Ash waits for Yasmine and Keryn to disembark offering the latter a hand as she climbs down the ladder.  Then he himself slides down and moves up the ramp into the belly of the Profit Margin.

As he passes Jago, Ash notes, "I'll get the pre-flight checks done post-haste and get us clearance from Port Control, Captain."  He assumes that Tylen, Eneris, or Yas will aid Shui in getting the air-raft properly docked and stowed.  With standing orders to move out and the powerplant and drives up, he knows that his proper place is on the bridge right now.

So, he moves into the interior of the Profit Margin and towards the bridge of the ship, Ash intends to first stop by his cabin to drop off his duster and knife and then the ship's locker to stow and secure his laser carbine.

"Thanks Saskia." Jago responds, though his gaze is fixed on Yas' addition to the passenger roster.  Finally he sighs, and says, "Welcome aboard.  Shui will show you to your cabin as soon as she's parked the car."

"Tylen, I want you at your station for take off, with your... " he glances at Keryn Taylor again, "... systems powered up.  And activate the Navy's special equipment.  I think it'll increase the chances of them replying when we ask them to come and pick up Conrad."

Shui moves the air-raft above the ship, and drops it into the "garage" with minimal difficulty, and no awful scraping noises.  She turns off the turbines, and connects the vehicle so that it can recharge from the ship's own power supply.

Yas, meanwhile, shows Keryn to the passenger side lounge, and leaves her waiting there while she goes to get changed.  Though it's not too clear how she will fit her new armour into the pitiful amount of closet space that comes with her quarters.  Might be best to just strap it to a wall in the hold...

Tylen heads for his gunnery position and powers up the systems there, per Jago's orders.

Saskia and Ash also make their way to their respective duty stations.  Ash begins doing the pre-flights, and calls in for immediate launch clearance, just as Jago settles into his own seat.  "If they don't come back with the clearance soon, I might get Yas to power up the dorsals and blow us a new exit." he says, craning his neck to peer up at the docking bay's overhead door.  It isn't entirely clear if he is joking or not.

Tylen changes quickly from his armour into to normal shipboard attire, and stores his weaponry, before heading up to the bridge and his gunnery station, taking his seat and swinging in towards his controls but leaving the security door open.

He powers the systems up, and flips the switch under his seat which activates the inbuilt naval signalling system.  A quick scan of the readouts shows that everything is working properly, so he swings his seat around towards the door, allowing him to see into the bridge and watch what is going on in there.

"Ready when you are bos." he calls softly,  confident of both his systems and ability.   Tylen leans back, one foot resting casually against the door frame and his fingers tapping out a staccato rhythm on the arm of his chair, as he watches the others prepare for lift.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:23, Sat 20 Nov 2010.

"Ms. Blake," Shui murmurs on her way past Saskia from the garage to the passenger cabin.  She checks her dataglove as she marches purposefully through the ship, seeking knowledge of all of the people aboard.  Is Conrad safe?  Is Corlan DeSant with them?  And what of their newest passenger?

Side lounge.  Hardly surprising.

It's likely to be a bumpy ride - she should get something ready for those on board, but also keep her equipment close at hand.  Rather than stow her black bag, Shui heads directly for the lounge.

"Ms. Taylor," she greets their guest as she heads to prepare food, checking to ensure there is a seat - with straps - in easy reach. "Please make yourself comfortable - once the ship is safely away from the current -" deathtrap "- port, I shall see what we can do about procuring you a cabin and other amenities."

This said with a reassuring smile, despite her private concerns.

Ash noted Jago's entry onto the bridge.  He had to fight the old Navy instinct to stand - luckily, his conversation with the Port Authority allowed him an excuse to stay seated.  "Yes, ... yes." he intoned into the comm.  He paused and then repeated slowly trying to enunciate clearly, "Clearance.  Departure clearance."  Ash let only a little bit of exasperation creep into his voice - he was well aware that the person on the other side was likely under much more duress than he was currently, "Yes.  Docking bay 94.  Yes.  The Profit Margin."  He repeated the ship's ID code for the third time in as many minutes.

He tapped the mute button on the commlink and gave Jago a run down, "Captain, all of the lanes are filled currently.  They haven't given me a clearance estimate, yet."  Ash frowned slightly, as he glanced at the main screen showing the extremely heavy traffic in the space surrounding the station.  "Rats leaving the sinking ship..." he mused, and gave a self-deprecating 'squeak'.

Ash tapped the button to un-mute the connection to the Port Authority.  "Yes.  The Profit Margin." he repeated, and then gave the transpoder ID, yet again.  He nodded to no one in particular before he stated flatly, "Yes, I'll hold ..."  Then he flicked the mute button again before adding under his breath, "again."

"On the upside," he noted with only a small touch of irony as he turned back to face Jago, "All checks are complete and the boards show green once we get clearance."  Ash added after a pause, "I have also taken the liberty of calculating a preliminary trajectory, based on our likely release vector to the nearest jump point."  He shrugged slightly, and offered as an explanation, "I figured it wouldn't hurt..."

"I just want to make orbit first." Jago replies, "Hopefully we can make contact with an INS ship and drop Conrad off with some new playmates.  Then we can worry about the Jump point."

The comms comes back to life just then, "This is Frenzie Downport Control, Profit Margin.  Please confirm that you have all your locks sealed, and we will commence depressurisation of Docking Bay 94."

Jago gives Ash a thumbs-up, "All the doors are shut."

Ash relays the information, and a few seconds later orange lights start strobing in the docking bay.

"You are clear for departure, Profit Margin.  Please be aware that orbital traffic control duties are being handled by the Imperial Navy at this time.  When you are clear of the bay, switch to channel three-five-six, to receive further instructions.  Bon voyage, Profit Margin."

"Here we go... " says Jago.  Overhead, the huge doors starts to glide open, revealing the stars shining steadily through vaccuum.

The ship lifts smoothly, and starts to rise into the void...  To the passengers and crew, there is no appreciable change, thanks to the ship's internal gravity and inertial damping.

With one exception.  Shipboard gravity is, apparently, somewhat higher than Keryn Taylor has experienced thus far in her life.  She doesn't complain, exactly, but she does ask if Shui is able to do anything about it.

"My apologies, Ms. Taylor."  Shui is quick to move to the woman's side.  "I fear this trip could be very uncomfortable for you."  Four times higher than the norm for their guest, the ship's internal gravity would be crippling.  "You will need time to slowly acclimatise yourself to the higher pressure of ships and planets - we should start lower, much lower than this." 

Extremely concerned, she flicks on her dataglove to contact the Captain.

+ Captain Lanza, Ms. Taylor is accustomed to 0.25 gees.  Is there a way to set up gravity in a stateroom at a different level than the norm?  If not, we need to set the internal systems lower than 1.0 gees for the time being. +

There is no question in her voice - Ms. Taylor is pregnant, and the welfare of herself and her unborn child are at stake.

With little to do during lift, Tylen sits back in his seat watching his colleagues ion the bridge as they take the The Profit Margin into orbit.  Every so often he glances across at the tell-tales on his boards, but mainly he just watches and drums his fingers.

Ash nodded to Jago, "Of course, Captain.  You did mention dropping off Mr. Dietz.  So, I have also taken the liberty to highlight all of the naval vessels that will pass within a ten thousand klick radius of our position along the way."  He tapped his console and a number of vessels were highlighted, as he continued, "These eighteen are what I expect us to be in range of at various points..."

He paused for a moment and tapped the commlink for the station's port authority.

"Acknowledged, Frenzie Port Authority.  Channel Three-Five-Six." Ash stated simply to the Port Authority operator.  "Thank you.  Have a better one, yourself." he added quickly, then Ash closed the commlink.

Once the Profit Margin had started to pull away, Ash continued with his previous thread.  "Captain, from what I can tell, these three Navy ships..." and he highlighted three dots, "present the closest approaches; two are SDB's, the other is a fleet destroyer.  Presumably, Mr. Dietz could rendezvous with any of them."

As they cleared the doors of the docking bay, Ash dutifully tapped into the Naval Channel: Three-Five-Six.  He gave the Profit Margin's code and flight plan and then asked for any further instructions from the controller.

"Thanks Ash."  The captain takes a look at the designated ships, but decides to deal with Shui's call first...

"The environmental controls in her stateroom will let you set gravity in there to anything between zero and two gravities, Shui.  So as soon as you've decided where you're putting her, you should be able to make her comfortable." Jago responds to Shui, as he reaches out and calls up a new secondary control layout on the dynamic panel.

"No, that's not it... where the hell is it?" he mutters, "Ah... there you are!"

"Shui.  I'm dropping the grav in the passenger lounge down to about 0.5G.  Not perfect for her, but an improvement, and it's not so low that Corlan might feel uncomfortable."

His fingers dance across the controls briefly, "And I've set it to ramp back up to 1G over the course of the next week.  I'd suggest doing the same in her quarters too.  There... done."

Shui suddenly feels much lighter on her feet, and Keryn heaves a sigh of relief.

Jago glances at Tylen, "Stay sharp.  I'm not expecting trouble, with the Navy dealing with orbital traffic, but we might run into a suicidal pirate.  And talking of the Navy... " he activates a comm channel, "This is the trader Profit Margin, outbound from Frenzie, and seeking urgent assistance from any Imperial Navy vessel in the immediate area."  He sets the broadcast to repeat, and leans back in his chair.

"Now... to have a talk with Yas.  If I'm not back in thirty minutes, send for a new captain."

But before he can even stand up, a reply comes back...
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:18, Sat 27 Nov 2010.

"Attention, Profit Margin, this is the INS Children of the March.  What assistance do you require?"

Jago stares at the console.  "Bloody Hell.  That was quick."

"Hello... er... Children of the March.  We have a passenger who needs transfer to a Naval facility.  The situation on Frenzie made it unsafe to effect that transfer there, so we were hoping to rendezvous with a Navy ship and let him off before we Jump."

Having eventually managed to get out of her new toy Yas is making a beeline towards the passengers lounge, knowing she is wanted by Jago in his office.  Even so, something compels her to check up on Keryn and thus even the captain has to wait. After all, it is not like he is going anywhere, right?

She opens the door to the passenger lounge and steps through, noticing the change in gravity with a crooked smile.

"Hey, Teryn.  Sushi."

Her eyes dances over the two women, something flashing past in her eyes.  Relief?  Concern?  A bit of both?  Whatever it was is once more replaced by her regular expression, even though a slight smile remains.

"Hanging in there, Teryn?" she asks as she moves closer to the young woman, seemingly unaffected of the change in gravity.  Years of practice and experience tend to leave traces.  "Figured I would come over and help deal with the fee, get you some Imperial credits instead of that local currency."

She briefly looks over at Sushi and nods to her, the hint of a smile still lingering.

There is a gentle cough as Tylen turns back to his screens and  inserts a small ear piece.  However, he leaves the door open so that he can see the bridge, and while the ear piece makes sure that he notices even the quietest audial warnings from the system, he can still hear the what is going on in the bridge proper.

He smiles slightly at Jago's surprise when the navy respond immediately to his request for aid.  With the navy in charge of orbital space and the problems on the surface, then Jago asks for urgent assistance on a repeat loop.  The Navy probably think we have rioters aboard he thinks to himself I wonder if they were already preparing a marine boarding party? then he  half grimaces as he imagines  the disappointment in a team of six Yasmin's at being told they can not have the merchantman any more ....

His thumbnail traces  the crease in the arm of his seat as he thinks  Should have told them you have a recruit for them ...
This message was last edited by the player at 09:32, Sat 27 Nov 2010.

There is a brief pause, just long enough to pass on information, and relay instructions.  Then, "Roger, Profit Margin.  Please maintain your current vector.  We will match with you to collect your passenger."

Jago studies the display to see which of Ash's three probable targets starts to change course to meet them.  Oddly, none of them do.  Instead a larger blip, located much further away, starts to move.

"What is that?"  Jago wonders, tapping the blip to call up a datastring with information on the ship, "That can't be right.  Let's see...  No, it is right.  Good grief.  Conrad will be riding back to them in style.  According to the sensors, that thing's about the size of a battle cruiser."

"Nobody do anything suspicious.  Don't even think anything suspicious."

Unaware of the behemoth closing with the Profit Margin, Shui smiles at Yasmine, bowing slightly in greeting.  "Ms. Crow.  Glad to see you out of armor."  She doesn't bother warning the Marine of the change of gravity - the woman's body language tells her all she needs to know.  One step, and Yasmine is already adjusting for it.  The Doctor turns back to Keryn, one finger tapping against her chin.  "Ms. Taylor, as the Captain noted we will be slowly bringing your gravity up to one gee over the course of the journey.  I will keep it low in your quarters and raise it myself as I decide - in your condition, it could be dangerous to attempt too much too quickly."

She looks over the woman, a short assessment of her body's shape.  "After your physical, I will give you a series of very simple exercises -" the woman's condition precludes anything but "- I would like you to carry out.  And for the first while, it might be wise to take your meals in your quarters, until your capacity for the gravity begins to approximate that of something closer to the norm."  She offers a bright smile.  "I suspect that should not require a great deal of time."

Keryn thanks Shui for her help, and then adds, "But I think you should know, Yas exaggerated things slightly.  I'm only about forty days along, or something, so I'm not really in enough of a condition to cause problems, yet."

She reaches into her bag and pulls out the wad of credits again, offering it to Yas, "I hope this is enough.  Take whatever you need for the ticket, and change the rest to Imperial money, I guess."

"Oy, since when is it exaggerating to state the fact that you are pregnant, hmm?" Yas replies with overacted protest before grinning at the girl before taking the money and nodding at her, "Yeah, don't you worry, I'll go get it done straight away, got to see the skipper anyways."

In the end, Yas knew it did not really matter, since she had it covered already.

Turning to leave she moves closer to the doctor/steward and quietly says, "You take good care of her, yeah?  She's got more guts than is good for her, but she'll be fine if we gently turn her in the right direction.  First time away from home, but she's keeping up a brave face, eh?"

Ash raised an eyebrow as the tagline on the Children of the March came up.  He could only wonder what would warrant such a response.  Of course, the Profit Margin, no matter its payload would offer token resistance at best (not they they intended to resist - as the Captain had explicitly stated).  He shook his head slightly - the motives and means of IN command had always eluded him, even when he had been an Ensign and, in theory, part of that Command structure.

Ash sighed slightly and noted to himself, Inscrutable.  And then he busied himself with course projections (which were annoyingly simple - since they had been ordered to maintain current velocity and direction) and triple-checking the jump parameters.

As he finished the third pass on the jump numbers, Ash looked up and visually tracked the intercept course of the battle cruiser for a moment.  Then he asked Jago dutifully, "Captain, has Mr. Dietz been informed of his imminent transfer and mode of transportation?"  The one thing that Ash did distinctly remember about his officer training was that efficiency and punctuality were highly valued.  He figured that the crew of the Children of the March would be no different.  That and he had no desire to keep them waiting.  As he recalled, 'wasting their time' was a valid excuse for deconstructing the Profit Margin and everything housed in her back to their component atoms - all under the guise of 'suspicious activity'.

The presence of the battle cruiser, which to Ash seemed a disproportionate response to Jago's initial request, prompted him to wonder out loud after a brief moment, "Um, Captain... Should we expect to be boarded?  Is the Children of the March coming to download or upload additional data or equipment?  If so, will the rest of the crew need to be informed?  Especially Ms. Blake and Ms. Tiesi?"

"Frack" Tylen mutter softly as he realises size of the behemoth dispatched to get their passenger.  Not for the first time he wonders exactly how the navy interpret the signal they are sending out.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:09, Tue 30 Nov 2010.

"Then I'm certain everything will be fine," Shui reassures Keryn. "Nevertheless, it's best to do things slowly and carefully, Ms. Taylor.  You will be dealing with four times your accustomed gravity."  She doesn't mention that the first trimester will be difficult enough on the mother without adding the issue of acclimitization to the pot.

She cocks an eyebrow at Yasmine as the marine stresses the need to care for Keryn.  It's redundant, telling Shui, but the doctor understands what drives the marine to make the point.  "Of course, Ms. Crow," she reassures the security officer.  "You need not worry on that point.  I will see to it that Ms. Taylor has an easy voyage."

Within the circumstances Shui can control, of course.  Then again, if things outside of her control impinge on Keryn's comfort, it's quite likely they're all in the soup.

"As far as I can guess, Ash, they think we have some sort of VIP aboard, and they believe they need to pick him up." Jago responds quietly, "It's probably got something to do with the fact that we're showing on their boards as being employed by Naval Intelligence.  I wasn't expecting anything like this though.  Maybe her skipper is hoping we'll put in a good word about how helpful he's being."

The cruiser moves closer to Profit Margin, with almost painful slowness.  Other vessels move aside, making room for it to maneuvre, until both ships are clear of the main bulk of the orbital traffic.

Jago manages to get a good lock on Children of the March, with Profit Margin's optical sensors.  Mostly it seems to consist of weapons, some of which look to be larger than the entire merchant vessel.

By the time the cruiser is about a hundred metres away, and Jago has shut off the collision alarms, the two ships are moving almost parallel.  The distance between them is narrowing slowly, perhaps a metre every thirty seconds.  Then a metre every forty-five seconds.  Finally, they are moving completely parallel.

Jago relays the view to Corlan's cabin, just in case the man is interested in seeing it.

"Tell Conrad his ride's here."

"Tylen, if the Navy can give Conrad this sort of treatment, I want them to think he really is important.  When they decide how they're taking him off, I want you and Yas to give him an escort."

"Next time we are in port, why don't we get a nice black uniform with security written across it?" Tylen asks as he climbs out of his seat.  "With appropriate holsters for side arms, hand cuffs and other paraphernalia?" he asks on the way to the bridge door.  "It would be good to look the part sometimes." he adds with a grin.

However, he heads back to his cabin and dresses in the pseudo army fatigues that he used earlier, with the two revolvers slung around his waist in his normal double rig.  Making his way back to the bridge he asks "Will this do?  Or do we go for the Laser Carbine as well?"

Ash nods to Jago order, "Aye, aye, Captain."  He gives him a short salute, followed by a slightly crooked smile.  Apparently, Ash has decided to start enacting that modicum of shipboard discipline early - sort of.

He locks his console session and pushes back from his chair, detaching his headset before moving out of the bridge towards the passenger lounge.  Ash figures he will check there first for Conrad - he is most likely there; but if not, he'll check the cabin that Conrad had been previously assigned, and if Conrad is no there.  Ash will start to scour the cargo bays and the rest of the ship for the Profit Margin's ex-Navigator...

Luckily, he did not have to go further than the lounge.  Stepping into the lower gravity, Ash adapts quickly to the situation.  Apparently, his previous experience as a navy man and scout coming into play.  Once he had located Conrad in the lounge, Ash crosses over to him and leans over to speaking quietly into his ear not wishing to alert or alarm any of the other passengers (re: Keryn) about the current situation, "Your conveyance is here, Mr. Dietz.  It's fancy - a battle cruiser.  Likely summoned by our transponder."

Since Yasmine is also in the room, Ash address her as well, "Ms. Crow, the Captain requests that you escort Mr. Dietz to his assignment in your official capacity as Head of Security."  By emphasizing the word 'official' he assumes that Yasmine will understand what that means in terms of demeanor and armament.  The messages delivered, Ash turns to start back towards the bridge.  Along the way, he nods genially to Keryn and Shui.

"Just saying she is rather inexperienced in matters of the world, despite her condition.  Feel free to insert some words of wisdom.  I'll be around when time allows, but I figured ou may have some advice, uh, less likely to come from me, narmean?"

Yasmine talks quietly with Sushi to perhaps clarify what she meant, preparing to leave when Ash turns up with an odd query.  With a wave to Keryn and Sushi she moves after Ash to catch him in the hold once he heads out again.

"What aren't you telling me?" she inquires there, away from Teryn in case it is unsuitable for her ears.  Evidently Conrad is being picked up soon, meaning she will have little time to say good-bye to him, far less than she might have wanted.