Silver decided she wanted to get her fuck on. With her giant scare and general “fuck off” attitude she wasn’t exactly having suitors beat down her door and by her principles of being stingy she wasn’t a big fan of paying for it. For a woman, maybe, but not from a man. There had to be a guy drunk enough or desperate enough that she could stand being naked with for half an hour.

A psychologist might have considered the attachment between Silver’s indulgence with vices in proximity to her near death experiences and hypothesized numerous theories. Was this connection because she wanted to celebrate life in the face of death? To use pleasure to reinforce her belief that she is making the right decisions in her life? That she had an unhealthy relationship to vice of all sorts might be an indicator of a deep seated pathological flaw.

Silver don’t care ‘bout none of that. She did what she wanted to do when she could. Right now she had just come from a bitch of a mission and had a close encounter with a very very dark part of her past so she wanted to flood her brain with as many chemicals as she could so the whole thing was a fuzzy blur in her rear view mirror.

Time to hit the bar and see if anyone was drunk enough to overlook the gash across her face.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 8):

"Why not now?" Bilco says to Rig

There's a small row of bars around the Astroburger.  Bilco guides him to one in the middle.  Short Stacks.  The waitresses are all enhanced and wearing tight shirts and shorts.  Bilco is still the same apparently.

Bilco orders a pitcher and some tamales.  "These aren't as good as Rosita's stand out there.  But they're still pretty frickin' tasty."

The waitress, who's back must be in constant pain, delivers the pitcher and a tray of small, round tubes of meal and meat, sitting on a leaf of some kind and smothered in what looks like soy-chili.

It turns out to be meat.  Real meat.  When was the last time Rig had real meat?

Bilco downs a glass and refills both your mugs.  "So you're crewin' it again huh?  I figured you'd have settled down in your own ship yard by now.  Be tellin' a bunch of guys workin' for you what they were doing wrong.  It's a good life man.  What keeps you traveling?"

---

Silver sizes up Malk's as soon as she steps off Tia.  Her brother would call it a 'kiddie port'.  A port that mostly caters to family types, which, if this belt is being used for agriculture, the area probably overflows with.

It's not the kind of port best suited for her crowd.  But there will be some hole to crawl into somewhere.  There always is.

Sizing up the bars, she sees one at the very end of the row with a half broken neon sign.  Pasties.  It's called Pasties.  That looks like the best bet.

As she walks down the row, a big burly guy is getting kicked out of another bar.  He looks like he's probably his crew's muscle.  Big and dumb and broad shouldered and hairy as all get out.  The bouncers...it took three of them...are telling him to amscray.

"Fuck you and the brothel your momma shit you out at," he tells them.  He turns around and scowls, sticking his hands into the pockets of his jump suit.  He starts walking up the opposite direction Silver is headed.

Such a nice family friendly atmosphere.

LEdo or Teph trying for the brass ring?

Ledo made a couple half-hearted attempts to snatch the ring with Tepha laughing at him the whole time. Finally she gave him a look that said watch how it's done and she shifted her position, wrapping her legs around the pole and leaning out completely parallel to the ground. Demonstrating tremendous core strength she lifted elevated herself so she was then at an angle rising up so that when she passed by the ring it was practically in her face making grabbing it trivial. With a quick spin she pivoted, bringing herself back to a sitting position on her horse once again.

OOC: And they said dancing wouldn't be a useful skill to bring into the wilds of space, lol

13:49, Today: Tepha Pezal rolled 9 using 2d6.  athletics/dex.

Rig groaned as he bit into the sandwich. It had been a long, long time since hea hadn't eaten synthesized stuff.

"Damn...real meat? If someone had offered me this I might consider settling down. The problem with running a shipyard is I'm not buying one myself. That means I'm still beholden to someone. I've spent my life having some pencil pusher breath down my neck, explaining why we can't make necessary repairs or why we need to cut corners to satisfy shareholders. When my buddy came to me with the offer of putting together a crew I joined up on the condition that we do things my way. Sure he balked when I showed him the supply lists I was putting together but I am tired of doing substandard work. Every repair I make on that ship is top quality. No substandard parts, no cut corners. Hell I've been gutting and rerunning the entire electrical system one section at a time and the captain can't say shit because he knows the deal.

Let me tell you, compared to what I've lived through this is paradise, minus the pirates and assassins of course."

Rig took another bite, savoring the flavor. He couldn't even tell if it was overcooked or underseasoned because the sheer luxury of real meat was more than enough for him.

"So how about yourself? What have you been up to here?"

Silver did an about face. Big, dumb, and hairy were just her type. She could handle angry too as long as he was angry at someone other than her. Plus if he was crewing it might be a chance to get a bead on some juicy intel too. Nothing like the thought of stealing credits out from under someone else to get Silver in the mood.

Mentally she rolled through a couple of different ideas and settled on EZ MarZee from back in her day. A little bit sexy, a little bit naive, a little bit dangerous.

"Hey big fella, you heading back to the docks? Mind if I tag along?"

She didn't want to come off as too desperate but she definitely kept her voice light and higher than it normally was. Last thing she wanted was to make him think she had an agenda...

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 12):

The name Stedman is stenciled on the left shoulder of his jump suit.

Stedman looks Silver up and down and says, "That depends.  You gonna get high an' naked with me?  Or just waste my time?"

Pot...meet kettle

---

Bilco waggles his eyebrows at Rig.  "It's real meat an' potatoes here.  You ever had a potato?  I mean a real one?"  He taps something on the menu called 'Loaded Skins'.  Must be some kind of meat dish.

"Man, I used to think the same.  But my gig here is sweet as honey.  Real honey.  We got that too.  Malk's here is owned by an agri co-op.  Like the belters all have a share. But they're more concerned about making sure they're equipment gets serviced than worrying about whether the station turns a profit.  I pretty much run my crew as I want.  Once a quarter, I gotta have face time with the co-op board about how the ship yard is doing.  I give 'em a report showing all the work we done for all their members and they don't ask about anything else.  Course, the port is turning a small profit.  They'd do more if they ran the trade to Gohature through here.  But..."  He shrugs.

'Loaded Skins' appears to be a bunch of potatoes that have been cut in half and filled with various dairy...real dairy...and vegetable products.  It tastes like heaven.

"I get an angry farmer every now and then who doesn't like the patch work done on his hauler.  Other than that, it's tramp crews like yours."  He sips his beer and noshes on a skin.  "So you wouldn't at all think about signin' on, huh? Your situation is that good?"

---

After blowing Ledoa raspberry, the ride slows down and comes to a stop.

The attendant looks at the ring as Tepha hands it to him and nods.  "Just a sec..." he says.  Then he goes into the booth.

He comes out holding what looks like a small cat.  Really small.  It's sitting in his palm.  But it's too long to be a cat.  Also it's nose is too pointy.  And there's no whiskers.

He holds it up.  Small, beady black eyes look Tepha over.  "Password Red Selkie 0724.  Bond."

A small beam of light shoots out of the things left eye and scans over Tepha's face.  The light stops and the thing starts squiggling in the attendant's hands.  He lets go and the pointy kitty almost leaps on to Tepha's shoulder.

"It's charged up.  So you should be good to go for twelve hours."  The pointy kitty nuzzles her neck, making a soft, small purring sound.  "Thanks for riding Blacklight Industries Merry Go Round protoype.  Enjoy the rest of your day.  Okay folks!  Step up for the next ride..." And he moves away to let the next group of visitors onto the Fairest Wheel.

"Fuck yeah, Stedman. Lead the way. So which ship are you crewing on?"

There, at least she could tell the captain later on that she was out looking for clues for their next big haul.

Rig gave a nod. While Bilco's talk was mighty tempting he had made his commitment the moment he had signed up with Ledo and put his life savings into the Tia.

"Don't get me wrong, it sounds nice and all but I've had nice. Look at me, I'm pushing fifty, divorced, kids are out of school and want nothing to do with me. What's the point in sitting in one place, you know? I had comfortable in the merchant marines.

See this, this right here, this real meat and cheese is paradise but if I stay here and eat this every day then I don't get that kind of appreciation.

I've lived a good decent life. Got the wife, got the kids, and lived long enough for it all to go to shit. Now I want to see how the other side lives. I want to experience some life on the edge, maybe make a fortune or die trying.

So yeah life is good, mostly. Got a crew I can trust, got a stake in my own ship and here I am getting to chew actual fat with you, so yeah, life is pretty good."

He took another bite of the potato skins and savored the flavor.

"Although with food like this I'll have to talk to the captain about working this into some kind of regular trade run."

Ledo stares at the little toy nuzzling Tepha and then back at the attendant.

"So what happens in twelve hours? How do we charge it up again?"

In reply to Silver (msg # 15):

Silver thinks later about how prophetic her use of the term 'big haul' turned out to be.

Afterwards, the two of them are reclining on a bunk in the engineering section of a transport named Buck 'N Wild

Stedman passes her the doob.  "Yeah, we're f'ing dull on this crate."  He smacks the hull with a big, meaty fist.  "Everyone on this tub is so straight laced too.  I feel like a Vargar on a Hiver cruise."

He takes the doob back.  It's almost out.  "Anyway.  We just haul shrooms from Gohature to other systems.  Not the good kind a' shrooms either.  The eatting kind.  It's dull dull dull."

He holds up a finger.  "If I could?  I'd jump ship for one bound to Wyltz."  Wyltz is a water moon orbiting a gas giant in the Gohature system.  Silver vaguely recalls it's got native fauna.  But nothing sentient.

"There's some serious credits changin' hands there cos of that race."

Silver has another vague recollection.  Some kind of bike race in some city on Wyltz.  She's never seen it.  Or actually, been to Wyltz.

---

Bilco shrugs.  "Can't blame a guy for tryin'.  So you've got a good crew?  Your cap'n doesn't do anything dumb like buy a new engine without tellin' ya or somethin'?

"My last captain?  We pull into port here.  The ship was on the older side.  But I kept it runnin' pretty well.

"So he goes portside.  Comes back two hours later.  'Hey.  Just bought a new engine.  Put it in.'  I shit you not.  He bought a 'new'..." Bilco air quotes the word.  "...engine.  And just expects me to slap it in.  An installation job he called it."

Bilco shakes his head.  "Asshole didn' bother to tell me he was gonna do it.  Didn't even ask me what I thought or to go with to see it.  And turns out...our system was ITX042.  He goes and buys a 70vR compatible."  The 70vRs were new two decades ago.  And they can't be installed into a ITX system.  Not without serious overhauling.

"We got into it when I told him it wasn't happening.  Turns out he'd used our shares for the last haul as the down payment.  I was so pissed I walked.  And you know me.  I don't walk easy."  He shakes his head and orders another pitcher.

"I tell ya what.  There is nothin' worse than a captain who'd make a big buy like that with my money no less, and not at least tell me about it upfront.  That's why I quite haulin'.  There's too many assholes out there who'd do shit like that."

He sighs.  "So I guess if you got a good captain.  One who wouldn't do somethin' like that to ya.  I guess I can understand staying in the game.  Anyway.  How's them tamales tastin'?"

---

The attendant glances back at Ledo.  "It's got a port slot in the side of it's neck.  Just use a standard patch cable. You can juice it up.  Reprogram.  Whatevs."

Silver took a puff and practiced blowing out smoke rings as she laid down staring up at the ceiling.

"Well dull isn't the worst thing. I was just on a job doing salvage at an old station when a pirate ship sets down right next to us. We end up having a shooting match right there on the platform at point blank range. Luckily we fired first."

Another drag, another puff of smoke.

"So if there's a bunch of credits there because of the races, how do you get at them? I'm not exactly hot on the stick of a racer so where's the appeal?"

Rig was midway through another bite when he paused. It was like Bilco was reading his mind. He thought back to his argument with Ledo when he had first purchased the Tiamat's Flight. It had been touch and go and if Bilco had offered it to him then he might have taken it but that was weeks ago. Since then they had picked up a friendly AI and outgunned a pirate cruiser at point blank range. He had come around to the Tia being home so this time while Bilco's comments poked at a sore spot it wasn't a breaking point anymore.

"Tamale's are fucking amazing. So, what's there to do around here? I've got a ship that can always use some upgrades. Where is there money to be made for a guy like me?"

Ledo gave a nod and shrugged at Tepha.

"We should be getting back. You need to start working your broker magic and I need to look into possibly hiring on some additional help."

The two had a nice little stroll back towards the docks. Ledo's mind was thinking back to the last time they had been alone, how he had panicked about why he was even with Tepha. Looking over he saw her fiddling with her toy cat but the small holographic pendant he had bought her bounced gently against her neck as they walked. Out of the corner of his eyes he caught the way her hips sashayed back and forth as they walked and he felt his blood warm a bit. She was attractive, moving with a dancer's grace and always taking the time to look and dress in an attractive manner but even as he caught himself staring he couldn't help but wonder if it was only a physical thing.

He shook the thoughts from his head, literally moving it back and forth. No, look at everything she had done for the group. She had been instrumental during their heist that had gotten them the ship, she was the first to truly befriend Fritz, she had handled herself...adequately given that she was a complete non-combatant during the assassination attempt. When she was isolated from the others she and Fritz had worked well enough to patch the ship and keep it from exploding. The fact that she wouldn't rush out into the middle of a firefight while the ship was both under missile attack and being boarded by a killer robot wasn't something he could fault her for.

She brought a lot to the table but was that enough?

Ledo turned his thoughts back towards the ship, its cargo, and the crew. They were short handed and had additional bunk space. Losing out on a high passenger would hurt the bottom line but after their first encounter with passengers he was reluctant to have more than one passenger awake at a time.

In reply to Silver (msg # 19):

Stedman smirks at Silver.  "I dunno.  You were ridin' the stick pretty tight a while ago."  He guffaws. "If you're talking about a score, I might know someone who can help you.  5 thou gets you a name and introduction.  I forget I ever gave it to you.

"But the guy I know...he's involved in the racing committee.  Works in the office that takes care of the betting.  Including holding the bag during the race.  And he's..."  Stedman taps his nose.  "Gotta bit of a sweet tooth if you get me.  If you can't work something out from what I just told you, keep your fiver."

He shrugs. "My crew are a buncha square johns.  And I know I'm not smart enough to figure out how to make it work. So?  You wanna transfer me that fiver?  Or you wanna go another round?"

---

Bilco hands the empty pitcher to the boobs-er.  Waitress.

"Lookin' for book, huh?  Well.  Most of the trade through here...Hell.  Most a' the trade in the system is agri.  Moss.  Mushrooms.  Tamales."  He holds one up and takes a big bite.  "For old time's sake, I'll give you a lead.  Not makin' any promises.

"Main world in this system...Gohature.  It has an Aslan community on it.  They had contracts to run the police and university with the prior admin.  But the government changed.  Their contracts are about due for renewal and the new gov?  She's not a fan of cat people.

"They are crazy desperate to get those renewed.  I don't know how to parlay that into biz.  But if nothing else, you might be able to pick up some high class passengers as they try to get off world if they can't make a deal come through."

---

The small pointy kitty tries climbing down Tepha's shirt.  But it seems to respond to NO better than small children do.

As the two of them approach the ship, they see an older woman who's studying the screen in front of Tia's berth. The screen lists public info for the ship, usually used by dock inspectors, but also it's how passengers and customers find a boat.

She's wearing a jumpsuit that looks like it's had generations of dirt stains scrubbed from it.  Her skin is that of someone who works manually for a living.  She'd be another local farmer if it weren't for the hair clip.

Tepha can price it from twenty paces.  The clip is silver, with an inlay of ebony. And if it isn't real silver and ebony, it's one hell of an imitation.  Even a copy that good would be pricey.

Whoever she is, she dresses poor, but she wears her hair rich.

She looks like she's finished reading the screen and is heading towards the next ship's berth and screen.

A smile spreads on Tepha's face. Warm and inviting.

"Excuse me, Miss? Can we help you? This is the Tiamat's Flight and it's the best ship in dock if I say so myself. We just got a nice load of spices and we have a biosphere inside which means fresh fruit and vegetables on occasion. Are you looking for passage or just looking to tour?"

She was warm and friendly doing her best to play the part of hostess.

Silver gives Stedman a smile, a rarity from someone like her.

"Why not both?"

She reaches down below the sheets to get the party started again.

"How about this. You give me the name of your contact and I'll cut you in 10% and give you a good an special treat right now, something you're not likely to forget."

She made sure that while she was asking all of his thinking was on other things.

Rig gave a nod to Bilco and tipped his beer to him.

"It's a tip. I'll take it. No idea how to turn that into credits either but it's good to know the lay of the land. So after this do you want to come take a look the ship? Show you the girl I'm running off to the stars in?"

He pulled back and finished his beer, washing down the last of the real, actual food.

In reply to Tepha Pezal (msg # 23):

Stedman laughs. "You don't fight fair, do ya?  Oh yeah.

"But I'm not that easy.  How 'bout half an' half?  2 point 5 K down.  5% of the haul.

"And don't talk with your mouth full."

---

Bilco taps the table while finishing his glass.  "Done an' done. Let's go see your gal."

---

The woman stops and studies Tepha a moment and then nods.  "Not lookin' for a ride.  Lookin' for someone willin' to make a delivery of sorts."

She glances at Ledo then back again.  "I'll tell ya upfront.  It might involve some rough an' tumble.  If you're not the type for that, we can bid our good days here.  If you are, I'm willin' to pay."

Silver paused, teasing him slightly.

”Make it an even 2k and I’ll let you finish in my mouth...”

Either way when an agreement is reached she began teasing Stedmen again, starting and stopping to look at him coyly.

”I just had a life-or-death situation that drilled into us business before pleasure so you send me that contact info and I will get to work.”

Nothing like whoring oneself out to save a few credits but that part of the deal she would keep to herself. It was nice to have a guy be putty in her hands and while she enjoyed the power and control she had by teasing him she also knew a guy like him wasn’t going to want to play games for very long. As soon as her comm registered the details she got to work on her end of the bargain.

Rig couldn’t help but grin as he pointed to Tia up in the dry dock. There were constant flashes of welding torches and the sound of heavy equipment as damaged sections of the hull were pulled away and replaced. Because of the difference in paint the damage she took was quite visible.

”There she is. The Tiamat’s Flight. A Mark 2 Jump Drive, armed to the teeth and with aftermarket afterburners that gives it military grade speed, at least for a few hours. Not a lot of cargo space with all those weapons and engines but then again grinding out credits hauling cargo isn’t what I signed up for. It’s the perfect ship to go big or die trying. Come on in, I’ll show you around.”

 Ledo gave a laugh and nodded.

”Yeah, rough and tumble is what we do. Why don’t you come on in and tell us what’s on your mind. No promises but we’ll at least hear you out and we’re not timid around a bit of danger, assuming the payment is set accordingly.”

He gestured his comm towards the door and he and Tepha walked up the walkway into the ship.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 29):

Once he's got the 2K and etc., Stedman sends a comm line, copying Silver

To: Erik Bix

Re:  Hot Chick and $

Hey Bixy.  How's it hanging.

Listen, a cute little number with a scar named Silver might give you a ringy ding.  She's quite handy if you know what I mean.

He leers at Siver over the top of his comm as he types that.

Anyway, if she heads your way you should give her a few.  She's OK people and has some big ideas.

"There ya go.  Head to Wyltz or don't.  Your call."

---

Bilco seems to have upped his game.  As Rig shows him around, he asks questions and pokes his nose into stuff that Rig hadn't thought about.

"I see what ya mean about cargo space.  I dunno if you plan on heading over to Jewel. But if you do, look up a company called QDS.  Quantative Distributed Systems I think.  Anyway, they're kind of newish.  But we've started seeing some of their stuff float through here.  It's kind of impressive. They specialize in compacting hardware.  There was a tug that came through who's turrent hydraulics for three gun banks took up the space it would only take two.  And they had a boost of 14% in efficiency.  It was impressive as all fuck."

---

"Thank you," the woman says as Tepha pours tea.  She takes a sip and mumbles, "That's fine tea."

She sets the cup down and gets to it.  "My name's Ekka Dewhurst.  I've got a husband named Wilven.  He's not much of a husband.  Which is kinda the problem.

"We have a claim on a rock near here.  We were just farmin'.  But we got a lucky break.  Two years ago we hit a vein of iridium in our rock.  It was about the same time that the war over in Jewel cut off all ore trade comin' this way.  So not only did we hit a high grade ore, the time for sellin' it was optimal.  We made a killin'."

She sighs here, staring at the tea, before taking another sip.

"At first we was too busy workin' to worry much about it. But the vein played out and all of a sudden we had more money than we knew what to do with.  Well.  Than I knew what to do with.  Wilven.  He had a pretty good idea.

"Next thing I know, he's hopped a ride to Gohature and gets busy spendin'.

"He's been spendin' all this time.  We made so much, it hasn't really bankrupted me.  But if I let that fool go on like he's been goin' on, it will in a few years.

"So I had enough.  I filed for divorce.  And this is where the problem comes in.  See, in order to comply with local law, both sides gotta acknowledge the divorce."

She digs in a pocket and takes out a data cude, setting it on the table.  "This cube has a copy of the divorce files.  All I need is proof that Wilven has scanned it.  A retina scan and a thumb print."  The cube has equipment to register both. "Once I get this cube back with the thumb print and retina, I am a free woman.  The court will split everything between us fifty fifty.  He can go drink an' whore himself into an early grave.  Me?  I got other plans."

She finishes the tea.  "He'll be on Wyltz in fifteen days.  There's a big motobike race there and he never misses it. Even when we were poor.  I need to spell out what I'm askin' here?  I'll give ya 10000 up front.  Another 20000 if you get me this cube back in a month. We dealin' here?"

Ledo gets a smirk on his face and nods.

"Can't say I blame you. In the time it takes for you to get a case for dereliction or abandonment he'll have blown through everything won't he. If what you're telling us is the full truth and nothing but, that's is something we can handle. We can be persuasive enough and this ship used to be in operation as a skip tracer so it's plenty fast to run him down if he tries to run.

Here are our contact details and the account to wire money to. Send us everything you can on him. I'll have my tech guy do some digging to see if we can't find out more."

He reaches for the cube and his hand hovers over it.

"I should warn you though. We have had people try to pull a fast one on us, use us for nefarious purposes that endangered my ship and my crew. Those people don't exist anymore so this if there is anything else that might have slipped your mind about this job, now is your one chance to set the record straight."

Silver washes her mouth out with whatever alcohol Stredman still has before getting dressed.

"Sorry to fuck and run but you understand. Got credits to earn, assholes to shoot, you know the drill."

She paused and looked at the email header: hot chick and paused. For a brief moment her tough girl exterior dropped and she looked at Stedmen with genuine affection.

"Hey...thanks for this."

Then her moment of vulnerability snapped shut and she was out the door. Most likely he would just think it was about the information about a job. There was no way he would know about what kind of self-loathing she had felt because of that scar. She had picked it up from her brief time in law enforcement so it was still relatively new in her life, only the past 10 or so years ago. Since then she had struggled to come to terms with her face every time she looked in a mirror but this big dumb animal hadn't cared. He hadn't really cared about anything really and for some weird strange way it felt nice that her disfigurement didn't matter.

On her walk back to the ship she tapped out a message to the Captain.

Hey Bossman, i got a line on a job @ Wyltz...

Rig stroked his beard and nodded.

"Interesting. We have a lot of equipment on board so even a ton here or there would be a huge improvement. I'll have to look them up if we are ever in the area."

When he had completed the tour he reached out his hand to shake Bilco's.

"Hey, make sure to keep my contact information. Never too busy to look over your shoulder if you need an expert opinion on something..."

Rig grinned to let Bilco know it was just a joke and not a serious commentary on anyone's abilities.

"And if you ever need something, some cargo moved or trouble starts chasing away your business or whatever, keep us in mind. We don't really have a set "job" yet, we're still feeling out different opportunities. I can't promise we'll be able to drop everything and help but if we're ever in the area, we can cut you in at a "friends & family" rate."