It's probably just as well that Jago does not have audio pick-ups active on the Bridge, given the conversation there.  That conversation gradually winds down, as Saskia and Ash become absorbed in their own tasks..

Tylen emerges from his quarters, looking all business, as he heads over to the ramp to await the cargo and its loaders.

Shui makes her way back to the Crew Lounge, looking much better than when she left.

And Yas comes out of Keryn's cabin, her face set in a scowl that promises trouble for anybody stupid enough to get in her way. 

And beyond the ship a cargo carrier grinds to a halt, together with a passenger vehicle containing about a dozen labourers to handle the loading, and another vehicle containing equipment to facilitate the operation.  The loading crew lines up alongside their bus, and awaits instructions, while panels on the side of the cargo carrier hinge open and become access ramps...

As Ash taps away on his dynamically configured console, he hums an ancient multi-part fugue from - or at least one of the six parts - from an old Solomani composer named Bach or some such.  The name maybe lost to time, but his melody is catchy enough.  Even when inexpertly rendered by the lanky navigator of the Profit Margin, which is undeniable proof of the genius of the composer rather than (or perhaps in spite of) the performer.

Even fully engrossed as he is, Ash still notices the arrival of the freight carriers on the external video feeds.  He pings both Tylen and Yasmine, letting them know - even though he actually is pretty sure that they are already aware.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:45, Mon 20 July 2015.

Tylen will ask Ask to open the Cargo Ramp, then go outside to check documentation before he allows the crew to load  any of the cargo.

However, if all of the paperwork is in order, he will stand back and allow them to get on with their job.

The ramp drops with its customary screech, drawing startled looks from the cargo handlers.

One of them, his uniform slightly different from the rest, steps forward, and is met by Yas and Tylen before he can set foot on the ramp.  He introduces himself as Kandor Wride, the loading foreman, and hands over a sheaf of documents, then waits while they are checked.  They seem to be in order - a consignment of mixed vegetables from Varus Freight, bound for Extolay Food Imports, at Extolay.  Export permits, import permits, health and safety certificates, customs declarations, order numbers, consignment ID, package details... all seem to be correct.

At a signal from the apparent foreman, the team start the loading process.

The cargo is packed in fifty kilogram lots, in boxes composed of some kind of fibrous vegetable based material.  The lids are fastened in place with metal clips, and sealed with tape.  The loaders work in pairs, carrying the boxes up the ramp and stacking them neatly in the assigned location in the hold...

After a half hour, the foreman blows a whistle, two short blasts, and calls out "Team One, break!".  A quarter of the loaders finish whatever they are doing at that time, and go and sit near the bus, eating snacks and drinking from bottles.

"Labour regulations." Kandor Wride explains, "They're entitled to a ten minute break every two hours when doing heavy manual labour, like this.  Some companies will let the whole work group, but Varus prefer to split the group into teams and stagger the breaks.  Team Two will take their break in about thirty minutes, Team Three thirty minutes after that, then Team Four."

"If loading continues after that, they'll start cycling through again."

Ten minutes later the whistle sounds again, this time a single long blast, and Team One return to work...

By the original scheduled arrival time, when Team Two start their break, about a third of the loading is done.  So far there has been little for Yas and Tylen to do, beyond standing and watching, and occasionally answering questions about placement of the boxes.

Aboard the ship, Shui looks around the galley, which all seems to be satisfactorily clean and tidy.  Ash and Saskia, meanwhile, have also just about completed their own tasks.

Stretching, Saskia pushes herself back from the panel and stifles a yawn.

"Not much else I can do here.  Think I'll go talk to Yas for a bit.  Need to find out what happened with Keryn."

Standing, she heads for the exit from the Bridge, "When I'm done, I'll go back to Engineering."

As the loading continues, the warm weather forcing the workers to strip to the waist, Yas and Tylen notice that there is a low rumbling sound from somewhere.  The loading crew notice it too and, just as Saskia comes out onto the ramp, they stop working and sit down on the ground.

In the galley, Shui suddenly notices that something seems to be rattling all of the tableware in the drawers, cupboards and storage racks...

On the bridge, an alarm sounds, drawing Ash's attention... 

The disturbance only lasts a few seconds, and fades away to nothing again...

No sooner has everything returned to normal than Jago emerges from his cabin, the lower part of his tunic, and his trouser leg, soaking wet. He carries an empty cup in one hand.  He walks onto the Bridge and asks, "Did you feel that too?"

"For a moment I thought it was my stomach," Yas comments off-hand even thought she had shifted to a different stance as the workers took their seats on the ground.

She glances at some of the workers that have bared their chest, but her eyes neither linger nor express any major interest, possibly more approval for those that look a bit fitter than the others.

"At least is wasn't your engines, Sassy," she chuckles at the engineer, most of the time thinking of said engines as belonging to Saskia, considering how much time she spent there, maintaining them and what not.  For all Yas knew Sas may even have named them.

"Say, is this a common occurrence here?" she asks the workers in a louder voice.  It seems to her that they are not unaccustomed to tremors, at least.  She could look it up in the database, but nothing compared to the local inhabitants, since they live it rather than make a small note in a database.  "And how bad can it get?"

Tylen was leaning back against the wall anyway, and lets the support of the ship hold him steady during the tremor.  He was just about to ask the question, when Yas beat him to it.

Saskia is more than a little concerned by the noise and vibration.

Of course, Engineering can be subject to similar effects, and the whole ship makes an array of sounds, but she is familiar with them.  They are old friends, and she knows every one of them, to the extent that even a slight shift in pitch of one of them can warn her of an impending problem, and give her a fairly accurate idea of when the problem will become a current reality.

This is something different.  Something new, and beyond her experience.  Nature doesn't make sounds like that.  The ground doesn't shake that way.

"What the frell was that?"

Ash stops humming immediately.  His feet had been up as the Profit Margin's navigator reviewed the fourth iteration of the jump calculations.  But once the alarm went off, he sits up straight and starts to rearrange his displays, gesturing with his right hand to silence the alarm.

Without taking his eyes from the stream of numbers and sensor readings that were pouring in, Ash nods to Jago, "I did."  There was a thoughtful pause as he continued to monitor the sensors and alarms.  "A probable seismic event." he concludes with a note of both consternation and surprise in his voice.  He hmm'd for a moment and pushed two displays to one of the main tactical displays: one was the physical geology and IISS survey section on the library entry for Phlume and the others was the local news feed.  Limited as the networking was, earthquakes had to set of some sort of public announcement - at least, an earthquake of that relative magnitude.

Ash glanced in the direction of the Captain, his expression slightly pensive as he suggested only partly in jest, "Perhaps the quicker we get off this rock, the better..."

After ensuring nothing has fallen, Shui immediately activates her dataglove, patching in to the ship-wide intercom.

+ All passengers; please do not be alarmed by the unscheduled motion.  The situation is under control.  Route all questions through me. +

With that, she switches over to the crew line.  + Reporting in.  Mr. Tescali, what is the ship status? +

The foreman, Kandor Wride, smiles.  "Just a seismic tremor.  We get one every three or four days.  That was a big one though.  Probably no structural damage, but at least it was noticeable.  Most times we only know about them by hearing a report on the news.  Or reading about them on about page ten of a newsfax."

Ash calls up some information regarding the phenomena.  The IISS survey data reveals that Phlume is subject to low level seismic activity on a fairly regular basis, with occasional minor structural damage.

The local news doesn't mention the event at all, at least for several minutes (long enough for Ash to scan the survey data).  Then a report comes up...

+ 115-735 AL: 7.47 CST: CATEGORY 2 TREMOR RECORDED.  EPICENTER NORTH POLAR LANDMASS.  DURATION: 6.2 SECONDS.  (NO STRUCTURAL DAMAGE REPORTS EXPECTED.  FEW MINOR INJURIES ANTICIPATED.) +

And that's all...

Shui waits... and finally there is a question from Keryn, "What was that?"  No real concern in her voice, just curiosity...

"Huh, big one?  Well, guess that's good.  Felt a bit like when the artillery is going at it, although that usually resulted it more damage," Yas chortles and shakes her head to clear it of old memories best left asleep.

"Yeah, Sas, that's the first tremor you experienced?" she inquires curiously, often forgetting far from everyone shares her experience in various worlds and situations.  "I believe is is usually caused by tectonic activity, which always makes me feel smaller whenever my head gets too big."  Perhaps best to not mention volcanos.

She grins from ear to ear, "...and that was before my current hairdo, even."  A joke, in case Saskia needs it, having a planet shake under you can be a scare experience the first time.

++All readings on the board are still green.  Earthquakes are relatively common.  Nothing to worry about.++ Ash types quickly in response over the general commlink, even though Shui's message was specifically to him; to reassure himself and the other crewmembers, he pushes an excerpt from the IISS survey about the Phlume's natural seismic activity.  It is a touch of bravado, as he is not exactly as confident as his missive might imply.  And likely, anyone on the bridge - like Jago - would see that.

He rubs his scalp with his long fingers through his short hair and continues to brush up on geology and plate-tectonic theory  - especially as it relates to Phlume specifically.

OOC: oops -- thought I posted here already.  Sorry.  (-:


Saskia shakes her head at the explanation from Yas.  "Well, I've heard of them, but never been in one before.  Don't want to be in one again." 

The loader's blasé attitude to the whole affair puzzles the Engineer, forcing her to ask him, "So those things happen all the time here?  Your people were originally colonists, right?  So why the frell would your ancestors settle in a place where the ground is that unstable?.

"Doesn't make any sense to me, unless their ship was damaged and couldn't move them anywhere else.  Even then, they could have waited for the next ship to land and frelling shouted for help."

+ Thank you, Mr. Tescali, + Shui replies - to Ash - as his own explanation fires out over the line moments after Keryn's query.  She thumbs the link to directly answer their passenger next.

+ Only seismic activity, Ms. Taylor.  A tremor in the ground itself.  Apparently quite normal on this particular planet. +

Kandor Wride looks puzzled at Saskia's concern, "I believe the Firsts came here from a world where resources were in limited supply.  Phlume is more suited to agriculture, and they saw it as a chance to ship produce back to their homeworld.  The minor tremors didn't outweigh the value of the world for food production.  Especially since the homeworld was also subject to seismic instability."

He glances at the work crew, "Why are you still sitting about?  There's work to be done."

Keryn is silent for several seconds, then, "Ah, thanks."  Another pause, "Oh... once I knew what to look for I found there's quite a bit of data on seismic activity in the ship's library.  I need to read more about it.  Interesting.  I might have more questions later."

Jago watches Ash at work, then says, "See if you can find out if they have any kind of early warning system that can let us know if there's another one of those coming."

"And offer them help with the current situation if they need it.  They might not, but it'll be good for our reputation here if we offer."

Yas is glad she had bit her tongue and allowed this fellow, Candour Wide or something, to supply the answer.  Describing the movements of plates and how they dove under one another probably would not have helped settle Sassy's concerns, even if told the process was extremely slow in comparison to a human lifespan.

"So, nothing to worry about, just background noise, like all these things we don't hear until they aren't there when it comes to the Margin," she adds onto his explanation, hoping this approach would help settle things.

"Did you want something, Sas, or did you come for the view?" she adds onto her own statement, in a deadpan fashion, but leaving it to the engineer to figure out what view she meant, even as her own gaze once more wanders over a few of the shirtless men.

"Aye, aye, Captain." Ash acknowledges Jago's request with a curt nod; he liked the way the Captain thought - he had an excellent head on his shoulders.  The fingers of the lanky navigator's left hand moved to his dynamic display with the external commlink, tapping out a quick rhythm.

He input the number for the local Port Authority's Central Operations Office and waited.  He didn't want to call the emergency line, since ... well ... this wasn't an emergency.  As he waited for the connection to be instantiated, Ash continued to once again hum the melody to the old Solomani fugue that he liked so much.

The thin ex-Scout also began to plumb Phlume's public computer network for any centralized or government site that might have the information that they were seeking.  Or at least a contact number or person that might expedite the process.  Despite having been stationed on an x-Boat run for more than a year during his stint with the IISS, Ash hated being put on hold.

Saskia gives a dissatisfied grunt.  "It's not a decision I would have taken.  Too used to working with fragile components to risk them in an environment that can destroy them."

Her gaze flicks to the workers for a moment before returning to the Gunnery Chief, "Yeah, I was wondering how it went with Keryn.  Do I have to fix Jago's shower with an emergency airlock, or was she good?"

Just for a moment Tylen considers accident rates of space travelling vehicles, compared to the way these guys consider the earthquake.  Sassy spends her whole time keeping the ship working and running properly to reduce the chance of a life system or drives failure.  Jago and Ash do the same to make sure that misjump chances are as low as possible.  All in all, it is probably safer and easier to live on  a world with minor rumbles occasionally.  Perhaps in the scheme of things they are little more than the squeak of a cargo hatch opening.

However, it really isn't the time to say any of those things, so he nods towards the foreman and goes back to overseeing the loading.  However, he keeps an ear out for Yas and Saskia's conversation.  If Keryn, or Yas, has taken any of this badly - then he probably needs to keep his head down for a while.

Inhaling, Yas holds out for another quake so that Sassy will forget that subject.  No quake arrives in the couple of second of silence she can muster before feeling things are getting too awkward.

"Oh, not too bad," she says, the wobbly smile not quite reaching her eyes.  Her gaze never stay in on place for too long and never looks at anyone while she speaks.  "She'll, uh, look into Regina and consider... things."

"Then, eh, she... will decide once we're there, having had a chance to look around a bit.  I mean, you don't just move in somewhere, right?  Unless it's the military, then you have no say.  So, uh, not too bad."
A couple of seconds silence and a quick, crooked-smile glance at the engineer.  "So, how's the Margin doing?"  A new subject is what the head of security needs right now.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 08:46, Sat 11 July 2015.

Ash finds some contact information and puts a call through to the Port Safety Control...

"A warning system for the tremors?" the employee at the other end sounds puzzled, "As far as I know there isn't such a thing.  We have something that can tell when a larger quake is coming - usually gives a ten or fifteen minute warning, and we broadcast an emergency message to all ships - but nothing sensitive enough to spot the small tremors until they start.  You would have a warning of anything strong enough to actually do any damage though."

A query about helping with the current situation seems to cheer up the man, "That's kind of you.  I don't know if there's anything you can do, or anything that's needed, but I'll patch you through to the District Commissioner's Office.  Somebody there could give you more information."

Within a few seconds, Ash is making the offer of help to clerk working for the District Commissioner.  "Thank you for the offer." she says, "I don't believe we need any help at the moment, but I can keep a note...  Oh, wait, there might be something you can help us with at that.  It's not an emergency or anything, but would you be interested in doing a quick aerial survey of the transport infrastructure and civil resources in the district?  Just checking for damage, landslides, fallen trees... that sort of thing.  Would that interest you?"

Kandor Wride gets his people back to work, and the loading continues, as Yas and Saskia discuss the situation regarding Keryn.

The loading goes smoothly under Tylen's watchful eye, even though Yas seems to be distracted by her quiet discussion with Saskia.  And, possibly because of that discussion, it is Tylen who first notices a man standing close to the cargo transports.

One who is not wearing the same uniform as the loaders...