As the party start up the ramp, Tylen steps back leaving the top of the ramp clear.  Armed with the Laser carbine he really doesn't want anybody to close to him.  Anyway, close up work is Yasmine's area of expertise.

However, nonchalant as he is, he makes sure that his line of fire covers the top of the ramp, the door to the Low Berths and the area in between.

Jago nods in agreement as Shui reassures them and then asks, “may I see them please, the arrest warrants that is?”

Gan smiles at Jago, "No, you can't, because I don't have them.  You can however take a look at this."  He hands Jago a datapad, "This authorises me to retrieve escaped prisoners and other criminals on behalf of the government of Arden, pursuant to Clause 8347/2 of Arden's Unified Code of Criminal Law.  Zircon, as you may be aware, is a protectorate of Arden, and falls under Arden legal jurisdiction.  As you can see it's all official, there's the seal of the Arden Legal Bureau, and the thumb print of one Mikaella Daranuush, a junior administrator at the Bureau."

He reaches out and taps the screen of the pad, "This is my permit to operate as a retrieval agent in Imperial Space, fully authorised by the Imperial Ministry of Justice, as you can see," another tap, "and this one is Kvetz's.  And here... " tap, "are the wanted notices for these two, plus a third man that we have not been able to locate."

Jago studies the slate, notes down some details and compares the images with the people.

“Thank you, that will do nicely,” Jago says, returning the data slate with a smile.

“I’ll leave you with Miss Tiesi then, I hope you all have pleasant dreams and we’ll see you at Rangent.”

Ash watched closely the body language of his Captain and the crew in the low berths from his limited vantage point.  As Jago made ready to leave, Ash made sure the portal to the cargo bay was open for him, then shut again after he left.  Unless otherwise instructed, he intended for the door to remain closed while their guests settled in for their long winter's nap.  It might put Shui at slightly higher risk (though the probability remained incredibly low in his mind, as the security detail remained), but ensured that the rest of the crew and the ship itself would not be compromised very easily.

As he watched the sleepers get put to bed, Ash pondered for a bit, he had always found cold sleep a little freaky.  It was more on general principles really; while he trusted Shui's competence and ability to be able to her job well, it never seemed a great way to travel to him.  The medications and slowed metabolism gave him strange and stilted dreams that were not quite vivid and yet never really full formed either.  Ash found the few times that he had done it, cold sleep was a rather disquieting experience - one that he was not very fond of partaking in.  Of course, there were people that swore by it - He didn't follow the Tenets of Tsort either, and there were enough adherents to that, apparently.  So, obviously, Ash wasn't an authority on the topic by any stretch of the imagination.

He smiled slightly as he took another sip of coffee and continued to watch the displays.

A third one Tylen makes a mental note of the fact that there is a third, as yet un-apprehended, member of this group.  However, he stands impassively, las carbine cradled as he covers the area.

"I'm ready when you are," Yas says with a nod to the steward/doctor.

"Ty, keep an eye out while I accompany our guests.  Never know if the third one is struck by a stupid idea," she tells Tylen and then, at the bounty hunters, "Got a notice or an image of this third one, on the off chance they do act?"

"Certainly Ms. Crow," Shui replies, all smiles despite the gravity of the situation.  She tries to ignore the implications of a 'third one', and the potential for disaster both before and after lift-off.  "If you would all please follow me?  I'll take you to the Low Berths, where we can begin the medical testing."

Gan flips through the pages on the datapad again, then holds it out for Yas and Tylen to study.  "That's him.  Name's Edrin Othati-Fenn, that one's brother."  He jabs a thumb towards the prisoner who had previously spoken.  "Sometimes calls himself Jonn Andari or Jonn Cooper."

"As far as we can tell, he left Denotam two weeks ago.  Maybe headed for Calit."

The image bears enough resemblance to the prisoner to make it clear that the two men are siblings.

The two prisoners are instructed to stand next to two of the berths, and only then does the older one start to speak, muttering a repetitive litany under his breath, "Nu legg eg mig niour ao sofa, eg bio thriggja sal mín ao halda.  Aetti eg ao deyja aour en eg vakna, eg bio thriggja sal mína til ao taka."

He keeps murmuring the strange words, even as Shui starts to perform the medical.

Tylen is comfortable to let Yas deal with the image of the third suspect, as he stays back at distance.  After all the last thing is wants is one of this group, prisoner or escort, grabbing his laser carbine.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:42, Tue 20 Mar 2012.

Shui continues her work, requesting the prisoners move as she needs them to, and inquiring if they or their guards would like something to drink.  "We have tea, coffee, and carbonated juices," she quietly notes, taking their vitals and comparing them to the requisite ranges.  "It won't have any effect on your coldsleep comfort."  Such as it is.

At one point, while running her tests and logging them on her dataglove, she silently trips the datagloves' recording option to capture the words the prisoner speaks.  It's a curiousity, but worth investigating.  Perhaps she can do something to make him more comfortable when he rises.

Terrorists or not, the men have been placed in her responsibility.

With the excitement apparently over, and no shots fired, Saskia finishes the last of her breakfast and heads into her quarters.  There's nothing she can do in Engineering for the next 35 minutes because the ship is running system diagnostics for her.

That thought makes her stop as she enters her cabin and give the bulkhead a friendly pat.

Then, with some time on her hands, she decides to take a quick shower.  The ship will alert her if it finds anything unusual.

As Ash watches Jago exit, he opens and then closes the low berth accessway and the cargo hold irises as necessary to facilitate the Captain's passage - trying to anticipate his route.

Noting that Tylen and Yas are still on alert in the berthing area, Ash remains vigilant.  The navigator notes over the crew common channel, ++Securing the cargo hold bay doors.++  It was just a precaution in case there was an escape attempt.  He didn't see any harm in it, since they weren't expecting any passengers or cargo arriving in the immediate future.

The medical checks are done, and the two prisoners are injected with a cocktail of chemicals which should minimise the chance of ice crystals rupturing cell membranes and increase the chances of successful revival.  They climb into the cold berths, where Shui administers a sedative, and once they are asleep, their shackles are removed.  Then the berths are sealed, and the shackles are laid on top, at Gan's insistence, "It's a reminder.  When it's time to open them up, it'll remind everybody that they need to be careful with these two."

With the prisoners asleep and cooling down, Shui starts to repeat the process on the two bounty hunters.

Saskia meanwhile returns to engineering and starts prepping the drives for launch.

And on the bridge, the comm panel signals that there is an incoming call...

With the two prisoners in the tubes and the cargo doors closed, Ash relaxes slightly and notices that the incoming call alert.  His head tilts for a moment and he looks slightly thoughtful.

Given that the Captain appears to still be in transit, he taps his console to answer the call.  "Profit Margin." he starts out, simply and professionally, "Navigator Tescali speaking.  How can I help you?"

With little else to do at the moment, Tylen remains alert.

In his cabin, Jago sits at his desk mulling over some figures, “at this rate the mortgage will be cleared in about two hundred and fifty years,” he says to ‘the thing’ which now resides in it’s tray on the left corner of aforementioned desk. “I’ll be long gone but I guess you, and I hope the Margin will still be around.”

"Gentleman and lady." Shui begins work on the bounty hunters, offering them her usual brand of care and politeness...much as she has the accused terrorists.  It doesn't much matter to her, in the end, if they're terrorists, bounty hunters, philosophers, ascetics, families, or dignitaries (not that she's likely to get any of the latter in the Low Berths); while she might not speak to certain of them outside of the ship, when in her care, all deserve the same human warmth.

She pauses a moment to message the captain.  ++ Captain Lanza?  I have completed securing the prisoners in the Low Berth ++ - that sounds awkward to her - ++ and have begun work on their guards. ++
Pausing for a quick smile at her watchful security, she continues.

"Hello, Profit Margin." the woman's voice says cheerfully from the comm panel, "I'm calling from Descartes Consolidation Factors LIC.  We have a mixed cargo for delivery to you today.  It's already loaded on one of our vehicles and can be at your berth ten minutes after leaving our warehouse.  What time would you like it delivered?  And do you need us to provide cargo bots to assist with loading?"

With their prisoners on ice, Gan and Kvetz relax considerably.  Gan smiles as Shui proceeds with their examination, "One of these days I'm going to take a trip where I don't have to be frozen.  It probably won't be on business for Zircon, mind you."

"Maybe the doc here could surgically extract some of their cash." Kvetz agrees, though her smile is somewhat strained.

Yas and Tylen are still on guard though, like Gan and Kvetz, their main concerns are now no longer any real concern.  Gan glances in their direction, "Does your job pay well?  Better than ours, I bet."

Saskia is working in Engineering, going through the results of the system diagnostic.  Everything from the lighting circuits in the passenger accommodations to the HEPlaR flow controller to the Jump field generator core... the data flows across her screens...

Jago, meanwhile, is working quietly in his office...

Ash glances down at one of the small displays on his console that has the morning agenda on it.  No times are listed, but the order is clear, cargo is to be loaded next before passengers.  The navigator of the Profit Margin tilts his head for a moment doing a bit of estimating.  "Ah, thank you, Miss." he notes with some uncharacteristic verve, perhaps merely reflecting back some of her enthusiasm.  "We were expecting a call from you." Ash hedges, "Let me confirm the timing with the Captain..."  He puts the woman on hold for a moment.

He quickly texts Jago, ++Skipper, I have Descartes Consolidation Factors LIC, on the line.  They are trying to firm up delivery schedules.  Is 9 o'clock fine?  And do we want to use their cargo bots?++  While waiting, Ash starts to tries to pull up some information on Descartes over the local net, just to make sure they are on the up and up.

"Pay well?  We get paid?"  Yas seems taken back and turns to look at Ty questioningly, before a grin cracks on her face.

The grin fades even as she turns back to Gan.  "Hard to say, since I don't know what they pay you.  But I've got a home I like and good friends around, which is more worth than money to me.  How about you?"  An eyebrow is lifted as she waits for an answer.

“.  .  . what? .  .  . oh,  .  .  . yea, nine o’clock’s fine and the cargo bots would be good, yea.” Jago seems a little distracted initially, but Ok once he gets into gear.

“Have you got an image of that third guy, best keep an eye out that he’s not snuck in amongst the loading crew or pasangers.”

Gan shakes his head ruefully, "Put it this way... we're, technically, self-employed.  Which means we have to pay all our own expenses out of whatever Zircon pays us.  To make matters worse, if we have to bring 'em back, alive or dead, then we end up paying their ticket home too.  Or a cargo fee.  This... " he taps the lid of one of the berths, "... is the best we can afford, even for ourselves.  Just once I'd like to travel on a ship where I can look out of the window."

"Tell them about Tannis." Kvetz interrupts.

"Oh, yes, Tannis.  I wondered when you'd bring him up again." Gan pauses for a moment as Shui takes  a blood sample, "I was younger then, and stupider.  I took a contract to bring back a man called Tannis Keladet, but by the time the papers came through, he was about two weeks ahead of me.  So off I went, always tracking him down, then finding that he'd moved on.  And every ticket I bought ate into the fee.  It finally took me twelve Jumps to catch him, then I had to bring him home, which was four more Jumps, paying for two tickets.  I got back, and Zircon paid up, and I felt pretty good about getting my man.  Until I realised I'd miscalculated the exchange rate and I'd lost a lot of money by doing that job."

"Nowadays I won't take a contract if the trail is more than a week old.  And Kvetz reminds me about Tannis at every opportunity"

Another pause as Shui shines a low powered laser into his eyes, then, "But there is a plus side to the way I live, though.  Would you believe I was born in 1032?  I'm 75 years old.  Side effect of spending more than half my life, since I was 25, in the freezer.  Short of somebody getting off a lucky shot, I reckon I'm going to outlive everybody who ever annoyed me."

Yas chuckles and shakes her head.  "I respectfully disagree.  You aren't actually 75, you merely pushed the pause button a few too many times.  And the way you put it I doubt you can save enough credits to make it worth it financially either.  'sides, I rather not outlive my friends via that particular method."

"As for Tannis..."  A pause to sigh deeply.  "I guess you will have to live with that long after everyone else have forgotten about him."  She winks at Kvetz.

Ash nods as Jago responds to both questions in the affirmative.  ++Aye, aye, Captain.++ he notes, then switches the connection, muting the local channel and taking the Descartes Consolidated representative off of hold.

"Ma'am?" the navigator queries semi-rhetorically, pausing only momentarily, "How about 0900 hours?  And any robotic assistance would be appreciated."  Then he pauses for her to respond to the affirmative - placing her quietly on hold, while he queries Jago again.

++Pardon me, Captain?  What third guy?++ he comms quickly to the Captain.  It's the first that he has heard anything about that...