With a burst of light and exotic particles, Profit Margin transitions out of Jump and back into normal space.

According to the Bridge chronometers, the Jump has taken precisely seven days, to the minute.  Astronomical data confirms they are in the Rangent system.  There is a world nearby, which fits the description of Rangent itself, and it appears to be at exactly the right distance, with a margin of error of 0.1%.

All in all, it looks like as perfect a Jump as it's possible to achieve.

There is, of course, nothing much in the way of comms traffic.  But Rangent's starport isn't much better than a field that's had the trees cleared.  There's just a handful of transponder codes and an automated nav beacon pulsing out a repetitive locator tone for the landing field.

The one difference between Rangent and any number of backwater worlds in the Imperium is that Rangent isn't in the Imperium.  Which means that just about anybody could be here.  Luckily the system doesn't have much to attract them.

Ash is staring at his displays when the countdown timer reaches the estimated transition point.  Out of a fit of superstitious habit he finds himself holding his breath as he waits for the transition.   Luckily, he doesn't have to hold it very long in this particular case.  Sometimes, he has had to hyperventilate in response to nearly passing out from poorly calculated jump plot.

As the sensor data starts to stream in for both navigational and spatial diagnostics, a slight smile creeps onto the face of the Profit Margin's navigator.  While he tries to remain professional and his fingers continue to dance on the console, Ash does allow himself some personal satisfaction in his performance.  Of course, he expects no less from himself given his experience and training (which is fairly extensive), but the ex-IN and ex-IISS navigator is still very human.  So, he can't help but admire his handiwork just a little.

Given the automated nature of the nav beacon, Ash merely logs the Margin's own transponder ID and manifest information into the return packet for the starport recorder to log.  Of course, he keeps the comm lines open and monitored.  But, honestly, he doesn't expect anything to be directed their way.  Well, nothing good - just beyond the frontier borders of the Imperium almost anything (usually bad) could be present.

He dutifully announces their arrival into j-space after the initial diagnostics finish and first sensor readings begin to stream in.  And it becomes far less probably that have either misjumped or will be decomposing into component atoms in the very near future.  "Ladies and Gentleman, we have transitioned into the Rangent star system.  Local time is..." Ash starts his standard arrival spiel, which eventually covers estimated transit times to planetfall, departure schedules, and possible local interest areas for any passengers.  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the latter section is incredibly short.  Though Rangent as a water world does have some interesting kelp formations, if you are into those types of things.

“Good job Ash,” Jago acknowledges the navigator’s work with a satisfied nod.

The captain is not his usual, ever smiling self-right now, too much tension and animosity during the trip which he’d spent mostly in the confines of his cabin. He’ll be pleased when he can of load the deep freeze passengers, though he still hasn’t figured out how he’s actually going to do that. Hopefully circumstances will provide some sort of solution.

OOC
Sorry for the delay everybody.
.

Saskia reports in, even though she knows jago can check the readouts any time he wants.  An old habit from her Navy days when Deck officers might be too busy watching tactical screens to spend time going through status displays.

"Everything looks good back here, Bridge.  Jump cycle is complete and I'm running a residual tachyon purge now.  Power plant is stable and EPS grid is operating at full capacity.  M drive is online."

Tylen is at his post when Margin exits jump space, and automatically starts scanning for other vessels within range.  While he doesn't expect there to be any real risk, one has to be prepared - especially in difficult times like these.

Subconsciously he listens to the arrival reports and status reports as they come across the crew channel but has little to add to those.

Although a thought has crossed his mind during the jump "Jago?  Do you intend to allow all five low passengers to disembark at the same time?"  he asks, half wondering whether releasing Othati-Fenn into the custody of the bounty hunters had always been part of the captain's plan.

Ash starts feeding planetary data to the crew, even as the ship swings onto a course which will carry it to what is laughingly described as a starport...

WORLD DETAILS

NAME:               Rangent
HEX LOCATION:       Spimward Marches 1411
UWP:                E67A612-7
PBG:                503
TRADE CODES:        Non-industrial, Water World
BASES:              None
ALLEGIANCE:         Non-aligned
STELLAR DETAILS:    Primary Star: M4 V   Mass: 0.36

SATELLITE DETAILS:  Number: 3
                    Satellite 1: UWP:Y331300-6, Orbit: 8
                    Satellite 2: UWP:H100520-6, Orbit: 10
                    Satellite 3: UWP:Y440000-0, Orbit: 30

SIZE RELATED DETAILS
Basic World Type:  Planet - molten core.
Diameter:  10,080 km   Density: 0.98   World Mass: 0.413     World Gravity: 0.735
Orbit Period:    54.448 Std Days       Distance: 0.2 AU      Eccentricity: 0.15
Rotation Period: 18.8 Std Hours        Axial Tilt: 41°       Seismic Stress Factor: 0.0

ATMOSPHERIC RELATED DETAILS
Composition: Standard oxygen-nitrogen mix, with disease taint
Surface Pressure: 0.95           Mean Temp: -27.153°C      Native Life: Yes
Terraforming - Atmospheric: No   Albedo: No                Greenhouse Effect: No
Weather Control: No

HYDROSPHERE RELATED DETAILS
Composition: Tainted liquid water beneath an ice sheet
Hydrographic Percentage: 100%      Tectonic Plates: 12
Terraforming - Hydrographic: No    Terrain: No

POPULATION RELATED DETAILS
Total World Population: 5,000,000
Starports and Spaceports: E/E/Y/E/E/E/E/E/H/H
Primary Cities: 10                 Orbital Cities: No

Social Outlook:
    Progressiveness:  Conservative, Advancing
    Aggressiveness:   Competitive, Neutral
    Extensiveness:    Discordant, Xenophobic

Unusual Local Customs: Entire population, male and female, uses cosmetics.
                       Marriage always arranged by parents.
                       Marriage take place only at night.

GOVERNMENT RELATED DETAILS
Representative Authority: Company/Corporation, several councils.
Division of Authority:    3-way division - Executive, legislative, judicial

LAW RELATED DETAILS                 TECHNOLOGY RELATED DETAILS
Uniformity of Law:    Undivided     Technology Profile:

Legal Profile: 2-00544              High Common Tech Level: 7
    Overall Law Level: 2            Low Common TL:          3
    Weapons law Level: 0            Energy TL:              7
    Trade law level:   0            Computer/Robotics TL:   6
    Criminal Law:      5            Communications TL:      8
    Civil Law:         4            Medical TL:             5
    Personal Freedom:  4            Environment TL:         8
                                    Land Transport TL:      6
                                    Water Transport TL:     6
                                    Air Transport TL:       7
                                    Space Transport TL:     7
                                    Personal Military TL:   7
                                    Heavy Military TL:      6
                                    Novelty Tech Level:     8

RESOURCES AND GOODS
Resources:
    Natural:        Minerals, Agricultural
    Processed:      Non-Metals, Processed Foods
    Manufactured:   Durables
    Information:    Documents

---

Rangent and its three moons huddle close to a red sun, trying to gather whatever heat they can from it.  The planet itself glitters brightly in the sullen light - the brightness of endless plains of ice reflecting most of the sun's meagre radiation back into space.

The computer reports transit time to the surface as 239 minutes...

Shui, as always, is active, active, active as they come out of the jump.  Instructions sent to passengers.  Checks on the Low Berth (again).  Questions from passengers, now answered.  All manner of snacks and drinks prepared for both passengers and crew, to specifications noted by familiarity.  Making certain the children aren't where they shouldn't be.  Checking in with the crew.

It's a busy time for a steward, but she's used to it, wearing two hats aboard the ship (as more than one crew member does).

Checking her notes, she sends her usual update to the crew.

++  Please note the system information.  While the people of this world are not classed as aggressive in general, they are noted to have a more xenophobic society.  ++  Shui dislikes painting with broad strokes - they're rarely correct - but better safe than sorry, here.  ++ Zero standard weapons prohibitions, but heavy, man-portable weapons and larger are against the laws.  ++  Yasmine will be pleased; none of her weapons (of which Shui is familiar, she admits) fall into that catagory.

Thinning her lips, she consider Marita Doyle.  She'll be considerably less pleased.  Somewhere along the line, communications have been compromised; this isn't the sort of place Shui would want to bring up rambunctious children.

The 'disease taint' requires further research, as well.

Calling up a search on the subject, Shui heads for Marita's quarters.  Arriving, she pings the door.  "Ms. Doyle?  Are you busy?"

Marita Doyle opens the door of her cabin, just as Shui's dataglove chirps to indicate that it has found the information she was searching for.  "Have those two been up to something?" is her first question, followed by, "Is something wrong, Miss Tiesi?"

Jago checks the approach vectors that Ash has put up on his screens, brings the Margin round on a heading that will end on the planet in the vicinity of the landing field.

“Do they actually have any sort of flight control here?” he asks, “better give them a call just in case.”

Gently he ramps up the faithful old ‘Mitchells-Hyundyne’ drives and the ship sets off on the last leg of the flight.

.

Shui smiles.  It's meant to reassure, but it also holds a hint of warning in it.  "There is no problem with the children at the moment.  Ms. Doyle, I need to speak with you regarding this world.  As you are my responsibility aboard this ship, I feel there are certain matters of which you must be appraised."

Reaching out, she touches the woman's shoulder.  "I dislike being the bearer of bad tidings, but all is not as has seemed prior to arrival.  May we speak?  Privately?"  She motions toward the woman's cabin.

There's no good way to say this; she's going to have to come right out and give the woman the bad news.  But at least she can spare her the embarassment of the shock in a public hallway.

Saskia smiles as she feels the thrusters start to throttle up.  The vibrations run through the deck and into the soles of her feet.  The drives pass the five percent mark, and the sound becomes audible, if you know what to listen for.  Sound damping can't cut all of it out, of course, and by the time the thrust hits a full gee and beyond, the humming is loud enough that even a passenger might hear it.

"But they still wouldn't know what it is." she murmurs, as the noise builds in volume.  Diagnostics flicker across the displays, unnoticed.  The engineer knows this ship well enough to recognise the sounds of normal operation.

Right on cue, as they pass 75% thrust, a faint whining sound starts up - the latch on the port inspection panel vibrating in its setting - only to stop again at 80% as the sound passes beyond audible range.

Everything seems to be running smoothly.

"Think I'll grab me a coffee." she says, standing and stretching before heading for the door to the lounge, "Behave yourselves while I'm gone."

Ash glances at Jago and gives him a salute.  Opening an external comm link from one of the pages on his dynamic display, the Margin's navigator slips his microphone arm into place and starts to address the 'starport' at Rangent, "Rangent Port Authority, this is the Profit Margin requesting permission to land..."  He runs through the standard chatter, verbally giving anyone that might on the other end of the line their information: their port of origin, as well as arrival information - ETA, cargoes, passengers - as well as, transponder IDs and the like.

The navigator glances around the bridge idly for a few moments as he waits for a potential response.  Honestly, he doesn't expect an answer, but Ash isn't going to contradict Jago.  Especially when the Captain is right that they have to go through the motions.  There is always a chance that someone is listening on the other end...

Tylen sits in his chair, idly swinging the display back and forth as he continues to monitor the area for other vessels.

Wondering if his comms channel had been properly open the first time, Tylen poses the question again.  "Jago?  Do you intend to allow all five low passengers to disembark at the same time?"

Marita Doyle's face falls, as Shui mentions bearing bad news.  "Of course."  She steps back and gestures for the steward to step into the cabin.

Ash and Jago wait for a response from the port.  Eventually a voice replies, faint and almost masked by static, but it doesn't come from the expected source, "Profit Margin?  Was tha... ... ...ust arrived?  This ... Jockram ab... ... ...ound.  Goo... to hear ... you." 

Just off the bridge Tylen and Yas are watching space for any nearby activity.  So far there is no sign of any shipping within range of their targeting system.  This is, perhaps, not too surprising, considering what a backwater Rangent is.

Saskia, having made sure the drives understand her instructions, wanders into the crew lounge to get something to wake her up.

Entering, Shui glances around.  Unsurprisingly, considering Marina's query, the children are nowhere to be seen at present.  "Please, Ms. Doyle, if you would sit?"  She does so herself after the woman; it might be her room, but Shui is in essence the host here, and also the bearer of bad tidings.

Once they're seated she wastes no time.  Keeping her tone quiet and calm, she quickly outlines what she has learned thus far of the society and situation on the world they approach.  Marina isn't foolish; it won't be difficult for her to realize this isn't exactly what she had assumed.  Freezing cold, a low world population that remains wary of outsiders...and the worst to come.

"The atmosphere is replete with a virus.  It's not lethal, or even seriously dangerous," she's quick to assure the woman, "but causes a mildly painful, long-term infection.  There is no cure once contracted, but it can be avoided by the use of a filter mask, or remaining in a filtered environment."

Reaching out, she takes the other woman's hand.  "If there is anything I can do to assist, please let me know.  We have time before landing - several hours - and I can research or speak to Captain Lanza if you have a change of plans."
The 'garden' and 'beach' of which Marina has heard...Shui doesn't comment on them.

Ash's ears perk up and he sits up more straight when the weak response to his hail starts to come over the comm link.  He motions to Jago, prompting, "Captain, are you hearing this?"  His fingers begin to work the controls as the Margin's navigator makes sure that their recorder is on and then tries a couple of different techniques that he is aware of to amplify and focus the signal.

"This is the Profit Margin," he notes rather insistently trying to keep up his end of the conversation, "Can you repeat your message?  The signal is weak and your message is breaking up."  He reiterates with some urgency, "Come in.  Can you repeat your message?"

As he repeats his appeal for more information from the other end, Ash also starts to do a Library search cross indexing 'Jockram' and 'Rangent' in case he has missed something important as to who or what might be contacting them.

With no obvious threats or shipping in range Tylen relaxes slightly, and sits back to just keep a weather eye on the situation.  With nothing to do, he reaches up to scratch his jaw with his thumb, before leaning forward to his control panel again.  Idly he flips through the controls for the various sensing arrays trying to work out where the broken message is coming from.

Ash tinkers with the comms and manages to clean up the incoming message a little, though there is still a fair bit of interference.  "This ... Jockram, on Ore Hound.  Good ... ... from you again Profit Margin.  Is ... ...ou, Conrad?"



Marita sits down heavily on the edge of the bed and gives a drawn-out sigh.  "So he lied to me?  That might explain why he's tried to discourage me from coming here in his last few letters."  Another sigh, and she pushes back to lean against the wall, lifting her feet onto the bed.

"There isn't really anywhere else for me to go.  I gave up my job and my apartment lease, and used my savings for the tickets to come here.  Perhaps he lied so I wouldn't worry about him, and he never expected me to follow him."

"Or perhaps there's another world in the system, like the one he described?"
This message was last updated by the GM at 19:28, Sat 08 Dec 2012.

Tylen fiddles with his controls to see if he can locate where on the planet the signal is coming from.

From where she stands getting herself a coffee, Saskia can hear the call coming in.  Not clearly.  But she can hear Ash asking for the message to be repeated.  Curious, she takes her cup and enters the Bridge, taking a seat at the Engineering repeater panel.

She sits watching Ash and Jago, and listening to the static-laden signal with her cup cradled in her hands.

"Jockram?  I didn't know he was planning to head up this way.  Would've thought he'd've retired with his cut of that salvage."

Ash looks up from his console where he is trying to home in on the signal.  He turns to face Saskia and Jago, while his left hand moves to mute the external connection.  "Uh," the navigator ventures tentatively, "Do you know the person on the other end of the line, Ms. Blake?"  Ash has more than a little bit of a 'deer in the headlights' look.

The wheels almost visibly click as he can now parse the 'Conrad' part of the message.  If the Profit Margin crew has had previous dealings with this 'Jockram' then the reference is to Ash's predecessor, Conrad Dietz.  The thin ex-Scout waits for confirmation from either the Captain or the Chief Engineer of the Profit Margin before responding.

Jago smiles on hearing the voice on the comms, “a mining ship we met on Arkadia,” he tells Ash before pressing the stud to send his own message.

“Hi, this is Jago, nice to here a friendly voice out here Jockram. That was our new Navigator, Ash, I got myself an upgrade, every one else is here though. How about you?”
.

Perhaps, thinks Shui.  But perhaps Marita's husband has a different reason for keeping her away.  She can't say that aloud, though; the purpose now is to try to help the woman, not make her more miserable.

"I'm so sorry," she whispers, touching the woman's foot - the closest thing to her hand.  "Let me check; I shall see if there is anywhere else you might be able to settle.  I'm sure we can arrange something, if that's the case..."

If not, well.  There are other things she might be capable of doing.

Bringing up her dataglove, Shui calls up system information on the holoscreen, searching for other, short-range possibilities that have a better chance of being habitable by Marita's family.  It's not likely, she knows.  Not likely at all, or the main spaceport for the system would be there.

But she needs to check.

Ash continues tweaking the comms, adds some filters, and the message continues to get clearer.  Hello Jago.  Oh... ... know how ... goes.  Cred... didn't have time to start wearing a ho... in my pocket, and frackin' Banster and Heger... started on about flux capacitor this and ion back-flow restrictor matrix that.  You know how engineers are."

"Listen, if you're planning to ...nd here, you should know there's a record brea... storm running.  Hundred kph plus winds, snow, hail, the works.  I sent ... other two ashore for R'n'R three days ago, and they can't leave the dome to get back ... the Hound.  Locals say it sh... die down in a couple of days, but you might want to wai... in orbit until then."

Marita Doyle sighs again as Shui starts going through the system data, "No, I should have expected it.  It's typical of him to get excited about something and tell me how great it is.  Only when it comes down to it, it's never quite the way he said.  So like this, he told me how nice Rangent is, but as soon as I started talking about coming here he started trying to put me off - things like they're still working on the town, so we'd be living on a construction site, or how there isn't a proper school for the kids yet."

Listening to Jockram from her position a short distance behind Jago, Saskia says quietly, "We could do with some new flux capacitors too!"

“ Thanks for that Jockram, I’ll take your advice. Perhaps we can get together for a bear before you head out.”

“Could you pass that out to passengers and crew,” Jago says aside to Ash, “we’ll be up here for a couple of days until the storm at the landing field blows over.”

As he speaks Jago focuses sensors towards the planet to see if he can get an optical or infrared feed of the storm for the ship board display monitors.
.

Satisfied with the information he has and the rest of the conversation, Tylen selects some in offensive background music, sits back in his seat and props his feet up against the corner of his console.

He alternates between tapping time to the music and sipping his coffee, as he waits for the stand down decision.

"Of course, C... Boss." Ash almost catches himself in time, when addressing Jago.  But he doesn't dwell on it too much, as he has his orders.  His fingers glide over to another display and the ship-wide channel is opened, while he mutes his link to Jockram on Rangent though the audio is still piped through the bridge speakers.

He clears his throat for a moment and then after the three-tone introduction he speaks clearly over the open channel, "Ladies and Gentlemen.  It has come to our attention that the starport on Rangent," (such as it is) "is experiencing severe weather conditions."  He pauses for a moment, so that the passengers and crew can let that sink in, before continuing, "As such, we have been advised to wait out the storm in high orbit rather than risk landing under such conditions.  Captain Lanza has chosen to honor that advice.  We regret the delay, but it looks like we will have to sit tight on board the Profit Margin for another few days."

"Sorry for the inconvenience, folks." the Margin's navigator notes, sounding genuinely apologetic, "We'll get everyone to Rangent as soon as possible.  And in case anyone is worried; we have more than enough air and provisions to wait out the storm.  Please feel free to flag down Ms. Tiesi - or any other crewmember - with any additional questions or concerns."

With that, Ash closes the connection and turns his attention back to the interaction between Jockram, Jago and Saskia.

"Jago, when the time's right, I'd like a word or two with you," Yas calls out of the now open door to her gunnery seat.  "Nothing fancy, but I got an idea or two."

"And you, Ash, better hope no one 'flags me down', because I may have to either shoot them or kick them of the ship then.  But in the later case they'd make landfall before us, I suppose, so it's not all bad," she tells the navigator with a grin that hopefully means she is kidding.

“I’ll be in my cabin in about ten minutes,” Jago tells Yasmin, “you guys can stand down from the turrets, we’ll keep a watch on the sensors but while there is only Jockram out there we can relax a bit.”

Once he’s finished his conversation with Jockram Jago leaves Ash on the bridge and retires to his cabin with a mug of steaming hot coffe.

"Sure, Jago.  A beer would be good.  At least I hope it would, I haven't tried the local brew, and have no idea if they import anything.  See you later."

Jago makes a few adjustments to the sensors and, after a few moments, transfers an enhanced view of Rangent to the main display.  The closest of the world's three moons is just visible to one side of the image.  Most of the visible portion of Rangent is in darkness, but a switch to a composite of image enhancement, IR, and a graphical map overlay makes things cleaerer.

In shades of blue, white and grey, a large cyclonic storm is clearly visible.  A marker shows that the landing beacon lays about half way between the edge of the storm and its calm centre.  There are other storms on the planet too, though only one of those even approaches the size of the one over the beacon.

After a few seconds indicators start to appear overlaying the image: wind speed, direction, local temperature...  The storm does look bad.  And while the wind speeds are high, the storm itself appears to be almost stationary.

Jago exits the bridge, having given the gunners permission to leave their posts...

Saskia pouts at Jago as he goes past.  His lack of enthusiasm for buying spare flux capacitors does not go unnoticed.  It leads her to surmise that an additional spare Heisenberg compensator is similarly unlikely to make its way into the budget.

"It'll be good to see the Ore Hound again.  Might be able to trade spares with her people.  Her jump drive is the same series as ours, and they use a lot of the same components." the Engineer says to Ash.

"Want me to ask him, nicely?" Yas asks Sassy with a slap on her shoulder, grinning from ear to ear.  "What was it again?  Fox capitators?"

She glances towards Jago's cabin and checks the time.

"Ore Hound's down there?  Maybe we can put our popsicle terrorist on their ship, that'll throw a curve ball into his plans, eh?" she chortles evilly.

Once he gets the stand down, Tylen flicks the switches that puts everything in  standby and makes for the lounge to fill his coffee cup.  AS he passes through the cabin area he hears Yas's comment about the terrorist.  "Or just release him when the other four are clear of the ship." he grins evilly "I'd bet ten creds there would be a bounty hunter waiting for him ...."

A low whistle emanates from Ash's lips when the full majesty of the storm is revealed in the displays.  He knows when a planet's biosphere is trying to demonstrate to its squatters who is really in charge.

"Ah, yes." Ash notes as he leans back in his chair, obviously a little more at ease with the order to stand down and, likely, with Jago off the bridge for the moment.  "That's quite convenient." the navigator agrees rather amiably when Saskia divulges that the Ore Hound has the same model jump drive.

He waves idly to each of the gunners as they approach the bridge.

Though he is positioned to converse readily with the Profit Margin's engineer and gunners, Ash does keep one eye on the sensor feeds - both down at Rangent as well as outwards, primarily at the jump point - just in case there is incoming traffic.  "So," the ex-Scout asks idly of the other crew, "when and where was the last time you saw the Ore Hound and her crew?  And what is this about joint salvage prospects?"

"I'm deeply sorry, Ms. Doyle," Shui quietly replies.  "It does sound rather odd.  The situation is not ideal for you, I know.  If you wish, I can speak to the Captain about our next destination, and it may be possible to secure a ticket at a lower price."  Her lips thin, pressing together.  "Considerably lower.  More of an extension than a new ticket, as it were."

Reaching out, she pats the other woman's hand.  "Barring you deciding to stay on-planet, it may be your only choice.  I fear there is nothing else in this system of worth.  Is there anything I can do for you, now?  Or would you like some time to think?" A pause.  "Your husband is aware you are coming?"

There's an ugly suspicion in her mind about the woman's husband, but she keeps it to herself.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:54, Tue 18 Dec 2012.

"Yes, he knows that we're on the way.  He kept trying to put me off when I told him, but he'd made it sound so nice here before that, so I just ignored his protests about unfinished townships and lack of schools.  I should have realised that the original description was just too good to be true."  The passenger shakes her head slowly, "No, I don't need anything just now, and I don't want to go anywhere else.  I came here to be with my husband.  I'm sick of being away from him, and the kids miss him.  That's probably why they're being so badly behaved this last few months."

"He came here, and I got messages telling me how nice it is... was.  Telling me about beaches and gardens and sunshine.  Made it sound wonderful.  So a few months ago, I decided I'd come here to be with him, and that's when he started trying to put me off.  I suppose the way he described it first was so that I wouldn't worry about him getting sick or something.  But he did too good a job of making it sound nice here."

Profit Margin accelerates towards the planet, scheduled to arrive in orbit at about 19:00, Ship's Time.  The bridge display continues to show Rangent's violent weather, which actually looks oddly peaceful from this angle...

There is some discussion on the bridge about Ore Hound.

"Yeah, how long is it?  Three months?  Nah, just shy thereof," Yas muses in reply to Ash.

"Once upon a time there was this Leviathan class transport ship that came from a place unknown to us and was headed for a place equally unknown.  We, the Ore Hound and the Margin, found it, however.  It was on a small, frozen moon in the Arcadia system, very inhospitable.  Not that it mattered to the ship, as we saw when we boarded the derelict..."

She loses herself in the distance briefly.

"Mis-jump."

She says the words as cold as the frigid temperature on the moon where the wreck was.

"It may not have been haunted, but it could have converted most anyone to believe in ghosts," she says grimly and then adds, on a more cheerful note, "but we also found enough salvage there to almost set us up for life.  Three.  Million.  Credits.  And that's for the Margin only."

She waves a thumb towards the cargo bay.  "That's how I could afford my new toy, the suit.  Now I just need to get the proper equpiment in it and I can take out pirates all on my own by doing a space-walk, ha!"  She slaps Ash on the shoulder as if to put emphasis on the fact the her little story as come to an end, in case it was not obvious.

Ash nods at the appropriate places and is visibly distressed when a misjump is named as the root cause.  With pursed lips he asks a couple of questions, "Any idea how long she had been out there?  Or where she had originated from?"  From his tone, it is pretty obvious that there is both a professional, as well as a personal, component to his questions.  A misjump is serious business - not so much fun for the jumpers.

The Margin's navigator gives an appreciative whistle when the monetary extent of the salvage is made explicit.  "Quite the haul." he quips, concurring with Yasmine's assessment.  He adds with slight smirk to Saskia, "Sounds as though you could have gotten a couple of those flux capacitors yourself.  Given that Ms. Crow got a brand new powered exoskeleton, what did you splurge onMs. Blake?"

How Marina puts it certainly takes some of the sting out of the situation.  It seems less likely that her husband is up to something, and more likely he finds himself in a poor position for raising a family.  But Marina is determined, desperate, and somewhat depressed, and thus...

"Absolutely, Ms. Doyle.  I truly understand." She studies the woman for a long moment.  "If there is anything with which I can assist - anything at all - please, let me know.  I shall do some thinking along those lines myself, but...in the meantime, would you like tea?  Or something to eat?  I haven't had much chance to talk with you over this trip, and it's always nice to learn a little more about our passengers."

Talking might help.  A little.

"Well, I  must admit to digging a little afterwards, morbid curiosity or just whatever," Yas confesses, although if there are any she leaves any more specific reasons out.  She wrinkles her forehead in thought.  "Let's see, I'm bad with names but it was something along the lines of Mariachi or such.  Not many of these things built, you could find it...  Owned by a line but stolen and used in acts of piracy about a decade or more ago."

"But mis-jump, yeah, crew stuck inside of things kind of tells you that.  Not sure if the ones who still were in the ship in one way or another were the lucky ones or not, I'm sure there'd been more aboard originally.  Irridium, yeah, that was it, the stuff that brought home the big win, six hundred of them.  Could have used that suit back then, I tell you!"  She grins, although it remains uncertain if it is over the haul or the memories.

Saskia suppresses a shudder and hooks her thumbs together for a couple of seconds as Yas mentions a mis-jump again.  "Don't say that word again, Yas.  It's bad luck to mention it three times on a ship that's in flight.  Tempting fate."

Then she seems to brighten up, and changes the subject, "Hey.  You remember we found that weird little lifeform thing there?  Really nothing more than a patch of coloured ice but it could could move about."

Ash nods to Yasmine's information and assertion about the usefulness of her new suit.  "It's always the way of things." he agrees, "You always find the thing you need right after you need it..."  He gives the assembled a crooked smile; hoping that never to be the case with a mis-jump, since there will be no next time, if that mishap were to occur.

The Profit Margin's navigator does make a mental note to try and look up the history of that Leviathan - just for his own personal edification, if nothing else.  It is quite possible that with its ignoble history, the misjump was more likely caused not by an error in the astrogation calculation but in using improperly or unrefined fuel.  Unfortunately, they may never know.

"She's right, Ms. Crow." the thin navigator corroborates Saskia's superstition, "A long standing spacer tradition - definitely still upheld in the IN."

Then Ash turns to look at Saskia more squarely, when she moves on to the other interesting discovery on the Leviathan.  "You discovered a new lifeform?" he asks with a slight bit of incredulity.  After a moment he prompts, "Was there only the one?  Did you get a sample?  What type of stimuli did it respond to?  Is it anything like the moving sculpture that has us going to Fulacin?"  The ex-IISS navigator knows that the questions are a bit rapid-fire and definitely stream-of-consciousness, but he doesn't seem to be able to really stop himself.

He glances at the Yasmine, "Did both of you see it first hand?"  Given from what they have told him, they would have both been in vacc suits at the minimum, but still, to his mind that experience would be quite exciting.  It was definitely more fun then carting around and having to care for a cargo hold of tons upon tons of Solomani armadillos - which was what Ash had been doing on his last speculative stint some months before.

"I'm going to have to talk to the Selnia and Darien before we get there.  Explain to them that they won't be swimming and playing on the beach." Marita Doyle replies, "The sooner the better I suppose.  More time to get the tantrums over and done with.  I'll probably need something to drink afterwards, probably stronger than tea though."

A wry smile then, "Thanks for letting me know about this in plenty of time.  Would have been bad to find out about it when I was walking off the ship in lightweight clothes."

On the bridge, the conversation moves from salvage and derelict ships, to the peculiar organisms that dwell on ice moons...

"Shui saw it too.  It just looked like a coloured patch of ice that moved about on the surface.  Sort of a blue colour.  Not too fast, no eyes or mouth or anything that we could see, but I suppose if it had a mouth it could have been underneath.  You know, for scraping stuff up off the ice as it slithered along." Saskia reports, trying to recall exactly how the strange creature had looked.

The engineer holds  her hands about fifty centimetres apart, "Was about this big.  Oh, and it was scared of shadows, so maybe photosynthetic, like a plant."

Ash hmmms, "No direct sentience, but some stimulus response.  Interesting."  He  looks thoughtful for a moment, before asking Saskia, "Were there more than one?  And you didn't happen to get a sample, did you?"  He glances from Saskia to Yasmine and then back.  The navigator also makes a mental note to ask the doctor about her experiences with the life form in question.

He nods at Saskia biochemical assessment of the organism, "The bluish tinge might be a cyanide-based chlorophyll precursor..."  Another thoughtful pause occurs before he continues his brainstorming, "How was the light spectrum exposure on that moon?"  Ash prompts Saskia for her professional opinion, "Do you think that radiation conversion for energy storage would be a reasonable mechanism?"

"Yeah, that was something.  But didn't get close, didn't really care to.  Scared animals and all that.  But one for the old age and telling tall tales, for sure!  Anyway, I'm off to see our leader, keep the Margin safe, eh?" Yas says with a grin throughout the sentence and waves as she starts to retreat from the bridge.

Unless someone stops her she will end up outside Jago's cabin and knock before entering, even if the door is open.

“Come in Yasmin, take a seat, can I get you anything?”

Jago sits at his desk, half a coffee cooling to the side, a sheaf of papers before him and ‘the curious thing’ in its stainless steel tray on the corner. Classical music plays softly in the background but Jago turns it off as his visitor takes her seat, and smiles at her.

“ OK, go ahead.”

With a nod Yas walks in and takes a seat, shifting briefly to get comfortable.

"I've got a suggestion as to how to solve our... problem," she says, leaning back.  "We let the bounty hunter and their prisoner walk here, then we keep the brother for the next stop.  We don't tell either party about the other, we pretend to him we let them go a while before him on that same spot.  That way, at least, we won't be the cause of immediate bloodshed, one way or another.  After that, it's all their problem, as it was before."

"Unless you plan to hand him over to them, I'm fine with that too," she finishes and waits for a reply, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"I believe I can manage something a little stronger than tea," Shui murmurs, squeezing the other woman's hands.  "Please let me know - page me through the ship's systems.  I have duties before planetfall, but there are break times where I can take a moment to talk.  Or provide something appropriate."

But what does one serve to a woman whose dreams have been dropped into the dust?
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:45, Sat 29 Dec 2012.

Today the thing is shaped like a tesseract of thin silvery rods, with a darker coloured sphere at each junction, and balanced on one corner.  No matter how the tray is moved, tilted, or jolted, the object maintains exactly the same position relative to the surface, almost as if it had been affixed to it with some kind of adhesive.

This is, however, untrue.  Firm, but gentle, pressure from a finger will tilt it (though it returns to its original position when the pressure is released).  It can be moved about easily on the tray, and even picked up, though in that case there is an increasing resistance the further it is moved from the metal container until, at a distance of about 15 cm, it refuses to move any further, no matter how much effort is put into it.

For all of its peculiar properties, Yas and Jago have other things to discuss today, and are ignoring it, for the most part.  It would probably have to do something really spectacular to get their attention...

"Thank you.  I'm going to talk to the children first." Marita Doyle explains, "Hopefully it won't be too much of an upset for them.  Then I might have a rest.  If I need anything, I'll let you know."

Saskia is able to do better than further descriptions.  She uses the computer to call up some images and video uploaded from helmet cams and Shui's dataglove.  The creature is spectacular and impressive, in a way that only a patch of coloured ice can be.  It crawls along, slowly, maintaining a relatively straight line with minor diversions to avoid shadows and other obstacles.  The positions of those shadows show that the thing's course appears to be following the sun around its tiny world.

It's clear that the light isn't particularly bright, but the animal, if such it is, is slow enough that it probably doesn't use much energy.

There is a brief glimpse of a massive wrecked ship, half buried in the ice.  The markings on the hull seem to be upside-down...

In the lounge, Tylen enjoys his coffee, and speculates on  what might be getting said in Jago's office, and who is doing most of the talking...

“Keep him until the next stop, I hadn’t thought of that.”

Jago talks as he brings up some data on the computer terminal built into his desk, “the guy is obviously an amateur, just desperate to rescue his brother, I figured I’d give him a break and at least keep them on the same planet, of course I had intended to talk to him first, discuss it with the authorities on Denotam and see what crew here thought, I didn’t expect them to just dump him on us.

Ah here we are, Phlume.”

Jago studies the data briefly, “law level two, it should be OK to leave a guy there without papers  or anything, goes against the grain though, I’d told him I’d leave him here on Rangent. What if we warn the bounty hunters that he’s here but let him go in some out of the way place, no one gets taken by surprise then?”

“Next time I’ll check whether a prisoner is criminal or political before  I agree to take them on board, they I won’t have my own blasted conscience to contend with.”
.

A chortle escapes Yas as she shakes her head slowly.

"They were more than happy to dump this on you, then.  See, that's what you learn in the military.  Never volunteer, it's just asking for trouble," she says, still shaking her head.

"Grain or not, if you release them on the same planet there will be bloodshed sooner or later, you will only have dumped what is our problem on their backyard.  No law?  He'll go buy some fruit and an assault rifle in the nearest store and they will be onto him.  It'll blow up, maybe he'll even grab someone else.  Unless you gave you word, specifically, what's worse?"

She sighs and leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees.  "You saw what he was like when they dumped him on us, his attitude.  You know he'll be gunning for them, and this world won't care except anyone caught in-between.  Hostage or stray bullets, maybe they all die here if either starts shooting.  Can you take that chance?"

Ash seems quite fascinated with the video of the creature.  Despite the grain and despite the limited field of view, he watches with rapt attention.  He nods approvingly at the end, noting rather redundantly, "Quite the specimen."

He turns to regard Saskia, "I am surprised that you didn't collect it or at least log it with the library.  I am sure that the TAS society or some such would be interested..."  He rubs his chin thoughtfully, "Perhaps even a publication or something in a scientific journal..."  He's not really sure to what end that might be; there wasn't really an economic angle that he could see - but, then that was probably why Ash wasn't the captain or a share holder in a ship.  His business acumen wasn't necessarily the best.

"So," the Margin's navigator ventures to her engineer after seeing the brief video image of the shipwrecked Leviathan, "do you concur with Ms. Crow?  Was the ship haunted?"

Tylen sits in the lounge with his coffee, using his data glove to scroll through the information on the world below.

Ten major cities and each with some sort of space port?  I wonder which city Marita Doyle's husband is based in?  He muses as he starts digging through the the rest of the system data looking for details of landing restrictions in the various cities.

Then he chuckles slightly as he imagines the the look on Othati-Fenn's face if they were to drop him off at a city half a world away from thr main stsarport ....
This message was last edited by the player at 11:53, Mon 31 Dec 2012.

Tylen researches more details on Rangent - with only about five million people on the planet, none of the cities are particularly big.  One of them, Davies, is mentioned as being the planets administration centre, under the control of the megacorporation Makhidkarun.  There is a further note that the starport at Davies is currently being upgraded, using labour and materials contracted from several offworld companies.

So far there have been no gunshots from Jago's office, which is probably a good sign.  Unless one of the occupants (and speculation on which one would be futile) has a knife on her person...

Saskia gives Ash further details, such as she can.  Which isn't much... had the creature been fitted with a fusion plant and wheels she could probably give him more information.  She does know that the ship's computer has records of life evolving in numerous unlikely locations, including some creatures which (superficially, at least) resemble the one from Arkadia.

Shui, having been assured that Marita Doyle is (relatively) well for the moment prepares to leave the passenger's cabin...

“If there are people trying to get out from under an oppressive regime, bloodshed would seem to be inevitable whether we are involved or not. This guy is trying to save his brother and I can sympathise with that, even if he is an arse hole. Thing is of course to make sure the blood shed is confined to those involved and not spread to innocent bystanders and if the only way to achieve that is to ship this guy to some other planet then that’s what I’ll do.”

“There are a couple of reasons why I don’t want to, partly because its kidnaping, or abduction or something like that, certainly unlikely to be legal but mostly because I said I’d bring him here and I like to think I’m a man of my word.”

“I’ll ship him to the next planet if I have to, and thank you, it’s a good idea that I hadn’t thought of, however, that’s a last resort. Fortunately we have a day or two before I have to decide and I’ll use the time to talk to the others and see if anyone can come up with a better solution. How does that sound?”
.

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.