Jago stops short, causing a woman walking close behind him to skip aside to avoid a collision.

"That's... not a bad idea."  He stands, staring into space for several seconds, his cigar moving from one side of his mouth to the other, then back again.  "It might give people a bit of interest, and some experience, in trading that could prove useful to the ship in future.  Like if you, or Saskia, or anybody, spot a speculative cargo that I don't see, but the experience of doing your own trading tells you it might be worth taking on."

He starts walking again.  "I could rent out a few blocks of the hold at standard freight price, and everybody can do what they want with their block.  Say a ton each to you five, at a thousand per Jump each.  But you can fill your ton with whatever you want, or team up to take advantage of a larger load."

"You'd all be responsible for dealing with your personal cargo - buying, selling, legalities and taxes - but I'm sure you can find a way to get some advice from a nearby helpful, lovable old Captain."

Keryn laughs, "You sound like my grandmother.  She used to tell me that words aren't just noises.  Every word, names included, represents the... the shape... of an idea, if you see what I mean?  We hear the word, and we see the shape of the idea behind it."

"So when somebody says your name, even if you aren't there, I understand that they mean you, and I know who you are, what you look like, and what you do."

With a sigh, for reasons unknown, Yas starts walking around Profit Margin, counter-clockwise.  The reason for the latter is quite obviously because she have more access to the weapons should she need to take cover behind one of the landing gears.

Her gaze alternates between the two ships, checking the Margin for any damage or foreign objects and the other for anything suspicious, even if it is only a decal out of place up to a cannon tracking her movement.

Everything appears to be within acceptable norms as she apparently nonchalant continues to walk around the Margin, her back now towards the other ship.  Of course it has almost all of her attention at the time, but she does not let it show.

"Words are curious things," Shui agrees. "We associate things to them.  Ideas, people, facts, lies...take the word 'plan'."  She smiles.  "It's a silly word, when you thing of the noise.  Say it and don't hear the idea, just the noise." She enunciates carefully. "Plan."  A small laugh follows.  "It sounds like the onomatopoeia of a lump of dough falling on the floor.  But the word...we don't hear that, we hear the complex idea."

Her smile grows pensive. "Language is born from thought, but it also creates thought.  You have heard of concepts in some languages that are not easily explained in other languages?  Words that are not easily translated?  People thinking in the one language actually think differently than in the other.  It transforms ideas, cultures, relationships."

Another laugh. "Complex thoughts, and too deep for my limited experience.  But interesting to consider.  I am pleased that 'Shui' means more than 'water' to you, is the end result.  And I am pleased that, should you have a daughter, it will come to mean her as well." 

Something from her new life she can pass along; indeed, the thing that began the new life: her new name.

"Well, if we're all finished here, I'll head back to my freshly cleaned cabin and carry on studying." Keryn gives a short bow, "Thank you for everything Shui.  Between you and the rest of the crew, I've always felt that I'm in safe hands."

She turns to leave the room, smiling.

Yas completes her circuit of the ship, and gives the other ship in the bay one of her looks.  There seems to be some activity over there now.  Two crew members have come out and started tinkering with one of the landing struts.

A third man is walking towards Yas, grinning.  He raises one hand to wave a casual greeting as he approaches.  "Morning Security Chief!"  He pauses at a respectful distance, "At least it's morning by our chronometer, no idea what time it is on your ship." 

Jago and Ash are almost back at the correct docking bay, having had to backtrack a little after a wrong turn - an error which Jago seems to find amusing.  "Here I am with a Navigator who can plot a course across a couple of parsecs with pinpoint accuracy, and we get lost on a short walk aboard a station!"

He stops again, "Hello!  What going on here then?"

Up ahead, three Vargr are arguing with a fourth in one of their innumerable dialects, their voices raised.  The fourth Vargr looks nervous, with his tail down and his ears flattened, and he seems to be trying to avoid the other three...

In Profit Margin's Lounge, Tylen hears Shui's door open, and sees Keryn step out of the Steward's cabin.

From the look of it, Ash would be interested in partaking of the Captain's proposal.  Assuming that Jago was willing to rent the space; it was obviously a potential hit to the Boss' own profit margin.

As for getting lost, he has a ready explanation for their predicament.  "Sorry, Boss." the Profit Margin's lanky navigator notes off-hand with a slight shrug, "But I can't see the stars from this accessway ..."  The deadpan statement is more than a touch roundabout and definitely playful in tone, knowing that the mistake was easily corrected.  Besides, Ash knows that they aren't in any rush and that the consequences of such a miscalculation wouldn't cause them to simply terminally re-materialize in a co-located region of space with other matter, unlike what your standard mis-jump might do to you.

He stops short, his brow furrowing when he sees the gaggle of vargr ahead.  Ash's first instinct had been to back away, but he fights hard to overcome that gut reaction.  He doesn't want to appear too cowardly in front of his new boss; even if seeing acts of vargr aggression bring back all-too-vivid flashbacks of a past life on an x-Boat route in the Sword Worlds.  "Er..." the thin ex-Scout notes, his thumbs running over his fingertips to feel the light sheen of perspiration gathering there, "maybe we should ..." and he begins to turn slightly as if to back away.

But, then he notices the uneven odds.  A more aggressive trio set upon one smaller, defensive individual.  And even though he doesn't speak any Gvegh (or any other Vargr dialect for that matter), Ash knows well enough about what defined 'aggressive behavior and tone' in the canine humanoids' lexicon.  So much so, that the gaunt navigator found that he can't look away.  Nor can he ignore the situation or the small voice in back of his mind.  The lanky ex-Scout and ex-junior naval officer purses his lips and then intones dutifully, "Maybe we should ask and find out..."  His tone had started a touch tentative, but then begins to resolve itself by becoming more steely and forceful as he seems to decide that intervention was likely to be the correct course of action here

Having followed Jago's lead back at the ship, Ash does have his autopistol and his blade on him.  But he purposefully doesn't brandish either of them at this point, keeping them tucked under away under the folds of his duster.  He sincerely hopes that the situation is simply a miscommunication of some sort.  "Is everything all right?" he calls out just loud enough for the canid quartet to hear him clearly as he slowly begins to approach them.  Even as he starts to close the distance, Ash tries to gauge dispositions and relationships of the pack as best he can, "Your 'discussion' is getting quite loud.  Loud enough to attract the local constabulary, I suspect ..."

His wrist computer begins to call up the local emergency numbers flashing them to the reticule over his left eye.  It is simply a precautionary measure, so that he can push them to his p-comm if the situation requires it.

As the man approaches and addresses her as Security Chief, Yas' eyes narrow and a hand casually ends up near her revolver.

"Who are you and what makes you think I'm this Security Chief?" she asks, not bothering to hide her suspicion in her voice.  She can think of a few different scenarios.  Either he is a stalker, with variants thereof, or he is almost too observant for his own good.  And that is just two options.

She looks him over, studying him.  Is he moving like someone used to using that gun, does he have more weapons on him, is he a distraction while others go around?  Maintaining her eyes on her she turns her head to allow her peripheral vision to detect any movement out of the corners on her eyes.

A far more pleasant notion would be that he approaches on a purely person level, even if it only for a drink at the bar.  This passing thought makes her study his face and eyes some more, trying to judge not only what kind of man he might be, but whether she likes what she sees or not, on a non-professional level.

But she is not going to drop her guard without more intelligence at hand first and she shakes it off, albeit without actually shaking.

"Easy, easy." the newcomer returns, with a grin, "I'm head of security on the Lady Luck there... " one thumb jerks over his shoulder to indicate the ship behind him, "... and I've been doing the job long enough to spot someone else doing the same.  Name's Carter, late of the 4518th Lift."

"I don't know how often you've been here, but I saw you checking over your ship, and thought I'd come over and talk to you.  Got some information, if you're interested?"


One of the more aggressive Vargr looks over his shoulder at Ash and Jago, before snapping, "Dzoghutz!  You to be stay outs this, Hoomaan!  This our concern.  Not your."

His two companions seize the more nervous alien.  At least they lower their voices, even if their attitudes remain decidedly aggressive...

"I figured that you were from Lady Luck, and not only from the fact that you're wearing the logo," Yas says with a grin, still eyeing him with a pinch of suspicion.  Did he just ask if I come here often? she muses and the lopsided grin grows ever so little.

"So, one of the Duke's army guys, eh?  Ex Marine, although you can never really leave the Corps, once heading up a unit you never heard of, now serving aboard the one and only Profit Margin, best of her kind."

She offers him a hand to shake, even if she is ready to punch with the other, should it be a trap even now.  "So, what's a housecarl like you doing in a port like this?" she teases, following along his possibly unintentional pick-up line.

Carter shakes Yas' hand and smiles.

"Got pensioned off after I took some shrapnel from an Ine Givar booby trap a few years ago."  He bends and rubs at his right knee.  "Can walk fine most days, but running is a problem.  Could have been worse." 

He shrugs.  "I got bored sitting about, so as soon as I healed up enough to walk I used some connections to get a job aboard the Lady."

"Anyhow, I just wanted to come and warn you that there are a couple of gangs around the docks that can give some trouble.  Not really that violent, but cargo has a habit of walking away when they're around."

As Ash watches, the timid looking Vargr suddenly laughs.  A jarring, insane-sounding laugh.  He reaches into his jacket and produces a blade, as the two larger Vargr release him.  "You will now drop that."  The Vargr who had spoken indicates Ash's wrist comp  "Or brother will cuts your neck deep-like.  Both you give to us all you credits and maybes you be all right Hoomaan."

Shui takes a few minutes to tidy up after Keryn leaves, then decides to see if anybody has left a mess in the Lounge while she was busy.  Stepping out into the Crew Lounge, she finds Tylen sitting with his shoes off, and his feet propped up on a chair, drinking coffee.

The Vargr fan out a little, moving to surround Jago and Ash.  Jago spreads his hands, trying to placate them, "Easy now... we don't have anything worth robbing, and definitely nothing worth getting arrested for.  We were just at a business meeting, that's all."

"You has nothings worth taking?  Then maybe we just hurts you for a fun."

Jago glances around, taking a look at all four Vargr and, incidentally, noticing that the corridor they're in seems otherwise deserted...

"Just thought I'd let you know about it anyhow.  One Security Officer to another." Carter continues, still smiling.  "I've been here a few times, and know my way around pretty well, if you need any help with directions, or information on the locals, or anything else."

"Those uniform shoes kill my feet." Tylen grins as Shui comes into the lounge.  "And knowing my luck, if I got changed a new load of cargo will  arrive, just as I get comfy.  So, I thought I would just chill for a bit."

Tylen is still wearing his formal 'Security' marked black uniform with a holstered pistol at his belt.  His shot gun is propped up on the side of his seat.

Shui cocks an eyebrow at the gunner.  "Heavy weaponry in the crew lounge?"  But she relents, moving to check the coffee machine out of habit. "Understandable, given the circumstances, Mr. Orgesh."  A small smile follows.  "Hopefully you WILL have a chance for a short break."

Moving to the table, herself, she takes a seat (eschewing for the moment any kind of libation). "Besides, after all of the hard work you have done, your exposed socks are far more dangerous than your weaponry...I jest, of course." Running her hands through her hair, she leans back.  "I could use a small break myself, perhaps."

Back forward, and her smile grows wry.  "Perhaps some time off the ship would be good.  The trick is arranging it - there are your duties, as you not.  And with all of the people here, I can hardly find time to think, Tylen."

Which, in the past, has been a blessing.

"Ahh.  This is the light stuff Shui, more for show than for any serious combat needs.  The heavy duty weaponry is still locked up ..."  he breaks off as he leans forwards sniffing mightily in the general direction of his feet.  "They aren't that bad ..." he says with enough of a grin to show that he hasn't taken the comment seriously at all.

"I guess we will have a better idea of the timetable when Jago gets back from organising the cargo.  Then, perhaps, we can sit down and work out a good time." he suggests as he leans back  in his seat and relaxes again.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:08, Mon 06 Mar 2017.

"The light stuff?"  Eyebrow two joins eyebrow one, and Shui studies the shotgun.  "I defer to your more experienced judgement," she offers dubiously.  It isn't, for example, some kind of charged particle spitter, so Tylen has a point.  But projectile and energy-throwers aren't her forte, and anything larger than a pistol looks heavy to her.

Her own snub pistol, carried occasionally to placate Jago, disturbs her.  Often.

"They certainly are not," she continues, with a wave at his feet.  She can't actually smell them from here. "A mild witticism, nothing more.  As for the timetable...one might hope.  Of course, I also require to be on-call for the passengers, depending on the time."  She taps a fingertip on her lips.  "I expect I can delegate that.  And they CAN survive for a time, being full-grown."  Eyebrow up again.  "For all that Messers DeSant and Armusezash can carry on when Ms. Taylor defeats them at cards."

Tylen starts to chuckle as Shui describes her charges as full grown and that they CAN survive on their own.  "Those two old buggers will always whinge when they lose. Although they can't be that worried about it, or they wouldn't keep playing against her, they know she is better than they are.  Corlan and Eneris  are just two old men who enjoy the company of a young woman.  It helps them remember that they were young once." and he can't help chuckling again at the thought.

"And they are two very competent men who, between them, have more experience  than the whole crew of the margin put together.  I am sure they would survive an evening without your attention - and they certainly wouldn't let anything happen to Keryn either."

"Any more coffee in there?" Tylen asks as he levers himself out of his seat and pads across to the coffee machine in his stockinged feet.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:36, Wed 08 Mar 2017.

"This ol' thing?!?" and he gestured towards his wrist comp.  "It barely works." he explained, pressing a couple of buttons as a show that the screen remained blank.  But, one of the buttons pressed did include the one to open a line on the common crew channel on the Profit Margin; given his experience with comms, he always created such shortcuts for a new crew.

It was a gamble though, as any link established depended on the local network when on station.  And this gamble required them to stall for time to get any response (assuming Yas or Tylen could track them down).  Stalling, which in such a dynamic situation might be difficult - if not downright dangerous.

Ash pursed his lips and shook his head ruefully.  "Now boys," the lanky navigator noted slowly, his voice quavering slightly and his hands upraised to show they had no weapon, "there is no need for those..." and he gestured slightly towards the drawn blades.

He pushed on with words, "Violence doesn't really solve anything.  You don't want to try and shiv us..."  The thin ex-Scout in the voluminous duster put his back to Jago's hoping that would allow him to concentrate on the vargr in front of him, as they started to circle.  Ash seemed loathe to draw any weapons, following Jago's lead.  Either that, or he really believed his words...

Jago continues talking, watching what Ash is up to out of the corner of his eye.  "I told you, we don't have anything.  You're probably better off than we are."

"Look, we're crew from a tramp freighter.  We've just come from a meeting aimed at earning us enough credits to keep operating.  Now, if you'd catch us a couple of months from now, then... "

"Be quiet Hoomaan!"  Another knife appears, this one in the lead Vargr's hand, "You!  Stop do that now!"  And that last is definitely aimed at Ash...

Carter looks up at the flank of Profit Margin.  "Nice ship.  Been with her long?" 

Tylen and Shui continue their conversation.

"Crap!" Tylen ejaculates as he dives back towards his chair and shoes, activating his com as he does so.

Hurriedly donning his shoes and grabbing his shotgun.  "What?" he asks hurriedly.

As Tylen pulls on his shoes, Saskia appears around the curve from the rear ward portion of the Lounge.  She's barefoot, as usual, and her hair looks dishevelled.  Her eyes are half closed.  She's carrying her glasses in one hand, and a comm in the other.  The latter she holds out towards Shui and Tylen.  It's emitting a cyclical alarm tone at a frequency which seems calculated to cause irritation...

"What the frell's going on?" she demands.  "That's the frelling crew emergency signal."

Then, looking around the room, "Where's Yas?"

"Dropping it now Hoomaan," the Vargr snarls, gesturing towards Ash's comp with the knife, "or we dropping you."

All of the aliens seem a little tense...

"Shi ...." Tylen exclaims as Saskia comes into the lounge and he realises there is no one in the bridge.  Keying his com he calls, "Yas!  Emergency!  It must be Jago and Ash.  Everyone else is here." he continues slightly out of breath as he brushes past the two women and runs towards the bridge to get to a control panel.  "I'm heading for the bridge, to see if I can get a fix.  If you head for the  station proper, I'll  update you with what I get."

With that the ex-scout settles into a chair and starts working on the signal.

It is hard to miss the guy likes to talk.  Yas have only interjected the occasional single syllable answer, sometimes not even a proper word.  When he finally starts to stop talking about himself her immediate relief is abruptly cut short by en emergency signal.

"Sorry, got to deal with this," she says and turns to check her comms, although she still keeps an eye on the talkative fellow, just in case it is connected.  What she heard did not sound good.

"Yeah, I heard it.  Do keep chatter to a minimum, and be speedy," she replies to Ty's interjection as she starts towards the station.  She need to know what is going on over there for as long as it is possible.

She pushes a button that will produce a sound as if from a time piece, hoping those on the other end will read it as an acknowledgement and be able to play it off in case of it rising any suspicions and perhaps play for time.

With that done she pulls out her guns one at a time to make sure they are ready to leap into action, in the end keeping the largest calibre revolver out.

"Maybe later, eh?  Name's Yas," she calls back toward Mr Talkative, not exactly sure why, seeing as he mostly talked about himself.

Carter nods, "Yes, maybe later." an he moves out of Yas' way, just in time to avoid being trampled as she heads for the exit.

Tylen slams down into one of the Bridge couches, and his fingers activate a control panel.  He summons up one of his preconfigured layouts and tries to track the source of the signal.  Data begins to flow onto a display screen. 

One of the Vargr has a snub pistol, which he's waving about very excitedly.

"You to drop device."  The device in question emits a musical chord.  "You to drop it NOW!"

Everybody, including Mr. Snub Pistol, is suddenly very still...

Tylen keys Yas and barks at his com,  "Out of the docking bay, hang a left, and keep going around the curve of the  corridor." Then activates the control to lower the cargo hatch,  grabs his shot gun and starts running.

"Shut the cargo hatch after me," he yells at Shui and Saskia as he runs past them on the way to follow Yas.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 19:40, Tue 14 Mar 2017.

Saskia palms the stud to seal the cargo ramp, yelling, "Keep us informed!" as Tylen makes his way across to the bay exit.  There isn't any sign of Yas though.

Jago raises his hands and steps forward, "Look.  Like I said, we don't really have anything worth taking, but you can have whatever we do have.  Just take it easy.  All right?"

The pistol wavers: Jago, Ash, Jago, Ash...

Yas hears footsteps behind her and looks over her shoulder to see Tylen coming up behind her.  The pair are approaching a spot where a smaller corridor branches off to the right, just a few metres in front of Yas, and a little further from Tylen.

There are two *cracks* ahead of them, so close together as to be almost indistinguishable... small calibre gunshots by the sound of it.  A Vargr comes running out of the corridor, fast, and drops something into a trash container as he heads away from Yas and Tylen.  There is a cacophony of howls, snarls and barks from the corridor.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:32, Sun 19 Mar 2017.

Everything had happened so fast.  Here he was trying to stall and draw things out.  With his hands raised, he'd been fumbling with the band to get his wrist computer off.

And then the sharp crack that can only be gunfire from a snub pistol.  Ash had flinched instinctively, his trick knee almost buckling.  The sound was still echoing his ears, given the proximity.   He took mental stock, trying to pinpoint any pain, when he saw the Captain hit the ground.  Oh, Infi... escaped Ash's lips.  Jago's been shot.

The lanky navigator hadn't even had the time to interpose himself.

"Captain..." he finally vocalizes, urgency dripping from his voice, "Aw, Crap."  The man is already down; Ash places one hand over the visibly darkening wound, trying to staunch the flow of blood from his chest and the other behind Jago's neck to cradle his head, "Boss, stay with me..."

Meanwhile, he looks to see if any of the other Vargr remain, pleading with anyone that is in ear shot.  "We need help!" the thin navigator cries out, his voice echoing down the hall, "Someone call emergency services!"  He'd do it, but he only has so many hands...