As the margin nears the edge of the atmosphere, Tylen turns more of his attention to his screens, scanners and alarms.  There were no ships in the vicinity when they started fuelling, now he wants to make sure there are none in the vicinity as the finish fuelling.

Assuming the coast is clear, Tylen turns to watch the sunset with the others.  If not he will have to make do with glances at his monitor, while he identifies any neighbourly vessels.

About to crack some wise-rear remark in reply to Eneris Yas mouth opens but fails to produce any joke as the sight of Keryn steals away any such thoughts.

She clears her throat and focuses hard on a display showing the spectacular vista instead, blinking rapidly while pursing her lips.  Now and then she steals a glance in the direction of Keryn and the viewport, but it would seem her eyes gets a bit moist from it despite the protective layers that should eliminate all such effects.

"Good grief", Jago mumbles quietly and busies himself the scanners.

Faced with an emotional woman the Captain is suddenly well out of his depth, fortunately he has a full crew of barely paid professionals on  hand.

"Shui, can you do something" he asks with just a touch of pleading in his voice.

Shui shoots a cool glance at Jago as she moves from the back of the cabin - where she has remained all this time - to where Keryn stands.  "A wonderful sight, isn't it, Ms. Taylor?" Placing a hand on the other woman's shoulder, she nerves herself and faces the same direction.  "Fortunate that we have such crew that we gain these opportunities, yes?"


The steward turns her head for a quick check of the pregnant woman to see if she's genuinely moved, or if something has disturbed her.  They're likely tears of amazement and joy...but one never knows.

"It's so beautiful.  And everybody has been so kind to me since I got here." Keryn sobs, "And this... " she waves a hand towards the setting sun.  "I never saw a sunset before.  Not a real one.  So many colours."

She screws her eyes tightly closed and turns away from the viewports, "I... I'm sorry.  Frenzie has no atmosphere, so there's nothing like this there, even if you can find a place to look outside.  This is so beautiful.  And I didn't expect it." 

She struggles a little, and after a false start, manages to get the tears under control, before turning around to watch the sunset again.  "Thank you, Captain Lanza.  I'll never forget what I saw here.  Or the people who showed it to me."

Ash pauses for a moment at his station to listen to Keryn.  It isn't so much her words that he is listening to, but her tone.  The emotion ... the Wonder ... is what catches his ear.  A gentle smile touches his lips; it has probably been too long since he felt that way about space and infinite possibilities that it presents.  So long that he has forgotten about some of the pure and simple joys of travelling.

He turns with a nod to the young woman from Frenzie.  "We should be thanking you, Ms. Taylor." the lanky navigator says in response to her, "Thanking you for being with us here and taking us with you on your journey."  It isn't every day that one gets to see something so intimately personal and moving; it is a rare gift, indeed.

Ash takes a deep breath and idly runs his fingers through his short, cropped hair.  Then after a moment he returns his attention back to his console and the main tactical display of the Profit Margin.

Profit Margin accelerates, climbing out of the atmosphere, but still holding her nose towards the sunset, allowing her passengers to get the longest possible view of the event.

Finally, though, the show is over, and the ship rises into a night filled with stars,  Off to port, the planet's rings can be seen as two arcs of glittering light which emerge from the world's shadow, and sweep around its flank.  The fragments of ice and particles of dust in those rings, at least the ones close to the terminator, experience their own miniature sunsets, and blaze with shades of orange and red before they plunge into darkness.

On Jago's panel, and repeated in Engineering, the computer reports the progress of the fuel purification.  Just another five hours to go, give or take a few minutes, and the tanks will contain only pure fuel.

Corlan elects himself spokesman for the passengers.  He clears his throught, then speaks, "Captain Lanza, Miss Crow, Miss Tiesi, Miss Blake, Mister Tescali and Mister Orgesh... I think I speak for all of the passengers, when I say that that was a most interesting, educational, and moving experience.  Thank you all for allowing us to experience it, here, on the Bridge.  This is not something that could happen on most commercial vessels, and we do appreciate it.  With your permission Captain, I do believe it is time for us to return to our own area of the ship, and leave all of you to work in peace."

Keryn looks about, glancing at the rear of the Bridge, as she recalls that Yas wanted to talk to her about something...

"You're all very welcome," Jago says with a smile as he turns in his seat, "maybe we'll do it again when there's another suitable event."

"Anyway, glad you enjoyed it."

The Captain watches as the passengers leave the bridge before returning his attention to his console.

"Thank you everybody," he says to those who are left, "back to normal now, Ash, how long until we reach jump point?"

In her booth Yas clears her throat and twists her hear from side to side.

The lump in her throat refuses to move and Ash's speech does not help matters.  Clearing her throat again she feels a wild mixture of joy, sadness, frustration and relief.  Joy to share this moment, sadness to know they will part way -- for good -- soon, frustration from not being able to control her feelings and relief over the fact that she still can feel this way after her years in service to the Corps.

As Jago speaks (how much later?) she feels the lump release and sink away.  A quick, quiet cough and she hails her fellow gunner.

"Hey, Ty, it looks clear here to me out there, mind keeping an extra sharp eye out for a minute while I show Keryn why we really sit here?"  The voice seems a bit off the first few moments but quickly returns to normal.

Satisfied that Keryn isn't hiding some secret misery, Shui merely stands close by to keep her company as the group continues to observe.  Once they break free of the gas giant, this becomes a much less onerous task for the steward; it's a slow process, but she finally begins to relax.

The vista before them as the ship rises from the world...that assists.  Greatly.

"Ah, Mr. DeSant," she quietly replies.  "My own personal appreciation for your words.  It is as Mr. Tescali says: many times, it is a greater pleasure to see the worlds anew through the eyes of others.  Though this..."  A wave of the hand at the dying sunset.  "...this is new to me, as well."

With that, she escorts the small group off the bridge.  "Dinner will be ready in an hour," the steward states. "If anyone wishes to speak with me, I shall be in the galley, preparing."

(NPCd)

Saskia starts returning her panels to their normal configuration, but leaves the progress display for the fuel plant open.

"Intakes are closed and locked down, Jago.  Not reading any system damage from the bad weather."  She reaches for a control to retract the static discharge probe and frowns.

"Uh, forget I said that.  The farbotz static probe looks to be bent or something.  It won't retract properly.  It's not critical, but I'll need to look at the frelling thing before we try scooping fuel again, in case any of the conductor linkages are damaged.  Twenty minute job, even if one of them is broken."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:09, Mon 15 Sept 2014.

Ash chimes in dutifully, "Six hours, twelve minutes and thrity-six seconds to minimum jump distance, Boss.  That would be nineteen hours, thirty-eight minutes, and twenty-four seconds to minimum safe jump distance, however."  He pushed both plots onto the main tactical display, the longer (and safer) of the two highlighted in green, the color-coded times for the plots are displayed alongside the fuel processing countdown for easy reference.

The thin navigator frowns slightly at the news about the probe.  He figures it is probably something he missed with the deployment and makes a mental note to himself to apologize to the Ms. Blake later and offer his services in repairing it.  Ash knows that he is nowhere near as handy with a wrench as Saskia is, but he knows with end is which and can make do.

Keryn stops outside Yas' gunnery cubicle, and says, "You wanted to talk to me about something?"  She looks nervous, as if she's expecting to be tossed out of an airlock...

Shui escorts Corlan and Eneris back to the passenger side of the ship.  Corlan is still quietly excited about seeing the fuel scooping operation, and the gas giant environment.  "I am always amazed by the way life can appear, and thrive, in the strangest of places." he muses, as they cross the hold.

The static discharge probe refuses to retract still, and an external camera shows that the probe has a definite bend in it.  The only bright spot is that the flexible cables that Ash deployed have all spooled in again perfectly.  Which is just as well, because landing with those deployed would be a nightmare.

Jago nods at the figures, and notes that the fuel purification will be completed before the ship reaches jump range.  "I think we'll go for the safe Jump.  Set up a Jump to Phlume, please."  Saskia's report on the static probe is interesting, but not vitally important...

"Roger." Tylen confirms, temporarily taking some of the watch duties from Yas...

"Yeah, let me show you why we do sit here," Yas says with a smile, hoping her face is back on straight again, and frees herself from her seat, locking the controls in the process - just in case.  "Relax, have a seat."

She motions for Keryn to take the seat she just left.  "I'm one of the two gunners aboard the Margin, you see, and this is my station."  She tries hard to not think of it as some kind of "bring your daughter to work" deal, even if she in some ways sees Keryn as such by now, if only to avoid getting more invested than she already is in the young woman.

Tylen grins as he responds to Yasmin, he already has  displays and sensors monitoring just about everything that can be monitored. Which she knows anyway.  Still always good to make sure that people know when you are stepping off line for a while.  That way you can avoid basic mistakes.

For a moment he drifts away as he remembers a night, back in the early days on 'Ell, when they found one of the security guards asleep at his post.  Fortunately, there wasn't all that much to guard against on 'Ell - but while his mate had stepped outside to relieve himself, a seagull had managed to rip their lunch bags apart and was having a good old feast.

But that was just a fleeting memory, before he settled back to watch the controls, and listen to Yas's description of their work.

Keryn sits and happily listens to Yas describe her role on the ship, the differences between the weapons mounted in the two turrets, and the purpose of the gunnery stations themselves.  "But why do you have to sit in here, instead of out there?"  She waves an arm in the general direction of Jago and Ash. 

In the next station (which, unlike Yas', still has its weapons active, Tylen watches his instruments, looking out for any threat.  Rangent seems determined to disappoint him in that regard.  The world has almost no traffic, and the biggest danger it can apparently present to passing ships is probably still busy cleaning sewage off the roof.  And the surrounding landscape.

Behind the ship a meteor traces a brilliant incandescent trail through the upper atmosphere of the gas giant.  Tylen is the only witness to its fiery demise...

Jago stands, rolls his shoulders to work out the kinks and reaches down to flick the switches that will put the Margin under computers control.

"OK, back to normal then people," he says, rather redundantly.

"Shui, can we get a visual on that probe?"

"Safe jump, of course.  You got it, Boss." Ash responds dutifully to Jago, "Shouldn't take me too long."  By which, of course, the lanky navigator means that the number crunching should be finished in a couple of hours - much less time than it will take to get to the jump point.  And if he is lucky - though Ash would likely prefer to think of it as 'good', perhaps even less than it takes for the fuel purification to be completed.

His fingers start to dance on the dynamically-configured control console and Ash proceeds to get wrapped up in his work.  A number of stream of twenty-seven digit numbers start to flow past on several of his displays.  Every so often, his hand strays to the coffee mug off to the side to bring the container to his lips so that he might partake of the strongly caffeinated beverage.

As he works, Ash softly hums the melody line of a favorite composition from an old Solomani composer that was well known for his mathematical underpinings to his music and who lived almost four thousand years before...

"Because of this," Yas says and closes the door to her gunnery station, briefly.  When it opens a moment later she stands there grinning.  "So they don't distract us at a crucial moment and vice versa."

"So, this is what I do when we're in transit to or from jump points," she continues, "nothing too exciting most of the time, but vital for everyone's safety.  Mostly something I picked up after coming aboard the Margin, though, I wasn't in the Navy, after all, but the Marines.  Completely different branch; they drive, we kick arse."  She glances over at Ash in case he is not too busy and if he looks to turn her way she will give him a mischievous wink.

"Life finds a way," Shui responds to Corlan.  "It may not be in a form we understand or recognize at first, or it may be so similar to us we are astounded.  But it finds a way."  She smiles, a faraway look in her eyes for a moment.  "I don't know if it's due to a greater power, the nature of an ordered universe, or simply random chance.  What I do know is that it is all precious."

A moment later, the Captain's request reaches her.

"Shui, can we get a visual on that probe?"

Cocking an eyebrow, Shui flicks on her dataglove and scrolls through the various onboard cameras (of those she can access).  Locating the correct feed, she sends it to the captain.  + Here is your telemetry, Captain Lanza. +

There's a slight pause.

+ The probe looks bent, + she adds.  Helpfully.

Tylen continues his scans, but flicks a screen to pick up the visual of the bent probe.  I wonder who get to fix that? he thinks to himself.

Then a moment or two later he starts mentally running through suit drill.  He has been caught out with an ill prepared suit before and that memory starts a sympathetic coughing  and wheezing session.  However, he catches himself quickly and grins ruefully to himself as he is reminded of the way his career in the scouts came to an end.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 20:30, Mon 22 Sept 2014.

Slipping easily into her new role as Profit Margin's switchboard operator, Shui retrieves the image feed from Saskia's board, and passes it on to Jago's.  Clearly silhouetted against the backwash of light from the main thrusters, the probe, approximately three metres of superconductor linkages, interspersed with one-way resistors, all wrapped in a metal sheath and designed to carry charges safely away from the hull, has a definite kink in it.

About a quarter of the way out from the hull, it suddenly turns about thirty degrees to starboard and, obviously, won't retract into the narrow cylindrical housing.

Luckily Saskia's opinion is that it won't be a problem, unless they want to scoop fuel again, but otherwise it can wait to be fixed until they reach their next port of call.

Keryn nods happily as Yas explains why the gunners have their own stations, with a means to isolate them from the rest of the ship.  She studies the panel for a moment, then looks up at the display, where a series of glowing colour-coded reticles bracket various objects which have come within range of Yas' weapons, labelling each with its own code, plus a vector relative to the ship.  Most seem to be fragments of ice, with a few small pieces of rock.

For the gunners, this sort of trip is relatively boring, since the Rangent system seems to lack any tangible space-borne threats.  For Keryn though, it seems fascinating.  "Can I call up a display like this on the walls of my room?  It'd be interesting to see everything marked up so that I know what's around the ship.  I tried calling up feeds from the external cameras, but everything is too far away to see.  A rock looks like a chunk of ice, and they both look like ships to me."

Next door, Tylen starts coughing and wheezing.  "Is he laughing at me?"

Jago and Ash, meanwhile, discuss the next jump, and the Navigator starts preparing a course and refining it to minimise transit time...

"Not exdactly like this, since this is targeting data, but I'll see about getting you a feed with navigational data perhaps.  It's similar, highlighting objects of potential interest, without the targeting information," Yas says with a small smile.

"Oh, he wouldn't dare.  I'd put him outside for five minutes to think it over then, without a spacesuit," she says in a strict tone, although the wink she gives Keryn is not visible to Tylen.  Then she lower her voice to a, for her, highly unusual and intimate tone.  "So, with what you've seen today you might understand why I love this job.  Never know what you will see next, the galaxy is a huge, surprising place.  Glad to have shared that with you."

"That would be wonderful, yes." Keryn replies, smiling happily, "Oh, yes, I can see why you like the job.  Lots of new things to see all the time."

"All very interesting and exciting."

"I'll set it up for you then, and yeah, best part of the new things is rare, though, like meeting people like you," Yas hear herself say and wonder what kind of sappy thing that is to say so she hastily adds, "Uh, any way, stay here if you want, I'll just be, uh, a moment..."

Turning away she appears to redden a little but she quickly turns to a terminal and starts setting up a feed to the passenger area.  "Hey, Jago, I'm giving the passengers the option to view a navigational screen if they want, minus any surplus information, all right?"  It is clear she does not really expect an answer.