Saskia shrugs, "Near as I can make out, these things are nothing special, they're frelling everywhere.  I have no idea how they live in these places - maybe the ice in their bodies is cold enough that it functions as a low grade superconductor, a sort of nervous system for them.  Or maybe they have metal filaments running through them that carry charges."

She smiles nervously, embarrassed by speculating on something that she doesn't understand, and is forced to think of as a technical puzzle, "But I have no frelling idea what they use for a brain.  Whatever it is, it's not too smart.  We're talking plant level, or rocks, or customs inspectors!

"Shui might be able to tell you more.  Living things are her field."

"How about keeping him frozen until the other gang is away from here?  At the very least we make sure neither this place won't get blown to pieces nor that it will blow them to pieces, hmm?" Yas suggests, "We don't tell either one of them about the other, that way they are in a similar position as they were when we picked up this mess.  I fell we owe that much to everyone, especially Corlan, even if it takes a few days."

Leaving Marina to her cogitation, Shui slips down the hallway to the lounge to begin work upon refreshments.  Landfall takes a lot of focus on the part of the crew - it's not dangerous, but there are variables to consider, variables requiring human interface and not just computerized flight paths.  They'll need something to drink, and some food to keep up their strength.

"Mr. Orgesh." Passing by him, seated and reading, she tosses a smile over her shoulder as she begins work on the coffee machine.  First cleaning, of course; those who believe coffee improves as the machine 'ages'...well, this is one case Shui will state with determination that they are incorrect. "I expect having the ship's weapons manned at this time would be superfluous.  Enjoying your reading?"

Ash nods to Saskia's assertion about them being fairly ubiquitous.  "Ah," the navigator notes diffidently, "well, it is the first time I've seen anything like it..."  Not that his experience is vast, by any stretch of the imagination - far from it.  So, for the ex-Scout, it is interesting enough.

Still, his line of questioning appears to be pushing on Saskia's comfort zone, which was not his intention.  He laughs at her customs officials remark and nods between chuckles.  "The thing does appear to move faster than most of the customs control line I have been through." he agrees amicably, "In any case, I will ask our good doctor about it.  It is perhaps more of her forte."

"So," he asks switching tacts and topics, "how did you manage to get the Leviathan servicable for salvage?  Or was the Margin's crew not required to actually move the thing?  And was the thing really haunted?"  Manning that sounds like a really inenviable task...

"We didn't salvage her, just what we could get of the cargo.  There was nothing left of the ship worth salvaging.  Big frelling hole were here drive room used to be.  Smooth edges, as if they'd been polished." 

The engineer shudders slightly.  "Jump drive must have eaten itself, and everything within about ten metres of the field initiator too.  Either that, or it just Jumped out of the hull, taking a big, perfectly spherical chunk of the ship with it.

"I think she was haunted, yes, that's why I didn't want to go aboard.  There were bodies,  Some of them were stuck in decks and bulkheads, probably because the field collapsed when they were in Jump and caused the Laws of Physics to be repealed for a bit.  And there was a cargo container in the hold that was inside out, and still sealed.  With all the cargo from it -- some kind of food, I think -- frozen all over everything around it.  So I wouldn't go, because I didn't want a ghost to follow me back and kill Profit Margin."

In the whole description of what she knows of the Leviathan, Saskia is careful not to mention the "M" word, because that would be tempting bad luck.

Tylen looks up and returns Shui’s smile, and then continues watching the woman as she works.  The smile remains as he watches.

”Just been reading up on the planet below,”  he comments ”It seems they have a whole range of different space ports.  The one at Davies is being upgraded with off world labour.” he adds.

For a moment he drops his eyes back to his display as he checks out which city  Ore Hound is at.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:03, Thu 03 Jan 2013.

Ash purses his lips and nods grimly in agreement with Saskia's assessment of the lack of salvagability of the Leviathan.  He stares hard at the frozen frame of the video capture: the massive derelict ship buried on the icy moon with a significant chunk missing.  A cold, quiet, dark, still graveyard; full of spectre of Death.  It was a silent reminder of the insignificance of Humaniti in the Deep Black.

The Margin's navigator sympathizes with the engineer's unease.  The aftermath of such an occurrance is never that easy to stomach.  Ash has striven never to be part of those circumstances (either as victim or discoverer), though the stark realities of such things are a reminder of the fragility of Life.  He glances in Saskia's direction and asks tentatively, "You okay?  Sorry if I dredged up some unkind memories, Ms. Blake ..."

A grim experience indeed.  Ash is fully aware that Saskia's affinity for mechanical objects, made the derelict just one huge lifeless skeleton - and all that more macabre.  He is expression shows more than a little worry about his friend and engineer's current mental state.

"No, I'm fine.  But I don't like  to talk about this sort of dren if I can help it.  Not shipboard anyway.  It can bring bad luck down on a ship, just talking about other ships dying."

Once again Saskia has her thumbs hooked together to ward off any potential curse.

“That’s closer to what I’d intended to do,” Jago agrees, “but I’ll see if anyone else has a better idea.”

Jago seems lost in thought for  moment, then reaches for his coffee cup, “certainly needs a bit of thought and planning.” he says before taking a sip, “One thing though, I won’t act without your approval.”

.

Yas just chortles and shrugs, looking at the Thing.  It had an easy life, or whatever it had.  Existence.  Alive or not, it did change, so it was more than most other objects.

Clearing her throat she pushes herself up to her feet, pausing briefly to see if Jago had anything else to add before she left.  A cup of something would be right just about now, she figures.

Four hours.

Four hours of transit sees Profit Margin in low orbit a thousand kilonetres above Rangent.  From here, the massive storm can be seen in all its terrible majesty - a vast, spiralling pattern of clouds squatting angrily over a large proportion of the planet's icy surface.

Shui is aware that all of the passengers are currently watching the weather patterns in their cabins.  The only exceptions being Eneris, who is sitting in the lounge watching some old 2D drama on the computer, and Corlan, who is having dinner with the crew.

Marita Doyle's talk with her children produced a couple of brief tantrums, followed by acceptance, and then enthusiasm regarding snowball fights and the possibility of learning to ski.

For the crew, the four hours have been spent in a mixture of routine duties and careful consideration.  There are decisions to be made about how to handle a couple of situations which have arisen.

For the moment though, dinner is a more important priority...

"Indeed, Mr. Orgesh?  I'm curious as to your findings."  Shui grimaces at the cooking area, for once more interested in something else.  But duty calls...  "However, it shall have to wait.  I have dinner to prepare for crew and passengers."

And away she goes.

As usual, the last dinner of the trip involves Shui pulling out whatever stops she has; it's not a masterpiece, but she takes orders from the passengers and hunts through her memory to figure out what each crewmember would prefer.  What comes is a bit of a melange, but certainly one to appeal to everyone's palates (hopefully even the picky, emotional children).  Including dessert, which in this case is a version of a cranberry-apple crumble.

Reconstituted fruits, but one does what one can.

"Ah, of course." Ash agrees dutifully, running his fingers through his close cropped hair, "Bad, bad business, indeed."  And he lets drops the topic, no need to dwell on it.  Nor to incur any bad luck either.  Even if the Profit Margin wouldn't get any ideas from any discussion; there isn't any need to take that chance...

The navigator spends the next couple of hours plotting a number of different courses to different places on the planet.  Some are for practice, some are routine, and some are just in case.  You never know where they'll have to land or plan to take any of the passengers.  You know, on the off chance that the Captain wants to physically separate the two brothers by an entire planet - given that he has just transported them here together.  So, it pays to be prepared.

He is humming an old Solomani diddy from some place call New Caledonia, when he arrives at the crew galley for the evening meal.  Ash smiles appreciatively to the meal prepared; he is constantly amazed by what Shui can do with a limited pantry.  "Very nice, Ms. Tiesi." the thin ex-Scout quips approvingly as he pulls a plate and waits for the others before tucking in.  As he waits, Ash pours himself a cup of black coffee and notes, "I don't know how you do it, Miss.  It was primarily pre-pack and reconstituted fare on my previous contract."

As he takes a sip of the dark brew from the spotless percolator, the Margin's navigator confirms, "Very nice, indeed..."

Saskia sits on the couch, as usual.  She has her plate resting on her lap, and a glass of water on the floor, next to her feet.  She prefers to eat like that, rather than at the table.  Off to one side.  In the past she's claimed she prefers the space and the comfort but if pressed she will admit that from here she can see one of the repeater displays across the lounge which has a set of tell-tales indicating a few of the most basic functions of the drives.

She finds the line of green lights relaxing.

And if she wants to join in with the conversation over dinner, then she can.

"Nice dinner, Shui."

Not that she'd be able to tell anybody what she had to eat, should they ask in about twenty minutes.  But it's good food.  Better than crew get on a lot of ships, and it was the same even before Corlan started joining them for dinner.

"So, Jago?  Have you given any thought to what we're going to do from here.  It doesn't look like the sort of place that's going to be overflowing with opportunities for the Margin."

Corlan hears Saskia's question, and feels compelled to answer, "I'm not so sure.  I've travelled aboard Profit Margin for a little over two years now, and it seems to me, at least from my cabin on the far side of the ship, that her commander has proven most adept at finding opportunities."  He nods to Jago before adding, "Even where no such opportunities should logically exist.  Sometimes I find myself wondering how much more successful my business could have been if I had sent my senior managers to be taught about seizing opportunity by Captaim Lanza."

"NOOOO!"

Saskia slaps a hand across her eyes and shakes her head, "Corlan, I know you're new to all the stuff on this side of the hold, but we never, never, ever tell Jago that he's doing a good job.  He'd just get delusions of grandeur that he's in charge or something."

The engineer uncovers her eyes and winks at the passenger, "Next thing he'd try to order people about, and Yas would have to shoot him in the leg until he saw sense."

"Ah, Mr. Tescali, your compliments always delight and bemuse." Shui smiles.  "I am dubious about the dinner, and oft bemoan a lack of proper materials, but if it suffices for you and the others, then I am content." A small bow to the captain, in defiance of Saskia's instructions.  "Captain Lanza insists upon his crew being fed well, and thus I make forays for us at every port to seek the local supplies." 

It isn't always fresh, but at least it isn't freeze-dried.

She listens with some amusement to the back and forth between crew and passenger, noting Corlan's openness with the others with pleasure, mixed with some hidden sadness.  It seems he has regained most of his equanimity, but still wishes to avoid speaking to her about the experience.  "Shall we avoid having Ms. Crow shoot people in the leg?" she requests, continuing to serve.  "It takes up valuable time I could use to cook."

Tylen eats quietly, listening to the general banter and only joining in occasionally.  "Perhaps if she used a Las Carbine it would cauterize it at the same time?" he suggests when Shui speaks of not shooting Jago in the leg.

However, he does comment about the planet below.  "Apparently they have ten cities and ten different space ports." he comments  "And the spaceport at Davis is being upgraded with off world labour.  Is that the one where Marita Doyle's huband is based?" he asks  "It might be nice to drop her off there, I suppose.  And maybe that terrorist as well.  Or better still -  find the most obscure one to leave him at?" he half chuckles.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:46, Tue 15 Jan 2013.

Ash's head tilts a bit in grateful acknowledgment of Shui's compliment of his compliment on her ability to complement the food stores to their full potential.  And while he is not entirely convinced that Jago's edict about the crew being well fed is entirely altruistic, Ash keeps that particular thread of thought to himself.

Then he readily agrees with Shui's assertions about avoiding injuries.  Between bites of food, the Profit Margin's navigator notes rather deadpan, "I can't say that I recommend getting shot in the knee.  Especially with a laser carbine."  He shrugs slightly between bites and his hand instinctually goes to his right leg, rubbing it gently.

When the topic of their low berth passengers comes up, Ash nods in agreement with Tylen's last statement, "Seems best to give the brothers some separation."  He shrugs slightly, "I can't say what the Captain's intentions were, but I can only presume that he didn't intend for them to be released together."  As he sips his coffee, Ash wonders to himself whether Yasmine would be able to collect the bounty on second brother, if they were to actually turn him in, since she was the one that captured him...

"We could save a lot of trouble if we drop him off first.  Before we even land, I mean."

Saskia's suggestion holds a lot less humor than her comment about Jago's leg being a possible valid target in the case of ballistic attitude adjustment being required.  She doesn't meet anybody's gaze as she speaks, keeping her eyes fixed on her meal.

The man had attacked Profit Margin, and her crew and passengers.  He'd fired a shot.  Near the ship.

"I'm just saying, is all."

Ash chews thoughtfully for a moment and then adds helpfully, if rather deadpan, to Saskia's suggestion and explanation, "Depending on what state we drop him in, he could survive the fall.  And then last on the surface for a considerable amount of time..."

The navigator reviews some of Rangent's more basic geography and topology in his mind for a moment, before he posits, "There are probably a couple of prime areas that would maximizes his chances."  He shrugs slightly and then takes another sip of black coffee and continues to demolish the second helping of food that he has placed on his plate.

“We are here as was the only place within two jumps of Denatam in the direction we’re heading,” Jago explains while as he sets about demolishing a plateful of Shui’s delicious fair. “Next stop is Phlume which should be a better bet and I’ll hope to find out a bit more of the war situation from there to decide where to go after that but if it’s possible we’ll be stopping off at Regina at some point, which is Corlan’s home world and where my sister and the kids live.”

Jago chuckles appreciatively at Corlan’s remarks about management training and rises his glass in acknowledgement but nearly chokes on it as Saskia delvers here response.

Once all the intricate details of shooting him in the leg have been ironed out, Jago turns his attention to the knotty problem of the low birth passengers.

“There are probably a few moral, and legal issues involved with dropping passengers from low orbit, but apart from that I’m still open to suggestions regarding the bounty hunters and their prisoners, and Edrin Othati-Fenn. Best I can come up with at the moment is to place them at different locations on the planet, Yasmin thinks they should be on entirely different planets and she has a point. One thing is I’ll not wake them straight away; we’ll keep them chilled down until nearer the time when we are ready to leave.”

“One thing, I imagine we’ll have to process our own fuel here”
.

"Or put the bounty hunters and their prisoners ashore - and let them know we have the other one aboard.  Then wake him up and give him a choice.  Get out here where the bounty hunters are waiting for him, or back asleep for the next stop."

Tylen grins as he imagines the discomfort of the man when presented with that choice.

After a moment, he reconsiders.  "Perhaps we don't actually tell the bounty hunters.  But we tell Othati-Fenn, that we have.  It might save Yas and I the hassle of dealing with them when they try to come aboard again armed."

While she appreciates the sentiments behind the various less-than-pleasant disposal of their passengers, Shui gives a nod toward Tylen.  "I feel Mr. Orgesh's plan to be a sensible one.  It may mean we have to deal with another round of having our 'guest' in coldsleep, but it offers the greatest opportunity for dealing with this in a peaceful manner."

A small nod follows.  "Peaceful in a non-dead fashion," she clarifies.  "Captain, I am prepared to assist with the processing.  I have some experience with that on other ships - enough to help, in any case, though I would not like my chances of carrying out tasks completely unsupervised." 

Pouting, Saskia goes back to her dinner.  Seems that nobody agrees with her plan.  Oh well.  Maybe the terrorist will slip on his way down the ramp and cave in his skull.  Lots of sharp edges and hard corners around there.

"You never know your luck." the Engineer suddenly blurts out, seemingly at random.