Polite man, Shui notes while giving him the rundown of the room's operation, rules, etc.  Most people tune her out, leaving her talking to empty air while they begin unpacking.  She can appreciate this.

At his question, she returns his smile.  "Sixteen hundred, which is four and a half hours away; that is the schedule.  Barring mischance, of course, but such things are unlikely.  Is there anything else I can do for you?  Perhaps show you the galley, the lounge?"

"Four and a half hours.  I see.  Thank you." Covan Draik nods, and his face drops for a moment, before he chuckles, "I think I know everything I need to for now.  I believe I shall take a rest before dinner, if it's all the same to you.  It's been a tiring few weeks, and this is the first chance I've had to relax.  Everything is out of my hands for now, it seems, so there is no sense exhausting myself further."

Jago waits for a moment before replying, and when he does, he sounds thoughtful, "Okay Ash, the job's yours.  Go get the 'raft out of the garage and park it outside, ready for when he gets here.  Take a weapon and comms, as normal."

Saskia's laugh is far less restrained than Yas's quiet one.  "You do that, and tell me all about it later.  Especially if you find anything frelling interesting."

She looks at the time display on her hand comp and sighs.  "Have fun carrying the luggage.  I need to go back to Engineering and make sure everything's still behaving."

With a casual wave to Tylen, the Engineer makes her way up the ramp.

Tylen nods as the engineer passes him, and maintains his position at the top of the ramp, guarding the entrance way.

"Not long," Yas calls out to the impatient one, almost having told him it would be a few more hours.

"Ha, all the details, eh?  If you insist," she chuckles at Saskia and waves in parting as she goes to get into get suit.  It will be a good test, this.

Once in her suit she will go outside and unload the luggage, starting with the lighter, just because it gives her an excuse to use the suit, then test to see if the suit can handle that 350 kilo thingie, whatever it is.  Is it something devout or something more smutty, she ponders as she works, letting her mind go crazy with ideas which puts a wicked grin on her face.

"Well, then." One of Shui's customary little bows follows.  "I wish you a good rest.  If you require anything, or wish to tour the ship, please do not hesitate call me."  With that, she leaves the man to his rest and exits the room.

Once outside, a small frown touches her lips.  Decision made, Shui strides quickly through the ship hallways, eventually coming to where Tylen stands at the top of the ramp, a sharp-eyed sentinel watching over the Profit Margin's entry.

"Mr. Orgesh," she greets him, moving to stand beside the security officer.  Her own gaze flickers over the vista before her, but she continues without preamble.  "Do you have an impression of our most recent guest?"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:48, Thu 06 Aug 2015.

Ash leaves the Bridge and heads through to the air-raft hangar, where he preps the 'raft as the access hatch in the roof opens...

Meanwhile Shui makes her way to where Tylen stands watch on the ramp, narrowly avoiding Yas as she hurries inside to don her work outfit.

Saskia returns to Engineering, where she starts checking the readouts on her main board.

There is a faint whine from behind Tylen and Shui, followed by several impacts as Yas powers up her suit of armour and starts towards the ramp.  She gives them a wave as she passes, being careful not to tread on any toes.

Above, the 'raft rises out of the hangar, moving slowly, as Ash takes exaggerated care with his driving.

Yas starts removing luggage from the ground vehicle, moving the heavy bags with ease.  The larger case, marked with numerous warnings about fragility and weight, she pushes aside with only a little more effort, and all of that from the suit rather than from her own muscles...

Across the field, an expensive looking ground car can be seen moving towards the ship...

"Not really." Tylen responds to Shui "he just seemed like a fairly polite high passenger.  Lots of expectation, but civil."

Then, with the concern born of affection, he goes to move her to one side when he hears Yas's armour start up.  However, he hesitates before touching her and allows his hand to drop.  "Better move to the side." he says instead, with a strained grin.

For a moment he watches Yas, with the luggage, but then the limo catches his eye.  "Heads up." he says across the crew comms channel. "We have company on the way.".

"Oh, thank you," Shui murmurs, quickly moving to the side.  She shoots him a concerned look, not missing the unfamiliar expression fairly shouting from his face.  "Ms. Crow," she offers with a bob of the head as the security officer moves past, toting her impressive cargo.

After that, a terse warning from the gunner to the crew.  Shui waits, then drops her voice to a whisper.  "You needn't...I apologize, Mr. Orgesh.  My earlier stress...I hardly know what to say."  Her words stumble out like falling pebbles.  "I did not...I certainly did not mean to imply that you...that contact is..." The unusually clumsy attempt limps to silence, Shui eyeing the limo as it approaches.

"Our passenger," she suddenly inquires.  "He did provide identification?"  It's almost a rhetorical query.

Tylen reddens as Shui stumbles over her words, but this isn't the time or the place to explore what has happened.  "Perhaps we should talk about it this evening?" he says, before he realises that he is sounding harsher than he means to.  "I have to watch that Limo ..." he half explains, although it sounds a bit limp, even to his own ears.

"He certainly showed Yas some sort of ID." he finally replies to her question, "But he is safely shut inside his part of the ship?" he half asks as the implications make themselves clear.

Then before waiting for a response, he is back on the comms channel.  "Bridge.  Can you just keep an eye on our new guest for a moment or two?"  although it is phrased as a request, it is delivered in a tone that implies it should be done.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:23, Tue 11 Aug 2015.

"Oh.  Of course," Shui automatically returns, her tone returning to its customary, placid friendliness.  "Whenever you feel it appropriate."  She can't miss the discomfort, like shadows lurking in the back of his voice.  It hollows her, and the stark emptiness engendered comes as a stunning blow to the steward.

But they move on, thankfully, and with no sign of this on her face, Shui rallies, pulling together the razor-edged shards of her control. "In his stateroom, yes, but obviously not locked in," she replies.  "Something in what he said...it's probably nothing.  But I would be curious to see the purpose of this limo."

Suspicion coils in her mind, slithering along her brainstem.  Shui blinks once, slow and lazy like a cat.  "I will be inside, Mr. Orgesh," she quietly informs the gunner. "Please let me know immediately via intercom if there is a problem."

Shui goes back inside the ship, as Yas notices the approaching vehicle and pauses in her unloading.

Surprisingly, it's Jago who answers Tylen's call, not Ash, "It's probably okay Tylen, we're expecting a visitor from the local government.  We've offered to help them out with something."

Ash brings the 'raft in for a landing just as the ground car pulls up.

A door in the rear section of the car opens up, and a woman in what looks to be some sort of quasi-military uniform steps out, holding a case which appears to be quite heavy.

She starts walking towards the 'raft, calling out to Ash, "I believe this vehicle will be ideal for the survey, Captain."

Ash gives Jago the thumbs up before double-checking the jump calculation statuses locking his console.  Pushing back from his navigator's station the lanky ex-Scout gives the Captain a casual salute and makes his way out to the air-raft.  He wants to leave plenty of time for him to get it out of the storage bay.

He notes the presence of the new car as he is carefully bringing the open-topped grav vehicle around the VanRijn Class Frontier Merchant which is the Profit Margin.

The lanky navigator smiles slightly when the uniformed woman address him.  "Ash Tescali, ma'am." he introduces himself, adding as a subtle correction, "Navigator of the Profit Margin."  He gestures towards the ship that has become his home, "And I will be your pilot for the survey."  He holds out a hand in greeting and then prompts the surveyor, "Can I give you a hand with your equipment, Miss?"

The case looks heavy - and Ash isn't known to be the strongest person in Imperium - but, he figures he can manage.  Probably.  That case really does look heavy...

Working with getting the luggage out without breaking it, or the vehicle, Yas keeps tab on the new arrival and arches an eyebrow when Ash shows up in the air raft.  Evidently something is up that she knows nothing about.

Muttering about working in the dark she gets further puzzled and intrigued by the Ty's request.  Perhaps she ought to check with Jago if she still got the job as head of security or not.

With a shrug she picks up the crate and starts to carry it back towards the Margin.  It is, after all, the item she came out here for, the rest she can delegate.  She never takes her attention of the strange woman, however.  Perhaps she should punch her in the nose just to be on the safe side, seeing all the secrecy going on.

Tylen relaxes as the occupant of the car turns out to be a local funtionary, rather than someone searching for their passenger -  or even someone else claiming to be their passenger.

"Local official meeting Ash." he subvocalises after selecting a limted connection to  Shui's personal comms.

"No, thank you, Navigator Tescali." the official replies, with a tight lipped smile, "It's a very expensive, and somewhat delicate, piece of equipment, and not that heavy.  Most of the apparent bulk is actually protective padding in the case."  She places the case, gently, on the rear seat of the 'raft, before climbing aboard herself.

"I hope it doesn't rain." she says, seemingly noticing for the first time that the air-raft has no roof.  "Oh, I'm Helda Marrtin, by the way, a senior surveyor with the District Commisioner's Office."

The senior surveyer hands Ash a clear plastic envelope containing a map, "This is the route I'd like you to follow, please, stopping for a few minutes at each of the seven marked locations so that I can take some shots, and make a brief visual inspection."

Yas walks past Tylen, easily carrying the heavy crate into the hold.  The rest of the baggage stays on the field for the moment, as the driver gets out of the vehicle and checks the interior, before closing the doors and returning to his seat.

By the time Yas comes out of the ship again, the vehicle is driving away.

With the woman seated in the back of the air raft, her car moves some distance away from Profit Margin and parks close to a cluster of service pumps.  The driver gets out and starts inspecting the bodywork for dirt, scratches, scuff marks, dead insects, and other assorted hazards of the road...

Pleased that the crate was easy work with the suit Yas decides to stick with it for the rest of the luggage too, even if the remaining cases are less heavy.  At least she does not have to struggle with it then, but enjoy the suit for a bit, making sure everything feels right about it, including temperature and comfort.

After all, it seems she will not get to punch the latest arrival, so she needs something to do.  Plus she can relate all the details to the owner of this luggage later.  She grins at the thought and puts a bit of extra spring in her steps.  It looks to be a great day, after all.

Shui takes her call from Tylen, flicking the holo-control on her dataglove with her thumb.  "Yes, Mr. Orgesh - how fares the business outside the ship?"

There's some concern in her voice, but not as much as before; that Tylen is calling her, specifically, and not sending a ship-wide emergency notation has allayed her worries.

Satisfied that everything in Engineering is running as it should do, Saskia locks the controls and activates a warning relay to her handcomp.  Then she leaves the department and goes in search of Jago.

The Captain isn't in his quarters, so she heads through to the Bridge.  Sure enough, he's there, seated in what must be the most comfortable seat on the ship.  She walks over and drops into Ash's seat.  "Jago, can I have a word?"

"As you wish, Ms. Marrtin." Ash noted, standing at the controls of the air-raft.  He waited for Helda and her suitcase to be on-board before nudging the controls to cause the grav plates to push the craft upwards in a graceful spiral.  "Please keep your hands and feet inside the craft..." he warned the senior surveyor, "Is this your first time on a grav vehicle?"

He took the proffered placard, mounting at the top of the controls as a navigational reference.  "I can do that." Ash acknowledged Helda's request for the number of stops and the standard protocol they'd need to follow at each location.  He punched the controls to get air-raft to wheel around and head off to the first site.

As they whizzed along in the open-topped grav vehicle, the lanky navigator tried to make some idle conversation, asking various questions of Helda, "How long have you been working as a surveyor?  Was this last quake particularly strong?  Should we expect some aftershocks?"

More relaxed now that the potential 'situation' has resolved itself quietly, Tylen can takes time to respond to Shui.

"The car held, what looked like, a minor local official.  And Ash is taking her for a ride in the airraft.  Seems a strange time to be going out on a date though ...  " he quips.

"Yas is playing with her suit, carrying the luggage back in." He continues, "She should be finished shortly, and I will be able to close up shop and come back inside."

Once all the luggage has been loaded and Yas is safely inside, taking her suit off.  Tylen opens the general crew channel.  "All done down here, if you want to close the hatch."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:47, Mon 24 Aug 2015.

Without looking at Saskia, Jago stops scanning through public bulletins on the port's boards, screws his eys closed and pinches the bridge of his nose.  "This is about Regina, isn't it?  You don't want the port techs messing with the engines, and you want me to tell you, in front of everybody, that I'm cancelling your shore leave.  That way you can keep an eye on them."

"How close am I?"

Ash lifts the 'raft and starts to follow the prescribed course.  Behind him, Helda Marrtin starts to prepare her equipment.  "I've flown in planes and a helicopter before, but never anything like this - what did you call it?  A grav vehicle?"

"The quake was not particularly serious.  My department's major concern is that there may have been undetected cumulative damage from previous quakes which has been exacerbated by this one.  And while there may be aftershocks, we'll be spending most of our time airborne."

The woman seems a little distracted by the complex device she is removing from her case.  "I've been working as a surveyor for about four years, but only about one year at the District Commissioner's office.  How long have you been a navigator?" she asks, disinterestedly.

Yas drops the luggage in the hold, then heads back out of the ship, still wearing her suit.  She doesn't get a lot of chance to show off with it, and with Ash off the ship, she has the perfect excuse to stand outside looking scary...

Ash flies the 'raft to the first way-point, about ten kilometres from the port.  There is a bridge, carrying a road across a gully with a fast moving river at the bottom and, just a few metres away, a second bridge with a pair of parallel metal rails leading across it and vanishing into the distance in both directions.

Helda Marrtin asks Ash to take the 'raft lower and circle around the two beidges as slowly as he can.  She points the device, which looks, to Ash, like some sort of primitive thermal imaging camera, and activates it...

Aboard Profit Margin, Jago inclines his head quizzically, and rolls his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other.  "Well?" he asks.

To fill the uncomfortable silence he acknowledges Tylen's call and starts to raise the ramp, so Yas steps off the bottom of it to wait below the Bridge, her eyes scanning the sky in the direction that Ash had gone.  Not for the first time she wishes that her suit had milspec sensors installed...  Maybe at Regina.

Shui relaxes a little.  There is no emergency requiring her immediate attention.

"That's frelling ridiculous!" Saskia protests angrily, then calms down.  "Well, no.  Okay.  It's spot on.  Look Jago, if you make me leave the Margin while strangers are stomping through her, I'll never relax anyway.  So giving me shore leave would be a waste, and I'd probably come back more stressed than when I left.

"If it would help, I can do something to get myself confined to the ship.  You could say it's punishment for fighting, or insulting you, or something.  Just don't make me take a frelling shore leave.  Please." the Engineer pleads, hoping against hope that the Skipper will show her mercy this time.