The VR Science node activates an auto-forensic program.  Ledo watches the inside of a small glass cabinet as various robotic arms tweeze fibers, scan the Bugee with various lights, and spritz it with fine sprays of chemicals.

A screen to his left flashes and the report rolls up.

Object is made of a combination of polymers, natural fabrics, and low grade plastics.

All components are legal.

No traces of combustibles.

Radioactivity within safe limits.

OBJECT PRESENTS NO THREATS

The VR Scientist is giving the Bugee a pass.

---

"So do we address you as 'Mister' Typhin?  Or 'Captain' Typhin?" Sylvia Antwhite looks Ledo up and down.  Her attention mostly stays on the 'down'.

"Mother."  Ada Antwhite blushes as she pokes her mother in the side.

"What?  I'm simply asking a question."  Sylvia looks back at Ledo and smiles.

The Antwhites are the family of Regis Antwhite, Minister of Export for the Jone Bureau of Interstellar Trade.  Here on Karin for holiday, it's time for the Ladies Antwhite to return home.

Minister Antwhite must do quite well for himself.  A trophy wife like Sylvia isn't cheap.  There's a little tarnish on her plaque now.  The surgeries aren't tightening out the wrinkles as well as they used to.  But there's still enough gleam to make her a prize worth taking the field for.

Ada takes after her mother and does the best she can to hide it.  She wears her thick black hair up in a tight, unappetizing bun.  She wears glasses that don't fit her perfectly symmetrical face.  And the baggy sweater doesn't cover up a very pleasing form.  The only part of the act she seems to get right is the fidgeting.  From the time the Antwhites came onboard, she's been rubbing her finger tips together, looking everywhere except at her mother, and bumping into the bulkhead and stairs.

The three of them stand near the entrance of hold, speaking, when below Tepha walks the low berth passengers towards the cold tubes.

"Mother.  You're staring..." Ada whispers.

Sylvia blinks.  She had been watching the low berthers with an intent look.  "Oh.  Sorry.  I was just thinking how brave some people are.  I'd be too worried about dying to properly ice up if I went that way."  She shakes her head.  "Now Captain.  Will we be joining you for dinner?  No?  Well.  Feel free to let me know if you'd like me to join you with anything."

"Mother."

Sylvia sighs.  "Yes dear.  Sorry for having a sense of humor." She smiles at Ledo.  An open smile.  A very open smile.  "Until we meet again."

Ada nods at Ledo and herds her mother towards the cabin.

---

Rig reaches down and pushes the next to last crate against the wall.  Almost done.  The set up with the inflatable tank might work out better then he'd hoped.  It was just getting everything tucked in tight that was turning out to be the problem.

Turning back, he thumbed the remote, bringing the crane back around to the last crate.  Rig moved to secure the straps around the crate so he could get the crane on it.  As he pushed against it, the lid moved.

Rig pushed and the lid slid back a centimeter.  He didn't know if it had been unsecured to start with.  Silver had moved these crates in.

Looking inside confirms it's still filled with Bugees. Ones dressed like marines.  One dressed like geisha.  One dressed in Glisten style prisoner clothes.  And one with a thick beard and bald on top.  That one looked oddly familiar somehow.

Should be easy enough to secure the top.

Vitals Normal.

Starting Anesthetic Course 1.

Tepha watches the Autodoc run through the Low Berth settings.  The screen pops up a dashboard of each passenger's status, asking her to approve.  For some reason the program, which runs completely automatically, won't unless somebody touches the screen here and here for each passenger.

She waits, tapping the screen in the required places as a bioscan and photo of each passenger pops up.

Aldon Oszicks. Yikes.  He might want to get that tumor looked at.

Sedonna Blik.  Well. Maybe she'll look less tired after this much beauty sleep.

Blah.

Blah blah blah.

This guy.

Another one.

Galt Topher Wow.  Mrs. Topher must be one happy woman.

Blah blah.

Onyx Plages

Onyx is a young, beautiful dark skinned woman that Tepha feels like she's seen before.

When the low berthers had stood around, listening to Tepha's instructions, none of them had said much.  Honestly, they looked depressed.  Maybe it was fear, although it's not like this is really all that dangerous.  But the group of them had all been quiet.  Sort of downcast.  Except Onyx.  She had held her head up and nodded, listening attentively to what Tepha and the onscreen safety video had said.

But the others...

like whipped dogs

The thought just came to her. But it fit.  Even looking at the pictures of each passenger that flashed up, Tepha could see it.  A look of defeat in their eyes.

Deep Sleep Confirmed.

Commencing Temperature Adjustments

Now a bar appeared with each passengers name next to it.  Tepha had to monitor until each bar went from light red to deep blue.  The last one, Topher's, took five minutes.

Cycle Complete

The first official low berth passengers aboard Tia were frozen.

I'll give you a chance to react to any or none of these before moving us to pre-Jump status.

Thanks

Ledo felt his heart skip a beat. He was a faithful man but he was still warm blooded. He returned Sylvia's smile with a broad grin of his own.

"Just Captain is fine. Or Ledo if you'd prefer. As for dinner keeping you two safe and sound will be a full time job but I'm sure I can arrange some time. I'm sure Tepha would love to join you as well."

Ledo put a bit of a lightness in his voice. Just a bit though. He figured a little harmless flirting was just that, harmless. In fact a woman like Sylvia could open up a lot of doors and it didn't hurt to pander a little. Ledo figured he was safe by making sure to include Tepha's name every now and then so there wasn't any confusion. Overall he was in a great mood. His reputation and the armed nature of the Tiamat's' Flight had all but guaranteed they would have a steady supply of mail which, while bulky, was quite lucrative. Half a months's payments with just a couple days travel. It wasn't exciting and running mail wasn't what anyone had signed up for but it was a nice safety net. Finding out the Bugees were harmless had also put him in a good mood.

"I hope you can spend some time in our "garden" as we've been calling it. One of the previous owners of the ship was very big into self-sustaining environments and while it isn't much it's nice to have a bit of greenery even on these short trips."

He smiled and led them to their rooms.

"Down in the hold our engineer Rig is storing your supplies. If you need anything midtransit we can escort you down there but I hope you brought your carry on. If there is anything else just ring us on your room's comms system. Anything at all, you just let us know. We appreciate you trusting us to carry you back home."

Another flash of the pearly whites. He had wined and dined with the elite and the admiralty before and that included being sociable and friendly (without being too friendly) to the admiralty's spouses and offspring.

Rig picked up the oddly familiar Bugee.

"Now why in the hell would this be here?"

He took the time to search through the crate, curious to see if he could find any that looked "oddly familiar" to any of the other people onboard. Perhaps a Bugee with white hair and a long scar across the face? A red-headed Bugee in a slim shiny dress? A stoic navy captain with an air of danger around him?

Besides, Rig had worked in the merchant marines for his career long enough to know to double check unsecure cargo. Back in the day it was mostly to make sure someone wasn't skimming off the top but now he wanted to make sure there weren't any unexpected "additional" cargo someone slipped in. This was his first time smuggling and he was damned if he was going to be caught like a sucker this early in the game.

Rig continued to shift around until he got to the bottom and when he was satisfied there wasn't anything else unusual or "oddly familiar" with it he secured the lid properly and moved it into position.

Onyx tickled at the back of her mind as she walked away. How did she know her. Why was she so familiar?

Tepha went back to her quarters and pulled up a net search on that name. For all she knew it was a false name but maybe there was an easy explanation for why she looked familiar...

Silver had finished loading the cargo and it was up to Rig now. Tepha was handling the low passengers and Ledo was handling the high which meant nobody was needing her for the moment.

Silver popped up on her bed and slapped a homemade filter over the air intake. Then she pulled out a joint and a six-pack of beer from her stash and proceeded to get loaded and high. She hated liftoffs and being high and/or drunk off her ass always made the transition to zero-g much easier for her.

She put on some psychedelic music, popped the holoprojector to "screensaver mode" and relaxed on her bed. So far this was proving to be one of the best gigs of her life and she was going to enjoy it.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 5):

None of the other Bugees bear a resemblance to Ledo or Tepha or Silver.  Rig just seems to be lucky.

A quick slush through the Bugees doesn't show any additional items.  Then Rig remembers the scale.

Every crate, box, bag, or bottle is weighed by Port Authority.  Checking the log, Rig sees the weight on this crate is...2998.8 pounds.  Close to 1.5 tons.

A quick weigh using the crane...2991.6 pounds.

---

Onyx Plages turns out not to be an alias.  But it's the alias this woman does have that is the reason Tepha recognized her.

According to Karin's cultural records nodes, Onyx Plages is an emigre from the Jone system.  Over the past five years, she's worked as a model.  And not just a random one.  For the past three years, she's been the spokes model for Izzaick's Cosmetics.  She's better known by her runway name Aje.

Onyx/Aje has appeared in countless ads for the cosmetic company.  A higher end brand, Izzaick's caters to high end customers.  Lipstick costs 220 creds a tube.

Onyx is under an exclusive contract with Izzaick's according to the articles.  Her estimated income is given as 1.2 million creds per annum.

Tepha studies the pictures closely.  Even without make up and camera tricks, there is no doubt.  Onyx is Aje.

---

There's a man with a shaky hand...
And he's stumblin' in the dark...

Owens Oson's feathery tenor moves into the last verse of Drag It Down.  Silver inhales on the doobie, trying to follow the dictates of the song.  Drag it down?  Can do.

The projector switches off it's current image.  The ceiling goes dark and then a message flashes on.  Rain Mode

At first, it stays dark.  Then a circle of muted blue light appears, spreads out, and is gone.  Another follows.  Then another.  Rain drops falling overhead.  Landing and dissipating. Plop. Plop. Plop plop plop.

The song changes.  The intro to The Shake Tones It's Always Night So Let's Always Bump begins.  More rain drops fall over head.  The storm is getting wilder.

tap...tap...taptiptaptaptaptaptaptaptip.  There's a high, soft sound coming through.  It's not part of the song.  At least not that Silver can recall.  And it's not in rhythm either.  It's like someone is tapping something on a sheet of thin metal.  And it's getting a little louder...and now it's starting to receed...

---

Ledo's comm vibrates.  He glances at the message.

Incoming from Starport Authority

Tiamat's Flight.  You have been scheduled for a departure window of 1039 AVD from Lane F8.  Please confirm that you will hit the mark.

Departing from the High Port isn't just a matter of undocking and vrooming away.  There's too much incoming and outgoing traffic.  To depart, a ship has to schedule a departure time.  The port directs the craft to predetermined location or Lane.  From there, the ship moves away from the port, at a predetermined acceleration rate, on a predetermined flight path until it reaches a predetermined distance from the station.  After that, it's  all wide open.

If a ship can't hit the scheduled departure, there's penalties.  Lots and lots of penalties.

1039 AVD...fifty minutes.  Ledo gauges the distance in his head.  With no trouble, taxing to Lane F8 should take twenty minutes.  Rig should be done with the tank by now.  Ten minutes to warm up the engines, get locked down, and nail down all safety protocol...

That's a twenty minute leeway.

Time to motor.

All of this is happening simultaneously.  Unbeknownst to Ledo,Rig will need an additional ten to fifteen minutes to move the last crate and finish inflating the tank if he does so by himself.  A mechanics/Int or Edu roll of 6+ or Int roll of 8+ can reduce that.  So can throwing another body on it.  You can stack the two options: a roll and another body.

The engine warm up/safety protocols are a rule I cribbed from an earlier rule set of Traveler.  I like it because it can add some tension.

The rule is:  you do the protocol, no worries.  No roll needed.

If you want to skip the protocols/you need to motor fast because they're firing on you and you're a sitting duck, you make an engineering roll, Int or Edu DM your choice.  If you hit 8+, no worries.  If you miss by 4, something minor will happen but you roll.  Miss it by more than 4, and you can get, but expect some larger complication.

I am springing this on you and it is outside Mongoose's rule set. So if you'd rather not use this rule, we can leave that aside.  Your call.  The lockdown/disconnecting from the fuel line/etc will still take that long.

Let me know if there are questions.  Thanks

Ledo stretched a bit, loosening up before slipping into the pilot's seat. The computer was going to do most of the work but it felt good slipping into the captain's seat. He had spent most of his career ordering other pilots to fly and it felt like slipping back through time into his twenty-something self as he took the controls and began the preflight check.

He tapped the comms.

"Hey Rig, is everything secure? Our departure window is in fifty."

Rig was staring at the display trying to figure out what it meant. The crate was light. That didn't seem like a big problem. It was light by seven pounds, give or take.

So why did it bother him? He chalked it up to his merchant marine background. Some employers would dock the workers pay if a crate was light. Given these were smuggled goods and everything was pure profit it probably wasn't that big of a deal. Or, most likely, Silver had grabbed a bunch and that was why the crate was light.

He went to log it but then corrected himself as he realized that would be a stupid thing to do, logging that your smuggled cargo was light. Instead he made a mental note to tell Ledo.

Just then the hold's comm barked out. Ledo was checking in to make sure everything was secure.

"Oh shit...sorry captain. One of the crates came in a seven pounds light so I was inspecting it. It's going to be another fifteen minutes before cargo is secure."

"That is cutting it really close. Can Silver help?"

"Yeah that would be great."

Silver was relaxing and listening to something tapping, gently rapping, rapping upon her chamber door when her comm squawked.

"Silver, Rig needs help in the cargo bay. Head down and give him a hand."

Silver just started giggling.

"No can dooooo Cap-a-rino."

There was a pause.

"What? Why?"

More giggling from Silver.

"Cuz I am liiiiiiitttt."

"What? Wait. What the hell Silver? It's been like fifteen minutes since I last saw you."

Silver didn't reply, she just giggled a bit more. For someone as jagged and rough as Silver to be giggling like a little schoolgirl was...deeply unsettling.

"We are going to have some serious discussions about proper protocols for..."

"Woah...chill out. It's alllllll goooood."

The comm just clicked off. Silver shrugged and went back to relaxing in style. The part of her mind that was still coherent made a note to check the ventilation system for the source of the tapping but her body and mind were comfortably numb and ready for take off.

Tepha was in her room checking the terminal when the comm buzzed.

"Tepha, Rig needs your help down in the hold ASAP. Get down there quick."

Tepha's head recoiled a bit in confusion. Cargo was Rig and Silver's job and besides she was busy researching more about Aje to find out why a high powered model would be flying low to Jone.

"Uhhh...are you sure? Isn't that normally Silver's job, honey?"

Tepha put a little bit of flirtation in her voice. She really didn't want to do manual labor and didn't hesitate to use some of the hooks to get out of it.

"Normally yes but Silver is...unavailable and if we don't get this cargo secure we're going to miss our launch window. That could put us hours behind schedule."

Tepha didn't respond. Logically she knew she should help but but she really didn't want to do it. The thought of manual labor was like a weight pressing her down in her comfortable liquid foam chair.

Ledo could sense her hesitation.

"I know, I know. This is our first launch though and I don't want to start it off on the wrong foot. I'll straighten things out with Silver so this doesn't happen again but chances are sometime down the road you're going to have to help with the cargo so you might as well learn now. Rig was a merchant marine for over a decade. He'll keep you safe and it'll be over before you know it. Please? For me?"

So Ledo was also willing to leverage their relationship. Tepha let out a sigh of defeat and just like that the weight was lifted. While she still dreaded it she moved swiftly through the Tia down to the cargo hold.

Rig looked up in surprise when he saw Tepha instead of Silver but time was too tight to ask pointless questions. He needed help and she was hear to help, presumably.

"Alright here's what I need you to do. I need you to watch the pump lines while the tank deflates. We're going to go at maximum speed so a kink in the line could rupture very quickly from the pressure. Go over where you can see the lines and watch them like a hawk. If they budge at all give me a shout and I'll shut it off. Then we can resecure the line and continue pumping."

Tepha let out a sigh of relief knowing she wouldn't have to actually touch anything.


Rig finished securing the cargo in the fuel storage compartments, resealed the tanks and then began the fuel pumping process. The inflatable tank was gigantic at the moment and he could not see all the fuel lines it was hooked up to. He had secured the lines to the decking with a temporary adhesive but the pressures he was about to pump at can cause a line to kick and break loose. If it kinked it could rupture dumping processed fuel all over the cargo hold. All Tepha had to do was make sure everything stayed secure...

OOC: Adding another person and making a mechanics check to speed things along
08:52, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 11 using 2d6+3.  +2 edu +1 mechanics.

vrrrrrrrrr

Ledo's communicator is going off again.

Incoming from Starport Authority

Second Notice

Tiamat's Flight.  You have been scheduled for a departure window of 1039 AVD from Lane F8.  Please confirm you will be able to hit the mark.

Ledo hadn't responded to Authority yet.  If he doesn't answer soon, they might bump them to another window.

The computer flips on auto protocols.  Bars and graphs flash across the command screen too fast to count.

Please provide access code Commander Ledo Typhin.  The computer wants him to confirm his voice and passcode before it will continue the protocol review.

---

Tepha proves to be useful.  She signals Rig once, and early enough he can literally kick the kink out of the line without having to shut down.  He covers the hidden cargo hatch, locks it, and steps back as the tank begins to push forward and over the hatch door.

Eight minutes.  Tepha came through.  Or Rig did.

The tank is finishing.  Rig dials down the fuel intake speed and shuts the valve.

Done and done.

Now comes Engine pre-check.  Rig needs to motor to engineering. Time to see if his patches will hold.

He'll need to feed his auth code into the computer to start up the pre-flight check list.

What was his code again?

---

Ba bum-bump
Bum-bum ba bum-bump
C'mon Girl
Don't act all shy
We're in the dark
You'll do just fine
Gimme a chance
To lose your mind
Ba bum-bump
Bum-bum ba bum-bump

The Shake Tones thump along.  Underneath, Silver can hear the thrum of the engines warming up.  Here we go.

Her doob is all used up.  She reaches for another beer.  Shit.  Stupid can was too slippery.  It went all gravitational and landed on the floor.  Had she opened this can yet?

No.  It still looks good.  No foam spraying all over the floor.  Beer. Precious beer.

But the can is a real downer.  When she reaches for it, it slides right away again, this time going under the bed.  She reaches down.

Hmm.  There's something there.  Something not can like.  It feels more...box like.

Did she put a box under her bed?

---

Tepha watches Rig finish up.  Easy peasy.

A small sound catches her attention and she happens to glance towards the other end of the hold.

A young girl in a baggy sweater is coming through the door that leads to the cabins.  Tepha saw her earlier.  One of the high passengers.  Was this one Ada?  Or Sylvia?

And shouldn't she be in her cabin?

Ledo hits the comms for the port authority as soon as Rig sends the signal the cargo is secure.

"Ahh-firmative port authority. 1039 AVD from Lane 8. Confirmed. We will be departing on schedule, please advise."

As the computer begs a prompt he clears his throat. Time to make sure all that money paid to Minix was well spent.

"Ledo Alvo Typhin. Passcode Strend Nova."

His favorite tour of duty and the class of ship he first served on. Not the most obscure passcode but not entirely obvious either.

Rig was a creature of habit. After years of serving on different vessels on in the Merchant Marines he had developed a complex algorithm that was both nigh impossible to break and impossible for him to forget by this point.

He just took the Jump Drive Serial number, multiplied it by the year the ship was built, subtracted the year when he first stepped on board, divided that by the number of different coffee flavors available from the ship's cafeteria and then converted that into hexadecimal and repeated it just halving it for the second part.

"Gary Rigan. Authorization Two-One-Zed-Echo-Echo-Charlie-Delta-One-Two-One-Zed-Eight-Seven-Seven-Six-Six-Eight-Niner."

The math wasn't hard and the system had worked for him so far.

Silver gave a shrug and pulled out the box. She didn't remember putting a box here but this was her room now so if there is a box it must now be her box.

Giving it a look over assuming it didn't look trapped or explosive she would open it up and check out her new property more thoroughly.

Tepha called out. The liftoff alert lights were starting to flash. She was on her way to the bridge when she spied a wayward passenger.

"Ms. Antwhite! Ms. Antwhite! Please go back to your cabin. We're about to lift off. It's not safe to be walking around and we'll be locking down the cabins shortly and you don't want to be caught out of your room."

Inwardly she cursed the woman for delaying Tepha and making her go out of the way. She was excited to see the first liftoff of the Tia and she'd be damned if some spoiled brat or trophy wife made her miss it.

And then the ship blows up...

Just kidding.

Codes are so noted.

---

"I'm so sorry.  I got turned around.  The cabin's are back this way then?"

The younger Antwhite...Ada.  That's right.  Tepha recalls now.  This one is Ada...seems flustered.  She points in the direction of engineering.  Is the ship really so big as to be confusing?

---

The protocol checks finish their cycles.  The board by Ledo's elbow lights up.

Next to each inspection point is a blue light, indicating the system is checking.

If the point is cleared, the light goes green.  The light going yellow indicates an issue, but one more along the lines of 'deferred maintenance'.  The ship can still fly.  But it is definitely something to put on the 'to do' list.

A red light is an uh oh.  Depending on the issue, the system may abort take off.  The captain or the pilot can override the shut down.

Thankfully Ledo sees no reds.  Yellows.  Wow.  That is a lot of yellows.

Most of them seem to have to do with the electrical.  Rig's patches are holding but may not all be up to code.

There's a yellow on ventilation.  A tickler indicates contaminant detected. The auto-doc is pulling samples.  But this is almost always a yellow light.  The diagnostic is probably picking up rat feces or a roach nest.  Mankind can't get away from it's critters.

There is one yellow on structural integrity.  A flip through indicates the outer seal on the air lock door isn't hitting right.  The inner door is okay.  So it's not an issue.  But fixing that seal will need to be a priority.

There's a yellow on the low berth diagnostic too.  The readout doesn't give much details.  Just 'system leakage'.

Ledo will need to okay the protocols 'as is' so the VR Pilot can move to next stages.

---

The Shake Tones end. The music cycles into Midnite Soldiers.  The Archaeologist.

Baby
I been shiftin' through the desert sands
Baby
I been searchin' for my promised lands

Silver's new box is rather plain looking.  Metal.  And pretty cold to the touch.  There's a simple latch on one end.  Nothing gimmicky about it on the outside. A long cord runs out the back end.  But that just seems to be a splice into the power grid.  Whatever this is, it's live.

Baby
You're so mean to leave me all alone

The inside of the box is cushioned with an indention in the middle.  Under the cushion is a cryo-suspension unit.  A smaller version of the machinery keeping your low berth passengers nice and crispy.

Sitting on top of it, nestled all safe and sound in the indentation of the cushion, is a glass tube with a human finger.  It's a man's finger.  Thick and muscular.  Small tuffs of hair rise up the bottom knuckle.  It's probably a ring finger.  But there's no ring.  Just the finger.

C'mon Baby Girl
Lemme dig your bones
C'mon Baby now
Lemme dig your bones

---

Power plant...is on line.  Rig gets a more detailed version of the electronics checklist than Ledo got.  He knows the patches he made.  They'll hold.  He can work on getting them above code during Jump time.  It'll definitely be something to do while they all sit on their thumbs for a week.

The computer finishes the pre-check on the Jump drive.  It's pretty solid.  Both the drive and the checklist.

If nothing else, this ship seems to have kick ass safety software.

The M Drive checks come up.  Mostly greens.  A few yellows, mostly items he hadn't had a chance to get to yet.  But nothing that should be a problem.

Or, to put it more accurately, the chances of going Boom are pretty low.

There's an odd tapping noise coming from somewhere.  But it stops.  Maybe a rat in the vents.  Shit.  Is there ever a ship anywhere that doesn't have a rat or two?

The computer flashes.  M Drive is all ready to juice.

From here, once Ledo a-ok's the protocols, Rig will need to watch the power levels.  If anything goes wrong, it will be due to a wild fluctuation burning out one of his patches.

Nah.  That won't happen.  The patches will hold.

Right?

Just to recap...

Ledo needs to OK the protocols or needs to abort the launch so you can fix them.  I'm sure we know what he'll do.  But you do have the option.

Rig can make me an engineering roll.

Silver is on her own.

And Tepha just needs to get Ms. Ada back to her room.  It's on the way to her cabin anyway.

What could wrong with any of that.

Right?

Ledo taps down the list, overriding each issue one by one. If they were red there would be a lot more steps but for yellow the system just wanted to make sure that the pilot saw it and was aware of it before moving on.

The M-Drive came online and those fast-as-hell combat thrusters were showing good fuel feeds. Ledo was tempted to hit the gas on their way out just to try it out but he wasn't a teenager anymore. While it would be exciting he was old enough to realize that showboating like that would be a great way to get into serious trouble.

While technically the autopilot could handle everything on its own, Ledo took the controls in "assisted manual". He had waited a long time for a ship like this and he wanted to get a feeling for how the Tia flew.

Silver started giggling. She didn't touch the finger but did bring it up close to her face as she stared at it.

"Is that what that noise is? Your four little friends looking for you?"

She giggled again, closed the lid and slid it back into place. Drunk and high wasn't a good state of mind to handle something like that so she figured she would handle it once she came back down.

Besides one of her favorite songs was up next on the playlist...

Rig decided now would be a good time to fire up the virtual engineer program that the ship was loaded with. It wasn't the most cutting edge but it was a pretty decent diagnostic system. If one of his patches was going to blow hopefully the computer would be able to register the sudden change in resistance and reroute power so instead of a giant catastrophe it was just a minor annoyance.

At least that was the plan.

"Come on baby. You know you love me. You might be wired to shit and a big waste of money but I will get you the care you deserve."

It was Rig's ritual. Like talking to an animal he kept his voice steady and smooth. He was smart enough to know that talking to a machine wouldn't keep it from blowing up in their face but he also figured it couldn't hurt and if he was going to die in space he'd like to know that he tried everything first.

Tepha smiled and shook her head.


"No that way is off limits. Here, let me escort you to your quarters. And please, if you need anything just ring us first. These rides can get a little bumpy and we don't want any accidents happening so please, let us know what you need and we'll help you out. Okay? Okay."

Tepha road that line between being hospitality helpful while also stressing that she shouldn't be wandering around.

Alright.  Let's get this show on the road.

Ada nods and at least seems embarassed.  She'll probably be a good girl the rest of the trip.

Tepha leads her to her door and accepts her thanks just as a loud THUNK rings out through the ship.

"Oh!  We must be undocking!"  With a last wave, Ada rushes inside to enjoy the sight.

Tepha makes it to the bridge just as...

---

Ledo was aware Tepha had joined him.  But at that moment that feeling of weight came into the steering levers.  That oddly satisfying feeling of resistance.  Like moving them actually moved rods and pinions and turned the nose of the ship around.  He knew it was just the computer adding resistance so the pilot had a tactile gauge to go by.

But most pilots would say it felt good.

Incoming from Starpoint Authority.

Tiamat's Flight.  You are cleared to lift from dock.

Flight Path has been fed to your Systems.

On behalf of Karin HighPort Authority, we wish to thank you for your business.  We know you...

The ship begins to respond to Ledo's movements.

Per the flight plan, he eases backwards, down and at an angle of forty five degrees.  The station's hull slides across the view, getting further away.  Other ships still in dock.  The EVA crews in full suits scuttling over them and the station hull.  They all become more distant.

Then the nav-com flashes a course correction. Ledo can spin the ship around.

Slowly.  Very slowly.  The station falls from view.  At first to the left there is a growing, empty space.  But soon everything else falls away and there's only a sky filled with stars.

Tiamat's Flight is to proceed two parsecs straight ahead and then it can go where it will

...that's why we appreciate your business.

Did you know?  Karin Highport is rated number one in amenities in the Five Sisters quadrant.  That's right.  The next time you're in Karin, make sure to stop by and sample the finest in Imperium cuisine! Check out our many fine shops!  Tennis anyone?

Karin Highport has official sized courts with no waiting!  Real or virtual!  Our coaches are on hand to help your game!  That's why the next time you're at Karin Highport, make sure to...

---

...reserve your court time today!

The Highport's endless litany of advertisements beams down to Engineering as well.  Rig glances through the numbers.

<Gray>Line 12C...85%
Line 12U...43.2%

Rises along lines 202 to 207 by factors of 5.  Within parameters.

Line 12U...32.7%<Gray>

Why wasn't Line 12U holding a feed?

Rig switches the circuit to run along one of auxiliaries.  That fixes it.  The output to life support levels out.

Line 12U needs to be bumped to the head of the list.

But otherwise, the patches are holding.  The patches are holding just fine.

---

The hull is making that funny rocking motion that it always makes once acceleration starts.

Silver finishes another beer.  Overhead the projector has stopped the rain drops.  Now, little vines of various colored flowers are growing from the corners of the room, converging towards the center.

There's a noise of something outside.  Not the little tap tap taps from before. It sounds like footsteps.  But they stop and go back the way they came.  Then it's just the usual take off noises.

They are underway.

I'll let you handle any reactions you wish and then we'll get to the Jump point.  Let me know if there are any questions or concerns thus far.

Thanks

Ledo was grinning ear to ear as he took the controls. It was a nice easy first flight but that didn't take away the majesty of it for him. He had worked for the Empire for over two decades with little to show for it but some medals and a modest pension. This, this ship, this was what his life had been building towards. Everything else was just a prologue, a starting point for this chapter of his life.

Tepha could see the pride and joy in her boyfriend's face and she couldn't help but catch the same enthusiasm. A shiver of excitement passed over her as they left t he station behind. She had always flown with a passenger's vidscreen view but this, being on the bridge and hearing traffic control made it feel completely different. She was heady with the power. With a command they could change routes and go wherever in the universe they wanted to.

She walked over and hugged Ledo from behind, wrapping her arms around him and pressing herself against his shoulder. It was a magical moment and she was glad she could share it with someone special.

Rig let out a sigh of relief. He hated what Ledo had done, he still though the ship was a colossal waste of money compared to a nice new Far Trader but the Tia hadn't let him down. He would fix her, even if he had to replace every wire, every bolt, every transistor on the ship. He cursed Ledo a thousand times over the past week but what was done was done and he would be damned if he didn't make the best of it.

Silver strolled up into the cockpit and caught Ledo and Tepha kissing one another as the autopilot plotted them to their jump point. She held back some laughter and thought if she stayed quite and still if she would witness the captain "christening" his ship right then and there. The thought made her laugh out loud, breaking her stealthy approach.

Ledo jumped at the sudden noise. Silver was standing there...no swaying was a better description. Suddenly the magical moment had come to an end and his duties as captain and commander came roaring back into place. He reluctantly pushed Tepha away so he could stand up. The anger at Silver's behavior rising up like a tidal wave but years of command kept it in check. He would use every drop of that fury but he would do so strategically. He wouldn't be deploying it all in one explosive outburst but instead making Silver regret her poor choices over and over again.

"You. What the hell is wrong with you? Getting hammered before we're even off the ground? What would have happened if there was an emergency? That kind of behavior is unacceptable."

Silver tilted her head back, incredulous.

"Woah there. Last I checked I'm part owner of this little venture. I ain't one of your little privates."

She had to stop there and let out a giggle. Little privates.

Ledo's eyes narrowed. So that was what this was all about. She felt like because she had her name on the deed didn't mean she had to listen up.

"You're right, you're not a cadet. Even the greenest recruit would know better than to put everyone's life at risk this way. You might be a partial owner but that doesn't mean you get to ignore my rules. I own 65% of the ship and I can remove anyone's ownership with a simple majority vote. You will follow the rules of conduct on this ship or I will buy out your share and exit you out the nearest airlock. Understood?"

The edge he put into his voice and the fury set in his eye made it clear that the threat was not vague hyperbole. It wasn't that common but it also wasn't unheard of for captains to send crew out the airlock for gross incompetence or insubordination. The legality was grey but in general if a crewman was putting everyone's life at risk nobody would stop the process.

Silver found her high coming to a crash. Captain Buzzkill was getting all bent out of shape and throwing around contracts and finances at her. Maybe now wasn't the time to get into a fight. Maybe she should have checked with Rig first before lighting up. Eh. Most likely Captain Buzzkill just had a stick lodged up his kiester.

She decided the best avenue was to deflect and redirect.

"Sorry bossman. Captain. Captain Bossman..."

More giggling threatened to undermine her plan but she powered through it.

"I just wanted to let you know about the finger I found."

The anger and fury died in Ledo's eyes.

"The what!?

---

Ledo and the others were standing around the science scanner as it scanned over the finger Silver had found. Rig had confirmed it was perfectly preserved thanks to the miniature cryogenic unit. Ledo had decided to let Silver off the hook while they figured out this latest mystery.

"Maybe it's related to a bounty? This ship was owned by skip tracers. Is that a thing? Taking a finger back as proof of a reward?"

Tepha's eyes sparkled and her voice was full of excitement. Logically she thought she should be revolted by a severed finger but the mystery was just too exciting!

"Maybe it's a key? Like we can use it to bypass a biometric lock? Do we know who it belongs to?"

Rig scratched his beard. His mind was stuck in a loop. Just over and over he thought "now that's a weird thing to leave behind..."

Tepha's question helped him snap back to reality.

"Actually we might be able to. Autodoc can pull off the fingerprints and we can run them through the database. We can at least see if there is a warrant for their arrest or something. Let me see what I can do..."

OOC:
20:27, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 9 using 2d6+2.  medic check.

Silver was just in the background smirking. Her high and buzz were slowly fading off. She was starting to come to realize the implications of pissing off Ledo might be but for now her stoner plan had worked like a charm and she could just sit back and let the others work their asses off while she got back to riding the good vibes.

As they puzzled on this Tepha brought up her news.

"Speaking of mysteries, I've got one to toss into the mix. One of our low berthers is riding on a fake ident."

Ledo was the only one to keep an interested look on their face. Riding low berth wasn't exactly known for attracting high quality honest citizens.

"No, no, no you don't understand. I think she's Aje."

Ledo and Rig just shook their heads but Silver coughed in surprise.

"Seriously? Aje? What the hell would she be doing riding low?"

Seeing the others weren't catching on Tepha launched into a background.

"Aje is a model. She's the face for Izzaick's Cosmetics. She's pulled in millions from that campaign."

Ledo let the pieces click into place. They added up to potential trouble. He gave the nod to Tepha.

"Good catch. Let's wait until we're further out of the system and then wake her up. If she's running from something maybe we can help out, or at least keep a look out for trouble."

"Or kidnap her and hold her for ransom."

Ledo glared at Silver and Silver realized her mistake. Just like that she was top of the shit list again.

"Or not. Just brainstorming."

"We are not turning on our first batch of passengers. End of story."

That one was going to be a problem. Almost every crew had that person. The one who looked at every rule not as a lifesaving guideline but as a challenge, an obstacle to be broken or bent or overcome. That attitude was what made Silver useful but it also meant that Ledo was inheriting a headache.

---

OOC: To recap

1) Try to find the identity of the finger

2) Wake up Onyx/Aje for a chit chat.

3) Rig is going to just keep repairing stuff.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 38):

Nav-com signals.  The nearest optimal Jump point to Jone is about a hour and half away.  There are several more coming up as well.  Ledo doesn't have to rush.  But starting in an hour and a half, Jump is doable.

---

Rig pulls the protocol-fails and warnings.  The airlock outer seal needs an adjustment.  It shouldn't take long, but it will require a vacc suit.

Line 12U is the next big bugger.  He was sure that one was patched.  Which means it either developed another fault or it has a deeper issue.  He checks the diagnostics he ran on that line before.  They aren't showing anything unusual.  He can rerun the program.  Or he can just walk Line 12U himself.  Inspect it visually from start to finish.

The other stuff is all refinement-of-patches.  That will take a while.

---

The finger has a print.  But it's not in the Gen-Node of the Karin data webs. Then again, not many fingerprints are.

It might be on file with the Naval webs.  Assuming whoever this guy was either served or was apprehended by the Navy.  But that's not a system just anyone can log into.  Ledo doesn't have access any longer.  Maybe he can get someone at the Hath to look it up once they arrive.

---

Update Notification.  Please Acknowledge

Tepha can check a third or fourth time.  But it doesn't seem to be a mistake.  The Computer is sending a Priority 2 message to her comm.  Not Ledo's.  Not Rig's.  Not even Silver's.  Hers.

System Status

Cryogenic Respirator Functioning at 72%

All Vitals are within acceptable parameters.

No tissue damage noted.

Coolant standing at 52.  Below ideal levels.

Power Input is at 82%

System Failure in 6 hours 22 minutes.


Just to reiterate:

You can proceed to Jump within an hour and a half.  Or longer.  Just remember that time is money.

As for the rest, you're on your own to figure all that out.

Oh.  I almost forgot:  BLIND ROLL TIME!

That's right.  It's that moment in our game where you give me some blind rolls!

I need 2 rolls each from Silver and Rig.  So four total rolls.  2d each.  I'll add in the DMs.

You may assign the rolls however you want, either to Silver or to Rig.  So if you want to give one of them the better results, that's your prerogative.

I'm sure everything will work out just fine.

Rig decided to walk the line and see the problem with his own eyes when is comm rang. It was Tepha. He answered sounding very confused.

"Hey Rig, I just got an alert that says the low berths will run out of power in...6 hours. Did you add me to some kind of system so I get these?"

Rig's confusion just deepened.

"Ahhhh...no? I'm registered as chief engineer, everything should go to me for work details. Well, if I had a team to detail work to. Weird, I'll look into it. If it's going to be six hours we should be fine. I'll add it to the queue but we should be jumped before they run out so everything should be fine. Worst case we'll wake them up and they can ride in in the kitchen part of the way."

"Oh, okay. Let me know if I can help out with anything."

"Will do. Later Tepha."

He flipped open his phone and set an alert for four hours from now. He had other things like the airlock and the fuel line to look at first but if those problems went long he didn't want to forget about the low berths. On his backlog he marked it as critical and it started flashing red with about a half dozen other items.

He sighed and went back to walking the line. The sooner he got one problem fixed the sooner he could get to the next.

OOC:

19:42, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 9 using 2d6.  blind roll 2.

19:42, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 8 using 2d6.  blind roll 1.

This message was last edited by the player at 05:09, Tue 31 Mar 2020.

After their meeting Ledo went to the bridge to get everything set for the jump. With Tepha discovering that their low berths were running low on power the new plan was to get docked as quickly as possible.

It looked like he would get a chance to run those shiny combat thrusters after all. He double checked their flight time to ensure they could dock before power ran out and then heading back to the low berths to have a chat with Adj/Onyx.

OOC: Jumping ASAP. Tepha and Ledo will wake up Onyx about 30 minutes before jumping.

With Ledo and Tepha focused on the strange passenger and Rig busy with all the repair work Silver found herself alone again and started heading back to her room to finish off the last of the beer.

OOC:

19:46, Today: Silver rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,3.  blind roll 2.

19:46, Today: Silver rolled 7 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,3.  blind roll 1.

One other note.  Line 12U is a power line.  Not a fuel line.

The airlock seal is a pretty quick and clean job.  One of the hydraulic rollers is out of lubricant.  Rig spends more time getting in and out of the suit than actually fixing it.

Line 12U turns...interesting.  The line is one of the two main feeds to the emergency systems.  It and 12Q both terminate in to the back up atmo generator.  12U also powers the emergency lighting and air filters for the hydroponic garden.  The line runs down the center of the ship through the ceiling, dips down into the hydroponics, and then up to the back up atmo generator up by the Bridge.

At least on the schematics.

At some point, someone spliced it into oblivion.  From where the line descends to hydropoincs, it ceases to exist as a single line.  It becomes a writing mass of tentacles.  Rig pulls the panel where the splices start.  It's like staring into the maw of some octopodial horror.

A quick scan shows that the splices do still feed into hydroponics, most-though not all-of the emergency lighting (the hold and most of the cabins will go dark), and there is still a line to the back up atmo.  Though the amount of juice getting fed to it from 12U is only at half.  If the system switched on, as long as the feed from 12Q held, the back up would be good.  If 12Q was gone...which is why the back up has two lines feeding into it...back up would only be working at a quarter efficiency.

If that wasn't enough, the splices go freaking everywhere.  Outside of the lines that go where they're supposed to, Rig identifies five separate terminal points.  And no idea what they're doing.

There's one by the bridge.  One in Silver's room.  Two in the hold.  One in the kitchen.

The closest one is the Kitchen.  The furthest away is the one in the bridge.

---

Destination in 22 minutes.

Proceeding to Jump in 34 minutes.

The Nav Com accepts Ledo's authorization and locks the Jump coordinates.  The Ship is ready to jump.

He and Tepha head down to wake up Onyx.  As they cross the Hold towards the Low Berts, they both notice a smell.  It's an odor like a nut butter.  Almond butter maybe.

As they get closer, Tehpa suddenly slips.  She catches herself on a crate and looks down. The floor is slick.  It's coated in a thin, clear, jelly like substance.  It's the source of the odor.

As they come around the corner, they see the low berths.  The computer screen is flashing an ominous amber color.

WARNING

WARNING

WARNING

The screen suddenly goes to static then pops up again.

Coolant levels at

The screen goes on the fritz again.

WARNING

WARNING

There is a central pillar behind the low berth tubes.  From this pillar, lines run to the back of each tube.  Obviously the pillar is where the coolant used to freeze the tubes is kept because two of the lines are hemorrhaging coolant from them.

Everything smells like someone has thrown up almond butter sandwiches.  The window of each tube is completely frosted over.

---

Why did it catch her eye?

Oh little fly.  Oh little fly.
Why did you catch my eye?

Is that how that rhyme went?   And why the hell do they say to kids anyway?  Why would a kid care about a fly?

Silver stares at the Ridge Blow.

After everyone went their separate ways, Silver returned to her room and finished her last beers.

The idea suddenly came to her.  Maybe there's more beer in the kitchen?  At least some wine.  Would Tepha really come aboard without a bottle or two stashed somewhere?

So Silver ventured out.  In to the hallways beyond her hidey hole

And she saw the Ridge Blow.

It's an old trick.  A pirate crew targets a ship and has one of their crew hire on to the ship.  The spy goes aboard with a supply of Ridge Blows.  They come in all sizes and shapes.  Some look like fountain pens.  Some like gambling chips.  She'd even seen one packed into a vibrator.

But whatever the disguise, the Ridge Blow is a small device that can be triggered by either a timer or central radio switch.  Each Ridge Blow is different.  Most make a small amount of smoke.  They can also make small explosions-nothing serious.  But enough to make a huge amount or racket or blow open a power line.  Other Ridge Blows might house nanos that plug into a system.

The point is, the spy spends a few days placing Ridge Blows.  Then, at some point, they trigger them.  Silver's old crew, when they used that trick, would have the spy use smokers.  Suddenly the hallways would be filled with smoke. The computer would go nuts and trigger safety protocols.  The crew would get into a tizzy.  And the spy could sashay down to open the airlock or futz around with the control console or whatever.

This Ridge Blow is designed to look like a rivet head.  It's been laid over an actual rivet head sticking out of a support strut on the main hallway.  It's really a good disguise.  No one is going to necessarily look at a rivet head and go 'Huh.  That rivet head is just a little larger than the other rivet heads.  How odd', now would they?

Silver must have passed this by six or seven times already and not noticed it.  If she hadn't just been looking at the right time and at the right angle, she wouldn't have noticed it now.

But yeah.  That's a Ridge Blow.  Someone's planted a Ridge Blow on a rivet head on the second support strut between Silver's room and the Kitchen.

Rig is staring at the mess of splices at the same time that

Ledo and Tepha are seeing the leak at the same time that

Silver is staring at the Ridge Blow.

Twenty nine minutes until auto pilot commences Jump protocols

Silver flipped open her shiny new phone and commed the rest of the crew.

"Hey guys, we're about to be fucked. Hard. Just spotted a Ridge Blow. I'm going to go secure the passengers."

Without waiting for a reply she readied her snub pistol. Low berthers didn't move about the ship and it was possible, albeit unlikely, that the Navy and inspectors and station security missed it. What was more likely that one of their two passenger wandering around might be responsible. Time for Silver to play the cop once again.

She moved in close, inspecting the device to get a better feel for how long it has been there or how it was placed or perhaps even a clue on who placed it.

OOC: Investigation -> ...welp...
01:34, Today: Silver rolled 2 using 2d6.  investigation.


Satisified that there was no possible way this could possibly have been delivered any other way she headed back to the state rooms where their passengers were staying. She burst in with an override code and motioned for Ada and Sylvia to follow her.

"There's a security issue. We're working on it but I need you to follow me quickly."

She was tapping the pistol against her thigh. An old cop trick to remind people that it was there but without shoving it in anyone's face. Almost as an aferthought she added.

"Everything is under control, I just need you to follow me immediately."

She didn't answer any more questions, instead focusing to make sure neither of them grabbed anything suspicious on the way out. Then Silver led them down to the brig.

"Quick, in here. You'll be nice and secure while we resolve our investigation."

And just like that she forced the two women into the brig and secured their passengers turned prisoners.

OOC: Assuming nothing crazy happens (ha) she will try to politely get the two women into the brig using her cop persona but if they start protesting she will stick a gun in their face and throw them in there and just leave it up to Ledo and Tepha to smooth things over later.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:40, Wed 01 Apr 2020.

Ledo let out a stream of expletives even as he jumped into action. He ran to the nearest supply cabinet and pulled out emergency hull repair goop. For larger hull damage there were metal plates you could spot weld but for smaller holes from micrometeors or shrapnel instead there was a fast drying caulk to quickly, cheaply, and temporarily fill up a small hole while larger repairs were being handled. The ship might be old but it was well equipped with spare parts to handle the stresses and damage from combat.

Ledo starts applying the sealer to the leak in the coolant even as he barked orders. First he hit the comms to alert Rig.

"Rig! Low berth coolant tank has ruptured. Coolant is spraying everywhere. Get up here now!"

He clicked off his comm and turned to Tepha as he started to apply the sealant.

OOC: Let the bad luck continue...

01:46, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 4 using 2d6+1.  mechanic check?


"Try and find a status. We need to figure out if our passengers are still alive or not."

Tepha froze when she saw the mess. She wasn't used to these kinds of situations and while Ledo was moving immediately she just kind of froze. Her mind was empty and stuck trying to process what she was seeing. None of it made any sense.

Ledo's command cut through the air and her confusion like a knife. With her mind empty her body was acting on autopilot and when the voice of authority gave a command she listened.

She started tapping on the screen but she didn't know what to do or even what to look for. Then she remembered the ship had an autodoc and so she went to a terminal and brought the medical expert online.

"Computer, what is the status of the passengers in cryogenic sleep?"

She crossed her fingers hoping this would work out.

Rig was heading towards the kitchen when all hell broke loose. He heard Silver's comment about sabotage shortly before Ledo called him about a rupture in the cryo coolant tank.

He rushed towards the low berths. If they were going to get shipjacked then they needed every helping hand they could.

OOC: I don't know if Rig needs to  roll for this or not. Feel free to roll in my stead if it needed. I've been rolling like shit tonight anyway

System scanning...

Passengers have not yet passed unacceptable levels of cell damage.  Cryo-suspension had entered Stage 4 prior to malfunction.  Passengers were in deep enough state to not suffer.

Greatest danger lies in unregulated thaw.  Calculating survival projections...

The computer answers Tepha's question on what may be a hopeful note.

Ledo breaks open a cylinder with the patch goo.  He slaps some on one of the lines and smears enough on the second to get it mostly sealed.

Calculating....

Calculating...

---

The two women are in various states of dress when Silver walks in.  The older woman is in a black sequinced dress, putting a pin into her hair.  The younger one is only a skirt and bra, a blouse in her hand.

They both stare at Silver as she makes her announcement.  The older woman...was it Sylvia?..nods, seemingly unpeturbed.  "It must be serious.  We were just dressing for dinner.  I do assume we will still be fed, correct Ms...I'm sorry.  I don't think we've met.  I'm Sylvia Antwhite.  This is my daughter Ada.  Hurry along Ada. Don't dawdle." She picks up some earrings.

Ada isn't nearly as composed.  She gapes at Silver's gun.  "Uhh...Mother..."

Sylvia stops putting on the second earring and looks at her daughter.  "Dear.  I keep telling you. The best way to deal with a crisis is with a cool, measured head. Well.  Some vodka doesn't hurt either." She checks herself in the mirror and gestures at a purse on a nearby table. "Can I bring my purse?"

"Mother..."

Sylvia rolls her eyes.  "Really Ada.  You would drown if we left you outside in a rain storm.  Put your blouse on and pick up your shoes.  No.  Not those shoes.  They don't match your blouse.  Pick up the other ones.  You can put them on your feet when we get...wherever we're going.  She can can't she?" she asks Silver.  "Right.  Well.  Shall we?"

---

Rig comes around a corner onto the main hall.  Silver should be securing the guests somewhere in the hallway behind him.  Ahead, and in the other direction, is the stairwell leading down to the Hold.

As he makes the turn, he sees something move.  The door to his own state room is sliding shut.  Someone just went inside.  Or something like that.

With everything going to shit at once, why wouldn't someone have just ducked into his quarters?

---

Calculating...

Calculating...

---

Rig has made it to the main hall and seen the door to his quarters shut as

Sylvia is asking Silver 'Shall we?' as

Ledo has finished smearing goo to patch the lines as

Tepha, and probably you, want to slap the computer

Good Luck!

Twenty seven minutes until Auto Pilot commences Jump protocols

Rig opened up his comm.

"Someone just entered my room. Silver I need backup."

Rig drew his sidearm and trained it on the room. Whatever was inside would be trapped.

Silver's comm sqauwked.



Silver let out a curse and slapped the clothes from the women's hands.

"Dress up time is over. We need to move, NOW."

Gone was the "friendly police officer" persona and now was the "securing hostages in a firefight" persona. With one arm she moved Ada and Sylvia into a line and pushed them towards the brig. As quickly as possible she shoved them inside and then sealed the door behind her. Double timing it back she regrouped with Rig, making eye contact with him and then nodding before the two headed towards Rig's room. She motioned for Rig to get set up on one side of the doorframe and she stacked up on the other. She held up three fingers. Two fingers. One finger.

With practiced movement she hit the door panel to open the door and brought her gun to bear, peeking around the door frame to spy their mysterious intruder.

Tepha nervously tapped her fingers on the side of the console. It was doing its best and she didn't believe in hitting inanimate objects. What good would that do except maybe chip a nail or get an unsightly bruise. Her fingernails clicked against the metal.

Almost unconsciously she began to whisper...

"come on...come on... don't be dead...come on..."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:53, Thu 02 Apr 2020.

Ledo heard Rig's message and cursed.

"Tepha, you have to handle this. I've got to go help Rig."

Tepha looked up from the computer console, incredulous.

"What am I supposed to do?"

Ledo was already in motion. He called out without looking back.

"Just handle it!"

He raced up the stairwell drawing his laser pistol and moving towards Rig's room...

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 52):

Twenty five minutes until Auto Pilot commences Jump protocols

"Eeek!" eeks Ada as Silver slaps away the shoes.  They really are cute shoes too.

"Ada!" Sylvia snaps.  She holds up her hands.  "Alright. Alright.  We're cooperating. Come on Ada.  Hurry."  She instinctively puts an arm around her daughter's shoulder and moves her along, going in the direction Silver points.  They step inside the brig and glance back as Silver shuts the door on them.

---

Rig sees Silver approaching and takes position.  She counts down...and...

BAM!

It's Rig's room.  Lights out.  A quick voice command and the lights come on.

The room is it's usual sterile self.  Except for the far right corner.  Someone has pushed a box against the wall and ripped out the grate on the ceiling.  A quick scan of the room confirms it.  Unless it's a mutant dust bunny, whoever or whatever went through the grate.

Which means they're small.  Because the opening is about two feet by one foot.

Ledo runs up as the two of them are studying the grate.

---

...Calculating...

Coolant levels stabilizing.

Recalibrating systems.

Systems unable to recalibrate.  Damage report to follow.

Auxiliary activated.

Stabilizing temperatures.

Stabilizing biorhythms...

The computer spits out a list of problems.

Core temperature regulator damaged.  Estimated repair work:

Gauge 4 needs replacement.

Coolant filter needs replacement.

Feed Lines 2 and 7 ruptured.  Sealed but will need replacement.

Virus detected in Vitals Notification software.  Passenger information being transmitted.

Vitals Notification will need to be wiped.  Security systems overwhelmed.

Nutrient Monitoring system damaged.

Reboot of system recommended

Auxiliary Online.  Passengers stabilized.  Recommend conducting full scans.

It seems Tepha's prayer has been answered.

Twenty three minutes before Auto Pilot commences Jump protocols

Ledo was quite confused until Rig explained what had happened.

"Alright if they're pushing boxes around we're dealing with a person. Maybe a mutant, a dwarf, a child...maybe even a robot? I wonder if this is an assassination attempt. Rig I need you to go down and help Tepha with the low berth cryo. Silver, see if you can track it. I know, I know but follow the vent line and see if you can find its exit point.

I'm going to go check the security feeds and figure out just what we're dealing with."

With orders given everyone rushed out. Or at least everyone but Silver who took the time to shine a flashlight up the vent just in case their guest hadn't gone anywhere and was looking to double back.

On his way to the bridge Ledo passed by the brig and grimaced. He confirmed the lock was set so only a crew member could unlock it and then hit the comm to speak inside.

"My deepest apologies. It appears we have some kind of intruder or stowaway moving through the ventilation. Your rooms might have been compromised but the brig is on its own life support so this really is the safest place to be in at the moment. Once we figure out what is running around I'll be right back to let you out."

That being that he ran towards the bridge, securing the door behind him so again, only crew could open it, and then activating the ship's security measures and scanning through the surveillance feeds.

Rig rushed down to the low berths at full speed, as soon as he got to the slick coolant covered floor he slowed down so as not to slip. Tepha was by the control panel and breathed a sigh of relief when he showed up.

"Something is loose on the ship. Some kind of assassin or stowaway or something. Silver is tracking it. Head to the bridge. Ledo is looking at the cameras but if something is loose we need his gun."

With that said he looked over the control panel and got to work repairing what he could and bypassing what he couldn't.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:08, Fri 03 Apr 2020.

Tepha could not breath enough sighs of relief when first the computer said the passengers weren't dead and second when Rig came. Look over surveillance for an intruder? That she could do.

She hustled double time up to the bridge to relieve Leo and watch the feeds for the intruder.

Silver poked around with her flashlight making sure the vent was clear before heading back to her room to pick up the combat rifle. Whatever was running amok was going to get a full clip when she found them.

Weaponry secured she pulled up the ship's schematics and had the computer direct her towards the nearest exit point. She was running full tilt, time was of the essence.

In reply to Silver (msg # 57):

Rig goes through the list of damage.

Ledo's patch job is adequate.  But it won't hold long.  That goo will harden in Zero G.  But it stays goopy in atmo.  Worse, it may start to seep into the line and clog it.  Then it's the same problem, different minute.

But for now it should do.

Rig calls up a cryo-chamber schematic from the Computer's library.  The coolant chamber is located on the left side of each chamber.  It functions as a reservoir and valves seep the coolant into the cooling units.  So once the chambers refill in about...ten minutes, he can just seal them, remove the faulty lines, and replace them.  Then start the flow back up.  Easy peasy.  The chambers will run for two hours without coolant.  It will take twenty minutes to replace the lines.

Rig glances through the rest of the listed damage.

The Coolant filter...okay.  He can do that when he's replacing the lines.  His twenty minute work window went up to thirty minutes.   Easy.  Maybe not peasy.

Nutrient system...according to the library that can be done while the passengers sleep.  He can fix the coolant lines and set the computer to do that.

Gauge 4.  He checks the library.  Gauge 4?  That has nothing to do with coolant or nutrient systems.  It's the gauge that monitors chamber door pressure.  It also logs each time a door is open and shut.  How the hell did that get damaged.

The virus is weird.  How the hell did that get in there?  Was there a bug in the ship's mainframe?  Or, if the bug is on the cryochambers system, has it jumped on to the mainframe?  And what is it doing? Passenger information being transmitted?

Rig needs to go get some new line and the appropriate tools.  There's a parts closet in Engineering that will have what he needs.

---

The Slotts-Wexton DZ Oh 8-23 with a Rausch Blow Algorithm scope.

This isn't a combat rifle.  It's a way of life.  Oh yeah baby.  Oh yeah.

At least that's what the commercials say.  Silver makes sure it's ready to go and checks her comm for the schematic.

That vent runs towards the hallway and then hits a T intersection.  One leg goes up.  It runs across the ceiling and down to the other side.  It then splits, one bend heading to the kitchen and one to the bridge.  The other leg heads into the Hold.  If it went that way, it'll be a helluva time finding it.

Silver listens to see if she can hear anything.  Just then the atmo kicks on.  Damn time for temperature control.

She'll have to guess.

---

Tepha hits the bridge just as Ledo finishes the cross reference between the vent schematics, motion logs, and camera feeds.

Unfortunately, there's not much in the way of camera coverage in the vents.  Mostly just the main intersections.  The motion logs are even skimpier.  Then again, between air movement and vermin, the ship would almost always be logging motion in the vent system.

But combing all three gets them something.  First, the place in the Hold where that vent empties out is covered by one of the Hold security cams.  And it's clear.

If it didn't come out into the Hold or head back to Rig's room, it would have had to cross the hall ( which means it can climb) and head towards the Bridge or the Kitchen.

Vents heading on to the Bridge are covered by the motion logs.  It seems...hmmm.  Something was picked up twice at the vent cover that connects to the Bridge.  The first time, Ledo and Tepha were here.  It was when they left port.  The second incident was about a half hour ago.

But whatever it was didn't come onto the Bridge.

A look at that vent cover shows why:  the thing is welded on from this side.  Unless that thing was pretty strong, it couldn't have pushed through the vent grill.

It must have found it's way into Rig's room and was going to come down the hallway to the Bridge while everyone was out.

Well.  Assuming it's intelligent and wants to get on to the Bridge.  If this were a horror movie, it would.

But it's not like this is a horror movie.  Right?

Twenty mintues until Auto Pilot commences Jump protocols

Ledo hit the comms.

"Looks like our guest is trying to get to the bridge. I'll secure Tepha in the bridge and we'll regroup by the kitchen. That's the only place it can come out now."

With a nod he leaves Tepha behind and double times it to the kitchen.

"Roger that, boss."

She grinned as she double checked the mag on her rifle. Time for Betsy to come out and play. She only hoped Rig wouldn't get pissed about having to patch a few bullet holes.

She made a note to double check to make sure she hadn't loaded her armor piercing rounds. Those mags had the blue stripe on the bottom. Now would be a bad time to put a hole through the hull.

Rig needed to get to the engineering closet but he was first and foremost a computer expert and he did NOT want a virus running loose.

He pulled up the ship's security software and went to work squashing their virtual intruder.

OOC:
18:33, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 10 using 2d6+5.  +2 edu, +2 computers +1 ship's expert system.


While he did that he also loaded up the ship's virtual engineer to start getting systems in place so he can better repair the low berth life support.

OOC: Hot dog!
18:34, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 13 using 2d6+1.  virtual engineer.

Tepha was watching the feeds when she realized what Ledo had said.

it was trying to get into the bridge...

The bridge. Where she was now. Without a weapon. She looked around for something, anything she could batter it with. All she owned was a stunner and that was sitting back in her room.

She went back to the monitors, finger hovering over the comm button for the moment she could find the stupid thing.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 59):

Ledo arrives by the galley door as Silver is finishing her check.  The two of them peer through.

The kitchen is divided into four parts.

The 'galley' which is right ahead of them.  Though it's really just a space large enough for one long rectangular table with six chairs pushed around it.

On the other side of that table is an arch leading into the kitchen proper.  It's not the roomiest of places.  Two people in there at the same time is cramped.  There's a sink, an electric stove top, some cabinets, and a therma-oven.  Oh, and the coffee machine.  Arguably the most important piece of non-engineering equipment in the whole ship.

At the other end to the kitchen is the door to the walk in cooler.  It's actually a bigger room than the kitchen.  But then when it's well stocked, it also feels cramped.

Halfway between the kitchen arch and the galley door on the left is a door to a small toilet.

There are a number of vents in here.  But due to safety concerns, none of them connect to the same shafts.  The theory is that if a hole blows in the side of the ship, and the duct lines effected by the breach were closed, some vents would still allow air flow.

But that's not really important.  What is important is that the vent in question, the one most important at the moment, is the one that opens up over the sink.

Which can't be seen from the doorway that Ledo and Silver are standing at.

But they can hear a loud click.  Which is unmistakably the sound of a grate swinging open.

Or something swinging open.  It's that kind of sound.

---

The virus doesn't stand a chance.  Then again, it's not terribly sophisticated. It just latched on to the Vitals Monitor and copied the data, beaming it out to points unknown.  It was a pretty deep dig though.  It was pulling the genetic scan files and sending them.

Rig dials up the mainframe's support function.  He spies a quick way to get the system checks to fall in line and implements them.  The system whirs through it's checklists

Rig gets a boon on any one repair or Engineer roll he'll make during Part 1

Now he just needs those parts...

---

Tepha stares at the screen.

Nothing happens.

Tepha stares some more at the screen.

Nothing happens.

Then she sees something happen.

The camera is installed in the ceiling of the kitchen.  So she has a top down view.

On one side, she can make out the vent above the sink.  It's hard to see at first.  It's just looks like there's maybe little pieces of fuzz on the screen.  But then the grate moves.

It pops out and something behind it stops it from falling.  It pulls the grate back and into the duct.

And then it pokes it's head out.

And it's...

It's...

It's a Bugee.  It's dressed like a little fairy princess.  With a fun little wig of blonde curls set atop it's precious little head.  And this little pink chiffon gown.  It's a really pretty gown.  And there's sparkles all shaken all over it's fur.  Oh!  And it's eyes are heart shaped.

That is just adorable.  Just eat-it-up-scrumptious!

Really.  It if wasn't causing so much havoc, it would just be the cutest thing ever.

Sixteen minutes until Auto Pilot commences Jump protocols

Tepha's mouth opened in surprise.

"Guys...it's a Bugee! It's coming through the kitchen!"

Rig curses as he hustles to get the parts he needs from the Engineering closet.

"That piece of shit was why the cargo was delayed. One of the crates was seven pounds light. Little shit must have snuck aboard and been playing merry havoc this whole time."

Ledo looked at Silver and nodded towards the door.

"Only seven pounds? Must be some kind of mechanical saboteur. Let's finish this."

He charged through the door, looking for one of those stupid toys and preparing to make it eat laser.

OOC:

22:02, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 7 using 2d6+1.  pew pew lasers.

"Roger that. Lighting 'em up."

While Ledo fired more wildly from the hip Silver had been trained properly in breach & clear both as a pirate and as a police officer.

As usual Silver proved to be a quite effective combatant and demonstrated first hand why Ledo should want to keep her on the payroll.

OOC: Yowza. Probably one dead Bugee...
22:04, Today: Silver rolled 11 using 2d6+4.  +1 DEX, 1+ Laser sight +1 PHUD, +1 Guns.
22:05, Today: Silver rolled 11 using 3d6.  pewpewpew damage.

The Bugee jumps down on to the lip of the sink when Ledo's blaster strikes the grate it just left.  It looks up, a look of almost confusion in it's heart shaped eyes.

Or maybe it wasn't.  It's hard to tell in a moment when Silver's shot blasts the top of it's head off.

The Bugee's stubby little arms pinwheel and it falls backwards, into the sink.

From Tepha's POV, it just lays there, twitching.  Like a headless puppy that wants to play ball.

---

Rig finds the exact supplies he needs. This may be an easier fix than anything else he's done today.

Automatically Ledo and Silver move up and secure their victim. Ledo peers closely at it while Silver covers him. They are trying to figure out just what in the hell this thing was.

Rig keeps on fixing on.

The Bugee is twitching still.  But it's more like an autonomic reflex than an actual attempt at movement.  From the torn open neck, a metal prong emerges.

Some quick work with a knife opens the Bugee up.  Inside is a small metal exoskeleton.  Just without a head.

Even to Ledo and Silver's eye, this is obviously highly developed tech.  The metal seems like it would be too thin to support the Bugee.  But it's surprisingly tough.  The chest seems to be some kind of circuit board.  Soft lights glow under the board.

The frame spasms a little longer than seems to go dormant.  The lights go out.

Princess Bugee seems to have left the spaceship.

---

Rig has laid out the lengths of tubing and cut them.   He's blown air through them and determined they don't need any patches.  The coolant reservoir is almost filled.  He should be able to shut off the flow and get the tubes switched out in minutes.

The computer buzzes his com.  The reboot of the Nutrient system is complete.  It's back online.

The virus is wiped as well.  The mainframe has completed a scan and isn't showing any signs of contamination.

After that, the floor will need scrubbing.  The leaked coolant not only smells.  As it evaporates, it will poison the atmo.  Nothing serious.  But according to the computer it will make you nauseous for an extended period of time if enough gets into your lungs.

Can't have that.  This trip has already been crazy enough.

---

Eight minutes until Auto Pilot commences Jump protocols.  Running pre-Jump check now.  Please authorize

The Computer flashes up some screens.  Most of it is information that means nothing to Tepha.  But she does get the gist.  The computer is asking for someone in authority to okay something for Jump.

I'm sure everything will be fine.

Ledo charged up to the bridge to pause their jump. He had a sneaking suspicion that this sabotage wasn't just a random event but directed sabotage and the last thing he wanted was to jump with a malfunctioning drive.

When he got there he pointed Tepha towards the sensors.

"We're going to sweep the ship and see if we can't find any other sabotage. If this was a pirating attempt however there might be someone out there headed this way. I want you on the sensors sweeping for anything out of the ordinary. Load up the co-pilot program to assist.

I am pausing the jump and we will remain here until we've secured the ship but if someone tries to jack us we might have to jump for safety."

With that said he went to the controls and put a pause on the autopilot jump, killing their momentum to avoid any necessities for recalibration.

When all that was finished he went to the galley and pulled out two meals. Time to apologize to their guests.

---

"I cannot express how sorry I am to have put you through this..."

The door to the brig was still locked but Ledo had used the tray to push through the two meals.

"We discovered some kind of robotic assassin robot that had hitched aboard with our cargo. It's been moving through the ship using the ventiliation ducts and performing sabotage this whole time. We think it nearly killed the low berth passengers by sabotaging the cryogenic systems which is why we wanted to secure you as well. It turned out to not be very dangerous, barely more than a toy, but it appears to have been sabotaging systems all over the ship. We'll make sure to check on you every once and awhile though to get you anything you need. Don't worry about using the toilet in there. We'll sweep your rooms first and once we're sure there aren't any "surprises" left behind we'll move you back.

Again, apologies for this but I hope you understand if we were rude or aggressive it was only because we were concerned about everyone's safety."

To illustrate the point Ledo pushed his comm up to the window so the two women could see the blown apart remains of the Bugee saboteur.

"Like I said, basically a kids toy but it was built for stealth and we haven't been able to fully account for its movements throughout the ship."

Tepha slumped down into the co-pilot's chair with a sense of relief.

it was just a toy...it was just a toy...it was just a toy...

As a child she had a been a huge fan of horror movies. She had squealed in joy and terror at holovids of mutant alien monsters moving through the vents and murdering the crew one by one.

As she sat there tapping out active sensor sweep patterns she was suddenly very thankful she had hooked up with Ledo. He had directed everyone with calm confidence under fire, Silver had operated like a trained commando and Rig didn't ask questions, he just ran around fixing everything. They all seemed to be in their element and Tepha was struck with the realization that she was so much younger compared to them, and not just in terms of her age. They had all seen combat and catastrophe and she really hadn't. She had faced other dangers like when she had gone up against Governor Roarke but that had been an existential threat, not a physical "we're about to die" threat.

Her heart wouldn't stop pounding against her chest. Ledo was right, maybe this was just the first step in a pirate attack. Someone like her would be quite the prize for a marauding band of pirates and slavers. The thought of being forced into slavery, of having to pleasure some greasy disgusting outlaw was physically repulsive to her. She resolved to herself that if they arrived at Jone she was going to use some of her savings and purchase a weapon for herself. Like Ledo and the others she would carry it at her side at all times in space so she would have an easy way out if the worst came to pass.

OOC: Well done Tepha!
12:25, Today: Tepha Pezal rolled 12 using 2d6+2.  +1 sensors, +1 ship's asssistance.

Right now they didn't have a good place to store the robotic assassin but it was only seven pounds so Silver decided to just carry it with her.

First she carried it down to the cargo hold with her pistol pressed against it if it so much as twitched but once down there she wrapped the thing up in heavy duty cargo straps and then just hooked it on her belt. It bounced and banged but she was happy to know it wasn't going to come back to life and wreck havoc without going through her first.

With the robot secure she started sweeping the ship for more explosives. She tried to get into the mind of the thing, tracing its path from the cargo hold to where they had cornered it and looking for more odd bumps on the walls. Now that she knew it was the size of a large doll she had a better idea of what areas to focus.

OOC: Trying to track down more explosive ridge blows.

Oooh boy, great job Silver!

12:37, Today: Silver rolled 12 using 2d6.  investigate - trace robot's movements.
12:37, Today: Silver rolled 7 using 2d6.  recon -search for more sabotage.

When the system was ready Rig sprang into action swapping out tubing and making sure all lines were secure once again.

OOC:
I effed up this roll. I meant to roll it with a boon. I ended up rerolling the same thing. It didn't record it but for the first roll I got 1,4,3 so +2 = 9

12:41, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 9 using 3d6+2, dropping the lowest dice only with rolls of 3,2,4.  repair - life support + boon.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 72):

Ada takes the tray and moves to place it on a table.  Sylvia stands, arms crossed, frowning, as Ledo begins.  But her eyebrows go from sloping downwards to upwards as he continues.

"Oh damn.  I hope it's not the Red Bureau."

Ada looks up quickly when Sylvia says this.  She steps away from the table, like the dinner was about to catch fire, and starts glancing around.

"Calm down dear.  They can't get us in here.  Well.  Unless they unlock the door.  But...just calm down."  Sylvia studies the doll.  "Well.  If they were going after the low passengers, it probably wasn't us they were after.

"I...Well.  I don't want to give you information that may be false.  It was only for a moment.  But...when we saw the low berth passengers walking by earlier.  I thought one of them looked familiar.  Like an old pirate who was big news in the Jone system.  It was about a decade ago.  And I only caught a glimpse.  What was the name...what was the name..."

Sylvia shakes her head and the rubs her temples.  "Oh.  Hell.  Scrabbers?  No.  That's too cartoon.  It ended with an -ers.  I'll try to remember.  Anyway.  I could be wrong.  But...given the situation, I suppose I should mention it.

"If you can have the young lady grab us something more comfortable from our luggage. And necessary hygenics.  She'll understand. The young lady.  Not the shooty-growly one with the scar. Thank you."

---

The lines go down like butter.  Well.  What butter is supposed to go down like.  Rig's maybe never had real butter.  Maybe a fungal based imitation.  Then again maybe he has.

The point is:  the line repair goes pretty smooth.

The computer seems to be wrapping up the various reboots.  Rig finishes doing some routine maintenance.

Everything looks like it's going to be fine.

No harm done.

---

Maybe it's the last vestige of the drugs leaving her system.  But Silver is On It Like Sonic.  Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.  She seems to be remembering a lot of shit from her childhood.  Well.  What passed for her childhood.

She becomes one with the Bugee.

Starting from the crate, she's able to make some educated guesses that turn out to be right.  A grate left open here.  A smudge of grease there.  It looks like the Bugee got into the crate, probably about the time Rig was loading the cargo.  It must have tried to make it the bridge shortly after the ship took off.  It was probably what she heard in the grate earlier.  That must have been when it tried to get to the bridge the first time.  Ledo and Tepha would have been there.  So it must have held off doing anything.

After that?  It was on the move. Checking most of the grates in the crew quarters and Hold show them loose.  It was exploring.

She finds a couple more Ridge Blows.  Both rivet types.  One's low to the ground.  The other higher up.  About head level for Rig.  But it's on a strut in the hall, and those things have holes up the side.  If it could climb through the vents, it could climb these struts.

Silver quickly comes to realize a basic truth:  star ships have a lot of rivets in them.  It's going to take some time to go through all these.

---

Tepha dials back the receivers 1, 2 and 4 while pushing up 3 and 5.

Two ships are confirmed, one spinward and one trailing.

The trailing one has a Call ID of O77O2I990B-769.  The library shows it to be a ship named My Wife's Ulcer.  Captain is Wilmark Oberitz.  A trader.  No known criminal affiliations.  A scan seems to indicate My Wife's Ulcer is just gearing up for Jump.

The spinward ship just jumped in about a quarter of an hour ago.  It's a huge boat.  Call ID IZM-O77-824-NJE-9-9.  A naval cruiser.  The IZM Keelhaul.  It's stationed at Jone but makes patrols to Karin as part of it's usual run. It's not paying too much attention to you.  Just seems to be readying itself before heading into Karin's system.

Once everyone had a minute to themselves Ledo called for everyone to reconvene at the galley. Rig gave his status report of how repairs were going, Tepha informed them that local space was not only clear but there was a naval vessel on patrol, Ledo shared that their high passengers thought they might have a pirate on board and Silver showed off her collection of miniature explosives.

"Alright. I think we've delayed things long enough. Hopefully the Bugee was going to be responsible for the signal to detonate any remaining items. It looks like whatever was going to happen is going to be waiting for us in the other system. I'm going to activate the jump but I need everyone on standby.

Rig, get ready with the emergency overrides. If smoke bombs start popping off throughout the ship we need a way to disable them quickly. If necessary let's prepare to vent atmosphere from key decks. We can keep everyone in cryo, seal off the garden and move our passengers to the bridge and just vent the smoke before it clogs up life support.

Tepha, you're on steward duty. Our high priced passengers need to be made comfortable until after we jump. Get them whatever they need, wait for the jump and then escort them back to their quarters.

Silver, you get to clean up cryogenic coolant. Consider this your punishment duty for skipping out on cargo duty earlier.

Alright, everyone move out. Keep your comms open and, when possible, keep an eye out for more of these blasted bombs."

That being said Ledo heads to the science scanner to do a chemical analysis of one of the explosives. Time to find out what surprise was in store.


19:47, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 11 using 2d6+1.  science!!! on explosives.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 77):

The Computer whirrs and makes a lot of impressive noises.  It comes back with it's results of the Ridge Blow.

Analysis complete.

No explosive elements detected.

Components are indicative of sonic production.  Device would emit audio waves in the range of 125 to 145 decibels.  Ranges would cause pain and discomfort to most known sentient life forms.

These are sonic grenades.

---

Everyone gets ready...

Ready to jump?

Ledo first issues out the order for everyone to pick up ear protection from Rig and then he pulls the controls and authorizes the jump.