Jago is amused by Yasmin's insistence that he takes comms, as it's what he says every time anyone leaves the ship.

"No probs," he tells her with a smile, "I'll be in my cabin until then."

Saskia waves to the two men, and calls out, "Hey!  Do you two work around here?  Do you know where I can get something to drink and a bite to eat?"  She follows up with a friendly smile.  "If there is some kind of speciality, for the food or the drink, I'd be interested in trying that."

The food on the Margin is good, and all that, but she feels like something a bit different for lunch.

Jago returns to his quarters, having assured Yas that he'll remember the standing order about taking comms when leaving the ship, and the special order about weapons,  He glances at his desk as he passes, where a metal dish holds a hollow hemispherical bowl, which has a small sphere floating above it, revolving freely...  Both the bowl and the sphere are pale grey, and as the sphere turns, it emits a faint clicking sound. 

One of the security men keeps walking, albeit more slowly, though the other stops and returns Saskia's smile.  "There's a diner just over there."  He points to a gap between two buildings about 500 metres away.  "It's called Denek's.  They do a decent bochok sausage in caso gravy.  Their other stuff is pretty good too."

Tylen rejoins Shui and Corlan, who are comparing notes on the leaflets.  "This one looks interesting... a museum about the history of Phlume from the first survey mission to today.  They even have an IISS planetary survey drone on display." 

Yas looks at Ash as Jago leaves the bridge, and shrugs, "Have fun on your date with Jago." she says, offering the man a crooked grin.  A light starts blinking on the two panels.  Internal comms... passenger side, from the colour of it.  "You want to get that, or should I?"

"Apologies, Mr. DeSant.  I've been distracted of late."  Shui shakes her head.  "I shall inquire of the captain."  Back to the dataglove, and she sends a message off to Jago.

~ Pardon the email, Captain Lanza, but Mr. DeSant is inquiring as to exactly how long we intend to stay.  Do you have a firm number? ~

"That museum does sound like an interesting choice," she continues.  "I expect I'd like to visit it myself."  It's not often one finds an entire history of human habitation on a planet all nicely arranged in displays.

Ash runs his fingers through his short cropped hair, giving the Security Chief a slightly crooked, slightly beleaguered smile.  He opens his mouth as if to say something, but then closes it - apparently thinking better of whatever he was going to say.

Honestly, he'll have to ask Yasmine out later - since that is presumably what she is needling him for.  Now, is probably not the time.

The lanky navigator of the Profit Margin glances down at the holographic display console and the blinking light.  It appears to take the man a moment to process that alarm.  "Heh.  I'll get it." Ash states simply with a soft chuckle.  Then with a tap on the display, his tone cleans up, as well as his diction.  "Bridge here," he notes rather formally, "Ash on the line, how can I help you?"  Since, he doesn't know who is on the other end, though it is presumably either Eneris or Keryn, Ash having seen Corlan disembark with Shui and Tylen earlier, he keeps his greeting rather generic.

Keryn is on the other end of the line, and she sounds worried about something, "Ash?  You don't know where Yas is, do you?  I need to talk to her.  If she's too busy, or you can't find her, can somebody else come and talk to me, please."

Corlan nods, absently, his attention fixed mostly on one of the brochures.  "Interesting... this year marks five centuries since Phlume was first settled.  That's a little later than many of the other worlds in the Marches and, it says here, the original colony charter placed a strong emphasis on individual freedom and moral responsibility, both of which are still a major part of Phlume's society."

"Thanks.  I have no idea what bochok sausage is, or caso gravy, but I'll give them a try." Saskia waves her thanks to the uniformed man, and gives him another smile.

Some time off the ship, and something new to eat, might take her mind off the nightmares she's been having lately.  Dreams of falling.  And burning.  And being trapped.  She isn't sure what caused the terrible dreams, but she's hoping that bochok sausage in caso gravy might be the cure for what ails her.

Tylen nods along with Corlan's comments and smiles encouragingly as Shui indicates that she is interested in visiting the museum as well.  "That should be interesting." he comments slightly absently.

"If you have one of everything, perhaps we should make our way back to the ship?" he suggests "It is probably easier to sort through things in the comfort of the lounge ..."

If there are still leaflets to collect, Tylen will help collect them -  making sure that he gets any local or regional maps and any list of the major or high-tech retail outlets on, or close to, the starport.

"Ms. Taylor?" Ash responds to the female voice that comes up, blurting out, "Keryn?  What is wrong?"  Then he takes a deep breath himself, the lanky navigator had obviously been caught up in whatever emotional turmoil that the young passenger was experiencing; his innate fondness of the girl overcoming his professionalism.

"Of course," he states more evenly and calmly, regaining most of his composure, "I will inform, Ms. Crow...."  And Ash glances in the direction of the Profit Margin's Security Chief as he says so, "And someone will be right over to attend to you.  Is it a medical emergency?  Should I summon Ms. Tiesi, as well?"

Ash is pretty sure that Yasmine will want to respond to this herself, but he readies himself to get up just in case.  Muting the link to the passenger lounge, he starts to look up Shui's comm identifier, just in case as well.  Running a hand through his short-cropped hair, the thin ex-Scout noted rather dryly to Yasmine, "I guess, you should have taken the call, Ma'am..."  He raises an eyebrow as he gives her a sidelong glance and a slightly crooked smile, "Do you think that you will need backup?"  Perhaps not entirely appropriate, but a self-deprecating attempt at a humorous reference to the Chief's own recommended protocols off-ship, nonetheless

"No... it's not a medical emergency.  Or any kind of emergency, really.  I just need to speak to Yas, if possible.  Or somebody else." Keryn sounds... hesitant, as if unsure whether or not her request might be a breach of ship's protocols.

Tylen, Shui and Corlan grab a last few leaflets from the rack and start to make their way towards the exit.  Suddenly the windows of the building start to rattle, and there is a dull roar from somewhere outside.

The security officer, nods, "No problem, enjoy your meal."  He turns to leave, glancing at the damaged storage bin, without saying another word.  Then his attention is distracted by a loud roaring from overhead.  A quartet of Rampart fighters fly by, escorting a Naval shuttle which looks to be heading for a landing some distance across the field.

With a simple tap on one of the dynamic holographic buttons, the passenger commlink is unmuted.  "Of course, Ms. Taylor." Ash notes easily, slipping back into his professional demeanor to reassure the young woman, "Don't worry.  I will inform Ms. Crow, forthwith."

Putting the link back onto mute, he motions to Yasmine.  "Keryn appears to need your help, Ma'am." the thin navigator quips rather dutifully, "She requesting your personal presence."  He is a bit surprised that Yasmine isn't already on her way - given how protective she has been of the young, pregnant woman in the past.

"I'd taken it, but you seemed so eager I didn't have the heart to do so.  Interesting, though.  Me or somebody, but not you?  Might be girl stuff, so I better get there rather than taking it here," Yas teases, having watched Ash go through the motions.  "But call me Yas, unless you think I'm old enough to be your mum, please."

She gets up and barely manages to resist ruffling his hair, giving him a lopsided grin instead.

"On my way, Ker, be there in a moment," she calls in to the young woman.

"As for backup..." she trails off and stops in the doorway to give him a slow look over, "...maybe you can watch my back another time."  She chuckles as she turns her back for him to watch another time -- before she heads over post-haste to see what is up with Keryn.

A crooked smile crosses Ash's lips and he chuckles slightly at Yasmine's banter.  "No... eh, yes, Ma'..." he starts to stammer, then catches himself.  Of course, where his phrase leaves off, does in fact imply a matriarchal relationship between the two of them and he reddens appropriately.  Taking a deep breath, the lanky navigator tries to start over, "Yes, Yas."

As she turns to leave, the ex-Scout wishes her well, "Good luck."  It does appear to him that she will need it.  But then as she had noted, he isn't a girl; so, may be it just seems that way to him.

And then he dutifully watches the Security Chief's backside as it recedes down the hallway away from the bridge, before he turns back to his console.  Ash shakes his head ruefully, obviously flustered and frustrated that he is so flustered; he lets out a slightly beleaguered sigh and resumes his refinement of the various route calculations.

"Goodness!"  Shui blinks a few times, checking the area to see if alarms are going off, people are heading for cover, whatever.  "One of the hazards of being news to the spaceport?" she guesses.  She's not sure what that might have been, but it wasn't explosions.  More likely some sort of craft passing by, though what, the steward couldn't guess.

"Something flying past?"  Tylen hazards, a frown momentarily creasing his brow.  "We used to get that sort of noise on the scout base at 'Ell." he adds recalling his first few years in the ISS, as he tries to reassure both Shui and Corlan.

Then he continues towards the exit, to see if he can see what caused the racket.

"Doubt I need luck, but I guess it never hurts.  Better lucky than good, no?  Not that I'm saying I'm bad...  Well, not in that way, any way," Yas ends up almost calling in response as she makes her way from the bridge and through the crew area, the last few word almost laughed rather than spoken, evidently grinning although she never looks back.

In his cabin, Jago studies his alien thingamyjig with some interest, the little ticking noise as it rotates is unusual but somehow, comferting.

'We are not in a hurry Shuie,' he responds to the email, eventualy, 'if Corlan, or anyone else, has somthing they'd like to do we can acomodate them and I'll let you all know as soon as I establish any sort of time table.'

Yas makes her way across the hold to the passenger side lounge and Keryn's cabin, and hits the chime to let Keryn know she has a visitor.  Corlan is ashore, and Eneris is, presumably, in his quarters...  The lounge is deserted, the only sound the faint humming of the equipment that helps make the lives of the passenger's comfortable.

The door opens, and Yas steps, curiously, into the young woman's quarters... 

Tylen, Shui and Corlan step out into the open air, and can still hear the noise, now considerably muted.  They round the corner of the building, and can see, in the distance a shuttle descending to touch down on the landing field, while four fighters circle above it, like scavengers just waiting for something to die... 

Ash goes back to plotting Jump points and checking traffic advisories for Phlume, Dinomn, and points between.  Apart from the fairly standard caution warnings regarding the dangers of moving about close to a border during wartime, there doesn't seem to be anything too urgent or unusual.  A secondary display, with local news feeds, does get his attention though. 

Saskia continues with the last bit of tidying up, ignoring the growling of her stomach for the moment...

"Four Ramparts?" he says half questioningly as they walk back towards the ship.

"Ramparts?  Is that what they are?"

Corlan raises a hand to shade his eyes as he peers in the direction of the fighters.  "Interesting."

Ash leans forward in his seat as he continues to scan the local news feeds, actually pausing the stream of data as he leans forward.  He traces his finger on the dynamic display more than once.

Then he taps his earbud comm opening a commlink and pings Jago, "Cap'n." the lanky navigator starts off rather tentatively, "Sorry to bother you, but I think that you might be interested in one of the local news feed articles."  He pauses for a moment, but doesn't wait long before pushing a captured article to the Captain's inbox.  "Seems that one Mr. Covan Draik just became a major shareholder in a rather large zocci crystal mine." he summarizes for Jago, though he lets the Profit Margin's owner peruse the news article for more details at his leisure about the circumstances surrounding Draik inheriting the shares from his late father and the technical jargon concerning the importance of high-quality zocci crystals in j-drive manufacture for starships.

"We really might need the Chief's backup plan at the lunch meeting..." Ash quips softly.  There's no telling what sort of intrigue will be involved with a newly-minted corporate scion on a frontier world with a border war raging nearby...

Shui's eyebrows rise.  "Four fighters escorting a shuttle.  That seems...important." Vestiges of her training take note, filing this away as Something Important™.  A bleep from her dataglove garners her attention.  "Oh, Mr. DeSant - Captain Lanza informs me we don't have a set schedule.  As such, you should consider your choices, let him know, and he'll see if they fit."  She smiles.  "Hopefully you'll have the opportunity to get in some more comprehensive sightseeing."

Meanwhile, down in the Batcave in Keryn's quarters...


Na na na na na na na na... Yasmine!

Keryn listens to Yas' advice carefully, nodding at various key points, and giving verbal responses when it seems appropriate.  "I hadn't really thought about it in any great detail.  Nothing too big, certainly - that'd just make me nervous about whether or not I could handle it.  But, at the same time, a very small one would be defeating the whole point of the exercise.  Do you think I could find one here that'd be a good size for me, considering my very limited exposure to them?"


The shore party starts back across the field, at a leisurely pace.  The fighters are still circling above the shuttle, which seems to be offloading passengers, though the distance is too great to tell who they are.  Not too many of them anyway.  And a ground car is moving across the field towards them. 

Ash continues to read the news feed.

"Four fighters as an escort and a Limo to pick them up?  That sure is some one important.  Gonna be some sort of noble or high ranking officer." he says watching the  scene unfold for just a moment.  Then he becomes all business like, "I think we had best watch the rest of this on monitors from The Margin ..." he says as he starts to shepherd Shui and Corlan back towards the ship.

As he walks he opens up a comms connection  to the ship.  "Ash?  That was four Ramparts operating as an escort to a passenger shuttle that is being met by a Limo.  Might be an idea to make sure that Jago and Yas are aware ...."