A bit saddened by the fact that Conrad was leaving them Yas did not let it show, wishing him luck on his new endeavour instead.  She greeted his replacement, noting his limp, and watched him from time to time to try to judge him a bit.  He seemed harmless enough so far, but time would tell.

"Oh no, don't you touch the ramp, it's our signature, apart from the profits, of course," she tells the tech as she offers to "fix" the ramp.  No one would "fix" something as integral as that unless they wanted to be in a world of hurt - and then made to make it sound exactly as before.

But then she frowned and rubbed her chin with the back of her hand.

"Remote?  You'd best put in a darn good security for that one, or I'll pull the plug on that instantly," she comments with a serious tone.  "Convenience in all its glory and comfort, security is by far more important.  Show me what you've done," she demands and steps up towards the tech, holding out a hand is if expecting to have something handed to her there and then.

She cannot help but notice Ty fastening the bag to his belt and grins at the sight, although she remains silent as she turns to the tech again, awaiting a response.

Mott Henaris chuckles, and her voice is carried to those listening in, via Saskia's comm, "Unfortunately it couldn't be helped.  While there was a certain amount of space here, a lot of it was taken up by the airlock systems... pumps, sensors, electronics, alarm systems, and an equipment locker.  We also had to take into account that you still need to get past to access the bridge."

By the sound of it, the airlock is more cosy in the "small" sense of the word.

Yas' question brings a more serious expression, and the supervisor calls down to the security officer from the airlock entrance, "There is no security installed at the moment, beyond a simple encrypted code sequence and an access alarm.  The airlock is designed to be tied into the ship's own security system, but you'll need to deal with that, since you know who should and shouldn't be able to open the hatch."


OOC: There is a new-look deck plan here: link to a message in this game  It shows the location of the new airlock, and gives a rough idea of the location of furniture, fixtures and fittings.

Saskia runs her hand across the wall of the new 'lock, her face pensive.  Leaning close to the status displays, she reaches out to tap them with a fingernail, a gesture dating back to the days when the display would have been an analog device, comprising a pivoting mechanical indicator and a calibrated static backing.

As Henaris explains about the systems hidden in the walls, the engineer can almost see them beyond the metal.  "Okay.  That looks good."

Yas's question is, predictably, more to do with security than with the nuts and bolts of the installation.  While the supervisor explains the security systems, Saskia stoops to unlace her boots.  She kicks them off, then removes her socks, rolling them up and tucking them into the boots.

She straightens up, picking up her footwear and flexing her toes a little as she asks, "Can we go inside now?  I'd like to see the interior controls, and a schematic of the data linkages.  There's a terminal in the lounge you can use for that."

Shui frowns for a moment, then banishes it with a small nod.  No doubt Saskia is far too busy to answer frivolous questions.  She'll have to decide on the coziness of the airlock herself.  The steward quickly does a head count when the engineer suggests entering the Profit Margin, the better to decide on how much tea and coffee to prepare.  And cocoa for Yasmine, of course.

Saskia will likely be too busy for it, but she'll get a cup ready for her in any case.  Hopefully the discussion will allow her to slip away and check her 'guests', ensuring their continued survival.

OOC - Nice job with the map!
This message was last edited by the player at 01:51, Sun 19 July 2009.

Ash watches with amusement from the back.  He's relieved to hear that the engineer of the group is serious, funny, driven, focused, obsessed, and crazy all at once.  The best always are.  And it is good to know that the Chief of Security is, well, security minded at all times.

As he trails behind, a small smile plays on his lips as he observes, the group has a wonderful rhythm to it - Ash only hopes that he can catch the flow and work well with them.  It'll take time, he ponders, but if I am lucky...  He lets that thought trail off with a shrug.  Then, noticing that he has stopped for the moment, Ash trots to catch up to the rest of the group as they congregate closer to the airlock.

"Ah, good.  Then I can set it up as I want it," comments the chief of security, still weighing the pros and cons in the back of her head as she inspects the work.  She still has to make sure there is no so called backdoor as well, but all in good time.

"Now then," she continues and looks around, her eyes stopping once they reach Ash, "ah, there you are.  Do come in, get a feel for the ship and take a look at the bridge or whatever you Navigators do.  Just don't pee on things to mark them, eh?"  She grins broadly, making it almost uncertain - but only almost - whether she is joking or not.

If Ash has any consternation at being singled out by the Security Chief, he doesn't let it show.  He merely shrugs and ambles forward to look at the non-standard layout of the Profit Margin's bridge.  Ash notes to himself that there are a number of seemingly after-market modifications that have been done.  He runs his fingers over the edges of one of the dynamically configurable consoles and notes the layout of the physical plugs - he is especially interested in the interface for his HUD and comm, which he knows must be there in some form.  But he also knows that there will be time enough for him to get to know the bridge and all of its systems really well - a cursory glance won't tell much about things he cares about most, the internals under the panels and behind the walls, the software, and the crew dynamics.

Still, as he inspects the console, Ash stops for a moment as he regards a portion of the console intently; he seems puzzled for a moment, but then he nods approvingly and notes with genuine appreciation and only a small tinge of surprise in his tone, "Very nice, Captain.  You and your crew are to be applauded on the state of your ship.  I only hope that I can contribute to your continued success."  The statement is left tactfully guarded and intentionally bland.

But, then to please the Chief of Security, Ash makes a mock display by pulling the left side of his duster aside and lifting his leg towards side of the console.  He looks directly at Yasmine, noting with a wink "Suitably marked?"

Tylen grins at the byplay with the new navigator, as he moves into the lounge area to make space for those following him.  Having been  at the hotel when Jago recruited the new navigator, Tylen already had some feel for the man, but leave it to Yas, she’ll get him sorted gave him cause for a quick internal chuckle.

Slumping in a seat he puts the new music box on the table in front of him and starts fiddling with it.

"I said don't," Yas sighs with a deadpan expression and shakes her head slowly, looking at the lifted leg.  "Jago, looks like we'll be needing a new navigator already, I'll just go get my big gun, oh, and call the cleaners, he'll be all over the place soon," she calls out as she moves towards her quarters, possibly to get an ever bigger gun than the ones she is tooting already.

Once she gets to her room she intend to see if either Jago has been through her stuff or if nyone else dared to set foot in there.  She will know, oh yes she will, she is not Security for nothing, after all.

Shui, having inspected the airlock and labelling it 'cozy-small', pauses in the door to the galley.  "Mr. Henaris, may I get you something to drink?  Coffee or tea?"  Where life exists, there is hope....  Her eyes flick to the new pilot, getting comfortable at his console.  "Mr. Tescali, I assume you have a preference with regards to libation.  Would that be coffee or tea, and how might I bring it?"

Fingers dance on her dataglove's holoboard for an instant, summoning up her scheduler - the doctor programs in a brief reminder to work out a time for a medical examination, and checks to see if Ash's medical files have been uploaded to the Profit Margin's mainframe.

It will certainly be interesting having more new crew around, despite her sorrow at Conrad's loss.  There have been quite a few shifts in the last month - Shui wonders what might transpire next.

As Yasmine moves out of the bridge, Ash looks to the rest of the crew for some clue as to whether she is joking or not.  As he lowers his leg, Ash figures that she must be joking.   But when the rest of the crew does not really indicate one way or the other, he casts his mind back and is reminded that he has been shot at with less provocation and much less warning.  He sighs and shrugs.

When the ship's steward asks about a beverage, Ash perks up.  "Offering a dying man a last wish?  Thank you, Ms. Tiesi," he stumbles a bit with the inflection and reddens momentarily, but continues on, "I.. I'll just have a coffee, black as you can make it."

Ash knows that Ms. Tiesi wears another hat, as the ship's doctor; he figures that he should broach the topic, since she has not yet.  He only hopes that he is not being too forward when he asks, "And when should I report to Medical, Doctor?"

And so the process begins... the steady progress towards flight readiness.  It starts slowly enough this time, what with the new systems to be checked over, and a new crewmember familiarising himself with the existent systems.

In the lounge, Saskia studies schematics and dataflow parameters.  Mott Henaris looks up at Shui's question, "Tea would be fine, thank you."  Then she goes back to explaining the set-up to Saskia, "We routed the airlock sensor feeds through the Secondary Field Node, keeping the Primary available for external sensors and flight controls, just as it is now.  Not that the airlock feeds use enough bandwidth to impair performance, but I know that... " and the rest of the conversation dissolves into technobabble which may, or may not, have its basis in Anglic.

Tylen sits back and relaxes with his new souvenir, which may not be as complex as jago's souvenir from the Swords, but seems to fascinate the gunner nonetheless. 

Jago examines the airlock carefully.  The control panels have nice, clearly marked emergency overrides, and security systems which look as though they can be engaged, and disengaged, easily from inside the ship.  Of course, once Yas has cast her eye over them, anything to do with those security systems may become a little more complex. 

Conrad, by virtue of still being half crew, is aboard too.  Mostly he's there to clear out his quarters, but he wants a last look round as well.  He leans against the side of his... no, Ash's panel, "I can help y'all with setting this thing up.  There's 'bout a hundred diff'rent layouts preloaded for a start off.  Might be easier to pick out one o' them, then tweak it to suit yourself."

Shui lets the stumble pass without comment - calling his attention, commenting on the proper pronunciation, any of these things might serve to make Ash more uncomfortable, have him feel more divided from the crew.  That's the last thing she wants right now.  "Black then, Mr. Tescali," she replies with a nod and a smile.  Her expression grows more pensive when he begins a question, then her eyebrows rise and she consults her dataglove with slightly exaggerated focus.

"Well.  I see my appointments are minimal at the moment."  Banishing the holoscreen, she smiles.  "Whenever is convenient for you, Mr. Tescali.  Soon, though.  A moment - I shall bring your coffee."

She perks up slightly at Mott's request.  "Tea, then, Mr. Henaris."  Quick steps bring her into the galley, where she immediately picks out a sealed pouch from her store.  Given he did not qualify his choice, the specifics are up to her...spooning out a small scoop of the loose tea into the open-topped infuser, she closes her eyes for a moment and thinks of home.

A small shake of the head banishes the memories, and Shui smiles at her foolishness as she pours the water, heated to a touch over three hundred and fifty three kelvin.  A timer begins in her head, and she busies herself cleaning up and pouring the various coffees.

*ting*  Time's up.

Tea removed and discarded.  Cup poured, placed with coffees - Yasmine has gone to her quarters, so the cocoa will wait.  Returning to the bridge, she moves first to their guest, quietly passing him his tea, then hands off Jago's coffee.  Saskia is in mid-examination, and shouldn't be disturbed.  Tylen receives his, Ash next, then Shui presses a cup into their former navigator's hand with a small smile.  "If there is anything you wish from stores - coffee, tea...a packed lunch - I can provide, Mr. Dietz."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:08, Thu 23 July 2009.

Ash is thankful that the doctor does not seem to notice, or at least comment, on his inability to pronounce her name correctly.  She'll likely correct me later, he notes to himself morosely.  But nothing can be done about it now.

He nods in acknowledgment to her answer about a physical and then turns to Conrad - whom he had been surreptitiously avoiding.  He probably, doesn't need the help, he remembers using similar dynamically configurable displays on the Andromeda's Wake, the last naval cruiser he was stationed on.  But, it would be pointless not to accept Conrad's offer, there is no need to burn a bridge unnecessarily, Ash smies and notes "Very generous of you, Mr. Dietz.  Generous indeed."  Ash sits at the console and starts to pull up the pre-configured set-ups. "Which did you find the most useful for the Profit Margin?"  He glances up at Conrad, and notes off-hand "Given the visible upgrades, I would suspect that there is more to her than meets the eye.  Anything that I should be especially careful of?  Or do I have to learn all of all those things the hard way ... "

Ash takes the coffee from the good doctor with a quiet, "Thank you, miss."  He glances at her prim and proper form as it lingers near the former navigator, when she makes her offer of additional parting hospitality and then watches her float away.  Ash busies himself with the console configuration, his fingers deftly flying over the panel as he moves certain displays to areas and modifies formats to those that he is more readily comfortable with.  He sips the coffee absently at first, then looks down.  It is quite good.  No, very good; not the bitter over-strained sludge that he was used drinking to on the Fortunate Sun.  Note to self, compliment Ms. Tiesi, and try not to screw up her name, next time, stupid. Ash notes mentally.

Ash leans back in the chair and puts his hands behind his head for a moment looking up at Conrad, "Thanks again, Mr. Dietz, - I offer you luck on your new endeavor."  He continues, but his tone is a bit more contemplative, with a slight touch of admiration and more than a little incredulity, "You must feel strongly to leave this crew.  Does the war really stoke that fire in you belly so much?"

"Given that the airlock isn't something that would be in constant use, Secondary Node should be sufficient." Saskia concurs with the supervisor's explanation, "But I'd probably have rated it at a slightly higher priority.  Somewhere between the ADS and the TCIMPS."

She scribbles a note on the back of her hand.  "I see you've installed a reduntant CLAR unit.  Good.  That saves me doing it."  The engineer manages a smile for Henaris - maybe the techs here do know what they're doing, even if they aren't real engineers.  "A burned out CLAR can be a pain in the eema, if you need to change it in a hurry."

Tylen watches Saskia and Jago discuss the airlock with the engineer as  he fiddles with the musical box, absently nodding his thanks as his coffee arrived.   He had only managed to collect it shortly before they left the hotel, so hadn’t had all that much chance to play with it.  His   grin grew slightly broader as he heard the comments from the engineer as she started to accept the changes made to her ship.

”Damn thing is sticking …” he mutters as the ballerina stutters a couple of times.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:11, Fri 24 July 2009.

Finished handing off the various libations, Shui tucks her small tray under her arm; about to head back into the galley, she pauses at the sight of Tylen's music box, one eyebrow rising slightly as she moves closer.  "An interesting device, Mr. Ogresh."  Cocking her head to the side, she studies his attempts to fix the problem of the sticky ballerina.  "A jewelry case?  Or simply for the music?"  Whichever, there is a purity to the sound difficult to duplicate with electronics.

"Perhaps Ms. Blake could assist..."  Pausing, Shui shoots a sidelong look at Saskia, currently discussing arcane matters of engineering with Mott.  I suspect she will be busy for some time with all of the new adjustments to be done.  "Or perhaps not," the steward concludes.  "If you like, I might have a look at it.  I have some experience with mechanical devices."

"That is to say, only if you are not having luck," she clarifies, not wishing to push.

"Both" he responds opening up a pair of shallow drawers that slide under the ballerina's platform, "Although they wouldn't have got much in there." The drawers are quite small and lined with a material of some sort; one contains the key used to wind the box, while the other is empty.

"You are welcome to have a quick look if you would like" the gunner responds "Although it is just the ballerina moves jerkily really.  I imagine that a bit of oil and maybe a clean up for the drive mechanism should solve the promblem" he says with a smile and turns the box towards the doctor.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:18, Fri 24 July 2009.

"Well, no one dies yet," Yas proclaims as she returns from her cabin, having slipped into something a tad more comfortable - that is, bigger guns and somewhat more casual clothing.  A wide grin is flashed at the new guy.

"So, you're jumping ship?  Good for you that you stayed long enough to wave goodbye or I'd have to hunt you down and shoot you dead a wee bit for being so rude," she tells Conrad, waving a finger at him much like the teacher that every kid is scared of.

"Now then, let's see about this new hole and if we can plug it safely or if we're better of welding it shut again already," the gunner states with a straight face and steps up to a console to have a little look-see on the new gadget installed in the old Profit Margin.  Then, another comment, as she works with the panels, "Oh, by the way, from what I hear, most ballerinas tend to be a bit of jerks, but not as bad as those screamers, whatchamacallem, ah yeah, opera singers..."

"Oh, I never minded the occasional screamer."  Tylen responds straight faced to Yas.  "Mind you, the neighbours complain if the volume is too loud." he continues as he shrugs his shoulder and grins wryly towards Shui.

"Well, you should try something non-electrical then, or at least with less exposed wiring, that'll save you screaming," Yas says to Ty with a helpful smile.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:49, Sat 25 July 2009.

Tylen grins across at Yas "Speaking from experience, then?" he asks the ex-marine before turning back to the music box.

"Indirectly.  Ridge's the one with that experience, 'nuff said," Yas replies with grimace and shudders, but not without winking afterwards.

"I shall do my best, Mr. Ogresh," Shui replies.  Her eyebrow jacks a little higher at the interplay between Tylen and Yasmine, but she turns her attention to the music box, studying the movement of the small figure.  Tylen, of course, is likely correct.

"I may have tools I can use for this back in the medical bay," she murmurs.  Small screwdrivers and the like, for use on her medical equipment when it needs a quick calibration.  "May I return this to you shortly, Mr. Ogresh?  If I cannot solve the problem quickly, I shall leave it to professionals like Ms. Blake."

"I have some small drivers in my room. Tylen responds "And some light oil that I am supposed to use on my hair clippers." he adds with a wink as he stands up and glances across to the group by the airlock.  "Why don't you work out how to get inside the thing, while I get the tools?  Very often these things have removable panels or such like, well ... at least the other one has ..." he says as he starts to move away towards his cabin.