"Perhaps you are correct," Shui returns, nodding.  She does not, however, state what she feels.  Front lines have a terrible habit of moving.  And a single spark can ignite a conflagration - wars have a tendancy to breed.  She hopes she's wrong.  But it wouldn't take much, in some places.  Not much more than the example of another world.

The doctor glances up at the sign and nods, a hint of a smile touching her pale cheeks.  "I see I was wise to wait for the navigator," she notes, before pushing open the door and stepping inside.

The inside of the store is crowded with stuff, much of it far beyond any reasonable attempt at classification, other than to say that it's mostly "useless junk".  There are old empty bottles and jars.  Statues.  Pottery.  Chunks of crystal, deeply-inscribed with odd patterns and left exposed to the elements, for chemicals and sand to erode them into organic forms.  Imported ceramic-bladed knives, hand-decorated by local artists...


On the bridge of Profit Margin Jago starts to check Yas' work on the filters, and finds that he probably couldn't have done any better.  Then he notices the message warning is blinking.  A quick check shows that there's a call in the buffer, addressed directly to him.

Once more, Yas is having some time for herself, so she makes it back to her room to do some workout - as much as it is possible in that limited space.  A quick change into her "workout outfit", a warm-up session and she is on it, doing push-ups, sit-ups and whatchamacallits.

While she works out she thinks about the now long past meeting with her sister, the things that has been done the last two years and what has not been done.  For some reason she thinks better while pushing her body towards new limits, improving herself each day rather than allowing herself to fall into indolence and contentment.

Before she has got very far into her workout, there is a quiet knock on Yasmin’s door, Jago stands outside with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Sorry to interrupt Yas, but I’m heading over to the terminal. Someone has left a message for me to call,” he tells her, “no signature or ID and an unfamiliar number. I’m probably being silly but I thought I’d call it from a public communicator. I don’t expect to be long.”

"Want me to tag along?" Yas offers, wondering what it is all about but knowing better than to ask.  If he wanted her to know he would tell her.  She waves a thumb over her shoulder and says, "I can throw on a jacket and we'll be underway right away."

“No, you carry on with your press-ups, I need you to mind the shop while Corlan is still on board. I’ll take the air raft and a communicator, maybe you could keep one on in here, just in case.”

"Sure thing, Skippy," Yasmine says with a smile and nods to her communicator on the bunk.  "After what we've been through I never go anywhere without it.  Good thing they can stand showers," she chuckles and begins to close the door, then she looks up at his eyes, her face taking a more serious expression.

"If you need anything, just give me a holler, Jago."

Jago matches the chuckle with one of his own, “I’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as I’ve figured it out,” he tells her.

"I'll hold you to that, Skippy.  Now jump along, I got fifty more push-ups to do," Yas laughs, winks and closes the door.  Once along again she drops to the floor and actually begin the push-ups, even starting counting from one.

"One...  Two...  Tree...  Fower...  Fiver...  Six...  Seven...  Eight...  Niner..."

Jago heads out through the hold to the Air Raft bay, jumps in and runs quickly through the pre-flight checks.

Once all is ready he opens the hatch and heads back towards the merchant’s hall in search of a public comm. unit.

Shui slowly slips through the shop, moving from display to display, eyes soft, that faint smile on her face.  She reaches out to touch a crystal, finger sliding along the smooth, wind-seared surface.  A bottle is hefted, held up to the light, gazed through, replaced.  Her thumb hooks a crude necklace from its perch, lays it across her arm for examination.  Every single object seems to gain some special signficance, a worthiness, in her eyes.

Except the knives.  She passes those by without expression, the smile fading for a few seconds.

Pausing in the centre of the shop, the doctor closes her eyes for a long moment, taking in a deep breath.  Her smile widens, and she turns toward a forked, crystaline tower, implausibly spiked by wind and grit, some edges almost bladed, others worn smoother than razor-cut carrots.  With a sad sigh, and a brief glance around the rest of the shop, she focuses her attention on the small, oddly shaped nick-nack.

"Yes," the woman whispers, and picks up the crystal.  "This will do."

Jago drives the airraft back to the hall.  Once there he finds the public terminals and makes his call.  it is answered in seconds, though the screen on the comm unit remains blank. 


With her new purchase safely packaged, Shui leaves the store with Jett.  Now there are even less people about than before, and those that are still on the streets seem very subdued...


On the bridge of Profit Margin the comms warning telltale starts blinking.  After a couple of minutes, it stops, only to start again almost immediately...
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:38, Thu 17 Nov 2005.

Cradling the package in her arms, Shui frowns with deep concern.  "The news spreads.  There will be changes, soon.  Right now, people are fearful, and fearful people may do foolish things."  The doctor glances up at Jett.  "Not that I anticipate riots, but still...isolated violence is not out of the question."

Picking up her pace, she beckons for him to keep up.  "We should return to the ship, immediately."

"I agree." Jett looks around, "So, any idea which way it is?"

He manages to hold his serious expression for a little less than two seconds, before his face cracks into a smile.

"Just kidding!  It's this way."

The navigator starts away, leading the way back to the ship.

Continuing her workout, Yas soon feels that it is enough for now and heads into her shower for a quick, refreshing shower.  After towelling she gets fresh clothes and pulls them on.  A check in the mirror and she steps out of her cabin, heading for the bridge again.

She catches the comm flashing and hurries over to get it before it is too late.

"This is Profit Margin, how can I help you?" she replies with her best stewardess voice that could make any receptionist green with envy.  A smile is also in place in case they are using the vidlink.

There is no video feed, but the male voice coming from the comm sounds worried, to the extent that it's easy to immagine the frown and the assorted wrinkles and creases that go with it.  He starts speaking almost before Yas finishes her greeting.  "Ah... hello!  Kaelar, there's somebody there!  Yes, I'm talking to her now... wait a minute!  Hello, I want to book passage on your ship for four people, Captain, three adults and a child.  How much will that cost us?"

Jett and Shui are making their way back towards the ship, but are still some distance away from it when they see the fighting start.  The owner of a store decides to shut up shop for the day.  Some of the customers object, and in moments, the brawl spills out into the street, scattering passers-by.  While the owner tries to escape from one group, others move into the store and start to steal the goods - simple groceries for the most part...

Sounds a bit desperate.  Perhaps someone looking to get away from this place and to a safer one.  Can't really blame them, Yas thinks to herself as she listens to the man and realises she forgot to introduce herself.  One reason she prefers not dealing with people on the behalf of Profit Margin - she simply is not meant to do it, she is meant to shoot and blow things up.

"I am Yasmine Crow, security chief, the captain will be back shortly, sir.  And that would be, per person, 10,000 per jump for High passage, 8,000 for Medium and a mere 1,000 for Low.  But we have yet to get a destination, our cargo dictates that, sir," she explains, if need be raising her voice so she can finish without being interrupted, although not so much she is shouting.  "Let me find out where we are headed before we book anything, sir.  You will of course be given first refusal, that I guarantee."

Shui's eyes widen at the sight.  "Oh, no," she whispers.  It's starting.  Already.  "I can't-" she begins, but that's all she can say.  There isn't time to explain.  Punching numbers into her dataglove, she struggles to alert the local constabulary while pushing herself into a run.

On this planet, the doctor considers, fear beginning to pulse in her veins, weapons are illegal.  If we start shooting indescriminately, people will shoot back.  But that means, she realizes, pulling up just short of the people mauling the shopkeeper, they know what weapons are...and maybe nobody is in a hurry to actually start something lethal?

She has little choice.  These people are tired, frightened, and desperate...but she can't let them hurt the store owner.  Tapping the dataglove opens a line over the radio to the captain, and then Shui pulls out her snub-pistol, firing a warning shot into the wall of the building over the mob's heads.  "Enough!" she cries, as loudly as she can.  "Everyone - stop!"

First, call the 'police', if there are any.  Second, the warning shot, when close enough.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:29, Mon 21 Nov 2005.

Time for a little manual labor. Kal-chan now had a theory to work with, one he'd been mulling around in the back of his mind, along with a few other things, for a while. It was time to trace things a little further.

Jett draws his autopistol and considers firing a warning shot into the air, until he remembers that the city is a sealed environment.  Like Shui, he puts a round into a wall instead.

"Why don't you all just move along. people?  The authorities have been called, and will be here shortly."

Or so he hopes.

Jago finishes his call and makes his way back to the air raft, where he stands a moment looking thoughtfully over the sun bleached landscape to where the Profit Margin stands in all it’s battered glory.

With a sigh and a wry smile, Jago jumps in and heads back to the ship, dropping the raft neatly I through the hatch in the top and sealing it off.

In the forward crew lounge, Jago pours himself a coffee and carries it through to the bridge.

This message was deleted by the player at 03:21, Mon 21 Nov 2005.

Jago curses as his comms set kicks in with shooting, shouting and general mayhem.

“What’s going on?” he asks

Seeing Yasmin on the bridge he says, “seems that Jett and the Doctor are under attack, grab Kal and meet me at the Air Raft.”

“Saskia,” he says over the crew intercom, “Jet and the doctor are in some kind of trouble in town, we are going to try and bail them out so you are on your own here for the moment, OK, keep your comms link handy and I’ll give you an update when I know more.”

Jago takes a long pull of his unlit cigar, and strides purposefully back towards the Air Raft, leaving his coffee on the console.

OOC
I’ll get my eyes tested in the morning   :O(

"We'll get back to you, so can I have your comm number?  All right, thank you..." Yas tells the voice at the other end, types the number down and then adds, "Have a nice day!"  And it is too late to regret it, so with a shrug she closes the comm and jumps up to follow Jago, only pausing to first of all grab Caution and then past her place to grab her auto-shotgun as well as her snub pistol.  The first gun to quickly clear any serious trouble, the latter one to hopefully prevent the first from ever happening.

"Let me guess, they took the last item on sale and now they need to get to the register?" she jests as she boards the raft.  It was something she always did, the jesting, ever since her days in the marines.  A way to put some emotional distance between yourself and a situation where colleagues are endangered, allowing you to act with a cool head.

Jago barely has time to get the car in the garage before the call comes in, and Yas is so keen to go that she even forgets to mention the people wanting to book passage as she goes to fetch some of her toys from her cabin.

As she goes past Kal-chan, she grabs his attention and orders him to come with them.


At the store, the gun fire (and threat of imminent police action) seems to have calmed things down, at least for the time being.  Much of the crowd has moved off, most of them empty-handed, fading into doorways and access ways between the stores.  Only a few hardcore trouble-makers are still lingering, and they seem more content to shout abuse and insults than to actually do anything.

The proprietor is down, clutching at his right arm, his moans almost drowning out the wail of the distant siren.


In engineering, it's doubtful if Saskia even hears Jago's orders, laying underneath he precious drives grumbling about the way things always tighten themselves when you want to move them, and loosen themselves when you want them to stay put.


On the bridge, the comms board lights up again, indicating another incoming signal.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:14, Mon 21 Nov 2005.