Finished her morning exercises, Shui checks her dataglove for the schedule while sipping at her tea.  Last night had been...fulfilling in a way she hadn't expected.  Certainly it hadn't ended in flames and perdition.

It make her wonder what this day will bring.

Noting the fact that passengers will arrive, she heads out a touch early to get breakfast ready - French Toast with syrup, today, along with whatever sides each individual member of the crew prefers.  Plus coffee, of course...and cocoa for Yasmine.

The Steward quietly hums as she works in the galley, enjoying the silence of the morning.

Gradually, and in spite of the air scrubbers, the smell of breakfast starts to permeate the ship, drawing the crew out of their quarters and into the lounge.

Yas edits the list of today's activity, adding her own comment:

• LOW PASSENGERS BOARDING - MAXIMUM SECURITY - DISARM ALL BEFORE BOARDING.
• CARGO LOADING
• PASSENGERS BOARDING
• DEPARTURE

“Good morning everybody,” Jago says cheerily as he enters the crew lounge, “ah! French toast.”

The captain ducks back into his quarters end emerges a moment later with an envelope sized, brightly coloured, plastic pack. Once seated he opens the packet and proceeds to layer the long, flat, irregular shaped, shiny brown contents between two pieces of the toast.

“Chocolate covered bacon,” he says, pushing the half empty pack to the middle of the table, “help yourselves, it’s pretty good.”

“Everyone get back OK? How are our passengers?” he asks between bites.

Before Ash entered the crew lounge, the navigator had gone through an hour long stretching routine under microgravity after being awoken to the chime of his alarm.  Of course, he had awoken with such a start that the book laying at his side was thrown from the bed to the floor.  Not exactly safe, but it was how he had drifted off to sleep.  He did not sleep in microgravity though, that was the saving grace.  Of course, in an emergency where gravity had be lost or cut, everything that was not tied down was a potential hazard.  So, Ash had to remind himself to follow protocols; he knew better and chided himself mentally to uphold that standard.

Drawn to the lounge by the smell of fresh brewed coffee and syrup, Ash wanders in and gives everyone there a reasonably awake, "Good Morning."  He helps himself to a serving of french toast with plenty of syrup and a mug of freshly brewed coffee.  He eyes the chocolate-covered bacon warily, but remains silent and rather circumspect about it.

The navigator shrugs slightly, when prompted about the other crew.  "Sorry, Boss." he notes apologetically following a sip of black coffee, "I'm here, but I don't really know about the whereabouts of anyone else."  He glances at Shui, "Well, other than the Good Doctor here.  And you, of course."

He does note that the Doctor is humming, "I will say that Ms. Tiesi seems happy enough this morning."  Ash ventures, "The Denotam Highport must agree with her."  He pauses for a moment as he takes another bite and swallows before he adds quite appreciatively, "Or she is just very pleased with the excellent breakfast that she had prepared this morning.  Very fine, indeed."

And after another swig of java, "And damned fine coffee."

"Captain Lanza," Shui chides, "I don't believe that's on your list of approved foods for your diet."  She eyes his 'addition' to her food with some distaste, but chooses not to take insult at the modification.  "Indeed, back here safe and sound, Captain.  And good morning, Mr. Tescali."

A small bow to the latter follows.  "Perhaps a little of both, Mr. Tescali.  It is good to see you in a fine mood as well."

Breakfast proceeds as normal, with the usual mix of conversation: talk of yesterday's shopping trips, today's plans, the nutritional quality (or otherwise) of the available foods and beverages, and the standard quota of jocular insults.  The only thing missing is speculation on the day's weather (perfectly controlled humidity and temperature, with zero chance of precipitation, and the occasional bursts of the same again).

And suddenly there is a break in the daily routine.

Profit Margin's computer, which seldom involves itself in the usual morning banter, emits an urgent chirp and the wall monitor at the secondary console in the lounge lights up to show a view of the docking bay.

Four people have just entered the bay, and are approaching the ship.  All are human, and one appears to be female.  Two of the men are shuffling along, holding an odd posture with their hands apparently clasped in front of them in an attitude of prayer.  The other man and the woman are walking behind them, and seem to be studying the ship as they approach it.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 20:42, Tue 28 Feb 2012.

"That's my cue," Yas says as she sees the approaching group and pushes to her feet.  "Quad, tag along and watch my back, will you?" she more tells Tylen rather than asking.

Readying her autoshot and grabbing a big duffle bag that she put near the exit to the cargo bay she grins at her fellow crew members and steps through the hatch.

Once in the cargo bay she starts to lower the ramp, allowing it to sing its song, and flips on the power to her new toy hat she picked up recently.  She walks down the ramp even as it is lowering the last bit and casually aims the gun in the direction of the approaching gang.

"That's far enough.  Put your little guns in this," she says with a commanding voice of a drill sergeant and tosses the duffle bag towards them.  "No one's coming aboard packing heat.  I'll keep it safe and we'll put you in and take you out in the right order.  Got a problem with that?"

She hefts her automatic shotgun and cocks an eyebrow, daring anyone to object.

Jago gives a wry smile as Yasmin’s demands follow close on the heals of the ramp’s groaning protest, no wonder Keryn is a little disillusioned.

The smile doesn’t last long though, he can’t help a little twinge of guilt as he watches the shackled prisoners on the screen, he has no idea what they will stand trial for but it could well be that he’s aiding and abetting an oppressive regime from what he’s since seen, still he’s committed now.

On a more practical note, Yasmin’s call for disarmament sets Jago thinking about security scanners. Right now there’s no real way of ascertaining whether these, or any of the other passengers are armed, hand held scanners, or perhaps something built into the ramp opening might be useful. He determines to talk it over with Saskia and settles back to enjoy his strong hot coffee and ‘chocky bacon buttie’.

Taking his cue from Yas, Tylen steps forward slightly, allowing himself to just come into  view of the potential passengers at the bottom of the ramp, but to stay out of sight of any one else in the bay.

No time for his new security uniform,  but back to the leather jacket with the aviators.  Revolvers slung at his hips, however, it is the laser carbine cradled in the crook of his arm that commands the attention.

This doesn't look good at all.  Evidently the security systems have picked up something from the incoming guests, and with a quick order to Tylen, Yasmine heads off to meet the approaching threat.  Pursing her lips, Shui considers the dirty dishes she's stacking in the small washer.  Finish and go, or go then finish?

She risks another glance at Tylen's back, now disappearing out the door, and wipes her hands clean.  "I will finish this upon my return."  Her baleful stare sweeps the galley.  "I trust nobody will attempt to do so themselves."  It's not a question.  Then Shui hurries out the door in pursuit of the vanishing security officers.

The Steward should be there as well, for greetings and settlings of the passengers if everything goes peacefully.

Curious that anyone would be carrying weapons, here, she muses.  There are rather strict laws.

The Steward comes up short in the area behind Tylen, out of sight of the bay and out of the line of fire.  It would be nonsensical and counterproductive to place herself in harm's way, further dividing the attention of the security personnel.

The two prisoners stop in front of Yas.  Their hands are still clasped in front of them, but now that Yas and Tylen have a clearer view, not filtered through the small monitor in the lounge, it's clear that they are both wearing shackles, connected by a short bar to a sturdy collar, so they are forced to hold their hands together in front of their chests.  The collars are secured by a lock on the back.

Neither man is particularly large or dangerous looking.

The third man, and the woman are both large and dangerous looking.  The woman starts to object to being disarmed, but the man waves a hand to calm her down, without taking his eyes of Yas, "Easy now, Kvetz.  We want to travel on this ship, we need to follow their rules."

He starts to reach inside his jacket, explaining as he does so, "I'm Gan, by the way, I don't have a gun on me, but I have an unloaded pistol in my luggage.  I also have a taser inside my jacket."

The woman grumbles, "I don't have any weapons either.  Just an autopistol in my bag.  Not loaded, of course."

Gan pulls a bulky taser from inside his jacket, careful to keep his fingers away from the controls, and drops it into the Security Chief's bag.

Yas sets the bag down behind her and begins using a hand held device to scan the passengers.  First the prisoners, then the two escorts.

Ash watches Yasmine and then Tylen leave.  He smiles slightly at Shui's admonition and warning to others with respect to the dishes.  He shrugs and nods amiably, then quietly watches the ship's steward also excuse herself.  Then the navigator stands, places his used plate and silverware in the sink and pours himself another cup of coffee.  He turns to regard the Captain.  "With your leave, Boss." Ash notes between sips, "I'll monitor the proceedings from the bridge.  You never know when the ability to open and close off sections of the Margin from a distance will come in handy..."

As he heads to the bridge, Ash quickly comms the rest of the crew on the common channel, ++I'm getting online - monitoring from the bridge.  If remote action is required, signal me.++  Setting his mug to the side, he sits down at his console and unlocks his session, fingers tapping away quickly on the dynamic controls.  Ash tries to pull up the internal and external visual sensor feeds as quickly as possible to be ready.  Just in case.

Jago nods in agreement, “good idea Ash, keep a three sixty watch,” he calls to Ash’s retreating back.

Left alone Jago smiles contentedly and takes his time over finishing his coffee, before rising to go meet his passengers.

Old habits made Yas automatically attempt to never actually get in the potential line of fire between their guests and Ty back at the ship.

"I know the feeling, I don't like being naked either," Yas says with a knowing grin at the woman.  At the introduction she says, "I'm Security Officer Crow."

"And I take the security of this ship seriously.  Dishonesty is not the way to get on my good side, or first name basis, and I don't need any toy to tell me you're holding out on me.  I know, because I would do the same.  In the bag."

She backs off enough to push the bag closer to them again and hefts her gun to help underline the seriousness in her voice, the scanner swinging briefly from the cord she attached to it to allow her hands to quickly be freed up.  A glare at the two prisoners ensures them that they are anything but forgotten and any folly on their part is going to cost them.

Tylen senses someone in the area behind him.   Partly because in her medical role she must oversee the disposition of the four into low berths he guesses it is probably the steward, but there is something else, perhaps the way that she walks or the position that she takes up, makes him sure of that fact without looking around.

There is a slight smile on his face as he sees Yas kick the back towards one of the guards, and although he can't exactly hear the words, he knows what that means.  But the smile drops from his face and the stock of the laser carbine slides close towards his shoulder while the muzzle swings around to cover the guard that Yas is talking to.

It is clear that he knows how to use his weapon and it clear that he is aware of the issue.  The only question the visitors might have, is whether he is prepared to burn someone who threatens one of the crew ...
This message was last edited by the player at 14:54, Sat 10 Mar 2012.

Saskia is still in the lounge, finishing her breakfast, as Jago gets up to leave.  She has one eye on the monitor, so she decides to give Jago some advice before he gets out the door, "I wouldn't go out there just now, Jago.  Looks like Yas caught the drannits up to something."  She nods towards the screen.  "You might be better off keeping down for a bit."

She smiles at him, "If one of them pulls a gun and blows your head off, you'll only have one place to keep your cigar."

Gan looks puzzled, then realisation dawns on his face, "Ah... sorry.  I forgot about this."  He pulls a knife from his waist, where it had been hidden under the skirts of his jacket.  Kvetz doesn't make a move as Gan keeps talking, "You know how it is.  Wear the damned groat sticker so much I sometimes forget I've got it."

He tosses the knife, large and heavy, with a single slightly curved edge, into the bag, and looks at Kvetz, "If you're still carrying, you'd better lose it, now Kvetz, or we're not partners any more."

"You'll have to forgive Kvetz, Crow.  She's Answerin, and that means she was born armed."

Kvetz scowls at Gan, then at Yas.  "Just ammo.  Didn't feel right without some weight there."  She pulls back her tunic to reveal a holster tucked in under her left arm, with a carton of ammunition wedged into the top of it.

As he listens to the exchange below Tylen's grin becomes a bit more fixed, and without looking away he mutters, hardly letting his lips move.  "Bounty hunters."  He hopes it will encourage Shui to get all four of these 'guests' sedated and in  Low Berths as quickly as she can.

Jago chuckles, “thanks, but these people are paying passengers Saskia, they are only the enemy in the eyes of Yasmin, but then that’s why she’s so good to have around. Don’t worry though, I’ll keep my head down until she’s declares them safe and sanitised.”

“Actually, I’m quite keen to check out their warrants or whatever,” Jago goes on in a more serious tone, “I’m not really comfortable with this to be honest, and the least I can do is make sure it’s legit and above board.”

Jago makes his way into the hold to greet his passengers, but stays back with Shui until Yasmin brings them up the ramp.

It's not hard to pick up the distaste in Tylen's tone.  At the same time, though, the situation seems to have relaxed somewhat.  Shui moves forward to the edge of the hatch, coming up beside Tylen, and shifts to be just inside his peripheral vision.

It's not as hard to judge as one might thing, especially given her practice with such things in her younger days.

"That certainly clarifies matters, Mr. Orgesh," she murmurs, studying the foursome.  Yasmine still hasn't given the all-okay sign, so she keeps back, unwilling to call out and potentially distract the security chief.

Not that she expects the 'guests' to suddenly pull pistols and hijack the ship, but...professional courtesy.

"Oh, I understand, I hate going through 'strip searches' myself," Yas says with a grin that grows when the content of the shoulder holster is revealed.  "Good idea, that."

"Hmm, thought you looked familiar, in a sense.  Served with a couple of you folks while I was in the Marines.  Damn good Marines too.  'The only thing to fear is fear itself and we choose to ignore the little frelnik' one would say," she says, squatting down to wrap a yellow and black striped tape around the opening of the bag.  "There, that'll show no one's been in the bag when you get 'em back at the other end."

Picking up the bag she steps aside and motions towards the ship.  "Welcome aboard Profit Margin."  Her gaze wanders over each person as they pass by and as she takes up the rear she calls in, < Coming in with our freezer guests now. >

Upon receipt of Yasmine's comm message, Ash nods to no one in particular since there is no one else on the bridge.  Via the video feeds, he already knows that the people are on the move - still, the Margin's navigator still comms his response back to Yasmine, ++Roger, Chief.  Paving the path.++

Ash tries to keep it simple, since the hold is so large.  As the their guests are escorted into the interior of the ship, his hands tap out a simple rhythm as he opens the door to the low berth chamber and closes of the rest of the various valves and doors to other portals out of the cargo hold.  He can't do much about some of the occluded angles that he has in the cargo hold due to the presence of actual cargo, but he tries to make due.  And, of course, that is why he has locked down the hold from the rest of the ship which makes the rest of the Profit Margin pretty safe from intrusion.  On the other hand, four of his crew mates are in the hold at this point - so, he remains vigilant.

Jago’s eyebrows try to take refuge in his hairline when the ramp comes up and he hears the latches and dogs slamming home in all the hatches and iris valves, why he wonders, is everyone so totally paranoid this morning.

With a sigh, and a count of three, he steps forward and offers his hand to the man who seems to be in charge.

“Good morning, welcome to the Profit Margin, I’m Jago Lanza, the Captain, and this is Miss Tiesi, our doctor, she’ll be making you comfortable and ensuring you’re safety during the passage.”

"Morning Captain.  I'm Gan, and this is Kvetz." the man who isn't wearing shackles replies, "These other two have outstanding arrest warrants for terrorist acts committed on Zircon.  The legal authorities there would quite like them bringing home to face the charges which have been laid against them."

"If possible I'd prefer that Kvetz and myself are put into the cryopods after the prisoners are frozen, and revived before they're brought out.  I'd also request that your ship's security team be present any time these two aren't asleep, at least until we can have our own weapons back."

The two prisoners say nothing while Gan makes his requests, and seem a little bored, if anything.  As Gan finishes speaking, one of them, the younger looking of the pair - looking to be in his mid-twenties, feels the need to add his own comment, "Independence for Zircon!"  He still doesn't seem very enthusiastic though.

It's a relief to know that someone at the controls is keeping an eye on the group, especially when Shui realizes they're dealing with terrorists.  Well, accused terrorists, until they've actually been judged guilty or confessed; she doesn't have the details.  Certainly the younger one has something to say on the matter, but it lacks...verve.  Even so, Shui has to fight to keep her lip from curling slightly.  Terrorists' disregard for human life - even their own - clashes violently with her beliefs and feelings, and, ironically, for once her and her father's philosophy are in accord.  Violence against innocents to make a point is inexcusable.

In any case, Yasmine and Tylen seem to have the situation well in-hand.

"Mr. Gan, Ms. Kvetz."  She steps up beside the Captain.  "As the Captain says, I am the ship's Steward and Doctor. I'm certain we can accomodate your desires with regards to the order of passengers being placed in cryosleep, as well as the security issues."  She glances at Yasmine, then Tylen.  "One of our officers will most certainly be on-hand until your charges are safely laid to rest, and will be present when they - and you - are awakened."

"When Security Officer Crow is finished here, I shall escort you to the lower bunks, and we can begin the medical tests."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:21, Tue 13 Mar 2012.