

Shui then slips down the corridor after Saskia, to the engineer's door.  She ponders for a moment, then taps the door-chime.

The door stays closed for a while, but opens eventually.

Saskia is standing just inside, her face a deathly white.  "Hey, Shui."  She steps back, then crosses to sit on the edge of her bunk.

Her voice is distinctly hopeful, as she asks, "Need help with fixing something urgent?"

"Hello, Ms. Blake," Shui replies, slipping into the room.  The door closes behind her.  "Regrettably, no - much as I would like to give you an excuse not to cross to the other ship."  She takes a step in, and drops into a crouch in front of the other woman, balancing on the balls of her feet.  "On the other hand, I can give you a doctor's note."  Her voice grows more gentle.  "And I would be happy to do so."

"Is there something with which I can help you, Saskia?  Anything at all?" she inquires, concerned.

"I don't want to go over to that ship." Saskia answers, her expression and tone both filled with abject misery.  "I'm not sick, or anything, though.  Just scared.

"It's a ghost ship.  Unlucky.  If I go over there, whatever frelling thing went wrong with their heap-of-dren J-Drive might follow me back."

She falls silent for a moment, then, "That's all.  The wreck scares me."

"Indeed."  Shui places her hand on Saskia's knee - there, but not pressuring.  "And you shall not have to do so.  This would affect your duties here, Saskia.  I can see that."  She doesn't humor the other woman - Saskia is terrified, bone-deep, and the reason is unimportant.  Besides, who is to say that she isn't correct?  How much did they truly know about jump systems and hyperspace?

"This ship needs you more than that one does, and the Profit Margin requires its engineer to be in top working condition," she murmurs.  "As medical officer, I have some say in decisions.  I will inform Jago that you should not be sent across - there are too many risks involved, to both you and the ship.  It is as simple as that."

Hope flares in the engineer's eyes.  "You'd talk to Jago?  Say that to him?"  There is a way out.

"I don't mind wrecked ships normally, you see?  But this is a misJump.  There's no telling what happened to it in Jump.  Every misJump is different.  Sometimes the ship just comes out a day early or late, or in the wrong system, or everybody aboard has a headache for the whole week.

"Other times it's like what happened over there.  The drives vanish, the crew dies, and the ship turns up years later.  If it turns up at all.  It makes me feel sick just thinking about it."

She stares at Shui's hand, resting on her knee, then lays her own hand on top of it.  A weak smile as she says, "Thank you."

Corlan, having removed his helmet, is examing the recorded images from his first ever away mission.  He skips past the ones of the wreck interior, and goes straight to the shots of the coloured blotches on the ice.  He turns to Yasmine, smiling broadly, "Look here, Miss Crow.  This is when the... well... creature, I suppose...  At least, I imagine it was a creature, of some kind.  Anyway, this is when it was frightened of your shadow.  I expect that, if only it had a face, it would be wearing an expression of sheer terror."

"Of course!"  Shui draws her thin eyebrows together, in a concentrating frown.  "If this causes you distress, it will certainly affect your work here.  Were I an arachnophobe, and someone forced me to deal with a large quantity of spiders, certainly my work would suffer over the next few days."  Her smile is wry.  "And your work concerns the entire function of the ship."

If Shui were to make a mistake...one person might die.  One person might suffer.  A terrible tragedy, and reason enough for her to refuse should some situation be as unnerving to her as this is to Saskia.  But should Saskia fail somehow, the entire ship might become the engineer's self-fullfilled prophecy, mirroring the wreck they discovered - cold, dry, broken, and empty of life.  The crew betrayed by the ship, itself betrayed.

Betrayed to emptiness.  By the ship.  And suddenly Shui can see how the Engineer, the ship's custodian, the ship's High Priest, would react to even the thought as Saskia has.  Of course it terrifies her, worse than anything else might!

When Saskia places her hand atop Shui's, the doctor turns her own over and clasps the Engineer's, giving it a quick squeeze.  "You are most welcome, Ms. Blake.  In truth."  She slowly stands.  "I am glad to have been of assistance.  Glad for you, and the Profit Margin, both."

"YEEEEEEE-HAH!"

The shout echoes through the crew portion of Profit Margin, reaching anywhere not sealed off from the Bridge.  A few seconds later, the crew side intercom crackles to life, and Conrad's voice reaches the whole crew, "Hey, y'all, looks like the Battle of Arkadia's all done.  The leader of the task force jus' got herself nuked.  Can't make out details too good from way out here, but it looks like her power plant overloaded.  She's driftin', dead in space."

"They got three smaller ships makin' a run for it, on three diff'rent vectors.  Shata Lunoqi don't look to be chasin' 'em."

A smile, still tinged with worry, "It's Saskia, not Miss Blake.  We're - " and Conrad's announcement cuts through what she was about to say, and brings another smile.

"Shata Lunoqi got through.  She always was a good ship.  Good skipper, too."  About half a second later, the smile transforms to an expression of shocked horror, "Not that Profit Margin and Jago aren't.  A good ship, and a good skipper, I mean.  Because they are."

Her other hand, the one not resting on Shui's, reaches back to pat the bulkhead behind her.

As Sassy goes off, Yas is too late to head after her friend, and leaves it to the doctor to console her, so instead she catches Conrad and shows him the watch she retrieved, explaining the situation and hoping he can help trace down any relatives.  It is a long shot, but she figures they may want to know.  They might even be able to retrieve a full list of those aboard and thus notify all the families, if there are any.  It is something she has from the service, feeling it important for relatives to learn about the fate of their missing kin.

Then Corlan catches her and shows her the images he took of the alien encounter, and it takes her mind away from both previous subjects, placing a grin on her face.

"I'm sure it was a creature, and yeah, even they know to fear us bad-ass Marines, evidently.  I bet you can sell those shots, well, of the aliens, to some, uh, xenophobiologist or whatever they are called," she tells him with a chuckle, and then Conrad seems to try to wake up the dead with a shout worthy of admiration, and news that at least should cheer Sassy up a little.

"Of course," Shui agrees when Saskia leaps to comfort her 'offended' vessel.  "Profit Margin and her crew have always gone the distance, as the saying goes."  Her smile is grateful, though laced with sadness.  "I am truly pleased that the Shata Lunoqi and your friends survived their battle."

How many others died?

She does not blame the warship or its crew.  There is no blame, in fact, in her feelings - only a deep well of sorrow within.  Sick at heart, Shui considers the crew of the dead ship.  Slain by cannon fire, burned by explosion, or suffocated within the cold depths of a vacuum.  It hollows her spirt.

She slowly stands.  "My apologies, Ms. Blake.  Saskia."  A small nod.  "I find myself a trifle overexerted by the day, perhaps.  I should inform Captain Jago of my decisions vis a vis your remaining here."  Her smile is wan, but Shui's grip on Saskia's fingers is strong, and she squeezes (lightly) once again before releasing.

Conrad starts work on trying to identify the watch brought to him by Yas, studying it and comparing the details to information in Profit Margin's database.  Simply by examining the face of the watch, for example, he is able to determine the probable day length on its world of manufacture.

He also keeps one eye on the long range sensors.  If the Sword World ships are looking to escape the system, they'll be needing to find somewhere to refuel, which will, in all likelihood, mean them heading for a gas giant, somewhere in the outer system.

Corlan, meanwhile, heads back to his cabin, planning on turning in.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:40, Tue 28 Aug 2007.

Tylen flipped open a channel to Conrad,

"I'm not getting much on my sensors, but it looks like those three blips are changing course. If they're coming our way you might want to warn Jago and see if he wants to lift. I'd rather be out in the Black armed and waiting for them than sitting like a wounded duck here on this ice ball."

"At the moment, they could be headin' 'bout anywheres.  I reckon they're just tryin' to put some distance 'twixt 'emselves and Shata Lunoqi.  An' they're scatterin', so's she can't follow all of 'em at once." Conrad replies, taking a moment out from his research on the watch.

"It's how I'd do it, if'n I were commandin' one of 'em.  Course, I'd've known better than to pick a fight with a tougher enemy."

"I got an eye on 'em anyways.  But even with the best possible drives, they can't get here for days.  We got time to loot the wreck, an' be long gone by then."

At his desk in his cabin, Jago keeps half an ear on the internal comms traffic while regarding the object in its stainless steel tray. Always changing in for and colour without rhyme or reason, undemanding and passive, for the most part, Jago had become rather fond of it and often held little one sided conversations with it, which it nothing else, helped him get his own thoughts in order. Whether he actually believed that it was a sentient being, or had the capacity to understand him, was still open to debate, and was occasionally the subject of such as Jago changed his mind on the matter as often as the object changed shape.

Right now, at the end of just such a one sided conversation, Jago had devised a plan of action.


“Conrad, thinking caps on. The Big Deal came out here three weeks ago looking for this wreck and got taken by pirates. The other day when we arrived, the Never Say Die was taken by pirates; you have the coordinates for that.”

“If it wasn’t the guys we have locked up in the state room, where are the culprits?”

“I know I’m making some assumptions here, but just go with it and do an analysis on that basis would you.”

Back aboard Profit Margin people move to go about their reguler duties, even though it's a little after one thirty in the morning.  Plenty of time for sleep, after the ship has moved out of potential danger.

Corlan returns to his cabin, where he will sleep, just as soon as the excitement wears off a little.  Dhakhingxuel is already asleep, her Vargr physiology forcing her to rest.  Shui has little in the way of duties to perform, though she did tell Saskia that she'd speak to Jago on the engineer's behalf.

Saskia, herself, is in her cabin, trying to avoid speaking to Jago on her own behalf.

Conrad is still working.  Before becoming a navigator on a commercial ship, he had put in some time with the Navy, and knows about long duty shifts.

Yas, having spoken to Conrad already, heads for her post, and pokes her head in on Tylen, just to see what's been happening with the prisoners, in her absence.

In his cabin, Jago makes some calls.

Shui, after leaving Saskia in her cabin, heads down to Jago's office.  She chimes the door upon arriving, waiting for a response.  After all, he could be busy.

She's willing to wait.  This is important - very much so.

"Well, now, based on what the prisoners told us, I don't reckon them other ships are in the system now." Conrad says, thoughtfully, moving Yas' search onto a side panel of his console, while he starts going over Jago's question.

"There most likely ain't enough traffic 'roun' here for a big operation, so I'd say they come in, play havoc for a while, then move along.  Either to find a new huntin' ground, or back to their home base.  Meanwhile, someone else takes over the operation here-abouts."

"In this here case, the new guys on the shift were the ones we caught.  Hey, maybe they were just' that - new guys.  I mean, they said they'd never done this before.  Maybe the new guys always get sent here, so they got less chance here of runnin' into somethin' they can't handle."

He chuckles, "'less'n' we're in the neighborhood, that is."

“OK, are you sure, I don’t want to claim the bounty for ‘ending the threat of piracy’ if there is still a predator in the system. Could you put together a package gun camera footage and any other ‘evidence’ we can present to the Heairach please, and include a plot of the Harpers Dream’s course.

“Come in,” he calls over his shoulder on hearing a knock at his door.

“Take a seat Shui, I’ll only be a second,” with a little grin and a wink to the medic, Jago thumbs the crew side intercom.

“Yasmin, the captain of this boat has to have a word with Dhakhingzue, is that me, or you?”

Shui slips into the room with a small bow for the Captain.  She settles herself comfortably in the chair to wait, giving him a nod in reply to his politeness.

Tylen suddenly remembers the prisoners and hurries to check on them once more. He returns to the compartment and opens the door, covering the room with his revolver.

"OK, all off you back against the wall with your hands where I can see 'em."

He says firmly, and waits for them to comply.

Yas chuckles as Tylen realises he has neglected his duty as a guard of the prisoners.  If it had been in the Service he would be facing severe reprimands, but here all he will get is potentially a bad conscience.

While he points his gun at the prisoners, she decides to reply to the skipper.

"Why, that would be me, of course.  Let's not shatter her illusions, shall we?" she replies jokingly and then adds, "I'll go talk to her once I am sure Tylen won't shoot anyone.  Anything in particular, or just an update on the situation?"

"Could you drop by and see me first please Yas, I want to run this by you in any case."

"So, Shui, how are things, what can I do for you," Jago asks, turning finaly towards his guest.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:40, Thu 06 Sept 2007.

"Sure thing.  Hey, Ty, try not to shoot all of them.  In fact, try not to shoot any of them," Yas replies, and then "advices" Tylen while still on the com, before she turns to head over to Jago's little office.

They may not buy it, the prisoners, but it might help to keep them calm and obedient, she figures.  But now it was time to see what the old man wanted.  Maybe time for another raise and promotion?

"Thank you, Captain Lanza," Shui replies.  "Things go reasonably well for me - in truth," she amends, "there was something about which I needed to speak to you regarding my own situation, but the pressing matter concerns Ms. Blake."

Shui leans forward slightly, steepling her fingers before her face.  "Ms. Blake is under extreme distress at the moment at the thought of investigating the other vessel.  Of course, she does not wish to disappoint you, and would never say so herself.  But I believe that to investigate the derelict would cause a sharp decline in her ability to maintain the Profit Margin."

Her frown deepens.  "In addition, Ms. Blake describes possible problems that may arise from her investigating the other ship.  While these issues may seem fantastical, I have seen sufficient medical impossibilities to give me respect when a professional speaks.  If Ms. Blake has concerns, then I do as well, beyond my worries for her state of mind."

She takes a deep breath.  "It is my professional reccomendation, as the ship's medical officer, that Ms. Blake not investigate the wreck."

Tylen checks the prisoners, who are just as much a bunch of villainous desperadoes as they ever were.  Which is to say, not very.  They all follow Tylen's instructions to the letter  when the gunner opens the door to check on them.  They appear to be behaving themselves, though they look less than ecstatic, as the full truth of their situation is starting to sink in...

Yas arrives at Jago's door to find it closed.

Inside, Shui and Jago are discussing Saskia, while the woman in question is in her own cabin, hoping that Shui can talk Jago into not letting her set foot off Profit Margin, at least while they are on this snowball.

On the Bridge, Conrad starts collating the sensor data, targeting information, and course data that he has regarding Harper's Dream.  He also starts putting together a file on the wreck, just in case.  As he works, the long range sensors show that Shata Lunoqi is still at Arkadia, while the three remaining Sword Worlds ships are moving out from the planet, all of them at about four gees.

“Well, of course, if she doesn’t want to go, she doesn’t need to. I’ve never maked anyone do stuff that they don’t want to. I must say though, that I’m a little disappointed that she didn’t feel able to tell me herself, after all this time I thought that we had a better understanding than that.”

“What about you and your situation?”

Rare as it is to find the door closed, Yas raps on it to let him know she is there and then waits.  Never know what is going on in there, and perhaps best to leave it at fiction rather than fact.

"Thank you Captain," Shui replies, relieved that Jago is the man she expected him to be - understanding.  "Truthfully, I had to work the reason for her fear from her.  Ms. Blake simply did not wish to disappoint you, and was balanced between going and risking herself and her ship, and refusing your request.  I merely made things easier for her."

"As for myself -"  there comes a knock at the door.  "-this will only take a moment, Captain.  Some issues of a personal nature have come up, and I'm afraid my presence is required elsewhere."  She sighs, full of regret.  The doctor had hoped that this ship would be the place for her, but....  "I fear that the next time we make planetfall, I will be forced to take passage elsewhere.  I apologize greatly for the inconvenience."

Jago’s eyes flick rapidly from Shui to the door where some one is waiting, and back to Shui. “I won’t try to stop you of course, but we’ll be sorry if you leave. We will have a proper talk before then, perhaps I can talk you out of it, or at least I can say goodbye properly.”

Jago smiles warmly then calls towards the door, “come in!”

"Certainly, Captain.  I look forward to it."  Shui rises with a small bow - the discussion is over the nonce.  She understands that completely; Jago will need time to think, time to consider his options, time to marshal arguments, should he have any.  And then there is the person at the door.  One cannot simply leave them in the hallway.

Her own smile is true as she steps back to the door, moving aside for whomever awaits without to come in at the Captain's call.

Having assured himself that the prisoners are still secure, Tylen locks them back in then heads towards the galley, for water and food. The Prisoners will have to be fed, despite their crimes. He selects a pack of rather bland and boring dehydrated meals that Jago must have bought cheap, that none of the crew really like, and sets about preparing them.

As she hears the call from inside, Yas opens the door and nearly runs into Sushi.  Something about their expressions gives her the impression that something is going on, question is what.  None of her business, unless it concerns her, and if so, Jago will no doubt enlighten her in a moment.

"Hey, Sushi, look good, as usual.  Hope I didn't interrupt, the boss asked for my presence, and when he says jump..." she tells the doctor and winks before moving past, into the room.

"You rang?" she asks Jago and leans down to support herself on the back of the chair, arms and legs straight.

"Thank you, Ms. Crow."  Shui offers another of her small smiles.  "No interruption, of course.  Excuse me."

She slips away, walking quickly down the hall to Saskia's room, where she chimes the door, waiting for for a response.

Placing the bowls of goop upon a tray, Tylen returned to the makeshift prison. He triggered the intercom before opening the door.

"OK people, you know the drill, back up against the far wall, facing away from the door please or you don't get your lunch!"

He gave them a few moments before opening the door, the tray in his right hand and a revolver in his left.

The prisoners look too tired to give Tylen any trouble. and gladly accept their bowls of instant sludge.  One of the men starts shovelling it down straight away, before he's even sat down again.  Between mouthfuls, he comments, "This is good.  Groat, isn't it?"

He genuinely seems to be enjoying it, as do the others, which perhaps says more for the quality of food they're used to, than for the quality of the food Tylen is giving them.

The door slides open, and Saskia is there, her hopeful smile fading a little as she sees Shui waiting outside.  She steps aside, allowing the other woman entry to the cabin.

"You've come to tell me that Jago insists that I have to go over there, haven't you?"

Tylen acknowledged the Pirates comments,

"Your guess is as good as mine pal."

He replied.

He waited until they had eaten, then collected the bowls and utensils.

"You look beat. I'll see if I can scare up some bedding and you can sack out."

He left, making sure the door was once again secure and alarmed and went in search of the Steward.

Shui immediately shakes her head - some people might consider now the time for a joke, and under other circumstances Shui might agree, but not now.  Saskia is on the edge of desperation.  "No, Ms. Blake."  She smiles, stepping into the cabin, letting the door shut, and places a hand on Saskia's forearm.  "Not at all.  To paraphrase, Captain Lanza told me that he certainly did not wish to force anyone to do something they found objectionable."

She smiles, relieved that she has been able to assist.  "He did, however, hope that in the future you would come to see him yourself.  I explained that I volunteered this, though, making certain he knew that you did not come to me, and did not ask."

“Another medic wanting to quit,” Jago inclines his head wistfully towards the door once he’s sure that Shui is well out of earshot.

“OK, Dhakhingzuel. The guys that we picked up are not the ones who killed her brother. As far as I can work out they are well clear of the system by now and we have no means of trailing them so I guess we owe her a refund.”

“This wreck is probably the ship they went after, I was going to stick around and do a bit of salvage, but with those Swordies floating round the system it’s perhaps not wise so we’ll just take a few easily to move, high value items, and sell the location on to a salvage company.”

“There is a bounty on the Pirates here, but I’m reluctant to hand them over. They seem to be the victims rather than the perpetrators, though they could have handled it a lot better. Any way, we’ll go after that ship of theirs, turn it into an impressive pyrotechnic display, and hope that we can pick up the reward on the basis of that.”

“I’m kind of half hoping that we run into one of those sword ships on the way, but we’ll be hading back to Arkaida and I hope to make contact with the Shata Lunoqi to see if we can help in any way.”

“Practically, I’m thinking of eight hours down time, move the boxes, zap the Harper’s Dream then meet up with Shata Lunoqi. We’ll have to stand watches but I’ll do the first one and the Ore hand has proven to be an excellent watch dog.”

“I think that’s bought you up to speed, I’m sorry that we can’t avenge Dhakhingzuel’s brother but it’s just beyond our means.”

Saskia relaxes so much when Shui gives her the news that she actually staggers and has to steady herself against the wall.  "Thank you." she says quietly.

Then, a little louder, "Thank you.  You're a good friend, Shui.  I couldn't have given him a real explanation."

Yasmine would have won the Mr. Spock impression contest if she had been in one, as her eyebrow arches up in a perfect imitation of the to her unknown fictional character.

She glances at the door where Sushi is long gone and then shakes her head, turning back to Jago with a shrug.

"Clearly something does not agree with them.  We need a fighting doctor the next time!  Maybe that'll work out better, uh?" she says, sounding more unaffected than she really is.  Luckily Jago himself provides ample of distraction by switching subject.

"Yeah, these folks might be criminally stupid, or close to it, but not exactly hardened outlaws or even in the business on their own accord.  They've lost all they had except their lives, so they are better off than if they had refused, I suppose.  It's their lucky day they ran into us and not the cruiser, which brings me to an idea I have about that..."

"We'll hunt down their ship, of course, and then, I'll blast it with my plasma guns - leaving enough of it to allow any scout for future would-be pirates to easily pick up the radiation signature...  Then, we make a point of telling tall tales around nearby systems about how the Navy protecting this system, and how Arkadia kick not only Swordies but but blew away pirates as well.  No guarantee, but it would take pirates even more stupid than the lot we caught to try anything."

"We can also happen to mention that a Q-ship is left here to make sure they don't return - you know, looking like a regular trader, but packing a nasty surprise in the hold, be it a squadron of fighters or missile launchers taking up nearly the whole hold, with Marines living in the space not used.  I remember once, when I was on one of those, and...  Er, another time, perhaps..."

She grins at Jago and forces herself to change the subject, not wishing to bore him.

Then she leans forward and shakes a finger at him, but not in a lecturing fashion - more like getting another idea.  A bad sign, or...?

"You know, why not make sure we do meet a Swordie?  And not just any Swordie, but one linked to our guests?  They were to meet up with the freighter, remember, and hand over any cargo - so, let's pretend to be them.  We got the data we need in the crystals we retrieved; the codes that they were to send to identify themselves, and the system in which the meeting takes place.  If we get lucky we might even come across the pirates that did kill her brother.  Long shot, sure, but I'm sure she will see the issue before us, with the pirate gone from this system and all."

Shui smiles - she knew before that she made the right decision, but Saskia's reaction nails that home.  A tiny bit of effort for her, no more, but it means so much for the other woman.  Such is life.  "You are most welcome, Ms. Blake.  And I must thank you, as well, for allowing me to help."  It might sound ridiculous, but so many people in this universe refuse.  Pride, fear, any number of reasons.  How much better would things be if all people offered and accepted assistance?

"Your explanation was real, Ms. Blake," she continues, a touch more crisply.  "Jago would accept what others might not, coming from you - you have proved your worth to him, I think, and he is no fool.  There are more things in heaven and earth, Ms Blake, to paraphase, and Jago knows this."  She smiles again, and this time it lingers.  "Would you like something to drink?  I am about to make a meal for the crew and our guests."

Saskia glances at the chronometer on the wall above the door.  Two o'clock in the morning, Profit Margin time.  It's been a long day, and it's not over yet.  Not until she knows the ship is out of danger, and unlikely to be going anywhere in a hurry.

"Actually, I could do with something with plenty of caffeine in it."

With only three of Profit Margin's passenger staterooms occupied, Tylen has no problem finding bedding and mattress pads for the prisoners.  He leaves them discussing allocation of sleeping space.  They seem to be leaning towards letting the man with the broken arm have the bed, while the rest take spaces on the floor.

For vicious space-pirate scum, they seem to be very well behaved.

From his position in Ore Hound, now located about three hundred kilometres above Profit Margin, Banster discusses the situation with Conrad, and they set up a data link between their systems.  The two ships now effectively form a single sensor array, with a three hundred kilometre antenna.  Admittedly the resolution isn't great, but by cross-referencing the information they're receiving, they're able to gain some extra information about the three Sword World's ships.

Conrad watches the data flowing in from Ore Hound, then runs a program to correlate the stream from the other ship with their own.

When he has some figures to work with, he does some calculations, and hits the intercom stud to contact his captain.  "Sorry to interrupt y'all Jago, but I got some confirmation on Shata Lunoqi's playmates."

"Two of 'em have turned, and they're headin' this way.  One must be damaged though,  she's only makin' a touch over one gee.  The other's doin' better, but even so we've got us roun' 'bout seventy hours, that's seven-zero hours, 'fore she gets to the giant.  Plus whatever time it takes her to spot us and adjust her course.  The other'll be 'bout thirty hours after that."

A pause as he confirms some of his figures.  "The third ship's still got power, but  she's shut down her drives.  No idea why she'd do that, but she's on a course that'll take her up, an' way out of the ecliptic, so my guess'd be that she ain't doin' it voluntary-like.  Maybe makin' repairs or somethin'.  Sassy'd know better'n me."

"Looks like Shata Lunoqi mauled 'em, real good.  Remind me I owe Captain Giata a drink."

Jago smiles as Yasmin launches into her description of a propaganda war.

“I’ll make sure that you get a day or two shore leave before we go, you can tell people what you like, as long as it doesn’t interfere with our getting the prize money. Maybe we can even organize some official backing for the story if the authorities like the idea.”

Thoughts of seeking out the Swordie recruiting ship are met with a more serious expression, but Jago response is interrupted by the navigator’s announcement.

“Good work Conrad, I’ll be up there in a minuet or so.”

“I’ll consider your idea Yas, and let you know presently, meanwhile, go have a chat with Dhakhingzuel as we said, then get yourself some rest, we have a busy time ahead and I need you at your best. Better tell Dhakhingzuel that we will are probably in for a fight before we get her back to Arkadia,” he adds as he pulls himself to his feet and moves with her to the door.

"Well, then," Shui replies.  "Shall we adjourn to the galley?"  She really needs to be making those meals, and seeing to the 'guests'.  Crew and passengers take priority, of course, but their prisoners require food.

After holding the door for Saskia, she quickly heads for the Galley.

"Hey, trust me, it is far better if all of the crew do it.  I sure aren't going to run around everywhere alone to spread this," Yas says with a half serious grin, shaking her head slowly.  "Sure they'll like it.  They didn't have to deal with the 'vicious pirate scum', but they also won't have to have keep a post here or risk someone stumblign across any bits of the ship, screaming Naval Weapon.  Sure, it's the Navy, but even they know a good idea when they see one.  Well, most of the time..."

"As for the secret rendezvous, isn't that our objective here?  Plus, if we refuel before the meeting we can easily deal with the cargo ship and be gone before the rest knows what happen.  YOu can bet the Swordies will want to keep an eye on their system then, thus keeping at least a few troops busy elsewhere than on our side of the border, see," she explains further even as he leads her to the door.

"I'll talk to Dashing Fuel, don't you worry, boss.  Catch you later," she says in parting and waves a hand at him as she makes her way over to speak with the Vargr.

She spots Sushi in the hall and waves a hello to her as well.  On a hunch she calls out, "Hot cocoa!"

Then she moves on towards the passenger side where she nods to Tylen in passing.  "Anyone dead yet?"

Tylen grins,

"Not yet you bloodthirsty Jar-Head! Our guests seem pretty peaceful, almost civilised."

He shakes his head,

"Fear's a funny thing, faced with the same problem I'd've abandonded ship some place near an inhabited planet and sold my story to the News Feeds, mebbe made enough back to get me another ship. These guys let the Pirates control them with fear, made 'em do stuff they must 've hated."

He shakes his head again.

"Me?  Blood-thirsty?  It wasn't me who tried to blow them up, Ore-Hound," the Jar-Head replies with a crooked smirk.

"Yeah, you can say that again.  Me, being a jar-head, would have died resisting, or trying to escape or whatever.  But a lot of folks aren't that hard-headed, more like groats, easily herded.  Of course, those folks make poor pirates too, as we can see," she says, shaking her head at the thoughts that rushes through her head.

"Still, these are lucky, the boss wants to let them go once we're away.  Any why not, they've lost everything, including their self-respect I bet, so it's a second chance.  They've got to live with what they've done, and that's not always easy," she continues, as if unable to stop talking for once.  But the she grows a bit dark and shakes her head briskly.

"Nuff yappin', now.  I got to talk to our Vargr passenger.  Catch you later," she rounds off and raises a hand to him before stepping over to rap on the door of said passenger.

"Indeed, Ms. Crow," Shui replies to Yasmin's call.  She shrugs helplessly to Saskia.  "Always there is more, is there not?  I suspect it is the same with every position aboard a ship."  A small frown.  "Perhaps even moreso in engineering."

Entering the galley, Shui starts with coffee, then begins the work on the cocoa.  Not exactly a difficult set of tasks.

Yas hits the buzzer by the door of Dhakhingzuel's cabin, and... nothing happens.  Well, the buzzer sounds, but there is no response.  At least for several long seconds...

Then a sleepy-sounding voice issues from the speaker.  "Grrnohk zhadzugh khovarr tedz."  It seems to be badly slurred, but then again, who can tell with any of the Vargr languages?

There are no signs of life from the door of the Number 8 cabin, where (if Tylen is to be believed) the pirates are settling down for possibly the dullest slumber party in the entire history of Humaniti.  Corlan's door is closed, and the "Do not disturb" tell-tale is glowing a happy red.

That leaves Yas, and something which sounds almost exactly the way Ridge used to, about half way through his first evening in any port.  But with far less profanity, so far.


In the galley, Tylen finds Shui and Saskia preparing drinks.  As if by magic, Jago appears.  Actually, he's on his way to the Bridge, where Conrad is still comparing data with Ore Hound's sensors...

Saskia has, at least, the decency to blush scarlet when she spots Jago coming out of his cabin.  Not quite able to bring herself to look at him, she speaks up, her voice full of misery, "I'm sorry, Jago.  I just couldn't do it."

She tries to find something else to add.  Eventually she hits on, "We were just making coffee.  You want one?"

"This is your captain speaking, please open your door and let us talk, thank you," Yas says in her best regular-line announcement voice and raps another couple of knocks just to ensure the canine-oid that she is not dreaming; the captain is indeed knocking on her door.

“Yea, a coffee would be good,” Jago says, “and we’ll just forget about that other ship, I wouldn’t have asked if I’d realised how you felt. The idea was probably to ambitious anyway, we are going to raid the hulk for stuff that’s easy to move, then sell the location to a proper salvage company.”

Jago takes the coffee when it’s offered and cradles it in his hands where his unlit cigar sticks out between his fingers like the stalk on a cherry.

“We also have a couple of damaged Swordies heading this way,” he goes on, seeing that most of the crew are here, “I’m thinking about springing an ambush from behind this little snowball. I’m just on my way to talk it through with Conrad. Could you make him a coffee please Shui, I’ll take it through with me.”

“Any way, first order of business is that everyone gets some rest so, baring emergencies and necessary routines, you are all off duty for the next eight hours.”

"Ghazheutz'dak!" the voice replies, a little louder, and sounding somehow... crisper, as far as Yas can tell, considering that most Vargr words sound like a very angry animal, with a bad cold.

"One tsegk... ah... moment, Captain."  It's more like two moments, but the door opens, to reveal Dhakhingzuel dressed in loose fitting trousers, and a sleeveless shirt which she is still in the process of straightening.  The latter item appears to be backwards, and inside-out, unless Vargr generally have the labels in their clothes on the outside-front of the collar.

"I am sorry.  I sleeped."  Her fur, which usually lays smooth and flat, is distictly dishevelled, with tufts sticking out in all directions, both on her head, and on her exposed arms.  She is barefoot, her black claws scratching across the carpet as she shuffles back to admit the "Captain".

"Of course, Captain," Shui replies, busying herself with the cups but taking the time to throw a gratified look his way.  This is a fine ship, she considers, with fine people - Jago's treatment of Saskia is evidence of that fact.  But a whisper in her thoughts tells her she has been aboard long enough, she has left tracks across the stars for those on her trail.  Time to move on - for them, as much as for her.

It cetainly won't be easy, though.

The idea of an ambush, though, turns her stomach.  More dead, on either side.  She closes her eyes for a long moment, wishing she knew how to pray.

The coffee goes to Jago, served as he desires, and she turns back to preparing.  "I will require some rest, yes.  But before that, Captain, I wish to see to everyone, ensure they are well-fed and in fine enough condition, as well as verify the stability of the emergency suits."  She tries a smile, but it comes to her small, sad.  "I must also ensure the medbay is properly prepared."

“You go ahead Shui, you know what your doing.” Jago says, taking Conrad’s coffee and turning away towards the bridge, “and less of the ‘Captain’ please he adds as he disappears through the narrow passage, “try Jago, or Skipper, or Boss, or Pal, _{or Mate, or Wobble Belly, or Di……..}

“Shui made you a Coffee Conrad,” Jago says as he enters the Bridge and places it near by.

“Now tell me, have those swodies seen us yet, and is there any chance of slipping quietly behind this ice ball before they do?”

“Also, what about the Ore Hound, same two questions?”

"Sorry to disturb you, but I felt you wanted to know this," Yas says with a small smile and steps inside.  Closing the door she then begins to explain the situation to the Vargr, that these were not the guilty and that the guilty might get away - she can give no guarantees.  She also suggest her story to the Vargr, proposing that it will keep the incident that killed her brother from repeating, at least in this system.

In short, apart from posing as the captain, she tells the truth as it is.

"So, there you have it.  I will give you a full refund if you want," she suggests, since it was not much to start with, "but I promise you if it is within my power, I will find and stop the guilty.  Which reminds me, there are two Sword ships, damaged, heading this way.  In effect, they are the ones behind your brothers death, and we plan to make sure these two aren't allowed to limp home.  That is, you should be prepare for combat in a while."

"Coffee's good, thanks." Conrad accepts the mug with a grateful smile.  "If'n they've spotted us, they're not talkin' 'bout it none.  I'd guess they ain't, though.  We knew where they were at, mainly since they were throwin' a lot of power round over there.  They were runnin' their drives hot, throwin' tac nukes, an' firin' energy weapons.  Addin' to that, Captain Giata was usin' plenty of very harsh language over the comms."

"All made 'em kinda hard to miss."

Conrad takes a sip of coffee, "Now, we've been sittin' over here, quiet as rocks the whole time.  Ore Hound too.  Only been usin' minimal power on comms, passive sensors only."

"Not sure 'bout an ambush.  End of the day, they're warships.  Plus, we're sittin' purty far out from the gas giant, which is where they'll be headin', I reckon.  If'n it were me out there, I'd be lookin' to scoop some fuel, an' run for it."

Quietly Tylen cleaned the dishes and stowed them away. He had overheard the comments regarding the swordies, and he supported Jago in his plan to intercept the damaged craft. He poured himself a cup of the stewards excellent coffee and sat down. If they were to go into action again soon he wanted to be refreshed.

OOC - Somehow missed Tylen being in the lounge.

IC -

"That went well," Shui notes to Saskia.  She continues preparations, finally finishing the cocoa for Yasmin, then turns to Tylen.  "Mr. Ogresh.  Thank you for the dishes - am I to assume you have fed our guests?"

"Sure Doc, I issued them with some bedding and left 'em to it."

He shook his head,

"It looks like those guys have been living pretty close to the knuckle, they wolfed that reconstituted goop from the emergency stores like it was cordon bleu cooking. Fit's in with their story of being almost flat broke when they were coerced into piracy."

He sipped his coffee and smiled.

"Good Java Doc."

"You are most welcome for the coffee...my apologies about the bedding."  She frowns.  "I have been lax - fortunately, I have others to take up my slack."  The frown shifts to an appreciative smile.  "You have had no problems dealing with them?  Good."  Good for them, of course, and possibly good for the ship.  Any foolishness on the part of the prisoners would likely get them shot - none of the crew are going to take unnecessary chances with pirates.

"Having been a scout, I expect you are well-acquainted with being low on rations," she notes, finally getting to the teapot.  "Though I could always hope otherwise."