Profit Margin touches the pad as gently as a snowflake, and Jago starts to drop the thrusters to minimum.  He has no intention of shutting them off completely, just in case, but with them still running, it should be obvious to anybody in the vicinity that the ship is ready for instant action.

Across the field there is movement near the gate.  There is a group of uniformed men who seem to be turning ground traffic away, preventing the vehicles from entering the port...

Helda Marrtin studies the animal dubiously.  "I suppose it looks harmless enough." she says, then asks, "Has it ever bitten anybody?  Or scratched them?  Or stung them?"  At which point there is a polite knock on the door.

Saskia steps away from the air/raft.  She will need to fetch some components to repair the damaged grav module.  Luckily she has the parts she needs in storage.

"Have you got those, Jago?" Tylen asks as he starts fine tuning the sensors that are tracking the small craft.

"Never," states Shui firmly, lifting the tiny creature into her own hands. "It eats algae, and only that.  But please avoid the other containment system."  Moving to the door - still carrying the odd-looking beast - she flicks it open.  "Ah, Mr. Tescali.  Good to see you.  Have you come about our guest?"

Moving back into the room, she strides over to where Helda sits.  "Do you require a little more time, Ms. Marrtin?"

Ash pokes his head in, when the door opens.  "Yes, Ma'am." the lanky navigator notes with a slight, affected Colonial drawl, answering Shui's query with his own question, "How is Ms. Marrtin doing?"

He glances over Shui's shoulder and waves to Helda idly, prompting the local surveyor, "You okay?"  His tone is a bit sheepish, though genuine concern is readily apparent.

Running his fingers through his close-cropped hair for a moment, Ash addresses both of the room's occupants - but mostly Helda, "The Captain asked me to inform you, Ms. Marrtin, that you'll have to disembark via the port-side airlock when you are ready to leave.  Also, that he would like to speak with you before you do so."

"In any case," he notes with a cordial casualness, "I am here to escort you to the bridge whenever you are ready, Miss."  Ash glances over at Shui, "Assuming she is cleared, of course..."

"Lucky Ash, frelling lucky." mutters Saskia, as she starts through to collect a replacement power conduit.  The old one has a small crack in it, where the large bullet had skimmed it, -- one sudden manoeuvre too many and the conduit could have ruptured, explosively.

"Probably would have ripped out all the frelling grav modules on the port side.  Maybe even ripped the 'raft in two.  You're just lucky it held until you made it home."

On a sudden impulse, she turns back, wipes her hand on the cleanest part of her coverall that she can find, and pats the nose of the vehicle.  "Good girl."

Helda studies the creature for only a few seconds longer before averting her eyes.  "Take it away please.  It's hideous.  I'll just report back to the office, then go home for a rest."

Ash's arrival seems to provide her with a welcome diversion.  "I'm ready to leave now, in fact."

Jago checks the active sensors, and responds to Tylen's query... "Three small craft?  Looks like... " he adjusts the display and activates an ID routine, "... two Ramparts and a Navy shuttle.  Probably another local VIP been up for a tour of the ships in orbit."

"Keep an eye on them, just in case.  Not that I fancy our chances if they turn out to be hostile, what with being sat on the ground, and all.  Oh... hello... "
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:22, Tue 24 Nov 2015.

Tylen nods as his sensors confirm Kago's assessment, but then he turns sharply to see what caused the last comment.

Jago continues, after a few seconds of activity, "We have two more groups of three following the first one down.  Ah, no, these two are starting to veer away.  Must be headed for other ports."

"Wonder why they're very suddenly sending all the tourists home?"

"Time to leave ...." Tylen mutters as he turns back towards his sensors. Then he starts fiddling, tweaking a bit here, changing a setting slightly there, as he tries to keep track of everything that is moving.

Then his focus changes and he starts to look at the ships in orbit, to see if he can work out what is up there.

"My apologies," Shui states, smoothly removing the poor little creature.  Interesting.  And curious.  Phobia?  Cultural bias?  Well, whichever, it's not right to subject the woman to further distress.

At least it got her off the topic of sedatives.

"Indeed, Mr. Tescali - Ms. Marrtin can certainly see Captain Lanza now.  I will head to the galley, myself, and begin preparing a meal." It seems likely people will require something to eat after this level of adrenaline, and the social aspect should also serve to soothe.

She quietly moves to the proper tank and replaces its inhabitant.

Jago places a call to the Port Authority, tryimg to find out if there's anything going on that he, as a paying customer, ought to know about.  After a few minutes, signs of tension start to creep into his voice...  "Look, I'm sitting out here, and I'm seeing armed personnel running about on the ground, and incoming fighters and shuttles.  What's happening?"

The response seems less than satisfactory.  "Please hold Captain, and we will try to get you that information as soon as possible."

Tylen studies the ships in orbit.

Helda Marrtin stands up, checks that her equipment case is securely closed, and moves to follow Ash...

Saskia steps away from the air/raft, her work completed, for the moment.

Jago mutters a few mild expletives, directed at the Port Authority, then makes a series of rapid adjustments to his control panel.  "Switching to long-range sensors.  I have a bad feeling about this."  And he restarts the thrusters, just in case.

Ash and Helda Marrtin come onto the Bridge, and Jago is on the situation right away, "Are you well, Miss?"

Before she can reply, he turns his back on her and starts to work on the console again, "I'm afraid we might have another emergency to deal with, so I'll have to ask you to go ashore immediately.  Ash will escort you to the airlock."

After quietly nodding to Shui, Ash had bustles Helda towards the bridge.  He can hear the chatter on the crew channel and he knows that Jago wants to speak with the local surveyor pronto.

He wasn't quite ready for the ready dismissal that the Captain gives Ms. Marrtin, frowning slightly - though whether that is due to Jago's brisk manner or the news that more trouble is brewing (or both) is uncertain.  The lanky navigator gives the young woman a slightly crooked, slightly wan, and very apologetic smile as he motions towards the exit of the bridge.  He offers to help Helda with her suitcase of surveying equipment, "Uh...Right this way, Ms. Marrtin."  Though cordial enough, there is an underlying urgency in his voice.

Ash figures that he'd best get back to the bridge without delay.  If they need to leave, then he's going to have to have the jump calculations done right quick.

At the airlock, he apologizes softly, "I am sorry about the Captain's manner.  It doesn't sound good out there, Miss.  Also, I am afraid that I will have to offer you a rain check on that drink."  He glances out the viewport to make sure that coast is clear just outside of the airlock.  "Watch your step on the way out." the thin ex-Scout advises the surveyor, "and I would veer right, passing in front of the Margin rather than going around the back."  There was no need for her to chance being near the main thrusters, especially with the ship out of standby and ready to maneuver.

Without anything to currently occupy her, Shui trades off to cleaning her office - briefly - of anything that might have become disturbed by her guest, then removes herself to the galley.  People will require food after the excitement, to help settle their systems and re-energize.

She remains blissfully unaware of the current issues.

Ash escorts Helda Marrtin off the ship, then returns to the Bridge, where Jago's attention is focussed solely on the console.

Suddenly the captain curses, "Damn!" and slides the volume on the comm system up so that those on the Bridge, and at the gunnery stations, can hear it.

A voice, laced with static, fills the room, "... kept to a minimum."

"Repeat: this is the assault cruiser Ósigrandi of the Sword Worlds Confederation Space Force to all vessels in the Phlume system.  Military vessels will power down immediately and transmit their unconditional surrender.  All civilian vessels will maintain their current positions, and prepare for boarding and inspection at our convenience.  Cooperation with these instructions will ensure that casualties are kept to a minimum."

"Repeat: this is... "

Jago mutes the channel, and activates the internal comms.  "Shui and Saskia to the Bridge please."

Then he turns to look at the others in the room...

"This might be a problem."

Shui pauses, mid-clean.

"Take it away, please.  It's hideous."

Turning, she studies the empathic projector.  Empathic projection...as a defence mechanism.  Projection to soothe those around it.  That sort of feeling will make large, skittish things less likely to strike out.  Possibly even likely to protect.  But soothing won't stop a hungry predator from attacking - hunger is a driving, survival need.  Predators need to be given a stronger need in order to convince them not to attack a food-source, and there is only a single survival need more strong than the necessity to consume for energy.

Fear.

After a long moment of consideration, she pushes both of her aquariums together so that there is no space separating them, only a doubled pane of glass.  One finger taps against the 'room' housing the aggressive one.  Her eyes locked on the two chambers, watching to see what transpires, Shui raises her dataglove.

+ Captain Lanza - is Ms. Marrtin still aboard? +

OOC - *simulpost*

As Jago's request comes through, Shui immediately aborts her experiment, moving the two chambers further apart again (and ensuring both are secured with regards to both resting place and exits).  Immediately picking up her bag, she again toggles her dataglove. + Understood, Captain Lanza. +

Something is up, and she suspects it doesn't have anything to do with Ms. Marrtin after all.  Quick strides take her to the door and through, and she continues toward the bridge.  If she's lucky, she'll bump into Saskia on the way and they can enter together.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:46, Thu 03 Dec 2015.

"Oh, great ..." Tylen mumbles as he starts fiddling,  fine tuning the sensors.  As he waits for his adjustments to take effect, he looks up the assault cruiser Ósigrandi of the Sword Worlds Confederation Space Force in The Margin's systems -  just to see if there is anything known about her.

Once his sensors kick in, he monitors the Federation ships in  the system, trying to judge their reactions.

Shui enters the Bridge, followed shortly afterwards by Saskia.  Jago half turns in his seat and says, "Sit down please.  We have a situation developing here that could be very bad for us."

He turns up the volume on the comm channel, and once again the Bridge is filled with a hissing static, through which a voice can be heard: "... these instructions will ensure that casualties are kept to a minimum."

"Repeat: this is the assault cruiser Ósigrandi of the Sword Worlds Confederation Space Force to all vessels in the Phlume system.  Military vessels will power down immediately and transmit their unconditional surrender.  All civilian vessels will maintain their current positions, and prepare for boarding and inspection at our convenience.  Cooperation with these instructions will ensure that casualties are kept to a minimum."

"Repeat: this is the assault cruiser Ósigrandi of the Sword Wor... "

A hand reaches out to deactivate the speaker, and Jago continues, "Sensors are picking up a lot of traffic, about twenty ships of different sizes, coming in from the Jump limit.  If this Oosigundi, or whatever it's called, is coming in with a Sword Worlder squadron, then things are likely to warm up here, what with there being an Imperial squadron already here."

"I, for one, don't like the idea of sitting here waiting to be inspected.  But if we don't then we might become a target.  Especially if the Imperial squadron stands down, which they might, since they're here for repairs, and might mot be in a fit state to engage an enemy force."

"So... opinions?"

Ash pursed his lips and listened quietly to the cycling public message.  He kept his eyes conspicuously glued to the console and continued to plot multiple escape routes to the two main 100-D limit points.  Even if it was futile and the Confederation Space Force had both covered - doing the calculations helped to calm his nerves.

His reverie was broken when the Captain addressed the crew and solicited opinions.  "I can't say that relish the prospect of getting boarded, Boss." the lanky navigator posited quietly, "But I am not sure that we can really outrun any military vessel or squadron."  He watched and listened to see what the other vehicles in the area were doing.

"Do we have anything on-board that might be really suspect?" he asked, Ash knew about the console and avionics upgrades (courtesy of the INI boys, but they hadn't made it obvious), but as far as he knew none of their cargo could be considered dangerous or contraband, "I mean we could try to wait it out.  They won't necessarily want to curtail all civvie traffic indefinitely..."  It was an assumption, but in his opinion, a reasonable one.

Of course, they had just gotten shot at on Phlume.  And as he recalled, there wasn't much more to the planet.  It wasn't the ideal vacation spot...

"I don't suppose our new passenger wants to get caught up with the swordworlders." Tylen responds to Ash's comments  "And nor do I, particularly."  He adds quietly.

Then he goes back to the scanners, as he tries to work out how the Imperial ships are responding to the threat.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 13:12, Mon 07 Dec 2015.

Shui listens quietly to the discussion.  Inside, she's considering the options.  Finally, she speaks up.  "If we can ensure we have nothing objectionable on board, and that includes in our passengers' effects, it would seem safer to allow this 'inspection'...assuming Sword Worlds Confederation military has a reputation for leaving civilians alone - as much as possible - while carrying out their attacks."

She casts her gaze down, studying the deck for a long moment.  "Failing that, I assume our only option is to leave the system on as much of a different vector as possible to the approaching vessels.  Given their velocity and range of weaponry, I would guess this also to be less-than-safe."

"Barring an extremely poor reputation on their part, it would seem the safest choice is to jettison any object they might consider objectionable and submit to inspection."

But there's a question in her tone, and she glances up at the others to gauge their reaction.

Tylen nods as he continues to fiddle with his sensoirs to see if he can identify the imperial vessels in orbit around the planet.  If he does, he looks them up on Margin's systems to see what type of vessel they are.

"Unfortunately, thanks to that little refit the Navy gave us a couple of years ago, we have a ship that's sporting a frelling lot of military grade equipment that has no place on a merchant.

"Plasma guns, sensor modules, even a few drive components.  Not to mention a hidden transmitter that broadcasts telemetry, in code, to nearby Naval ships or bases."

Saskia shakes her head emphatically, "And that's before the inspectors find that we have the major shareholder of a mining company that holds contracts vital to the Imperial war effort.

"I'd say we shouldn't let those drannits anywhere near the Margin."

"Thus speaks the expert," Shui notes.  "I will concur with Ms. Blake - perhaps our passengers should be given a choice whether or not to disembark?  We have little time."