"A shame, sergeant.  As a doctor, I'm a firm believer that one needs rest from exertion."  Shui nods her head at the marine's surrounding her, an amused shine in her eyes despite the tension.  "Certainly your men's stomachs and intestinal tracts could use a break from the cruel workout of digesting Corp Rations."

The smile goes like a blown-out candle when she feels the air thicken, almost with anticipation.  It's no longer 'if', but 'when', and the more people who feel it, the quicker that 'when' will be upon them.  Noting Saskia's death-grip on the back of Ash's coat, Shui moves up beside the engineer and takes her free hand.  "Not far now, Ms. Blake," she whispers, as much to assure herself as the engineer.

Caught in a seething sea of humanity, it would be far too easy to drown.

Carrying no weapons herself, Shui merely grimaces at the Sergeant's advice, taking in the scent of fear and and hunger with a sniff.  The marines might be cutting through the crowd like a laser through macaroni, but all it might take is the wrong stepped-on foot, even accidentally, and things will go south.  Fast.  "Hold tight, Saskia," she whispers again.  "Stay together."  A muscle jumps in Shui's jaw.

She does, however, manage a smile back at the marine, impressed at his sang froid.  "I shall outdo myself," Shui promises, then the colour drains from her face as Tylen requests Yasmine's secondary weapon.  Another shotgun?  Silly to ask where the chief had carried them, but two high-gauge weapons blasting in this crowd will deal carnage on a level she hasn't seen in...oh, years.

Years....

Shui continues to pace alongside the marines, but her eyes are blank mirrors, her face a porcelain mask.  With the tension beating down on her, old reflexes begin to bubble up through the silt of time, and she frantically struggles to bury them again.   Saskia's hand is a lifeline for the doctor, an anchor to the Profit Margin and her place upon the ship.

Shui Tiesi, Doctor and Steward, she reminds herself.  Shui Tiesi, Doctor and Steward.  Get them back to the ship alive.  Alive.

Ash's full attention snaps back to the material plane, when he feels Saskia's pull on his coat and the Marine at the front asks for weapons to be displayed.  He glances about for a moment, ensuring that the tug on his coat is a companion.  Once he has established that it is Saskia, the duster front comes open and he rests his hand on the pommel of his blade.  He may not have many weapons, but it would not do to have either the engineer or the doctor hurt under these circumstances.

If the people here are high strung enough to start a brawl over a random story, any quasi-plausible rumor about the Archduke's health can only feed into that unhealthy mentality.  Ash straightens slightly and gives Shui and Saskia a weak smile, "We'll get back to the Profit Margin safe and sound and in one piece, Ms. Blake.  You'll see..."  Ash really hopes that sounded much more confident than he felt.

Actually, he knows that any of Marine (or ex-Marine) artillery that the group is carrying is enough to cause a lot of spread out damage, especially in an enclosed space like this.  So, he is actually on edge more to make sure that Shui and Saskia are not anywhere near the fire zone for these weapons.  Once the doctor takes the engineer's hand, Ash makes sure he edges them both into the center (and putting himself slightly behind them, if there is no one else there).  He figures that should keep the two of them safe enough, even if he has to be the main physical buffer between them and anyone else for the short time it takes either Tylen or Yas to react.

"A real job", yeah, Yas had that once too.  She doubts he will get in touch, but at least she offered.  After all, that part of her life is gone for good, even if some of the events still lingers in her mind, some people still stalks her mind.  Even so, or perhaps due to that, she instantly falls into her blank yet hard mask from all those years ago, looking ready to ignore and blast someone at the same time without hesitation.

Long before Ty asks, her shotguns had appeared in her hands from under her long coat, with the scattergun being tossed towards him without even a glance the moment he asks.  She can tell where he is, where they all are, without having to look.  Another detail from her past.

Keeping the barrel down at the ground she marches on, taking up point out of old habit.  After all, you can take a marine out of the marines, but you can never take the marines out of an ex marine.

Tylen takes the shotgun with barely a glance, flicks the stock open, and holds it loosely.  One hand is around the  'grip' just behind the firing mechanism, his finger laying along side the tiger, the other hand holds it loosely on the grip partway down the barrel.  He figures that he might as well have the weapon  as obvious as possible -  it  might just add that extra bit of encouragement.

"Thanks Yas." he says softly as his full attention returns to the crowds.

The two Marines seem to know their business.  Crowds melt away before the group, and nobody appears to want to get too close.  Several times they take small detours.  Moments later the sounds of trouble echo through the corridors, coming from the direction of where they would have been, if not for the detours.  All in all, they are doing a good job of avoiding the worst of the unrest in the port.

They can not, however, avoid the traces of smoke which are becoming noticeable in the air, in spite of the best efforts of the atmosphere scrubbers.

Eventually the crew reach the docking bay where Profit Margin sits, still safe and sound.  Jago is sitting at the bottom of the ramp on a chair from the passenger lounge.  He is browsing through a magazine, Trader Captains' Monthly, while a stranger stands nearby, directing a trio of hulking yellow robots as they offload cargo modules onto a waiting hovervan.

As he catches sight of them, Jago stands, not exactly smoothly and gracefully, drops the magazine on chair, and studies them for signs of injury.  The Marines he merely glances at, with a sort of feigned, casual indifference, as if having his crew arrive at the ship escorted by armed guards is an everyday occurrence.

"You're back then.  Everybody alright?"

Relief spikes Shui's heartbeat hard - it goes from the slow, almost sleepy pulse to which it had dropped, to a sudden drumbeat in her chest as the tension comes off.  The doctor gasps with relief, colour flooding back into her face as she nods to Jago, seated in apparent ease at the ship's gangplank.  She wonders if he remains as sanguine within as he appears.

"All present, Captain Lanza," she offers, and waves at the marines.  "I have a responsibility to our guests, though, having offered a meal in return for their escort in these trying times."

Trying times.  Smoke in the air.  Shouts and screams in the distance. Crowds near to breaking into mobs.  Sickened, Shui realizes her Steward's smile has become a mask, and drops it.

"Things are not well at all out there, Captain Lanza," she quietly concludes.

Having kept quiet for the duration of the walk Yas allows the doctor to explain the situation, merely giving Jago a nod as she passes him and walks up the ramp.  Once at top she vanishes inside the ship.

A few moments later she appears again, without the coat and with more guns, taking up a position at the top of the ramp, almost as if standing at attention.

Jago sighs as he receives the information.  "This is something to do with the reports that Norris has died of a chest infection, isn't it."

He nods at the two Marines, "Thanks for bringing my people home, safe and sound." then a quick glance at Shui, "By all means, give these two their reward."

One of the Marines replies, "No problem, Captain.  Glad we could help.  Besides, our sergeant threatened to kill us if we didn't get them here.  I would recommend, though, that none of your people leave the docking bay again until after the emergency is over."

"Afraid you'll be stuck with us for a little while.  We're under orders to call in when we get here, and wait for extraction, and I've no idea how long that will be."

Jago speaks to his crew, looking at each in turn as he explains the situation, "The passengers are all off, except for Conrad, who decided to wait, and Corlan who thought better of going shopping when he heard the news.  These robots are taking the last of the computers.  Wolfram Thorne and Partners came through." he says with a grin at Ash, "Nice and efficient too.  As you can see they have their transport here already."

"Yas, Tylen, I'll need a security assessment from you two.  Is it safe to stay here?  But first, I just need to ask Saskia what the frack she thought she was doing getting herself arrested?"

While Yas disappears into the ship, Tylen stands his ground along side Jago, the marines and the others as he awaits her return.

Once she is back, Tylen takes his chance to head inboard and returns with his revolvers properly holstered at his waist.  He fetches the laser carbine and power-pack as well, but stashes that inside the ship near the entrance to the hatch.  "Might as well have the heavy stuff close to hand, just in case we really need to defend the ramp." he says casually as he moves across to lounge against one of the supports at the top of the ramp.

"I didn't plan it Jago!" Saskia practically wails.  Then she looks at the cargo handler, directing the robots, before adding, more quietly, "But, if it's all the same to you, I think we're better off talking about it once we're safely inside, and away from prying ears.  It was important though, and I think you'll be interested in what I have to say."

Her voice drops, almost to a whisper, "It has to do with the thing in the safe."

Ash is visibly relieved when the crew with their escort arrives at the Profit Margin without any real incidents and finding the ol' girl is not the source of the smoke in the air.  He nods to Jago's assessment of the cause of the tension in the air.  Ash breathes out a bit, nodding to Jago's acknowledgment of his help in procuring a buyer for the speculative cargo.

Given the state on the station, the fact that all of the passengers have been off loaded, Ash notes, "Captain, with your leave, I'll get on bridge and start plotting ... er... piloting solutions for getting off-station, whenever we are ready. I assume sooner rather than later is better, since it is probably best to be prepared."  He smiles weakly.

Ash stops on the ramp as he overhears Saskia start her story; he cannot mask his interest in hearing any details.  Ash also does mask his confusion, or at least his non-comprehension, about any reference that Saskia is making to any objects carried on the Profit Margin.  He shrugs and slowly continues up the ramp, figuring that the story will have to be continued inside.

Finally the last of the cargo is off-loaded, and the only passengers still aboard are the former navigator, Conrad Dietz, and the permanent resident, Corlan DeSant.  The two Marines, supplied with snacks and coffee, are gone now, having been picked up by a Light Armored Vehicle and taken back to their unit.

Jago orders the crew aboard, and seals the ramp, which closes with its usual loud screech.  With all of the ship's personnel ordered to the crew lounge, Jago heads into his cabin and returns a few moments later with a metal dish which contains an odd, fist-sized, truncated cone in shocking pink, which is standing, for some reason, narrow end down.

Profit Margin's captain tilts the dish, by way of a demonstration, and the cone remains vertical.  Then Jago taps the end of it, with a fingertip, and blue ripples spread across the surface.

"I take it this is what you're talking about, Saskia?"  He sets the dish down on the table, and the cone reverts to a solid pink.

"As most of you know, but not Ash, so I'll go over it again, I picked this up for a... not too unreasonable price, on Gungnir earlier this year.  The skipper who sold it to me said he wanted rid of it, because it scared him.  We haggled a bit, and finally I bought it.  At that time, it was a grey cube."

"I have no idea what it is, but I do know that it sometimes changes shape when I'm not looking.  I've tried keeping a camera on it, but I've never managed to see it change.  It also changes material - once it turned into a liquid, which is why I keep it in a dish.  Another time it turned into a stack of small spheres, and taking one of them away from the others caused it to warm up."

"Last night it looked like a spinning disk of blue glass, and it made a sound for the first time since I've owned it.  A continual humming, which went on for several hours, and when I looked today, it was in this shape."

He leans close, staring at the thing from short range, "I don't know why it does any of the things it does, so if you think you have some insight, Saskia, I might forgive you for forcing me to send an army to rescue you."

At one point Yas had walked down to chat with the two grunts, keeping it quiet-like apart from the occasional laughter.  Once they left in the vehicle she threw one last glance after it, almost a sad on, before entering the ship.

"Yeah, that thing will make you blind if you play with it too much," she comments, mostly towards Ash, arms crossed over her chest where she stands leaning up against the wall.

"Yeah, Sas, do tell.  Must be worth something if you were ready to kick shins over it."

Saskia sits in the lounge, as Jago brings in the object that he keeps in the safe.  She starts to blush at Yas's remark, and feels herself getting hotter and hotter, until she is suddenly struck by a worrying image of her brain undergoing an uncontrolled fusion reaction, and killing everybody in the room in a burst of plasma.  Impossible of course, since her skull doesn't have sufficient magnetic containment.

Still, it is worrying.

Still blushing, she starts to explain, "Y-yes, that's it."

"I w-went to buy some c-c-components, and after that I - " she stops, and looks around, "I need a glass of water."  Shui is, of course the first to react, and Saskia thanks her as she takes the proffered drink.  She empties the glass in a single draft, then takes up the tale again, "I thought I'd go for a little walk.  I like these underground worlds.  It's like being on a big ship, right down to the sound of machinery and the air moving through the vents."

A pause, while the engineer collects her thoughts, "Anyway, I heard a lot of people laughing and cheering, and I thought it sounded like they were having fun, so I went to take a look.  It was a bar, just like you'd see in any port, and there was this old man, dressed like a spacer, in a shipsuit and everything, and he seemed to be what most people were laughing at.

"He didn't seem that drunk, and he was going on about this thing that had been stolen from him.  Something that he said was worth a lot of money.  I listened for a bit, and realised that what he was talking about sounded a lot like this."  Saskia points at the innocuous looking object on the table.

"I sat down and started to talk to him about it, and he said he found it on a planet, inside Imperial space, in some sort of ruined alien base.  He also mentioned that this base was full of weird dren, that he thinks could have been sold for a fortune, but his captain got scared and refused to have any of it aboard, so he just took the smallest thing he could find and smuggled it back on to the ship."

Another pause, "Then it got stolen from him a couple of years ago, and he never heard any more about it.

"Anyway, before I could find out anything else, this farbotz local started calling him a liar, so he jumped up and punched him.  The local and some of his inbred friends objected, and a brawl started.  It spread, and the bar got damaged, and the cops showed up.  I tried to stop them arresting the old guy, at least until I had more information, but they wouldn't listen.  So I kicked one, to get her attention."

Shui is, of course, vastly curious about whatever information Saskia has to offer, but doesn't shirk at her duties - she deals with the issue of the marines with efficient politeness and efflusive thanks, ensuring they are settled and comfortable with their libations and victuals, and seeing them off when they go.  Fortunately, the others have had duties as well, so she still manages to be in the lounge with the gathered crew members, preparing their usual choices of drinks.

Jago's story garners a great deal of interest - she knows of 'the artifact', of course, but it's always a matter of curiousity for her, and hearing it doesn't take away the wonder in the slightest.  Of greater concern, though, is Saskia, the poor engineer potentially distressed by the day's events (lord knows she herself is...) then quite obviously flustered by Yasmine's off-colour humor.

When Saskia asks for the water, the steward moves with swift efficiency, offering the glass to the engineer in bare heartbeats - complete with ice.  She then takes up a position behind the other woman's chair, using that vantage point to cock her eyebrow at the captain, her placid features unusually stern.  Shui doesn't think Jago is the sort to give Saskia flak over this, but better safe than sorry, for the engineer seems on the verge of meltdown.

And the tale comes out.

"How you came to 'assault' an officer was a mystery to me," Shui admits, "but one now unclouded."  The doctor touches Saskia's shoulder, a moment of contact for offered comfort.  "And quite understandable."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:26, Mon 03 May 2010.

Ash busied himself on the bridge developing various jump plots, optimizing in-system routes for optimal vectoring based on jump destination, and monitoring comm traffic until the 'all hands' call came to assemble in the lounge.  He generally found such things relaxing, of sorts.  At least, the solutions were definable and discrete - and had actual solutions.  Most other problems in life are never solved as cleanly, he mused to himself.

Ash finds himself a comfortable place to stand against the wall in the lounge closest to the bridge and watches the proceedings with a bemused expression on his face.  He takes a cup of coffee from Shui when offered and sips it quietly as he listens.  The banter between the crew seems normal enough, though the topic is what really piques his interest.  Jago's object is ... mysterious.  And alien.  And fascinating; he has never seen anything like it before - and Ash was under the (apparently false) impression that he had seen and experienced a fair few things.

He stifles a chuckle as Yasmine warns of the dangers of showing too much interest in the object.  Up until that point, Ash was considering walking over and taking a closer look at the thing, but now he thinks better of it.  Best, perhaps, for those type of things to be done in private, apparently.  And Ash can see the logic of it.  For the security chief, he holds his piece... er... peace and says nothing for the time being.

Ash continues to watch the morphing cone... er... cube... er.. whatever, quiver and move from his vantage point over the lip of his coffee cup, as he listens to Saskia's story.  Her story gets more and more interesting as she goes through it.  He rubs his chin thoughtfully as she finishes, and then Ash notes flatly, "Quite the story, Ms. Blake."  He makes a mental note to get some shin guards, in case Saskia ever wants to get his attention.  Ash purses his lips before he continues, "Hmmm... The object is potentially stolen then."  His brow furrows for a moment, "Captain, are you considering returning it to its 'owner' - or at least investigating, if that man is really the original claimant?"

Then he adds enigmatically, "And, Captain should I try to plot a course for this secret alien base, whereabouts unknown, full of morphing objects that has creeped out, at least, two other ship owners?"  He glances at Saskia and Jago, adding "I may need more information to go on..."

Saskia nods at Ash, "Understandable.  But after we were arrested, I got to talk to him a little more, in the drunk tank.  Nobody interrupted us there."

She takes a deep breath, and exhales slowly, "He told me a name.  Fulacin.  That's where he said he found it."

"Fortuitous, Ms. Blake."  Shui is already punching holocontrols. "Fulacin," she begins quietly.  "Subsector H: Rhylanor.  Starport and shipyard facilities, Class A-standard atmosphere, mid-high levels of water...small population despite the starport and shipyard." She frowns.  "That's strange."  A small shrug, and she continues.  "Company-owned...ah, now the population makes sense.  No prohibitions on weaponry, though."  Now one eyebrow rises.  "Curious."

Another strike to a holocontrol informs the glove that yes, it should continue to spool up further, in-depth information from databases.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:34, Mon 03 May 2010.

Ash nods to Shui's assessment of Fulacin.  For his part, once the name is mentioned, his wristcomp is already working, his fingers tapping away on the miniaturized controls, and the star charts dance harmoniousl in the reticule of his eyepiece.  ""Well, it is on the main..." Ash notes off-hand, "It would take a while to get there; I can't see a way to get there with the Profit Margin in less than 10 jumps.""

Ash smiles sheepishly, "Not a quick jaunt... more of a long term effort.  Luckily, most of that is on the main; so, we probably could trade our way there relatively easily.  Still, it is a long way to go on a whim.  How solid is this rumor, Ms. Blake?  Do you think that we should really trust this old spacer?"  Ash looks to the others, he is probably getting ahead of himself, since most of the crew have not voiced their opinion on the matter yet.

Once the ramp is closed and all the 'visitors' are ashore,  Tylen returns the laser carbine to storage and joins the others, lounging against a wall, to hear Saskia's story.  His fingers start to fly across his data glove as the other start searching for information, however his nods do little more than  confirm their findings.

Then he lets his hand drop to his gum belt as the others continue the data search.  "Which company?  What do they do?"  he asks surprised that a corporate world that has not exploited a source of items such as 'the thing'.

Jago stands and crosses to the nearest console and calls up the same information that others are accessing from the own personal links to the ship's library data.

Fulacin: Widespread taint in the form of heavy metal dust and oxides makes the atmosphere, otherwise quite ordinary, unbreathable without a filter mask.  The dust triggers allergies with great frequency, causes a wide variety of respiratory illnesses, and can cause carcinoma within years of exposure.  Great pains are necessary to keep food clean and uncontaminated; filter masks can be removed only for very short periods, such as when eating and drinking.

A covert Zhodani operation established the class A starport through an Imperial corporation before the last war. The scheme was discovered just in time: the Zhodani almost had a base waiting for besieging Rhylanor.

"I remember hearing about this, I think." he waves a hand at the screen, "The company that originally owned the world was a front for the Zhos, or something."

He requests further information, "The company was MagnetoDynamics.  They still run the place, but their operation was under scrutiny for a while, and the entire board were forced to resign.  They mine and refine heavy metals, and manufacture high tech goods."

He glances at the object on the table, "I don't think the Zhos made that though.  I've seen some of their stuff, and that doesn't look like that."

"I bet no one knows who made this thing," Yas comments from where she stands as an extra support for the wall.  "Probably something left from those who came before, narmean.  Could be a kids toy or a doomsday device, the shape signifying time left before the big bada-boom and we'd we none the wiser."

She cracks into a big smile and chortles.

Tylen listens to the description of the planet, and chews thoughtfully on a piece of gum for a moment or two.  "So in other words neither the Zhos nor MagnetoDynamics know about wherever the thing was found?" he surmises as he listens to Jago's description.

For a moment he fiddles with the top of his gun belt and then continues  "Maybe you should buy the guy out of clink and give him a  temporary job cleaning?  Or perhaps even let him work passage off this place?" he suggests to Jago.  "That way we could try and talk the location of the the site out of him, rather than having to search for it later."

Interesting.

Ash comes out with a viable plan.  Tylen continues it with an idea regarding their source.  The information about the company and the system is...disturbing, to say the least, but older news - Shui sets her glove to searching for current information on the world in question.

"Captain Lanza," she begins, speaking slowly, "this might be the only opportunity you have to discern any real information about the artifact.  While I realize it involves a substantial investment of time and planning, and possibly cost..." She shrugs.  "I am willing to subsidize the spacer's release and time aboard this ship, as if he were a paying customer."  She has the funds in her account, essentially unused.  A surprising amount of funds, in fact.

It's not as though Shui has ever been seen to spend money on herself, beyond the occasional trinket or small trip to a spa.

Ash has been staring at the object for a while now, he notes absentmindedly, "I wouldn't be so sure that the Joes or the corp doesn't know about them.  They may just not know what to do with them.  Or they may know something more than we do..."  He frowns slightly as states the latter.  Ash shrugged as he brainstormed, "I mean, what if they know what triggers the changes or the purpose of the objects are, and as Ms. Crow noted, it is not something pleasant?"

Ash looks at Shui for a moment, while noting thoughtfully, "The man would the closest thing we have to an expert.  Presumably, he has other skills; so, working passage may not be out of line, either."  Honestly, Ash can't really question the man's trustworthiness, he himself has not been on the crew for very long.  So, it isn't really his place to do so.

He looks at Jago as he gestures in the direction of the object in the bowl, "Captain, I know this may not look like a Zhodani artifact.  But that doesn't mean that it is not psychoactive - or whatever the term is.  Or that it is not of interest to them."  He muses aloud and little cryptically, "The Zhodani are not the only culture that are or have been interested in the powers of the mind..."  He looks around at the others realizing what he just said.  Slightly flushed, Ash stammers slightly, "Umm... At least, that is what I have heard..."  His voice trails off.  And Ash broods a bit, but really seems more lost in thought.  His fingers are still tapping out out a rhythm on his wrist computer, and data is still scrolling on his eyepiece.