Tylen looks up,

"I'm not sure if the quad or the air raft would be much use on this moon, what do you think Boss? Should I pop back to the Ship for some transport or shall we just tough it out and do it the old fashioned way?"

“The walk will do us good Tylen,” Jago says, his breath a little laboured with the effort of controlling the crate, “any ways, the air raft wouldn’t be much use, it’s an atmospheric craft, there’s a little clue hidden away in the name. Actually it’s not atmosphere but gravity that would be the problem, I doubt that there’s enough here to stop it drifting of into space as soon as you open the throttle.”

“The quad though, that’s a different matter, I hadn’t thought of it before as it belongs to Yasmin, but if she wants to bring it when she takes over, that’s fine by me.”

Appart from the heavy breathing and an occasional mumbled curse, Jago falls silent as he presses on towards the Profit Margin.

.

"Exactly why we ought to talk about them," Yas interjects where she curls up in her seat, grabbing her cup with on hand - and a nod to Sushi - and a cookie with the other hand.

"It's a no-brainer, pure nonsense talk, just for a laugh, which of course is unavoidable when talking about men," she continues, shaking the cookie at the doctor as if lecturing her.  The voice remains strangely serious, but if looking close enough there are those fine lines around the eyes that reveals it all to be in jest.

"As for these," she says and bites down on her cookie, "it's a wise move in case they are bad.  Wouldn't want the doc to fall ill and be unable to treat us!  Right, Sas?"

Saskia is sitting, looking very thoughtful, as Yas askes her something, "Sorry, I was thinking about something else."

A shake of her head clears away some of the dust, as she tries to remember what Yas might have been talking about.  In the end she settles for a "That's right." and hopes to catch up, if the conversation continues.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:40, Mon 21 Jan 2008.

Banster carries the explosives towards Ore Hound, moving easily across the snowball's surface, while Jago and his work gang concentrate on the, much safer, cases of tea.

Soon they are all above the crater rim and working their way carefully across the rough terrain of the frigid moon.

Tylen thinks for a moment as they struggle across the frozen surface,

"I don't reckon there'd be too much traction for my Quad, and it you did get grip you might end up flying right off one of these bumps and never coming back down again. I've done some crazy stuff, but achieving escape velocity on a Quad ain't one of my ambitions. Guess we're stuck with the hard way for all this cargo."

Shui, about to respond to Yasmine's witticisms, pauses to stare directly at Saskia.  Her thin brows knit together for a moment as the engineer replies distractedly.  "Is there something the matter, Ms. Blake?" she inquires solicitously.  "Or has something caught your interest more than the foibles of the gentlemen with whom we share a ship?"  Her smile is wry.  "I cannot imagine that, but...."

Yas decides that this is one of those moments when silence is indeed golden, and so she avoid mentioning anything of what nearly took place once, and only once.  It was between them, anyway, and no on else.

The cocoa and the cookie gets her attention as she munches on the latter and slurps the former while watching the clearly elsewhere present engineer, her good friend Saskia Blake and listening for any answer to the question posed by her somewhat newer friend, Sushi Tissue.  Sush Tush.  No.  Schwee Tea-Ess-Eee or something...  The Doc.  Yeah, that works.

"No.  No.  Nothing like that.  At least, not with the current ones.  Jett laughed at my swimsuit, and Ridge had the social graces of a ragfish, but the ones we have now are okay."

Saskia's face starts to turn an interresting shade of crimson.

"Sorry, it's just that my mind was wandering.  Thinking about that little souvenir of Jago's.  I'd love to know how it does what it does, and how it knows that nobody's watching while it does it."

Her brows knit together further at Saskia's description of their former shipmates.  Shui never knew Jett and Ridge well - she had only been on one or two flights before they left - and this disturbs her.  "If that was how they treated a beautiful woman, especially one in a swimsuit, then we are well-shy of them," she mutters darkly, reaching out to touch Saskia's hand in support.  Evidently the lack of manners had significant effect upon the engineer.  Then the shadow passes from her face and she smiles.  "Though yes, Mr. Ogresh and Mr. Dietz seem to be gentlemen.  Rough-hewn, perhaps, but all diamonds begin unpolished."

Yasmine is unusually silent.  Shui shoots a quick look her way to find the marine occupied with cookies and drink.  She returns to the conversation.  "I, myself, would like to examine the device further.  I assume efforts have been made to record its transformations?"

"Girl, forget Ridge.  I'm unsure if he'd be classified remotely humanoid even, and his view of females, oh boy," Yas says and shakes her head in dismay, and then continues, "as for laughing at swimsuits, that's their loss.  As a security chief I had to make certain no one burst out laughing at the wrong time, so any images of a female in anything but a non-transparent spacesuit had to be removed from the ship."

"Oh they best be, or they will have to deal with me.  I look out for my girls, so don't you worry none, Doc, Sas," she adds to the doctor's comment about Ogresh and Dietz, giving the other two women a firm nod.

Then the subject changes again.

"Here's an idea.  Set up a cam that only take snapshots.  No constant recording, but a picture now and then.  At least that will reveal if it changes slowly or instantly," she suggests, and then adds with a voice veiled with mystery, "that is, if it indeed does change..."

She nods a couple of times, slowly and solemnly.

The crimson intensifies at Shui's comments.  "Yeah, Ridge wasn't very nice to anybody, male or female.  As for the bathing suit, well, I'd be the first to admit that it wasn't really the height of fashion."

Yas's odd remark about the object on Jago's desk brings a smile, "Perhaps it doesn't change shape.  Maybe it does something to your brain so that you just remember it being a different shape.  See, now, it's a shame Ridge isn't here any more.  Who better to check if something's messing with your brain, than a man who doesn't have one?"

A momentary pause, as a wicked grin spreads across Saskia's face, then, "Or a brain."

"Fashion is subjective - the known worlds are indeed large.  Besides which, a man would be a fool to mock your appearance, Saskia, no matter what you wore."  Shui's lips thin; irritated as she is, she forgets to employ the woman's proper name.  Perhaps Jett had merely been employing a grade-school technique to garner attention from the opposite sex.  Some men never grew out of that sort of thing.

"I am most certain you do, Ms. Crow, and am most grateful for your expert protection," she continues, relaxing somewhat.  "Glad am I that such shennanigans ceased before I took up residence."  Fortunately for them, the two men had avoided any poor behaviour around her.  Perhaps it had something to do with her position as doctor.

She ponders the thoughts on Jago's thing, considering possible methods of surveillance.  Yasmine's idea, the photography...if coupled with a standard surveillance camera set to go on and off at specified intervals, it seemed a decent method.  It was certainly one her father would consider.  "Telepathic," she muses.  "But we all remember it the same way.  Impressive control..."

Then a small smile edges the corner of her mouth at Saskia's witticism - it seems the engineer has recovered her aplomb.

"Fashion, oh yeah, there's a whole fermented can of Markovian worms best left unopened," Yas chuckles and shakes her head slowly.  "Which is why I quickly learnt to ignore it and go with what I like!"

"They weren't all that bad, though, well, except Ridge, just a bit... daft, she said in a strange kind of defence of the boys.

Then she bursts out laughing and slaps the arm of the engineer approvingly.

"Stewardess, a saucer of milk to Miss Blake's table, please!  Meow!"

After a moment she wipes a tear and chuckles out, "How do we know we all see it the same way, if it indeed controls our minds?  I'm just asking..."  By the end of the sentence she seems dead serious, and moves her hands out to the sides as if fending of questions.

As the men approached the Profit Margin, Tylen triggered the channel to the ship,

"Uh Ladies? Would one of you mind dialling the floor grav of the hold right down for us? We got a fair load to carry in and I'd hate to feel the true weight of it until it's safely down on the ground."

"Ah, that's for me!" Yas exclaims when the request of low gravity comes.  "Got my stuff spread out, must secure it, so I will see to it.  Back in a wink of a Berzergian blinking beast eye blink," she assures them and gets up even as she speak.

"Give me a moment, Trigger, and I will do so," she tells Tylen over the coms and waves to the girls as she steps lively towards the hold.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Yasmine." the engineer replies, with a look of complete innocence.

As Yas heads off to deal with the gravitics, Saskia sighs, and smiles, a little sadly, in Shui's direction, "The peace and quiet didn't last long, though I suppose it'll be a while before they get all the salvage aboard, and come back in here."

Leaning back in her chair, she stretches, "Better make the most of it, I suppose."

Already?  Shui gives Yasmine a sad wave as she heads off to ready the cargo bay for the plunder.  "Peace and quiet," she remarks to Saskia, "are in short supply on this vessel."  She studies the woman as Saskia stretches, considering.  So many interesting people aboard this ship, and few of them she has come to know on any level past the superficial.  Her fault, Shui imagines - she knows it is difficult dealing with her, the way she addresses people, her own personal habits.

"Ms. Blake," she begins, somewhat hesitantly - certainly not the norm for her - "I have been considering my decision.  It may be that my situation is not what I thought it was."  Her hands twitch, and she stills them, studying the eyes behind the engineer's concealing spectacles.  "While I doubt Jago will hold our disagreement against me, I thought I might ask you, since you have been here longer than I - do you suspect he would have a problem with...ah, tearing up my resignation, if that is the proper phrase."

"Well, after what's happened recently, I think he'd rather keep you aboard.  You know your way around the Margin, and you know her crew." Saskia replies, earnestly.

"Plus you're the only one here who is actually polite to Jago.  That's got to count for something, right?  You call him 'Captain', even when there are no passengers nearby.  Yas tends to just call him, 'Hey, You!' or something, in that situation.  In fact, you mostly call him 'Captain' when he isn't close enough to hear you."

Smiling, the engineer sits up straight, dropping her feet to the floor, and leans forward, staring straight at Shui, "I think that he won't have much problem tearing it to tiny, little, frelling pieces.  I'm talking neutrino-sized pieces.  Or smaller."

It doesn't take Yas long to make her bike secure, and shove any loose parts into a storage locker.  Then she cuts back through to the Bridge, turns the deck plates in the hold down to zero, allowing the moon's miniscule gravity to take effect in there.

A short while later, a low squeal echoes through the pressurised parts of the ship, transmitted there via the hull and deck, as the cargo ramp drops, allowing external access to the hold...


Outside, the salvage party approaches, the hazard flashers under Profit Margin's belly reflecting off their helmet visors, warning them to stand clear as the ramp descends.

Always prepared, like any good marine (the lazy scouts stole it), Yas had all the parts on a sheet she easily could fold up and tuck away - but it was still best done before the gravity was as good as gone.

Soon she finds herself back with the girls, having announced to the boys that they could struggle aboard now, at least after her checking in on the injured would-be pirate.

"What pieces?  Did you eat all the cookies while I was gone?" she asks and takes her seat again.  "I figure we got a few moments before the kids stumbles in here.  Then maybe it is my turn to play with that little toy the miners got!"

Shui mulls over the engineer's words, not missing the shift in the woman's body language.  What it means, she can't quite ascertain, save for emphasis and, hopefully, agreement with the tearing of resignations.  Saskia usually doesn't come down hard on one side or the other unless it involves the ship - when she does, Shui has learned, it's a wise idea to listen.  There's a lot more going on behind those spectacles than just concern for the Profit Margin.

Though to be fair, that likely does take up the lion's share.

The doctor offers the engineer a quick, almost shy smile, unused to such vehement support.  "I shall certainly inquire," she responds, her mind finally made up, Saskia's reaction having made the difference.

Then Shui turns her gaze to the returning Yasmine.  "Ms. Crow.  Merely discussing the shredders aboard the ship - apparantly Jago has a version capable of reducing notation to the subatomic.  Possibly he simply has it stuffed into the barrels of ship's cannons?"

Another small smile to Saskia, this one quick and wry.  "A product of my youth, Ms. Blake.  Titles and designations, familial names before the personal.  It must seem woefully provincial to most people, but...."

Jago is breathing heavily by the time he gets back to the Margin, even without gravity the load has mass and inertia that some how, always seem intent on doing things other than what was required of them. The friction free surface of this little icy planetoid didn’t help a great deal either.

“I don’t want these things punching through the bulk heads,” he says once the loads are started up the ramp, “go carefully and get them tied down straight away.”
.

"Shredders?  All he has to do is say the word, and anything he wants self-destorys.  He is, after all, the captain, even if he do prefer to not be called that to his face.  Which reminds me, it is Yas, not Ms. Crow.  Remember what I told you earlier, hmm?" Yas says teasingly and with a crooked grin.

"A shot in the dark here - a girl got to have some fun - would that involve you and a certain paper you handed in recently?" comes a prodding question, as she rests her weight on the back of a seat, arms straight and shoulders pulled up around her still grinning head.

Tylen nods to Jago,

"Aye aye Boss!"

And follows the cargo up into the hold. Once there, he makes use  of the low gravity to help move the cargo up against the walls where he stacks it, lashes it dow, and pulls a cargo net over it all. Once done he hurries to a comlink and hails the crew lounge.

"Hey, looks like you all played it right getting out of the heavy stuff. Got to go back and fetch the rest."

He slips back down to where Jago waits.

"Stowed and secure Captain,"

He informs the man.