Jago studies the message, under the watchful eyes of his Security Chief...  He has several copies of it, and they are all identical: "Honoured Captain, please allow me to extend my apologies for this somewhat terse and perfunctory communique.  I have tried, to no avail, to secure passage on several vessels of late, and my need grows more urgent with each passing day.  My name is Sir Covan Draik OSC, and I am in urgent need of transport to Dinomn.  I would be pleased to discuss the terms of such passage upon your esteemed vessel at a location and time of your choosing.  I can be reached at the Saborian, and look forward to making your aquaintance." 
Shui and Tylen continue to have difficulty getting hold of tourist information.  Using the landline connection to the port brings plenty of official data, including flight paths and schedules for the Naval traffic travelling to and from orbit, weather updates (which don't change much), civilian traffic control bulletins, etc... but nothing that isn't being supplied by the Narindat Port Authority.

Tylen scowls, as it becomes clear that the land line feed is under tight control.  "I wonder what they are so worried about?" he comments to Shui as he moves to a console and sits down.  With more keys and controls available to him, as well as a more direct connection to the ship's computers Tylen starts fiddling.  "Lets see what else we can pick up."

Saskia retrieves a selection of tools from the storage lockers in Engineering.  She starts back for the airlock, then stops.  "High density air cooled adjuster!" she mutters, smiling, as she returns to the locker.  "Here we go."

Taking the large hammer from the bottom of the locker, she adds it to the other tools and goes back up to the "roof" of the ship.  Once there, she grips the the probe, just before the bend, with a hydrostatic torsion wrench, and activates the automated pressure calibration so that it will maintain a steady grip, then starts hammering at the rod itself with the "adjuster".

"You do realise, you farbotz piece of dren, that the harder you frelling make my job, the uglier you'll end up looking."

"Uh..." the lanky navigator of the Profit Margin ventures tentatively in answer to Jago's question about replying, "We could try to reply to the sending address."  He sound slightly skeptical, "Usually, with cold-call solicitations, the address will be a non-reply accepting system.  Especially, in a early - and rather archaic - implementation like this."

"However," Ash notes after a thoughtful pause, "In this case, it isn't exactly a cold-call or a solicitation.  They are looking for the Margin in particular.  I'd say just go for it."

"Huh," Ash muses aloud over the common crew channel, "how quaint."  He is still sorting the incoming electronic mail and such, even as chats.  "It seems that the local 'net' actually just a remedial patchwork of electronic connections."  He glances down at his wrist computer, then prompts the rest of the crew, "Anyone else seeing no wireless connection to their personal electronics?"

He follows up with an explanation of sorts for the query, "I suspect that the only pipe into the Phlume system network is through the fiber-optic cable that they just connected to the Margin through the port cables."  His tone sounds slightly irritated, but really more than just a bit bemused as he repeats, "Very quaint, indeed."  Phlume has some serious old school networking, it seems.  At least, in fairly extensive communications Ash's experience.

Shui's eyebrows rise up as Tylen begins working at the computer.  She moves over beside him, leaning casually against the edge of the console.  Her voice, however, carries a certain tension.  "I trust you're being...well, careful, Mr. Orgesh." It's concern in her words, not remonstration.  "If there is a lockdown due to the military's presence, I wouldn't want you to call the wrong kind of attention to yourself."

Her lips thin.  "The military does have a tendancy to act swiftly, without much care for due process." 

Tylen grins.  "Oh, I am not trying anything too outrageous -  I'm not that good." he says with a depreciating little lift of the eyebrow.  "Anyway, I am looking for old fashioned broadcast data rather than digging more deeply into their network." he says the broad grin returning to his face.  "You never know, they might have old fashioned TV or radio."

"But then, there might not be all that much outside of the cites.  It is warm, with a thick atmosphere and a lot of ocean.  It could just be muggy jungle out there ..." he adds after a moment's thought.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:55, Mon 03 Nov 2014.

On top of the ship, Saskia sets to work straightening out the probe so it can be retracted into its housing.  It is not a job requiring finesse and a delicate touch, but rather the liberal application of violence...

Shui and Tylen continue trying to solve the riddle of the lack of information from outside.  Eventually Tylen is able to pick up some radio signals on a ridiculously low frequency, which seem to consist mainly of broadcast music, some kind of sports results, and strictly local news.  Still, the signals do reveal that nobody is talking about any sort of blackout placed by the Navy task force in orbit...

Ash, meanwhile, may have discovered that nobody is talking about a blackout because there isn't one.  The inability to connect to any kind of global network looks to be due to Phlume simply not having the technology to support any such network.  All of the data that is reaching Profit Margin is being filtered through the port authority's own local network (and their landline) and is, as a result, restricted largely to content regarding port operations and shipping (including constantly updated reports on the movements of military vessels shuttling between the surface and low orbit).

Jago responds to the message, and gets a purely audio response.  "This is Covan Draik.  How may I help you?"

"Mr Draik, this is  Jago Lanza, captain of the 'Profit Margin', just returning your call."

As he talks, the captain ruefully surveys the bedraggled and sorry looking cigar and tries to remember when he actually unwrapped it. Sadly this one was a bit to far gone to light and he tips it into the incinerator chute and draws a new one from his shirt pocket.

Tylen pulls up planetary details again.  "ten cities and only about 7 million people.   Probably not all that much going on beyond any of the cities." he concludes.

After a moment's thought he turns to Shui "It looks like it might be a city break ..."

"Ah Captain.  Thank you for contacting me."  Draik sounds quite excited as he continues, "I paid the people at the port quite a bit of money to send the same message to every ship that came in.  I am, you see, quite desperate to get to Dinomn, as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately, having spoken to the captains of fifteen or sixteen craft over the last six days, I have had no success in finding a vessel travelling in that direction.  Would you happen to be going there?  If you are, and have space for a passenger, I would be glad to discuss the terms of my passage with you."

Tylen and Shui continue their discussion regarding possible leisure opportunities on Phlume.  A discussion made more difficult by the dearth of information reaching the ship regarding said opportunities.

Saskia's repair work continues, and gradually the bend in the probe seems to be straightening out.

"I hadn't planed on stopping at Dinomn but could make a detour," Jago says thoughtfully, "we can only manage jump two but could stop off at Extolay. We certainly have a berth free, is it just you?"

Viewing her handiwork critically, Saskia gives the probe a couple more thumps.  Then another couple, just for good measure.  It looks straight enough, but her efforts might all be in vain if the linkages inside have been damaged.  Unfortunately there had always been the chance that even if the probe worked, the act of straightening it out might break something.

So better to get it back to the right shape, then test it when no more work was needed.

So now she just needs to ramp up the power plant and jury rig a connection to the probe.  A simple lightning rod placed near the tip of the probe should encourage any charge fed into it to leave the ship.

"Easy.  A length of superconductor cable wrapped around a pole and pinned to the ground should work as a lightning rod."

But before that, she needs to check if the probe will retract or not.

"Apparantly so," Shui sighs. "I had hoped to get out and around, but no.  Not this trip."  She grimaces. "Cities like this...from what Yasmine says, it will likely have its crime and most people will be carrying weapons.  As in, private citizens, not security officers."

Not her favourite situation at all.

"What IS the preferred methodology?" she plaintively inquires.  "Do I then wear a weapon myself, in order to better fit in and to show I am no easy mark?  I only have a snub pistol, and I doubt this culture would take that seriously."  Her eyebrow rises. "That is not a veiled request for a larger weapon, Mr. Orgesh," she states with frustrated amusement.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:47, Mon 10 Nov 2014.

"Yes, I'm travelling alone.  A stop at Extolay would be entirely acceptable.  I am prepared to pay the standard rate for High Passage, if you are able to provide such a service.  If not, then Middle Passage will be sufficient." Draik confirms.  "If you want, we can meet to discuss terms here, at the Saborian, or at another place of your choosing."

Saskia's work on the probe is going quickly, and she will be able to start testing it soon.

And meanwhile, Shui and Tylen discuss what they can do in a situation where a world is somewhat backward, at least with respect to providing ready online access to tourist information.

Ash listens quietly to the conversation between Jago and the potential passenger, Draik.  He smirks slightly, apparently enough money will bribe you past all of the standard filters.

He dutifully pulls up the local jump map, which shows the nearby systems along the Spinward Main, and pushes the display to one of the tactical displays on the wall.  The lanky navigator highlights Dinomn and then the three possible two-hop routes through Extolay, Dinom, or Jenghe.  The physics cannot be denied, since the target system is three parsecs away and the Profit Margin only has a two parsec range per jump.

Ash has already roughed out the three sets of jump calculation, but starts the core crunching on the three scenarios already.  Obviously, their cargo will affect the calculation as well as defining the next destination.  But the ex-scout has found that a little bit of legwork upfront can save a real headache later.

Besides he has little else to do for the moment.  Ash takes his watch duty seriously enough.

Tylen grin broadly and bites back an innuendo about the size of his weapon before he responds more sensibly "Well, I'll wear my double rig and revolvers because that is what I would normally do in places like this.  However, I doubt everyone will be visibly armed." then he pauses for a moment "Well not in the same way as Yas will be." he adds with a grin.

"Perhaps we can get some video from inside the port, to see how the locals dress there.  Then once we are shore-side, we can make enquiries about the city and surrounding area to see what that is like?" he suggests.

"However, I wouldn't be surprised if Jago decided not to hang around here for too long." he adds after a moments fiddling with his data glove to see if he can get any live video feeds from the port..

"If it's just a simple passage in a standard state room that you need, then I don't think any further discussions are required, I'll be offering all our spare births before we leave, you have just reserved the first of them."

As he speaks Jago extracts the fresh cigar from its alloy tube and examines it critically.

"That said, I would like to join you in a drink at the Saborian, if you are agreeable. As you have been here a while you may be able to fill us in on the situation here."

The cigar seems to be satisfactory and the captain clips the end and draws deeply from it as he waits a replay.

Tylen´s effort is, once again, frustrated by the slightly too low tech level of Phlume.  If there are any cameras giving an overview of the port, they are not linked to any kind of network with a broadcast capability.  Presumably the security monitors for the area are all hard-wired into whatever serves as central hub.

He does, however, manage to pick up a TV channel showing some kind of drama.  The picture is low-resolution, monochrome, and not in any kind of 3D format... but the people he can see are wearing a wide variety of clothing.  There is even a brief shot of people on a beach, dressed in somewhat skimpier outfits.  In none of the images can he see many signs of obvious weapons.  A few people are clearly carrying assorted pistols and short blades, sometimes openly, but nobody seems to have anything larger.  With the exception of some men in uniforms outside the gate of some kind of facility, who are carrying what appear to be some kind of carbine or shotgun.

"That would be entirely agreeable." Covan Draik states, "When would you like to meet?  And will you be bringing anybody else with you?"

Ash starts running the calculations for Jumps to Extolay, Jenghe, and Dinon.  The first destination looks to be more likely, with a better quality port and a naval base in the system, and Dinon is probably the longshot, with inferior facilities.

And Saskia begins to prepare for testing of the probe.  The probe itself slides in and out of its housing repeatedly, with no resistance, so the engineer starts work on the makeshift lightning rod to test how the system deals with a charge...

"What do we have here?" Jago quickly scans the planetary data in response to Draik's enquiry, "thirty hour day hour day, it's just gone ten now, how about fourteen hundred hours, assuming you are here near the space port. I'll probably be accompanied by one other."

Shui holds back a sigh, as Tylen seems to be well-pleased with the carry rules.  "If we must," she grouses, struggling with an abnormally black mood.  While Tylen's subsequent speculations get her hopes up, the scene on the video camera dashes them. "Well," she dryly states. "Look at all of those pistols.  And knives.  Why would one need a knife if one has the capacity to carry a handgun?"

A shake of the head follows.  "Foolish question; in close proximity the knife can overwhelm the pistol.  How nice to see that people are accessorizing in accord with their preferred strategy for..."

Her voice trails off as she realizes she might offend.  The Steward rubs her forehead, stepping away from the vid feed and reaching out to briefly touch Tylen's arm.  "My apologies, Mr. Orgesh.  My mood is most foul...I shall do my best to ameliorate it, and be better company."  She runs her fingers through her hair then shakes them, as if banishing evil thoughts.

"It was what I was brought up with." he shrugs "And most nobody managed to kill anyone else." he says softly.  However his eyes narrow at the black and white video.  "Probably some sort of day time cop show. ... Or Jimmy Blonde, Secret Agent.  Or something like that."

But then his thoughts catch up a bit with his earlier ideas.  "or perhaps hardly anyone carries weapons inside the space port, but outside of that the land is dangerous?" he muses  "It was a bit like that on 'Ell.  Most of the fishermen were armed when they went out, and certainly all of the seal hunters.  But there weren't too many weapons on display in town.  Well, if you could call it a town"

He pauses for a moment before he continues.  "That's where the double rig comes from.  An old story about a seal hunter getting caught out by a Dino, only to be saved by his revolver.  After that it was fashionable to carry two ..."

Ash smirks slightly, the edges of his lips curling upwards as he listens to the exchange between Jago and Draik.  He's not trying to eavesdrop, per se.  Okay, maybe he is.  But, in his defense, it is an open call on the bridge.  And that is his assigned duty location.

His fingers continue to work the calculation displays and the Profit Margin's navigator assiduously keeps his gaze on his console.  But, he can't help wonder why Jago thinks that he is going to need a bodyguard.  Likely, the Captain will take Ms. Crow with him.  Of course, Ash will likely ask about it.  But only after the call is done...

"Excellent, Captain.  I'll make the arrangements with the hotel - a private dining room, with space for three, and I'll see that the reception desk is expecting you." Draik says, cheerfully.  "The Saborian is located just inside the port perimeter fence, close to the main admin building.  You should have no trouble finding it."

"I look forward to meeting you."

Ash carries on working on course calculations.  The destination systems are all close to each other, so the Jump points are tightly grouped, with similar Jump entry threshold values and insertion vectors. 

Shui and Tylen continue their conversation.  At least until there is an alert from Shui's dataglove.  One of the passenger's would like to speak with her.

"Likewise. Until fourteen hundred then."

Jago signs off his call and looks over to Ash, "a bit odd that, I wonder what the story here is. So, we'll be heading for 'Dinomn', we could go via 'Extolay' or 'Jenghe' but I'll  keep the options open until we know about cargo, other passengers and any relevant war related news."

The Captain rises from his seat and rolls his shoulders, "I've just got to get a new seat," he mumbles, mostly to himself.

A noncommittal shrug causes the thin ex-Scout's frame to shudder slightly when the Captain muses aloud about the ulterior motives of Draik.  It did seem strange to him as well, but Ash suspected that they would find out soon enough.

He nods to Jago's route selection (or rather non-selection) agreeing with the logic.  It makes total sense to wait to see what is available - Extolay may offer the best facilities.  But, if they could get a cargo that sold better off the beaten path, then that was the life of a tramp trader.  Ash knows that Jago is well aware of that; he owns the Profit Margin after all and has just made that choice to keep his options open.

It's no skin off of Ash's back to run the extra calculations.  It is only a few computer core cycles to burn.  The navigator does those sort of things for exercise to keep himself both fresh and occupied.

The lanky navigator opens his mouth, about to ask why the Captain felt the need for an escort.  Perhaps it was just a gut feeling, but inquiring minds wanted to know.  But then Ash notices a second angrily blinking light indicating another incoming call.  Tapping the dynamic display for the communications array, he puts on his 'professional' voice.  "Profit Margin" he announces dutifully, "Navigator Tescali.  How can I help you?"