Tesla is, of course still paying attention as matters are discussed - he seems to be able to conduct basic repairs without really requiring any conscious effort on his part, and delicately reattaches a small lose cable to the soft binary ripple of a soothing data-psalm, reassuring the dim spirit of the lighting emplacement that it will be returned to full function by this act, much as a man might sooth a fractious pet.

 When reassembled and lightly dabbed with a speck of oil on its corner it flashes back into full function and the Explorator begins a slow circuit of the room, studying the artwork as he remarks "It will be necessary to establish a complete list of such components as were not delivered. Much has been neglected in the absence of diligent pastoral care."

Alexei assumes the Enginseer Prime has gotten the message and shifts his attention to Vormav and the Lady-Captain, trying his best to spot any more bugs or listening devices, though he doubts he'll be that lucky again.

 The sudden, fluid movement of one of the Explorators hands and a short 'ssst' of compressed gas is followed by a brief, angry-sounding burst of Binary as something either happens or fails to happen which he doesn't approve of, and a moment later he's dismounting the entire picture he's standing in front of, to reveal a diminutive insect-like object which he smoothly proceeds (after a little chasing) to capture with a blob of adhesive and a tumbler from the table, brought to him by the servo-skull.

 Carrying it to said table, he stands in the position his seat originally occupied and examines it while motioning for the others to continue, the slick-click sound of lenses switching out behind his mask just barely audible over the soft buzz of scanning noises from the servo-skull.

 ---

15:51, Today: Jak Tesla rolled 53 -- a simple failure using the Warhammer Test system with a target number of 49.  Conducting a RAID.

Searlait takes in the information that Vormav tells her and she jots down little notes in her own slate, Contaminated water, have tanks scrubbed clean and refilled from planet or suitable comet/asteroid. 50% machine parts lost, get inventory of primary needed parts, search for parts on planet if affordable. Promethium stocks dangerously low, bring up to minimum 60% as available. Less rats then normal, predation? Investigate? before turning at the sound of the Enginseer Primus dismantling the picture and capturing what at first appeared to be an insect but is determined to be some sort of advanced surveillance device.

"Magos, is there some what you can cease its collection of information without destruction and search the room before we go further?" those who look upon her not that she isn't shocked by the spying device, more annoyed that it was there and a knowing face that there are probably more throughout the ship.

Vormav noted everything down "The contamination should be dealt with easily enough. I expect the Magos and his staff will furnish me with a new acquisition list as soon as the inventory is completed, naturally my staff has knowledge of such things." he rolls his eyes at that. Growing up in the hive low grade tech Heresy was practically a way of life. But the forms had to be followed. "As for the promethium. I may be reduced to buying from the stocks of another ship in orbit if I can find it at all. It might be more economical to ask the new Warpguide to find a close planet with available stocks."

He continued through the revelation of the listening device as if nothing had happened. But cuts off when the captain remarks on it directly. "I'll add a review of which of the crew accessed this room most recently. But I expect the sauce is too public for the information to be useful."

"If you need to contact the other traders in orbit you can try the Cowlan Blue or the Grey Star maybe the Niger Porcus, they are on their way back into the Imperium and may have spare stock." She tells Vormav as she waits for the Magos to answer and adds "Make a list but do not act on it yet."

"I imagine Master Vormav will have lists of people to investigate in due time," Alexei adds, visibly more open now that the bug he noticed has been squashed. "This is not a battlefield I am familiar with, but I may have resources you might find useful. Let me know if I can assist in any way. In the meantime I will assign more voidsmen to the protection of the Lady-Captain's household. Madam, is there anyone you wish to nominate as the head of the detachment?"

"Thank you Mister Talionis, as the situation develops and information is had I will be sure to distribute it as needed. For now I will keep Órlaith as my Chief of protection, all concerns about security should go through her, I've known her for decades and trust her emphatically." She responds to the first officer "What is the situation with your departments?"

Alexei switches his dataslate to display the actually-relevant reports for the departments under his command and personal observations that he’s compiled over the last few weeks before sliding it over to her. This includes a list of the Lament's vehicle assets, a chart of the vessel's main crew departments (the Mechanicus contingent ends in a simple box labelled OMNISSIANIC HIERARCHY, while he's fairly sure Vormav's branch is out of date, but exactly who is under him is a number known only to Vormav and the Emperor Himself) with key appointment holders highlighted. Vormav, himself and Tesla are close to the top, with only Searlait above them, as well as a brief summary of events that have taken place since the demise of Captain Velspar up to Searlait's arrival.

Since Searlait presumably has working eyes, he does not mention much about their contents, instead talking about the details which are not covered within. Despite being more open following the removal of the bug, he still sticks to a just-the-facts approach, a clear sign that he's trying to assess the boundaries he has with the new boss, especially since he's fairly new to the position himself after the previous First Officer Commander Locke retired.

"I will arrange for Master Asgard to liaise with Miss Órlaith regarding the retinue in question, and I will have their quarters moved closer to your apartments."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:40, Sun 11 Dec 2022.

Sliding through the various slots of the data-slate she says "My thanks, but have it set near Master Velspar's quarters as I plan to start renovations as needed in the upcoming weeks, if possible I would like a full sweep of the apartments for weapons and bugs if you could."

 While paying attention - it would seem, since he was able to once again state "Engineseer Prime." as a corrective - Jak primarily has been involved in disassembling the tiny device he's discovered, the tech-priest having produced what amounts to a jewellers loupe worth of tools from his person and spread the artificial roach across the table in front of him.

 In due course, he makes his report.

 "The device records across a wide spectrum but does not transmit or receive, rather it is activated by a specifically coded sequence of light outside of unaugmented human visual range.  As a consequence of its design, it is not readily detectable at range. Conversely, it is not able to report remotely and it may be possible to identify the one who placed it by monitoring it henceforth in order to determine how collected data is captured from it." - as he speaks, he's reassembling the device with the same tools that he used to take it apart - "On an unrelated issue, while the current state of the Pious Lament can best be assessed as 'technically voidworthy', there are numerous ship sections which have not been inspected in too long in addition to which records of maintenance and repair are egregiously incomplete. A complementary concern is the state of undeclared war in existence between too many of the vessels machine spirits, their harmonious unity having been disrupted by cause or causes unknown."

 That's right, he's here for a briefing, isn't he?

"It shall be done," Alexei nods. Not by him, of course, but Vormav and Tesla ought to have specialists in this field who can perform a proper sweep.

"Enginseer Prime, Master Vormav, since we are here, can you give me the names of individuals you would trust to survey the late Lord-Captain Velspar's quarters? I will place my assistant Dmitri in charge of documenting the findings, along with other trusted individuals."

OOC: You don't have to actually name anyone, just say "X mentions a few people" and so on.

 "At this time, I cannot do so." the Enginseer answers flatly, although some arcane impulse does at least prompt him to add a moment later, for the benefit of those thinking with only organic elements "Every communicant of the Adeptus Mechanicus aboard the Pious Lament predates my arrival. To the extent that they are communicant of the Omnissiah, they are to be trusted implicitly. To the extent that they may not be at least peripherally connected to the suspicious events which took place aboard ship prior to my arrival, they must be considered potentially compromised until evidence to the contrary can be acquired."

"A fair point. We might need to employ bastion theory then. Clear an LZ, establish a bastion, use that as a base of operations to further clear more ground, or verify more personnel, as it were. "

The Enginseer Prime reassembles the device on the table and during his examination has been able to ascertain the simple infra-red light sequence that turns it on and off and the signal that triggers a data dump.

The servo skull that identified the miniscule powers signature of the device still registers at a reduced level until a second device is found under the table and turned off with the same signal. Now the occupants can be certain that their conversation will be private as intended.

OOC Just pushing things along a bit, nothing more to find here.
.

 Members of the Adeptus Mechanicus do not, on the whole exhibit delight but there seems to be an element of that in the way Jak triggers the recording device with carefully modulated microlumen-pulses from his tool kit, capturing the download and examining it to see whether or not the listening device has captured evidence of prior meetings in its onboard memory.

 While he's doing this, Yasha is flitting about the room emanating the same pulse-sequences and this leads to the capture of the second bug (which receives the same treatment as the first), leading Jak to declare "This pattern of listening device has been secured. Devices responding to different preconditions and of different model may yet be in operation, but there is no evidence at this time to suggest that this is the case."

Vormav nods then the Magos confirms the bugs have been handled. "I suppose now would be the time to mention that my predecessor had been embezzling quite heavily from the ship's funds. His co-conspiritor is very likely still at large. I expect his death was related.

He ponders and adds I should also amend that I was using 'rats' as a euphemism for the mutant tribe that makes residence in the between decks. As much as I enjoy flagrant speculation, their inactivity could be as benign as they have been drinking from the contaminated water tank or could be related to the unauthorized surveillance." he gestures to the bugs at that last.

"Enginseer Primus, if you could have servo-skulls or servitors assigned to the scanning and apprehension of any listening devices that would be appreciated, as well if you can attempt to confirm the loyalties of your staff to the Mechanicus and the Dynasty, Explorator Draccius may be useful as an outside source should you need to rely on someone." She says to the Magos before turning to Vormav.

"That is disconcerting but not altogether that surprising, try to recover what you can and uncover who else was involved, as before do not move to apprehend them just collate data and we can attempt capture the whole lot, I have a potential use for them that will require the assistance of the Mechanicus."

She waits a few more moments to see if anyone has anything else to say before getting on with the business that she knows may stir the pot. "Now, the mission that we have been assigned by the Senatorum Imperialis to investigate into the Sinkhole for a planet that has mysteriously appeared and at first glances appears to be an industrial planet called Gelron from Segmentum Tempestus. We have a known opponent in a rival trader, Gilvan Vexel. I would like all information we can gather about him, his dynasty, their assets and most importantly find all information on the Emperor’s Glory. Will we be able to stand up to it in a fight if we have to; will its complement of troops outnumber us or are they a raider and we have to worry about a knife in the back."

Alexei makes a note to pull up a dossier on "Gilvan Vexel" and his dynasty. Recovering an industrial world would be quite a prize and yield great profit for the Dynasty, but of course the path there will ahrdly be smooth sailing.

 "There is a non-zero possibility that the mutant clans formed in the dead spaces of the Pious Lament are engaged in ritualistic maintenance." the Engineseer reports, the deafening irony of that statement entirely escaping him, "As for the theft, is there any possibility of locating or recovering the missing Gelt?"

 The Traders request meanwhile, is answered with a speculative "There is little possibility of success in this venture. These listening devices operate at power levels below those of background machinery and are controllable only so long as they respond to the code signals that these units answered to. More security may be had by holding the meetings at irregular times and in irregular locations, at the concurrent cost of efficiency. It is for you to concern yourself with the relative priority of each. Conversely this reduces the possibility of the hypothetical mutant tribe being responsible for their deployment significantly. These are not crude or easily deployed devices."

Vormav rolls his eyes at the tech priest "I was avoiding speculation but if you insist. If I needed to carry out a covert operation on this ship and I didn't have exclusive access to high priority areas of the ship and a small army at my command it might be useful to have a staging area on the vessel, weather it is a barracks for an armed force or a vox relay to communicate with allies or a workshop for the storage and maintenance of my listening devices. Making use of the dead spaces in the vessel for such an activity could be reasonable. So predation, as the captain said, may well be the answer. Predators with two legs and a Lasgun rather than fangs and claws."

He takes a breath "In any case, there is no solid recovery plan for the embezzled funds. I expect a large portion of them left with my predecessor when he died on Port Wander. But I suppose he may have stuffed his mattress with bank notes or what have you. Investigation pending."

He listens intently to the new mission "I'll collate a report immediately. The name sounds familiar, perhaps a story from one of the crewmen or an old incident report. If there is anything documented my staff will find it."

"If there are mutant clans present a threat then we should mobilise the shipborne troops and purge them, should they be non-detrimental at the moment then we can tolerate their presence for now and as we bring the ship to a better state of repair we can gather them and either terminate the mutants or deposit them at a munitorum depot for labour or penal legion service." she says with obvious disgust at allowing mutants to survive but as needs must.

"If we can recover the gelt that is well, if not then it was already lost to us so it is not as much of a loss. If we can at least discover whom was involved and plug the leak. Keep it secret for now what we search for but once you have uncovered what you can in secret gather those involved and their families. I will get a space cleared for your use and ask Orlaith if she and Asgard can get a team to you, liaise with either of them to determine suitable crewman to recruit."

"We employ a man to keep them in line. The loss in food water and air to allow them to live has not been worth the cost to remove them at this point. Understandably they occupy areas of the ship that no one knows very well. So the military action that would be needed to remove them is surprisingly expensive. I have the theoretical figures put together if you want them." He taps at his dataslate for a second.

"In any case they themselves are probably not a threat. But if something is displacing them it might be. With your approval I can make the request to Mr.Talionis for additional ship's security to be assigned under my Twist Catcher's command."

 "At this point, rectification of the difficulties being suffered by the Pious Lament is unlikely to be achieved within the lifetime of those in this meeting, juvenat treatments notwithstanding. Fifteen hundred years of accumulated neglect and growing backlogs cannot be addressed without a significant increase in resources or an extended period spent in drydock." the Explorator states, when her state of repair is brought up "With this stated, the vessel is combat-capable and may be considered fit for such voyages and duties as do not take it beyond the possibility of assistance if it should prove necessary."

Alexei nods in response to Vormav's statement. "If Master Vormav finds it necessary and you wish it, I will arrange for manpower and resources to be devoted to the mutant-eliminating effort. It has not been done at the moment for reasons he has already outlined. Is it feasible to use them as disposable assets for covert work?"