Re: CHAPTER 3: Blood in the Water
Raven felt the monk's mind touching his, and answered the implied hesitation by first projecting the a not small number.
"You see that? That big chunk of change is what we paid for them to bring us along. Money might not mean much to someone walking your path, but to put it in perspective for you that's a shitload of rice cakes. The more expensive pre-made kind, not the cheaper homemade variety. It will shelter them, put cloths on their backs, make sure they don't go hungry and even put feed in their animals' bellies with some change left over.
"Our ship, no wait, our friend is hurt, possibly badly, and what's over there could help her. Even if you don't care about Luci's health, she's missing vital parts. I was able to land her only because a replaced the wrecked and missing stuff with copies made out of energy, and I have no clue how long those are going to last. It might be a simple flip of some cosmic coin as to if we can't leave this planet, or crash on the next one.
"Here's where it stands right now; we take ownership of that wreck, take only what we need or can use in trade for such, then hand the rest of it to the scavengers. They get something they want, we get what we have to have, everyone wins. Otherwise we help them for free, and have to buy off them what we could have taken in payment. Your type likes balance in things, and them with everything and us with nothing doesn't sound fair to me. Look, they want us to use our skills and talents, and these are not a bunch of starving nuns and orphans so I see no reason we should do so for free to begin with. And I'm not thinking about lining my own pocket, or even the group's; I'm thinking about helping a friend who's had our backs and seen us through more shit than this lot could even begin to bend their heads around. Come on FW let me help her, I'm an eighty plus year old asshole and I just don't have that many friends to begin with. I'm trying to throw a starfish back into the ocean, please don't keep me from doing what good I can."