Ash swallows hard, as he listens to Saskia discuss the common issues with low passage travel.  "Yes," he agrees amiably, "it's a good thing that we still have space available."

He notes rather dismissively, "I am sure that none of those things would happen on the Profit Margin..."  After a brief pause during which the navigator licks his lips, Ash continues, "I mean an engineer of your caliber would never let the equipment get into that state.  Besides that, the Captain has given his word; and passenger fatalities and injuries..." and Saskia can almost hear the head shake from the Margin's navigator, "are extremely bad for business."

The two security officers decline the offer of refreshments, as does Edrin Othati-Fenn, who adds, "Thank you, though.  I haven't made up my mind about this offer of your captain's yet."

"I can assure you, Mr Orgesh," a brief nod to Shui, "my only interest is freeing my people from the weight of foreign oppression which crushes them into the dirt.  That and freeing my brother, of course, but that goal falls within the first, since he is currently being oppressed by foreigners."

Then he smiles, "I am a smart ass, I suppose.  My brother has called me one on numerous occasions.  I'll be sure to let him know that you agree with him."

"Or a thug prepared to threaten and shoot innocent bystanders to get his own way." Tylen responds.  "That puts you on about the same level as the people you are complaining about really, doesn't it?" Tylen offers.

Shui's lips thin at Edrin's words, and her eyes narrow.  Those words might as well have been taken from a holo-novel, given how often they've been used almost word for word to justify terrorist activities.

For an instant, memories spike in her mind.

"'...to free our people from the boot of foreign oppression crushing them into the dirt.'" The man shakes his head, his finger running down the small scrip of paper - hardcopy - he holds. "Twenty-seven killed in a hover bomb placed in a public lot.  Sixteen office workers lined against a wall and executed for the crime of filing the government's papers.  Three children of a senator taken hostage and, after the demands were met, killed as 'examples of the freedom force's resolution.'"  The paper goes down on the table as the girl watches from behind the couch, as do her father's glasses.  He rubs his forehead.

"The government is oppressive," the woman notes, continuing her needlework.

"Yes.  But they hold stability better than this pack of jackels would."

The needle slides in and out of the cloth.  "So you'll take this one on?"

"I think..."  Her father pauses.  "Ho.  A listener." Up he rises, moving for the couch, and the girl squeaks, ducking back.  "Oh, you little devil!"

Laughing, her father pursues her.

Shui blinks, her gaze returning to the present.  She doesn't quite nod along with Tylen's words, but offers a slight inclination of her head.

"Mr. Orgesh."  A small wave of the hand, a small smile to match.  "I can provide coffee, should you desire.  Perhaps better than a pointless debate."  An oblique apology for her comment about the calming tea.  The smile fades as she turns to Othati-Fenn, though her face and tone remain polite.  "Mr. Othati-Fenn, if you do not wish refreshment, perhaps you might let our captain know when you've decided.  The ship is preparing for lift and we have a great deal of tasks to perform."

The steward offers a small bow - a politeness.  "Excuse me."  Another small bow to the officers.  "Gentlemen."

She has other things to do than be an audience for Edrin's rhetoric.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:37, Thu 08 Nov 2012.

"Unfortunately, it is my lot to stay here and keep an eye of our guest here." Tylen nods across to the 'freedom fighter' in hand cuffs.  "Once he is securely off of the ship, or frozen to a point where he can't be a risk, I would be delighted to join you for a coffee." Tylen responds to Shui.

"Just so long as it is away from those kids" he adds mentally.

Saskia removes her hand from the case and sighs, loudly.  "Ash, let me tell you a story.  A couple of years ago we had an incident with the Number Four low berth.  A charge rectifier in the primary temperature regulator went on the blink.  The secondary TR suffered a minor power fluctuation at the same time.  I mean really minor, somewhere around point zero two percent.  So small it didn't even register as a fault, I only spotted it later when I was going through the logs.  But, like I said, it happened at the same time as the primary TR was acting up, so both TRs were, technically, malfunctioning for something like five seconds.

"About a half second into that time both regulators reset, which is normal enough that it didn't cause any concern.  The system is designed to check both regulators any time there is a reset, compare them, and make any adjustments that aree required.  Problem is that because they were both faulty at the same time, the berth reset them both too frelling low every time."

The Engineer pauses as she remembers the incident and shudders.  "Anyway, the berth did the check and reset routine fifteen times in the space of five seconds, and each time it dropped the temperature setting on either the PTR or the STR.  But none of the individual drops were big enough to trigger an alarm because the tolerances have to be pretty generous because low berths work with large temperature changes.  Then the power fluctuations settled down, and the regulators stopped resetting.

"But we had a Vargr passenger in Number Four whose temperature dropped low enough that his nervous system became a superconductor.  He spent a whole week in there, awake but not able to move, very cold, and thinking he was in a coffin.  He was convinced he was in the place where bad Vargr end up when they die."

She gives it a couple of seconds to settle in before continuing, "This sort of thing happens on every starship.  Every low berth resets its regulators from time to time.  It's very rare for both to reset at the same time, like it did here, but it does happen, usually with no trouble.  There'll be no warning before it happens, and if the reset falls within acceptable parameters, there won't be one during or after either.  I had to strip the berth down, perform tests on every individual component, then make some guesses to figure out what happened.  Then we replaced the whole berth, but the doc at the time, Elinrea, would never put anybody in Number Four after that if she could help it.  Brand new berth to replace the old one, but she thought it was unlucky.

"That's why low berths aren't more popular.  Because they're risky.  Every low berth on every ship has something like a point three percent chance of killing the occupant, or causing some degree of brain damage or tissue trauma every time it's used.  That's why passengers sign a waiver before they get frozen, and why ship crews can't be sued or prosecuted when something does go wrong.

"So please don't frelling tell me it couldn't happen on this ship."

Ash smiles pensively as Saskia relates her story.  He knows the odds and the feels a fair amount of sympathy for the passenger that it happened to.  The odds are the main reason that he never travels in cold sleep anymore.  And why he hated any time in the Frozen Watch in the Navy.  He also feels a tinge of remorse for making the Margin's engineer relive the story in the telling.  Her discomfort is obvious even with only audio over the channel.  Properly chastened, he apologizes over the commlink to engineering, "I understand, Ms. Blake.  Please, forgive me, if I sounded as though I was questioning your integrity."

But, Ash is not sorry that he has ensured that Saskia is back on track.  He is well aware of the dangers of low berth passage.  And he is also aware that the ex-Navy woman has both razor-sharp intelligence and slightly, mischievous streak; the latter of which the ex-Scout has only seen glimpses of.  And while, Ash doesn't necessarily like or agree with Edrin Othati-Fenn, he also doesn't want to see the man die on-board the Profit Margin either.  Despite the 'freedom fighter's' assertions and actions showing a willingness to engage in violence, Ash's own experiences differ; injuries and death rarely solve the greater and more systemic issues.

More confident that Saskia's professionalism will win out in this case, Ash's mind wanders slightly.   Random chance is something they all have to deal with in the deep black of space, but he merely wanted to make sure that there wasn't any neglectful bias involved.  As he glances at the visual feed from the low berth chamber, the thin navigator ventures with a certain level of dispassionate distance, "Hmmm... isn't number four one of the currently empty ones?"  After a pause, he wonders out loud to Saskia, "Is Ms. Tiesi aware of the history of that berth?  Do you think that she will place Othati-Fenn in it?"

"I think I might have mentioned the event to her when she first signed on, but I can't remember if I told her which berth it was.  She already seemed a bit, well, squeamish about them, as I recall, and I wanted to give her a bit of a scare -- like a ghost story, you know -- but I don't think I would have told her which one it was."

"Well," Ash notes rather wryly, "I guess we might be able to test the Margin's previous doctor's assertion then."  He continues after a thoughtful pause, "Ms. Tiesi should be unable to consciously bias the outcome, since she is unaware of the experimental parameters."

"What do you think will happen, Ms. Blake?" the navigator asks.  Her answer might well  indicate whether the Margin's engineer is either a gambler or superstitious.  Or both.

Ash continues to monitor the on-going activities at on the Profit Margin's cargo ramp.  He glances every so often at his console to ensure that the various systems still show green statuses, but his main focus remains on whether they are taking on another passenger.

"That would be up to the ship.  Sometimes she definitely has a mind of her own."  For some reason, Saskia is now keeping her voice low.

Ash's nod is pretty much inferred from his tone.  "Aye, it would be upto the Margin." he agrees rather hushed and conspiratorially.  But then he pronounces with some degree of confidence (fake or not), "I trust her."  Of course, Ash doesn't specify which outcome he is referring to.

Or in fact, if he is referring to the outcome of the low berth situation at all.  Perhaps he is merely professing his general faith in the Profit Margin or her engineer.  Or both.  It is probably better to place his faith in them than something like, say, Tsort.

Jago curse quietly to himself a he watches Yasmin walk away, and picks flakes of dried tobacco from his mouth from where he’d bitten through his unlit cigar. He knows she’s right in all she says, though she might have perhaps missed a couple of relevant points, he also knows that he’s not in a position of his own choosing and has to play this thing through whatever the outcome.

Staring ruefully at the wrecked end of his cigar and musing on the irony of such a metaphor, he tosses the thing into the nearest incinerator and turns back to the cause of the trouble.

“So, you coming or not,” he asks Edrin from near the top of the ramp, “I’m sealing this ramp now so you only have time for a yes or no answer.”
.

With another shrug of his shoulders Edrin Othati-Fenn replies to Tylen, "It all depends on which end of the oppression you're on, I suppose."  Then he turns back to Shui again, "Well, I was about to tell your captain my decision, but then he was called away on urgent business by that angry midget, which I assume was a crewmember, rather than the helpless passenger she first presented herself as."

He smiles, looking past both Shui and Tylen, "Ah... Captain.  You'll be pleased to know that I've decided to take you up on your offer.  I assume any possessions, other than those I have with me at the moment, should be considered forfeit?  I don't, for one moment expect that I'll be permitted to delay your departure while I go and pack my bags."

"Just a smart arse thug, who doesn't even do that very well." Tylen responds to the man.  "I suppose you normally get other people to do your dirty work for you." he says quietly.

Looking around the hold as she walks away to take post near the "freezers", the angry midget hopes something in the hold needs shooting.  Unfortunately this is not the case so she has to be content with checking her weapons over and over, or she might end up shooting a would-be popcicle.

Scattergun's fine, so's the revolvers.  She pulls out her machete and tries a few swings at imaginary targets.  At the moment, at least.

"Mr. Othati-Fenn."  Shui's smile is gone, now.  "Your manners are appalling.  You add insult to the injury of holding innocents at gunpoint, portray yourself as the injured party in this entire affair, and scorn those offering you a stay of imprisonment.  I will conduct you to your berth, where you will rest for the duration of our trip, free of suffering our presence any longer.  Once we arrive, the captain will no-doubt release you to your own business, whatever that may be."

Her voice remains even and soft through the entire speech.

"I only ask that you do us the favour of sparing us your debate and mockery throughout your waking hours."  A small bow to the police officers follows.  "Gentlemen.  Excuse me.  Mr. Orgesh, I shall prepare the Low Berths for our newest passenger.  Please escort him there at your convenience."

Turning away with an uncharacteristically economical movement, Shui strides away to begin work on the chilling unit for their passenger.  Her face is blank, only a small line between her thin brows as a sign of her indignation.  Passing Yasmine, she pauses a moment.  "Insufferable boy," the doctor mutters, touching the Security Chief's arm.  "Thank you, Ms. Crow."

The Port Security officers nod their consent to Jago taking possession of their prisoner.  The one with the shotgun steps back a pace, and raises it to point directly at Othati-Fenn's head.  "Don't try to be clever." he warns, as his partner hands Jago some documents - prisoner transfer forms, legal releases, liability waivers - they all seem to be in order.  "Just need you to sign these, Captain, then we'll be out of your hair."

Port Authority calls back to Ash with a revised departure window at 11:45.  Should be sufficient time to get the prisoner aboard and everything locked down.

Only once the paperwork is dealt with is the prisoner uncuffed and escorted into the ship, straight across the hold, and into the low berth chamber.  Yas is waiting, and Shui.  Neither looks particularly pleased.

Othati-Fenn notices that two of the berths each have a set of restraints laying on top of them, "One of those where my brother is?" he asks, nodding towards the cuffs.

From his position on the Bridge, Ash watches as the two Port Security cops head out of the docking bay...

Tylen falls in behind the security man as they escort the prisoner to the low berths, but holds back slightly knowing how small that area is.  Anyway, Yas is in there and there, and he is confident that she can deal with anything that arises in there.

Instead he hangs back slightly, in the middle of the hold, making it easy to keep an eye on the entry ramp and the low berth area.  He nods his thanks as the port security men leave, and waits for Ash to close and lock the access ramp.

Ash quietly watches the activity in the hold, the muted lights on the bridge allowing a dynamic play of light on his face from the tactical displays as they shift and twist.  His hands dance on his navigator's console as he makes sure that the cargo hold is locked down for receipt of Edrin Othati-Fenn.  He stands by the controls ready to open any of the ports for Jago to get through (even though he knows that the Captain can manually input the overrides and such).

He answers the call from the Port Authority with a quiet, if detached, professionalism.  Ash thanks them for the revised departure time window before signing off and logs the change to the ship's computer and the rest of the crew. ++Updated departure clearance from Port Authority:  1145h.  Final pre-flight checks clear.  Flight plan logged and locked.  All passengers and crew logged on-board.  Closing rear cargo ramp now.++  Noting that Jago, Shui Yas and Tylen are all on-board (and that he can state with fair confidence that Saskia is still sequestered in Engineering), the Margin's navigator toggles the ramp controls and the lights around the cargo ramp begin to flash in preparation for its closure.

His palms are slightly sweaty as he suspects that most of the crew is incredibly agitated by the addition of their latest passenger.  Saskia and Yasmine's moods are very easy to read.  Shui's less so, though her rather distant politeness seems slightly brittle which implies to him a tightly controlled masque.  Only Tylen seems (relatively) nonplussed; his fellow ex-scout doesn't seem overly happy, but does not seem prone the extreme moods of the others.  Which is probably a good thing to his mind.  Ash has his suspicions that Tylen would love to have his laser carbine in hand; though perhaps that is just the navigator projecting a bit...
This message was last edited by the player at 16:39, Thu 15 Nov 2012.

"Passenger placement is a private matter, Mr. Othati-Fenn," Shui notes with her customary politeness.  It's not a barbed refusal, either; it's fact.  "If you will step this way, please, I will begin the medical testing and equipment calibration to ensure your trip passes by smoothly, and you arrive in good health at your destination."

Again, no barb in the statement, no hidden threat; factual and calm, much as she would treat any other disagreeable passenger.  Perhaps a trifle more coolly; while she can handle a certain amount of nastiness, herself, Shui has little patience for those who would insult the rest of the crew.

Once their new passenger complies, Shui commences the tests and equipment checks with meticulous precision.  As always.

Yas only manages a grimace in response to the doctor's comment, doing her best to both keep a close eye on the proceedings and avoiding looking at their newest addition to the cold storage.

She might end up breaking some stupid law if she looks too closely, but she will make damn certain he does not break a law either.

Indeed, she has to bite down on her tongue to avoid replying to his inquiry with a phrase that would make walking down an alley filled with poisonous animals while blindfolded seem like a sensible idea in comparison.

She does make certain he hears her forcibly pumping a round into the chamber of her almost as venomous-looking scattergun.  Then again, anyone near the cargo bay hears it.  What they may not know is that she still has the safety on, since... accidents... can happen so easily.  It still makes a very nice club, if she need it.

Tylen's eyebrows raise in surprise as he hears the cartridge slamming into place in Yas's shotgun.  Surprise that there wasn't one in the breech already ....

The second Othati-Fenn of the day is given a quick medical exam, which doesn't turn up anything that would force Shui to veto freezing him, and Jago to abandon him to Dentotam justice.  Pumped full of sedatives he clambers into the berth, watched by people who, for the most part, seem reluctant to offer any assistance.

Out in the hold, Tylen hears the familiar screech of the ramp closing, similar to, but subtly different from the sound it makes when opening.  The latches drive home, and Profit Margin becomes its own private, enclosed world.

While it has always been that, legally speaking, it's now a physical fact that the ship is no longer part of Denotam Highport.  The occupants are breathing their own atmosphere.  On the bridge a series of telltales show that the latches are all engaged , and that the ramp is properly sealed.

The temperature in the berth starts the drop towards normal operational level.  Before long it even drops lower than that of the frosty atmosphere in the low berth chamber.  Indicators start to light up across the display panel, as the occupant of the berth starts to slide down towards his (hopefully) brief flirtation with death...

Chronometers all over the ship tell the same tale - five minutes until they leave the orbital city, bound for Rangent, just beyond the edge of the Imperium...

Once the freezer closes Yas starts to unload the shotgun one shell at a time from the magazine before emptying the one in the chamber.  Then she feeds the shells back into the magazine again, leaving the chamber clear.  Sometimes, feeding a shell into the chamber makes for a nice little deterrent, saving her to waste a shot as a warning.  She also puts the safety back on on her two revolvers, since she won't been needing them for a bit, hopefully.

"Back to work, I'll just grab me a cup of coffee.  A strong one," she half mutters to herself and heads of towards the lounge where she aims to fulfil her words.

saskia places one last call to the Bridge.  "Ash, everything's still in the green back here.  Jago can have full power, acceleration and jump whenever he's ready."

Not that he frelling deserves them.

She frowns at a readout which, just for a moment, has the temerity to flicker into the amber.  It's only the crew side primary water pump, but it's the principle of the thing.