More Pieces Of The Pie

    Wednesday, 097-1114:
Strangers, Promises and Luggage
     Mikah, Colinne and Sekea were spending the afternoon visiting Ghandi's Museum of Natural History.  Jocelynn was working on her stent practice in her bedroom until dinner while Rol investigated the response links in the suite's common area.  Aiden was browsing recommended concourses on the station's sales area until dinner.  Zimzod was in an all-day gunnery class.  Aali was in the station's detention and Fesic and Kuki were enjoying an overflight tour of Ghandi's geology into the evening.  While working on her psi practices, Jocelynn's concentration was broken by the buzz from her comms.  Answering, she found it was the broker calling her.

Excited, the man told Jocelynn he'd had an offer of KCr 300 from a client looking to buy the Zhodani armor she'd included in the list of items for sale.  Of course, she'd decided since then not to sell the suit since the computer might have information that could drive their selling price up.  She only the realized she'd forgotten to take the suit off their list.  Jocelynn said she didn't want to sell the armor yet and apologized because she'd not told him after they made the decision.  Jocelynn knew the man was disappointed, but not much.  He'd already made quite a deal of cash "helping" her crew, and they both knew it.  Still, before she let him go, she asked his help filling their cargo bay with another ten tons of sale items.  She knew the luck in selling the cargos she'd bought so far would more than pay their bills.  But extra lots could help if their luck faded, or bring them extra spending money if their luck held.

Looking over the other currently available loads, the man reviewed them and told her the benefits and minuses each represented.  The theme of his discussion was the comparative profits she "could get" with both good and bad luck in Lanth.  There were loads which wouldn't yield a decent profit even if they had the best of luck.  And he advised against buying those.  Where lots could yield higher levels of profit, he talked about the percentages and levels of luck vs "good buys".  Jocelynn decided to buy ten tons from the available lot of vehicles.  The day before, Jocelynn had asked and been told the lot was a shipment of "high-end grav cars" for KCr 60, which was a steep discount.

The good news was that the broker could assure her they were getting a deal on the lot.  Forty percent of what he'd expect on the freight.  That meant they'd not be relying too heavily on luck when they sold the cargo in Lanth.  Of course, that was "if" they sold the cargo there, because she was all too aware they might face a blockade of some kind thanks to the bounty on their heads.  Also, Lanth wasn't specifically a wealthy world and "high-end" meant they would appeal to wealthy buyers.  That would limit the markets they could sell to, but they could cut their price if needed, and still make a profit.

Aiden had been wandering the station's concourses with his Vermene team while he searched for anyone selling stent wafers.  More specifically, he wanted to find a wafer that provided him skill in zero-gravity movement and fighting.  Sadly, the tech in the Ghandi system didn't support the higher tech manufacturing needed to create the wafers.  In addition, the shopping patterns of the system didn't show a real demand for wafers.  So, Aiden knew it would be a long and hard hunt no matter if he found them on the Ghandi concourses or not.  So, he worked his way through the places he'd been directed to by the Order house.

It wasn't very long before Aiden noticed he and his detail seemed to be followed by a man.  When he mentioned that to his detail, they shrugged and one of the men said, "Yeah, it's a reporter."  The word "it" showed the Vermene had little to no regard for reporters and Aiden couldn't disagree thanks to his experience.  Especially, the events on Rhylanor two years before.  Nodding to his escort, Aiden accepted that and decided to just move on.  Still, their "tail" was persistent, and it was just more than an hour after he first saw the man that the one was met by two more.  Along with a change in numbers came a change in tactics, as the three then started to approach Aiden's team.

Getting close enough, the lead man asked, "Sir Aiden, can we ask you a few questions?"  Evaluating the man as he'd approached, Aiden was certain he'd never seen or met the man before.  Aiden told the man, "Not in this location.  If you call my suite, we may be able to arrange something in a more secure setting.  But not at this time."  Nodding, the lead reporter asked if Aiden would consider doing an interview?  He added that he was authorized to offer Aiden Cr 5,000.  When Aiden only repeated the same answer to the augmented question, the reporter stopped him and said they were willing to return to his lodgings with him but just wanted to make the interview offer, along with the offer to pay.  Aiden only repeated it was not the time or place before telling the reporter to call him later.

Aiden added that his schedule was not as free as it seemed, so he wanted the reporter to wait so he could speak with his crew.  Aiden said they'd decide what would happen at a later time.  When the reporter asked when he should call, Aiden told him, "Later tonight."  Thanking Aiden, the man also nodded in respect before he turned and left Aiden to continue shopping.  When the three were far enough away, Aiden called the others instead of considering his situation like an adult and coming up with his own solutions.

In the system's Natural history museum, Mikah, Colinne and Sekea were enjoying the displays and halls when a man they welcomed walked up to their group.  It was Mr. Indama walking up with a contemplative expression.  Greeting Mikah and the others, Indama's expression turned concerned as he asked Mikah if her crew were no longer happy with their deal?  Confused, Mikah asked why, and what her people hadn't done?  Indama reminded her it had been days since Colinne had found the position paper, which wasn't more than a start.  From Tukera's point of view, there was a gap the crew weren't closing.  Or working on while they were at the museum.

Of course, Colinne had found a position paper.  But, then, she had to step away the next day for four hours on the Order house range, then had to join the crew to attend the funeral for station security.  After the funeral, Colinne had worked into the evening until choosing to relax.  The next day, Colinne had returned to the Order house for her second weapon before returning to the suite and the going out with Mikah to a museum.  So, while the Order house testing and funeral were valid answers, Tukera saw a two-day gap where the crew wouldn't be on station that much longer.  So, they were justifiably concerned about "their investment."

Despite Colinne's entirely reasonable absences, there was a fast-approaching limit on what she could do for Tukera.  Mikah had to accept that, and so she decided they should return to the suite after finishing up the museum.  Sadly, Mikah and the others weren't the only ears that had heard Mikah's name.  So had some of the other visitors, who'd then turned to realize they had celebrities in their midst!  It was the sudden spreading gathering that convinced Mikah they should leave sooner than later.  Mikah told Mr. Indama they were leaving to get back to work, and led her people and detail out of the museum and back to the suite.

With Colinne returning to her terminal at the suite, Mikah had planned to catch up on medical journals and reorganize their medbay.  That was a nod to making sure if she needed medical supplies before leaving the system.  Briefly spending a moment back at the hotel, Zimzod had gone to his gunnery class while Fesic had reconnected with Kuki for the over-flight tour of Ghandi's geology.  In detention, Aali was working on her own stent training and exploring what devices she could reach.  Aali also spent time working to set up small and simple applications that could move her from place to place in the computer's file system.  And, to activate alarms in the detention cells or even on the station if she had to protect herself.

Sekea said he had to go shopping for luggage because he'd not bought anything to replace the travel gear he'd had aboard the King George.  So, Sekea told the others he was going shopping and wondered if the others wanted to come along?  When he got no others, he led his detail off to shop on his own.  As he wandered towards the concourses he planned to browse, he also got on his hand-comp and looked for recommendations.  His lack of experience was due to several reasons.  When he was a child, born to a sister of the Baroness that held the system in fief, there were always servants to pack everything for trips except his most personal possessions.  So, he'd learned little to nothing of luggage and packing there.

He'd passed from his formative and teen years to further education in a naval academy where collecting possessions was heavily frowned on.  He would later learn that the storage limits for possessions in the academy were even more limited than they'd be while serving aboard some of the ship's he'd be assigned to during his career.  As a junior officer, most often sharing a cabin with another officer of similar rank, he'd had the luxury of more space for possessions.  And the greater the rank, the more space to share the increase in his responsibilities.  Still, all his possessions could easily fit into a suit bag, hard-sided "rolling gun locker" and one large self-mobile suitcase with a tracker that allowed it to sense where Sekea moved and follow him on grav lift modules.  Of course, all that gear had been lost, except whatever he'd been wearing when the King George broke up while emerging from the misjump.

That meant this really was the first time he had to deal with deciding what units to buy to move everything he had to.  Facing that mission, his first thought was that he needed to somehow get enough luggage to move "everything" he owned from the Upgrade in the event he had to shift his gear.  He knew there had been crew who'd left the ship, such as now Baroness Inger Martinusdtr Vik.  But then, he realized that in almost all cases, he'd only need luggage for time spent in hotels while off ship, in port.  If a larger or more complete move was needed, he'd be able to look at his possessions, especially the cases of Iced Berry Cider, and decide how to move them.  He could even rent a quarter-pod cargo container.  Still, he'd need enough suitcases for two weeks, based on his experience, along with specialty items like Order uniforms.

Sekea decided he'd need two hard-shelled large suitcases, one "carry on", one suitbag and a couple of "two-weapon" hard-cases.  The first would secure his gauss rifle and accessories.  The second could be able to secure and move his two gauss pistols and two snub pistols.  He also chose to have the long-gun case modified so two of his blades could be stored within, along with his practice blade.  The basics for the two large suitcases cost Cr 370 each.  The anti-grav hover upgrade cost him Cr 1,000, which came as a package with the beacon follower sensor.  So, he got each piece of luggage fitted and had them all tuned to the sensor beacon.  Packed inside one of the larger cases, he had a toiletries bag for Cr 30, a hat box inside and his two weapons carriers.

Sekea also needed the larger suitcases he was buying to have "steps" onto which other items could be connected.  Like his vacc suit cases, medical kit and combat armor case.  Those cost Cr 20 each to be sealed to the two cases and came with free repairs at associated shops in any SPA port.  To fit as much into his suitcases as he could, Sekea wanted a "5-leaf" vacuum system installed in both his larger cases.  Those would let the person packing fill the case with soft goods, like clothing and then seal each "leaf" and use an internally-installed vacuum to decompress that layer.  This usually let a user carry 30% more than the same case without the system.  That cost Sekea an additional Cr 600 total.

Sekea also spent Cr 200 total on an upgrade to the "follow me" sensors that would detect where he led them and draw them after him.  That upgrade would set off alarms if one or more of the cases moved in the wrong direction or outside of a given distance from his sensor.  Of course, that demanded an "upgrade" of the fabrics and shells of all his luggage, including things like his vacc suit and armor cases.  The upgrade, a total of Cr 500 would resurface all his bags with memetic materials that allowed them to project colors from an album of images stored in each bag's in-built or added computer.  They would all default to "Imperial Scout gray" under the owner’s last name in red.  The material could also emit extreme levels of light during events like attempted theft or just locating the cases as they rolled onto a baggage carousel.

Sekea paid an additional Cr 1,000 for the new large suitcases to have a small "deposit-leaving" device added.  That could be activated to leave a "breadcrumb trail" molecularly-keyed when he paid for the suitcase.  That would drop unique micro-markers if the owner wanted to leave a subtle molecular trail as they drew the suitcases.  A higher tech module that cost Cr 1,000 per bag allowed the new luggage to project a "hush field" that prevented things like the beams criminals might use to confuse the beacon follower sensors.  Sekea also paid Cr 50 to have an audio/visual inventory system installed in the new suitcases, using video input to track all items and warn if any items were not re-packed after being added to that case before or during any trip.

Last, and importantly, the advanced tech material which made up the cases.  The design and materials allowed each to fold down to one-inch thick "slabs" that could easily be stored in his stateroom.  That overall cost him Cr 500 each for the suitcases and weapons transport.  That total was Cr 2,500.  So, his total was Cr 11,940.  The luggage came with a number of warrantees and guarantees that were valid to make claims in any SPA port where a luggage vendor sold "the same class" of luggage.  That meant they didn't have to sell the same "model", but cold match the loss with a different model and the same features.

Discount Chips
     Eventually, Aiden called Mikah about the offer from the reporter and had to wonder why the hell a "supposedly adult" who'd handled crisies on his own had to even ask for direction??  She simply told Aiden not to agree to any interviews or answer any questions.  On or off the record.  Accepting that, Aiden cut the line and called the reporter to deliver an over-complex refusal to an interview over-using Cr 10 words to puff himself up "sound official".  Rol continued to examine the response links to claim the bounty.  That only reinforced the fact they had to follow the trail of bread crumbs from where they were first found in the Ghandi system back to where they first entered the X-Mail system if they wanted to find the "who".  There were no shortcuts.

Having found the luggage he wanted, Sekea decided to simply browse as he could on the way back to the suite.  Of course, there was the additional "fun" of getting to test his "follow me" sensor.  Wherever he went, he had the small cloud of luggage drifting behind him.  He also got to "enjoy the reactions of people on the concourses he wandered, who obviously thought he was some clueless traveler just off some starliner and getting into people's way with his luggage train.  It was interesting how people paid attention to his luggage more than himself.  If they'd had more attention and intelligence, they would have realized just who he was and reacted to him thanks to recent news.  But mostly they scoffed and complained about his luggage as they passed him by.

Still, as he walked, Sekea noticed a Software/Self-help shop that had window ads offering deals on starship piloting aids.  Interested in what they had, Sekea went in and found a place he could "park" his horde of floating cases while he browsed.  Sekea had spent some time in the shop trying to separate 'what he could use' from the obvious garbage, and those things that were too advanced for him to use, when a sales associate stepped up.  When the associate asked if there was anything specific Sekea was looking for, he said he was largely a ship's navigator and was looking for piloting aids to help broaden his role.  Hearing that, the associate looked down to search on his inventory datapad.

Looking at the datapad, Sekea could also see that the associate had realized just "Who" Sekea was.  There was an image on the screen of Sekea from a news broadcast as the associate said, "Yes, My Lord, I just might have something you might be interested in."  The younger man's tone was very much speculative as he spoke.  Commenting on his picture, Sekea said he saw the man had looked him up and knew who he was and the associate said, "Absolutely My Lord."  Following that, the associate asked, "Are you your ship's primary pilot or one of the lesser pilots?"  Sekea explained his flight certifications and added that his crew were "pilot heavy", so his certifications didn't stand out.  Hearing that, the man asked, "If My Lord would step to the back of the shop, by the registers, I might have something you would be very interested in.  Sekea looked towards the registers and saw no "door to the shop's storage spaces" so he felt it was safe.  And, he'd also noted the associate's tone of voice had the right ring of hope a lower employee might speak with.

As they started to move, Sekea asked if he could bring his security detail along and the young man said that was fine.  In fact, it seemed the first time the associate had paid any attention to them, figuring his security people were an obvious background for wealthy people wandering the station.  Back by the registers, the associate had stepped behind the counter and   There was a very brief moment of faux-drama when the man leaned down behind the counter to bring up a small, matte black box.  If he noticed the Vermene detail had put their hands on the bulges where their pistols were, he didn't give any signs of that.  Sekea realized the coloring of the box made it likely to fade into shadows on the floor up against the display cases.  So, it would be missed except for the most careful searches.

The levels of mystery were certainly driving Sekea's interest higher while he waited to see what he'd be offered.  The associate, then carefully opened the box in a way that kept Sekea from seeing inside as he quickly reached in and snatched out a small, foil-wrapped item.  What Sekea could tell was that the thing seemed to be an inch and a half square and mostly flat.  Before showing Sekea what he'd pulled from the box, he closed it and returned it to the floor where he'd pulled it from.  Then, after having possibly intentionally built the drama up, he held the item up for Sekea to see.  It was 1.5 inches square or so and flat.  And, if what was printed on the foil packet could be believed, it was a Stent wafer on which the label read "Starship piloting skill enhancement".

When he realized what it was he was looking at, Sekea knew he was extremely interested in the wafer!  Especially since the packet's advert said it could give him the same skill as Aiden!  One important caveat was that it couldn't give them Aiden's experience.  Only constant practice with the wafer installed in his stent could do that.  It would also always take several minutes to insert the wafer, or remove it too.  While the wafer was in and loaded, he could make use of the skill.  The next issue Sekea had to face was the cost.  Especially after he'd learned from InstellArms that the cost to install that level of skill in an android was MCr 1!  So, Sekea braced himself until he was told they were asking Cr 1.5 million Credits!

Having expected a price like that, Sekea wasn't surprised.  Still, he knew he couldn't afford it on his own.  Sekea also knew that the wafer could be used by any member of the crew who had a stent implanted.  If they didn't have another wafer in their stent at the time.  If they did, they'd have to swap out the first wafer before installing the piloting wafer.  Sekea then asked the associate if he could make a call before deciding on buying the wafer?  When the associate said that was fine, Sekea comm'd most of the crew.  Zimzod didn't answer because he was in training and Fesic was playing with Kuki.  Mikah had been in the suite while Aiden was wandering another concourse and, very ironically, searching for a shop that had stent wafers on sale!  Jocelynn, Rol and Colinne were also in the suite and Aali was available from her cell.

Getting most of the crew on the comms, Sekea explained what he'd found and the price being asked.  There was a brief interruption when Aiden both loudly and angrily cursed the stars for their perverse senses of humor.  Mikah quickly said the ship would be interested in the wafer while Aiden demanded to know where Sekea was, and if they had more wafers?  Mikah quickly agreed with Aiden that Sekea should ask what other wafers they had?  Specifically, zero-g operations skills wafers.  Mikah also wanted to know about navigation wafers, because she remembered when Terin had died and they had to rely on Aiden's basic nav skills.  Accepting that, Sekea kept the others on the call while returning his attention to the associate.

Sekea said he wanted to buy the piloting wafer, but told the associate he wanted to know what other wafers they had?  He said they were especially looking for zero-g operations and navigation skills.  Pulling the box back up again, the associate this time opened it so Sekea could see there were five more wafers stored there.  The first wafer they had would elevate the user's intelligence "by 1" on the medical scales used to measure such things.  This was not a skill, per se, but it could come in handy in situations that had to be out-thought.(Int +1)  Mikah decided she liked that for the crew and said she wanted it.  When Sekea asked, he was told it cost KCr 250.

The next wafer would give a user basic mechanical skills(Mech-1).  That got Jocelynn excited at first, but she soon realized it wouldn't do anything for her.  The third wafer would grant any user basic skills in fighting with a "Blade".(Blade-1)  That wasn't a generic skill for any weapon with a razored edge, but skill with the specific edged weapon called "a Blade".  Essentially, it was a hand-held weapon with a blade length between the longest dagger or knife and shorted than a short sword.  That could be used by anyone who didn't have skill with that class of weapon.  A fourth wafer provided a mid-range piloting skill that wasn't journeyman level but better than basic.(Pilot 2)  Mikah wasn't interested in that wafer.  The last wafer provided watercraft skill at the same level that wasn't journeyman but better than basic.(Small Watercraft-2)

When Mikah said the ship would buy all but the lower pilot skill wafer, the associate re-stated the higher pilot skill level cost MCr 1.5.  He added that they wanted KCr 250,000 for the intelligence wafer and Mikah refused to buy that one.  There was also a basic mechanical skill wafer they wanted KCr 150 for.  Mikah didn't think they could use that so they passed it by.  The blade wafer cost KCr 200 and Mikah suggested they might well get it cheaper on Lanth, so that was also off the list.  They didn't even bother to ask the price for the lower level Pilot wafer, and they priced the watercraft wafer at KCr 150.  Mikah approved of that wafer, so they were only getting two wafers for a total of Cr 1,650,000.  When Sekea mentioned a number of people that could use the mechanical wafer, Mikah agreed they should buy that.

So, they were buying three wafers for a total of MCr 1,800,000 total.  While Sekea prepared to use the access to ship's funds Mikah had OK'd, Jocelynn asked again about the "Blade" wafer.  She was reminded the shop asked KCr 200.  Since it was a basic level skill wafer, Jocelynn decided she didn't want it.  Hearing her ask, Mikah told Jocelynn they'd likely find the wafers cheaper in Lanth.  That was an assumption because the Lanth system had a lower tech level.  The world was also mostly water-covered and didn't have a blade-based culture.  So, wafers for that skill might not be sold in the system.  Of course, they'd then be going to the Sonthert system where the wafer wouldn't likely be needed.  And, after that, they planned to go to D'Ganzio where they could expect to find everything, since that was the InstellArms sector headquarters.

Hearing Jocelynn ask about the blade wafer, Rol decided to ask about the lower level pilot wafer.  He was told it would cost him KCr 250, because they'd not asked about that pricing previously.  When Mikah asked why he was sniffing around that wafer, Rol said it was "just in case".  When Sekea suggested he should just use the higher level wafer they'd already bought, Rol said that wafer might be in use if he was also needed.  Since Rol was talking about spending his own money, Sekea just shrugged and let it go.  So, Rol forwarded Sekea the money from his own account and Rol bought the lower pilot wafer "for emergences".  One last time, Mikah re-considered not buying the Blade wafer but Jocelynn reminded her the price was much too steep for a basic-level skill.  So, Mikah took another direction and pointed out they were spending a lot of cash.  So, she asked if the shop could throw the Blade wafer into the deal for free?

With no money paid yet, and the associate's hopes raised, Sekea decided to suddenly undercut the deal and get something back.  Especially since he was the "actual buyer" the associate was dealing with.  Looking the man in the eyes, Sekea said, "My Captain is considering the prices but she's somewhat hesitant on the pricing of the wafers you've offered.  And, given the fact we are planning to spend quite a bit for what we're interested in, would you consider some level of discount on the items?  To make her more comfortable?  Watching the younger man, Sekea saw him get nervous before he offered, "We can only come down a slight bit."  And, Sekea had to remind himself the wafers weren't exactly easy to find i the system.  So, he didn't want to push "too hard".

Pushing a bit more, Sekea asked, "Are you sure?" and saw the tension break a bit when the associate's shoulders slumped.  A split-second later, the man admitted he could give them some discounts on the items they wanted to buy.  So, he had to accept that "some at a reduced price was better than nothing when the buyer walked away."  When Sekea finally pushed for numbers, the man offered him 20% off the stated prices.  That brought their total from Cr 1,800,000 to Cr 1,440,000 and also took KCr 50 off Rol's wafer, which would now cost him KCr 200.  Adding the Intelligence booster in, that brought the price from a high of MCr 2.7 down to MCr 2.16.  A savings of KCr 540.  That would mean they could add in the Blade wafer and get that and the Intel Booster for free while also saving KCr 40 more.

While Mikah was pleased with that deal, she did say it would be better if the shop would go to 25% off.  Especially since they could tell the associate they now wanted to Blade wafer too.  Aali added that would be good because she wasn't the only member of the crew who didn't have skill with a blade.  So, "if" they knew they were coming into a fight in a system where laws limited them to edged weapons, the wafer would be handy there.  Mikah agreed with that idea and told Sekea to push the associate again.  So, Sekea widened the deal to include the blade wafer but pushed on the price.  The associate took some time to do some math on a calculator and consider as his shoulders slumped and he admitted they could do 25%.  Sekea had to assume that had cut into the profit for the shop but that wasn't a problem for the crew.

Deciding to drop a final bomb on the man, he said, "My Captain would also like you to add the Blade wafer for free."  Even less pleased, the associate agreed to the deal because, while he didn't say it, the shop owner's notes suggested the blade wafer would be a hard sell if they could find a buyer at all.  So, the associate wasn't willing to lose the rest of the deal over it.  When the money was eventually paid, Rol was out KCr 187 while the ship paid Cr 2,193,750.  For that, Rol had his emergency Pilot Cert 2 wafer and the ship had Cert wafers for Pilot 4, Watercraft 2, Mechanical 1, Intel +1 and Blade 1.  Where most of the wafers should be directly applied to events where the skill was needed, the Intelligence boost was less obvious.

If "some" members of the crew used it in certain situations, it would benefit them.  Aali, Aiden, Colinne, Mikah and Sekea could use it to "bump them up" where needed.  While the associate was finishing up the sale, Aiden asked Sekea to ask the associate if he knew of any other sellers that had wafers to sell?  Accepting that, Sekea waited until the man had finished the sale and handed him the five foil-wrapped stent wafers.  Sekea then thanked the man and asked him if he knew of any other sellers that might be offering wafers?  The associate said, "Yes, but I warn you they'll only sell at full price."  When Sekea pushed, the man admitted he only knew of Mordor Arms and Armor.  Sekea was surprised at that but remembered none of the crew he knew of had asked anyone at Mordor about wafers.  Thanking the man, Sekea left the shop headed for the suite after telling Aiden abut Mordor.

One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor Arms!
     Largely, Mordor Arms knew why InstellArms made certain that any member of Lady Mikah's crew was assigned a personal concierge.  But their marketing policy meant that didn't matter at all.  For the sake of "They're doing it", Mordor executives had ordered: "We'll do it as long as they do."  So, when Aiden arrived at one of their entrances, expert video systems tagged him and Aiden's assigned concierge was sent to "help him".  For his part, Aiden believed there had to be covert cameras in all the passages leading to Mordor Arms.  He would bet they tracked the chance customers might even possibly be coming to visit them.  That was the only explanation Aiden could credit for how quickly the woman had presented herself and introduced herself as "Bazie Kel".  Fully prepared to meet with an older male client, she'd even dressed in the "alluring" sort of garb that would insure he was 'listening less' and spending more of his attention 'scrubbing her curves with his eyes'.  She also showed no surprise to his youthful appearance because she'd been fully briefed on him.  Including his questions about brothels.

When Bazie asked how she could help him, Aiden directly said he was looking for stent wafers.  If the request was unusual, the woman again showed no surprise or hesitation, before leading him to a chauffeured cart.  Through tricks with crew-trained words and hand signals, Bazie managed to force the guards to get Aiden's Vermene detail into a second cart so she'd be alone with Aiden.  She sat him in the back of the cart and sat next to him there while telling the driver where to go.  She settled close next to Aiden while they started rolling past the outer departments, deeper into the venue.  Using the ride to mine as much data as she could to help her drain his accounts, the woman helpfully asked if "Sir Aiden" had anything specific in mind?  Aiden answered, I'm looking for zero-g combat skill wafers.  Hearing that, the concierge corrected "Sir Aiden", explaining that they were really for "Zero-G Operations".  She backed that up by mentioning many 'day to day' things someone aboard a ship or space station would do.  From work or play to suggestion of those things 'done only in the bedroom'.

When Aiden just quietly accepted that, she asked if he had other skill interests?  Aiden considered that before mentioning his interest in machined multi-component firearms.  Which were not skills.  Nodding, as if she'd expected that answer, she course corrected him by asking, "Anything else you might be interested in regarding stent wafers?"  She also leaned a bit more firmly against him as the cart made a convenient turn.  If Aiden noticed it or not wasn't apparent.  That was a tactical move when Aiden's mind so easily drifted off target from what he'd come to Mordor for.  She wanted him on target, because she could make tens of Credits when he bought a weapon.  But tens of thousands of Credits if he bought more than one wafer."  She hoped leaning in with her attitude, looks and apparent open concern for his needs would hopefully grow her commission.

With his mind now back on those tracks she preferred, Aiden considered and came up with another item he'd talked about but not thought much more about.  Answering Bazie, Aiden said he wondered if they had wafers for use in sniper work?  She just smiled more warmly and said they would check the inventory with an inviting expression while the passed displays of everything from camping(or glamping) gear to displays of fashions - like something called a "Hawaiian Shirt."  The painful-to-view display made Aiden wonder just how painful it must be to live in the Hawaii system?  Soon enough, the cart came to stop outside a truck-sized hatch that was closed, locked and guarded.

Showing her ID and credentials to the guard, she got the hatch open and walked Aiden into the space.  Before the Vermene detail could follow them in, the Mordor guards said they couldn't go into the secure area and held them no matter their reactions and demands.  The secure storage and show room contained smaller items for personal use.  The different items were on individual islands separated throughout the space.  There were even small finger or toe-sized augment kits, that would - of course - demand the amputation of the natural body part before they could be implanted.  One of those Aiden saw was certainly meant for Vargr shoppers "only".  While they walked in, and despite the fact Aiden was clearly following Bazie, she made sure to keep physically "very close" to him in the enclosed space.  Not that Aiden had any illusions, certain Morder techs would have somehow covered 200% of the space with security and hazard abatement cameras.

Making her way past the display islands, Bazie led Aiden to a back corner of the space.  There, on the right wall of the corner, the wall was covered with stent wafers.  No matter how interesting the other items in the space, or how alluring the body of the woman as his side, Aiden couldn't help giving a low whistle and entirely focusing on what was a collection of easily more than fifty items!  Before he knew it, Aiden had almost moaned, "Pretty" in a drawn-out pronunciation.  Not quite as tall as Aiden himself, and having a firm petite body, Bazie leaned against him in a way he could feel her breasts pressing his shoulder.  She almost whispered, "You wanted zero-g operations?"

Scanning the display, they saw there were no zero-g operations wafers.  Aiden was very annoyed that the gods of immediate satisfaction and easy solutions didn't smile on him.  Which was pretty much the story of most lives in which dreamers lived in fantasies, while expecting the opposite.  It seemed Sir Aiden would have to do it the hard way, like the rest of those in known space.  As he lowered his head a bit in disappointment, Aiden's view settled on a wafer advertising itself as "Sniper Certification 1"!  And it was priced at Cr 15,000 where a 'beginner skills' wafer should have been offered at closer to Cr 1,000.  Bazie noticed where he looked and asked, "Do you know how hard it is to find any sniper who wants to share their knowledge and skills?"  She waited a few beats more before she added, "That's why it's so expensive.  Talent like that is very rare."

To her credit, she was not only "not" trying to fuzz his thoughts with body contact, and had actually done her best to honestly speak the truth that had been trained into her.  The smile that seemed to usually shone from her face was shifted into a comforting and supporting expression, with hope seeming to shine from her green eyes.  In an even more grim tone, thanks to the lack of zero-g ops wafers, Aiden said, "Fifteen thousand?  I'll take it.  In a move that was likely a bit more than simple encouragement, Bazie gave him a hug while grinding her chest more heavily against him than Aiden perhaps realized.  She quietly suggested he should look through the wafer collection to see if they had anything else of interest?  Her tone wasn't leading or even suggestive, but a 'voice of support' to his hopes they had anything else he'd find helpful.

Aiden almost laughed when he saw they had a wafer for a Pilot 4 certification.  Perversely, he asked the price on that wafer and Bazie told him KCr 900.  That would have still saved his crew a few hundred thousand Credits after the other shop's discounts.  Aiden saw a Nav Cert 2 wafer which she said cost KCr 25.  Because Aiden was only certified as a Nav-1, he also bought that wafer too.  When Bazie pointed out a Survey wafer for a level 2 certification, he said it wouldn't help him.  He was already certified at that level.  Still, he then admitted to himself that he couldn't constantly stay awake, working the sensors by himself.  When he asked how much it would cost she smiled and gave him her most, "I'm hear to help you" look, she said it cost KCr 50.

Not willing to buy it for himself, Aiden sparked up his comms and called Mikah to ask if the ship was interested in the wafer?  Mikah's answer was quick and pleased as she said, "Sure.  We're gonna need more survey people when we get to Sonthert."  He reminded her it cost KCr 50 and she still said, "Sure."  Hearing that, Aiden told Bazie he also wanted that wafer.  Her eyes lit up a bit as she leaned against him, reaching with her left arm to pull the wafer from the display.  In a soft tone the comms wouldn't pick up, Bazie said, "I sense a party building tonight.  Let's see if you can't help it happen?"  She also gave him an inviting smile that seemed to light up the pale complexion of her face.  He noticed her face was bracketed by long white hair.  For the first time, it really struck Aiden how similar her appearance was to his.  For more than a second he traced imagined patterns in the curls of her hair while tracing the cascades falling from her head and shoulders.

After buying that wafer, Aiden asked Mikah if she could think of anything else she wanted him to look or ask for?  When Mikah said she was good, Aiden thanked her and cut the comms.  Done with stent wafers, Aiden turned to Bazie and started to ask about interesting mid-tech machined-component handguns.  Before he could finish, she said he had helped her get close to a weekly sales record, and almost whispered he could help her break it.  While she said that, she leaned against him, breasts to chest in a way he couldn't miss the B-cups her bra was pushing up.  He looked into her eyes and saw them shift, above her smile, in the direction of some of the wafers.  He could tell there was a bit of 'wicked' in her smile as he turned to look in the direction her eyes had marked.  Doing that, Aiden noticed several at once as his eyes followed her outstretched left arm.

Somehow, the motion of her arm seemed to have pulled on the collar of her dress and, it "seemed" the top-most button of her bodice had come open to reveal more of her cleavage.  Not that a bit of her cleavage hadn't been very visible before.  Aiden also realized that when they were "very close", her top seemed very translucent.  He figured it probably was a tech thing, so those at a further distance couldn't see.  But he realized he could see the lace straps of her bra as if her bodice wasn't there.  So, Aiden had to make the difficult and conscious choice to look where Bazie was pointing rather than looking down at her breasts.

Of course, despite the trend of both the shifting discussion, and events, Aiden wasn't ready to realize what stent she was pointing to?  It was a level 3 wafer for the skill of gaining information and compliance from a person using "Sexual Technique."  Feeling the change in his posture, and sudden nervousness, Bazie whispered, "If you buy that, and one other wafer, there are private and unrecorded meeting spaces here in the facility where you can "test out your purchase.  With that, she stepped back, giving him a more complete view of her chest.  Her body was now mostly visible behind the pattern of a barely-there lace bra, thanks to the 'disappearing trick' her blouse had played.  Getting over the sudden lump in his throat, Aiden called Mikah again, to say he'd be late getting back to the suite.  Bazie leaned in to kiss him as he cut the comms, and whispered, "Which other wafer would you like?

Aiden's next few moments were torn between checking the wafers for sale and enjoying how much closer and encouraging Bazie stood.  At moments, rubbing her curves against him while he no longer did anything to hide his desires.  More than once, as he asked for the price of a wafer and she bent close to him to see which items he asked about, he groped her breasts.  He very much enjoyed that she'd leaned into his hands when he groped her.  Her body did actually remind him of more than one scout he'd worked with while in the service.  Soon enough, Aiden decided the one wafer that would most help the crew was a Certification 4 level Engineering wafer.  Of course, he knew he'd picked something he couldn't buy himself even as he chose it.  Having told Mikah he'd be back to the suite late, Aiden realized he had to call her again.

When he did, and she spoke to him, Mikah was very pleased.  They only had one engineer, so if something happened to Aali, like her current imprisonment or worse, they'd need a stand in.  That stent answered the need.  Especially if they had to clone Aali, and wait weeks.  So, Mikah absolutely wanted the wafer, and agreed to pay from ship's funds for it.  So, she gave Aiden access to pay for the wafer and cut the line.  Aiden then made the payment for the sexual technique wafer and Bazie led him off to enjoy the most expensive prostitute he'd ever paid for in his life.  Again, Mordor security prevented the Vermene detail from joining them in the secured office.  So, they waited outside while Bazie taught him how to install and initiate "any" stent wafer.  Then she taught him how to use the wafer on her for the night, until they fell asleep.  And Aiden would return to the suite with the stent wafers the next morning, after waking and cleaning up.  Bazie gave him her home address and comms code and invited him to visit her when he could.  And, to keep the wafer installed when he did.

The Walls Have Ears
     Jocelynn had moved into her bedroom, where she could liberally add psi-practice with her stent work.  While she was into her psi-work, Jocelynn suddenly found it suddenly harder to concentrate.  It was almost as if some energy were pushing against her thoughts.  Reacting to that, Jocelynn tried to concentrate on that energy to figure out what that was?  The first thing Jocelynn experienced was that she "felt" that the source of the energy coalesced some eight to ten feet away from her through the wall of her bedroom in the curving hall outside the crew's suite.  Then, she experienced something new and unsettling!

Suddenly, Jocelynn heard a very firm female voice inside her head demand, "Who are you?"  The sense that came with that voice was one of concern mixed with caution and a tinge of surprise.  Before Jocelynn could think, she lashed out asking, "Who are you?  You called me."  In Jocelynn's mind, the woman answered, "I am [concept] Osiats."  The "feel" of the telepathic speech gave Jocelynn the "feeling" she was being spoken to by someone of authority.  The sound she felt was a concept also felt like it was meant to be a title.  In her mind, Jocelynn "felt" the concept would be the Zhodani word "dizhe", which would be the galanglic word "councilor".  What hit her hardest of what she'd felt was said was that the title had a Zhodani meaning!

The speaker's 'tone of thought' changed to one of concern as she told Jocelynn, "You're in grave danger here and I can help save your life."  Not sure how to react to this person, the good news was that they were not setting off alarms as far as Jocelynn could tell.  Shrugging her shoulders, Jocelynn thought back, "What sort of trouble am I in?"  The other voice answered, "If you haven't figured it out yet, you're a psion living in Imperial space.  If anyone accidentally figures that out, like I just did, you're likely to be either lynched or lobotomized."  When Jocelynn thought back, "Then, how should I know I can trust you?" the answer came, "Because I can get you to Zhodani space, where you would not only be safe, but you would also be properly trained and rewarded for the use of your talents."

Jocelynn worked to consider just who she was dealing with while thanking the stars the woman was apparently not reading her mind.  Yet.  Still, drawing the conversation out to give herself time to think, Jocelynn asked, "Why would I want to go to Zhodani space?  I have a life here.  I have a crew and ship."  On the others side, Jocelynn couldn't sense it when the woman decided this had to be a seriously mis-educated person to be that unaware of the dangers she was in.  In a warning tone, the woman answered, "Given Imperial history, your crew will likely kill you before the authorities can arrive and lobotomize you if they realize you're psionic."  Jocelynn answered with the smug thought, "Because I can kill them first."  While the woman didn't directly answer that claim, Jocelynn got the distinct feeling she was laughing at the answer.

After the feeling of a mental shrug, the woman sent Jocelynn a comms code and said, "If you change your mind while you're in this system, contact me.  Jocelynn then asked outright, "Are you Zhodani?" and was told, "I'm somebody who can help."  Again, pushing for time to consider, Jocelynn thought back, "You'll forgive me for being cautious, but there are security issues surrounding us right now that are pressing, so..."  Restarting, Jocelynn said, "I thought I was being discreet, and not straying outside my quarters but...apparently I was wrong."  The other woman was very concerned about that, and worried if she wasn't already too late to help the psion she'd accidentally discovered.  She also sent out calls for backup just in case an Imperial takedown was imminent.

The woman then said, "You say there are security issues surrounding you.  Are you willing to open your mind to me so I can understand what you mean?"  Reacting to that by pushing more energy to her shields, Jocelynn refused the offer and tried to cover that by saying she was surprised the woman hadn't heard about the situation on the station news.  That also told her "the woman" didn't know who she was either.  Because of that, Jocelynn decided to pull back on the assumption the woman knew her name.  On her side, the woman didn't respond to that part of Jocelynn's comment and said she'd been just moving through that part of the hotel as a short cut.  So, she said the thoughts were not reaching that far at all, but she'd just been close to the source at the right time.

The woman then said outright that she hadn't intruded on more than the training mantra that was projected because she didn't have permission to scan the mind she'd encountered.  That spoke to a surprising level of ethics where the apparent Zhodani psion was technically in "enemy territory" only shortly after a hot war.  Taking a risk, Jocelynn offered, "I'd be willing to sit and have a drink with you but I'm not leaving the hotel."  When the woman accepted, she also broadcast an image to Jocelynn's mind of a cluster of padded and comfortable chairs.  Jocelynn realized that was one of the "nooks" in the halls of the hotel and even outside their suite.  In fact, Jocelynn recognized the nook as one close to the front door of their suite!

When she could feel that contact end, Jocelynn first thought about how she would deal with her security detail if she wanted to meet the woman?  She also knew they wouldn't be happy that she wanted to meet the woman without explaining who she was or why they had to be out of sight?  Of course, new to psionics, Jocelynn also hadn't considered the fact that a fully trained telepath would easily know they were there even if they couldn't be seen.  So, when Jocelynn decided to have them stand ready to react from places where they couldn't be seen, she didn't realize that precaution wouldn't protect her, or them, at all.

Having the elements of a plan for her security team, Jocelynn then wondered about her mental shields and how well she could block the psi of this person?  And she had to admit she had no idea who this woman was?  She was obviously Zhodani and trained.  That could mean she was a trained Zhodani espionage agent or just be a Zhodani noble-Psion who was traveling for personal reasons or accompanying a ship for reasons not stated.  There were many legitimate and legal reasons she might have traveled into Imperial space, with the most recent war over and done.  But, either way, she was fully trained to a level Jocelynn knew was much stronger than her own powers could block.  So, Jocelynn decided she'd need a psionic shield. if she chose to meet the woman face to face.

Jocelynn left her bedroom to grab one of the ship's psi-shields and Colinne caught her reflection in the monitor she was working at.  Also in the room, Mikah seemed to be just getting off the comms and told everyone there that Aiden would be late returning from Mordor Arms that night.  Turning, Colinne asked, "Hi Jocelynn, how was your morning?"  Surprised, Jocelynn said, "Oh!  I didn't know you guys were back."  Jocelynn then said, "My training was interesting."  Knowing those other than Mikah and Zimzod thought she was helping Jocelynn with her stent work, Colinne asked if she wanted to discuss it in private?  When Jocelynn said she did want to talk in another space, Mikah got interested and asked if she could join, because she knew Colinne was also helping Jocelynn with psi, and stent work didn't often get "interesting".  Jocelynn nodded and invited her along.

When Rol had also looked up and shown interest in joining the ladies, Jocelynn only told him, "Girl stuff, you know?" while waving her hand over her hips.  Not taking the hint, Rol asked if there was anything he could do to help?  Mikah waived him off saying, "It' s just our cycles.  They're just coordinating." which got the ladies laughing as they went into Jocelynn's bedroom and closed the door.  And as the door closed, Jocelynn said, "I'm sure Aali is now very glad she's in detention."  Getting serious again, Jocelynn told the others, "I was working on my psi-work and a rather forceful voice came into my head demanding who I was?"  Following that, she told how she had demanded who the woman was and was told "Dizhe Osiats"!  As soon as Colinne heard that, she knew that the title "Dizhe" was a title in the Zhodani "Tavrchedl".  What the Imperials call the "Thought Police"!

Colinne Spoke up right off, telling Mikah and Jocelynn, "This person is very powerful and dangerous", before explaining the woman had admitted she was part of the Zhodani thought police!!  Nodding, Jocelynn continued, "She offered to protect me, and take me to Zhodani space to save me and have me trained."  Colinne said, "I wouldn't trust this person at all and..."  Mikah then said she was going to break the rule she'd made and call IRIS herself.  Nodding, Jocelynn told them the agent was in the hotel and close to their suite.  Jocelynn also admitted the woman was waiting outside their suite, and she didn't know how long the woman would sit there while they talked?

Considering that, Mikah told Jocelynn to go after grabbing a psi-shield and to have something unnoticeable on her to record any conversation.  Mikah also agreed with telling Jocelynn's security detail to keep their distance and then called IRIS while still in Jocelynn's bedroom.  Jocelynn went to Mikah's room, where Mikah kept her jewelry, and fished out one of the gem-laced precious metal hair nets with the electronics and batteries of the psi-shield micro-woven into it.  The intent was to hide the fact he was shielded, but she forgot that the woman would know because she would feel the blocking force.  Almost as she had earlier, before the woman demanded to know who she was?  Dialing the code for what Mikah had taken to euphemistically call the "Flower shop", Mikah was quick and succinctly when the line was answered.

Quickly, Mikah said, "One of my crew is meeting a self-admitted Tavrchedl agent just outside our hotel suite NOW and it's up to you to handle it.  The man who answered blinked once in actual surprise before he said, "We'll update you once we're done" and the line went dead.  Having gotten herself a psi shield, Jocelynn ordered her detail to "stay close, but not close enough to be seen or overhear our conversation." in a 'firm as death' tone.  As expected, her Vermene people were not happy, but did as they were told.  Jocelynn also told them not to act if any of her crew or Imperial Law enforcement showed up.  The bad news for Jocelynn was that "out of sight" did not mean "out of detection" for the psion she was meeting.  So, the Zhodani agent knew Jocelynn had people waiting even if Jocelynn's psi-shield annoyed her and blocked her reading Jocelynn.  But she was up for a game of chess and looked forward to learning what was going on here?

It Always Ends With Shooting
     The last thing Mikah had told Jocelynn before they parted was to tell her Vermene people to watch her right hand.  If anyone Jocelynn saw approaching was "safe", Mikah had told her detail she'd lift one finger on her right hand.  When Jocelynn asked if it was possible she wouldn't recognize arriving IRIS agents and the Vermene people would fire on them, Mikah got excited and said, "That would be Awesome!" in an excited tone.  Jocelynn only shook her head because she'd learned Mikah had no love for the intelligence agency.  Still, Jocelynn was walking out to meet a Zhodani agent unaware the woman was disappointed the Imperial woman had put on a psi shield and was being followed discreetly by a two-man detail of her own security.  From the woman's point of view, this was getting more and more curious and she was now glad she'd had the thought to call her own backup.  Just in case this got even stranger.

Reaching the point she could talk quietly, Jocelynn first apologized for her delay coming out of the suite, saying she'd wanted to make herself presentable for someone of the woman's station.  While that was happening, Mikah had told the others in the suite to stay put but be ready for action.  Mikah then slipped out of the suite and moved up to take a lead position with Jocelynn's detail.  That also drew her detail along, creating a small cloud of armed people "just around the curve" of the passage.  So, as Jocelynn began speaking, the Zhodani telepath suddenly realized there was another unknown psion in close range!  And, along with what she could now sense was a growing collection of their security, this new psion wasn't shielded!  Still, the bad news was she had the first psion in her face and couldn't devote the time to concentrate on the mind of the newcomer.  Still, she was able to squirt out a mental warning there was danger growing and caution was demanded.

Jocelynn could see, in the woman's face, much less confidence than she'd felt in the mental broadcasts she'd sent before.  Buying more time, Jocelynn sat and made herself comfortable at a distance where she and the woman could talk quietly.  As she did, the woman could tell just from her demeanor and the way she moved that it seemed Jocelynn wasn't likely aware of the second psion.  That was more curious while she tried to put the puzzle pieces together.  Edging along the curve of the corridor to "just be out of sight", it only then occurred to Mikah she should have grabbed a psi shield too.  Before she'd left the suite.

Letting Jocelynn sit before opening the game a bit more, the woman said, "You've brought someone else with you, so you'd might as well ask her to join us."  She hoped to make it easy to mine for thoughts and information from the second unshielded psion.  not knowing Mikah had come out of the suite, Jocelynn was confused because none of her detail were female.  Guessing at the confused look on her face, which the woman didn't need to read her mind to understand, she told Jocelynn, "Not your security guards.  Someone else has joined them around the curve of the corridor" in a slightly disapproving tone.  She added, "You might as well ask her to join us."  Still confused, Jocelynn stood and stepped towards her detail only to see what the woman was talking about.

Disappointed, because she'd wanted to do a bit of information gathering before the chance was blown, Jocelynn did her best to sound casual as she said, "Oh!  It's Mikah."  That was unfortunate because Jocelynn had just handed the woman a huge piece of the puzzle.  Without having to use her talents, Jocelynn had thoughtlessly given her enough information to identify exactly who both she and Mikah were!  Unwittingly, Jocelynn had spilled the fact that she and Mikah, likely along with others in their crew, were Imperial nobility with secret - or covertly trained - psi talents!  Should that spread into the Zhodani intelligence files, they would all be at risk of being used for espionage because they'd be in danger of being exposed to Imperial authorities!

Caught by her own tactical mistakes, Mikah had little chance to consider any of the sprouting dangers beyond the fact she had no way to refuse to step out.  Without a psi shield of her own.  In for a credit already, the woman accepted they had lied to her already, and felt that justified some basic surface thought scans, which were quick and easy at her level of training.  So, she hoped to teach the Imperials a firm lesson as she looked up at the approaching woman and said, "So, you're Lady Mikah."  Hearing that, Mikah snapped, "Get out of my mind!"

The Zhodani agent smiled and said, "There's a lot to be learned from the vid screens showing the news that is necessary for...  Mikah only said, "Still stay out of my mind." while the Zhodani agent mentally chuckled to herself how the clueless Imperial kitten mewed at her without the tools to make demands or threats.  Mikah continued, "You have no worries about Jocelynn.  She's in good hands."  The woman could only assume Lady Mikah meant the security around the curve of the corridor and wondered if she should mind-blast them now to teach the untrained upstart a lesson?  The woman was certain it wouldn't take much to put the four of them on the deck before they knew what was happening.  Still, she also knew there had to be moving parts she wasn't aware of.  So, she'd husband her own energy until she knew her back up people were in position and ready.

Taking a centering breath, the Zhodani agent said, "Now that I know who you are, and with what the news has been saying about you, this explains some of the information I've received about your crew in our dealings with others.  When Mikah asked, "Who?" the woman simply ignored the question because Mikah was in no position to demand information.  She only continued on, "I would recommend, and I can't speak for your entire crew, but I'm guessing most of your crew would be safer coming to Cronor and working with us than staying in Imperial space.  Mikah tried to cut her off, derisively saying, "Sure" while both she and the agent spent arrogance they might not be able to afford.  The Zhodani agent had no idea how her back up teams were doing.

At the same time, Mikah had called IRIS with the assumption they had teams that could react and move fast enough to help.  That was even after she'd been told that IRIS rarely had more than a small handful of agents in many systems.  So, it could take ten or more minutes just to notify all the local agents in their covers.  And, it was very likely the agents wouldn't be able to simply drop their covers and organize.  Nor was it guaranteed they'd be close enough where a five-mile-long station could take over an hour to traverse.  That was if they chose to drop their cover, raise alarms and force a clear path.  And Mikah had been assured more than once that IRIS would easily let her crew get killed to maintain secrecy.  So, Mikah's chief arrogance was that they would come to save her at all?

Reacting to the agent's invitation to come to Cronor, which the Imperials called "Chronor", Mikah nodded and casually said, "Yeah, that's not happening."  The agent hadn't thought it would be that easy and only smiled as she said, "You do understand you're only being used by the Imperium."  Mikah happily nodded and said, "Yes.  And we're pretty much sure Arch Duke Norris is trying to get us killed.  But, you know what?  We're having fun."  Jocelynn could only roll her eyes and stifle a laugh at the absurdity of it all.  The agent decided to be blunt and said, "You know, I haven't dipped into your mind at all, although your mind is putting out emanations telling me much more than you'd have hoped for."  That was the truth, since what she'd read was stuff Mikah was unwittingly pumping out on her own.  Especially the white-hot hate Mikah had for the agent.

The agent then continued, "But, it seems you have a good hand on the situation.  So long as you want to die happy.  Mikah smiled, nodded and said, "Yup.  It's the only way to die."  Now entirely a side piece in the drama, Jocelynn muttered, "I could think of other ways, but...Yeah."  Of course, when she was in active duty as a Marine, the best way she could think of to die was to plow into a Zhodani formation and pile up as many bodies as she could to create a "slaughtered honor guard" of her many dead foes for her victory march into the afterlife.  So dying here and now if the shooting started was a fair enough place.  So long as she could create an honorable enough blood bath of Zhodani agents.

Still, not resigned to that, Jocelynn admitted to the agent that their crew had met other Zhodani and admitted that she'd come to realize her view of them was tainted and propagandized.  She also admitted, "I believe what I was told pushed my own belief that the Zhodani opinions of the Imperials were also tainted and distorted too."  Jocelynn added that she no longer thought the Zhodani were the monsters she was led to believe, however, I also don't...  While she spoke, the Zhodani agent was quietly considering this from an Imperial, where their own people would kill or lobotomize innocents with psi-talents just for existing, or being born that way.  Given that, she felt this 'Jocelynn" was in need of serious "comparison education", letting her balance her perspective with the truth.

Mikah interrupted Jocelynn's 'lovefest' session and speech with what she saw an agent leading murderous hordes.  It was actually somewhat disgusting to Mikah that Jocelynn was making with the nice talk while she remembered her time in the Emerald system, at the end of the war.  Not to mention cleaning up and counting the bodies from the sites of atrocities Zhodani forces had carried out.  As much as there had been propaganda and lies on both sides, those sites were not lies.  No Propaganda.  Just dead men, women and children.  So Mikah interrupted Jocelynn, saying, "You do have a lot to answer for, for the war crimes your soldiers carried out against children.  "What Mikah couldn't see was that her thoughts were pushing out hard now and the agent could barely stop from wincing at the mental images she could sense.  Mikah had no way of knowing that mental information would be sent back to Chronor to investigate once this encounter was dealt with.

The agent did manage to shrug and say, "That wasn't anything I was personally involved in." but Mikah wasn't having any of that.  You were part of the military machine there, and you can't deny sharing the guilt."  Of course, that was ironic given that Mikah herself had opened fire, with Zimzod, on starving, sick and desperate people in a Risek airlock.  And, Mikah had refused to accept the guilt when the doctors she'd led towards a cure of the so-called Risek plague had been horrified at what she and Zimzod had done.  So Mikah was ignoring the fact she was playing fast and loose with how the lens of 'point of view' shed light on situations.  By her own logic, if Rol was in fact a war criminal, the Zhodani agent was just as qualified to call Mikah a war criminal because Mikah was simply painting "everyone" with a wide brush.

Finding a point between Mikah's word flood, the Agent said, "Again, there was nothing I could have done about the situation.  But there is one thing I will do before I continue speaking."  She then reached into one of her pockets to pull out a small box with a single obvious button dominating one side of the device.  Before anyone could react, the agent pressed the button and both Jocelynn and Mikah felt a "fuzz" in their minds.  For Mikah, the sensation was meaningless, but Jocelynn quickly realized she couldn't concentrate on using her psi energy at all!  Jocelynn was the first to realize this was a much more powerful psi-energy disruptor, and it even had the power to burn through the psi shield she was wearing!  That was all she needed to realize this had to be Zhodani anti-psi tech!

The agent then said, "it's just a more powerful anti-psi device than the one Dame Guerrek is wearing."  Comfortable with the situation, and ignoring the casual confirmation she could tell Jocelynn was wearing a psi-shield, Mikah said, "That's not a big loss" in a smug tone.  Of course, she wasn't considering the fact that "If" IRIS were coming to the rescue, that "could well" block them from using any talents they had to carry out the rescue.  So, Mikah was only smug in her ignorance.  Jocelynn pointed to the device and asked if it were meant to protect them from something, although the only thing it could protect them from were other psions.  So, the agent wasn't really sure what Jocelynn didn't understand?

The agent shook her head and said, "No.  It's just here to prove that what we say is honest."  Mikah and Jocelynn could only guess that meant that she was proving she wasn't mining and twisting data from their minds.  The agent than added, "Or, at least as honest as it can be in Imperial space."  Both Mikah and Jocelynn also took the moment to check on their Vermene details to see if any of them had a look on their face suggesting they'd been covertly psionic and cut off from their talents too?  None of them seemed to have reacted though, and they only seemed visually concerned about this new device they didn't understand and were ready to shoot at.

Perhaps, to show how comfortable she was, the agent pointed at the box and said, "When we're done here, you can have that."  Jocelynn was pleased at the gift and Mikah even thanked her.  Making an assumption based on the gift, Jocelynn asked, "You do trust us then?" and Mikah sharply said, "No."  The agent said she didn't trust them but also said she understood their situation.  She added perhaps that she understood their situation better than they did themselves.  She then went into her sales pitch and even admitted Mikah's hatred of the Zhodani might be based on fact but also pushed that it might be due to misunderstandings and propaganda instead. 

Mikah wasn't having that at all, and pointed out they'd invaded and wiped-out whole towns and communities.  Behind her eyes, Mikah saw memories of the bodies and slaughter they'd left behind.  The agent nodded and said, she was also willing to give Mikah many historic and political facts which had led to those actions, and had forced them to be necessary.  Her tone was one of 'we can match each other block for block while building this wall.  Or, agree to disagree and move forward, accepting that they'd not solve this without a forensic examination of historic facts.  She also admitted she didn't feel Mikah was ready to accept that.  Mikah confirmed that, saying, "Nope.  Not that kind of slaughter", meaning the raw and destructive forces that had left the ripped, devastated and shattered remains that had been living bodies.

Turning the topic, the agent said she realized that Mikah and Jocelynn felt they were safe.  But she reminded them the Imperials will find them 'less than useful', and things would get bad for them.  While they were far enough away to not hear the conversation without electronic help, the Vermene details had moved so they were visible and could see what was happening.  They'd done that when Mikah'd been invited to join Jocelynn.  That made Mikah just a bit comfortable because she was waiting on IRIS to arrive.  Of course, she had no idea the agent was waiting on her backup too.  But when the wait started stretching out, Mikah looked around and noticed the Vermene men were not so much standing and waiting as they appeared to be frozen in place!  With glazed eyes fixed into a thousand-yard stare.

Taking that as a queue, Mikah asked the agent how many people she had and the woman smiled slightly while suggesting she had 'one or two'.  To Mikah and Jocelynn, that meant more than just a couple.  Likely a team.  When she said, "Why do you ask?", Mikah pointed out her security were acting oddly.  Looking up as if she'd not noticed it before, the agent did seem surprised, which Mikah took as interesting.  With that, they watched as the agent lifted her hand to her mouth and they noticed a comms unit on her wrist.  The agent then said what sounded like "adre'shte!"  Almost immediately after she'd said that, further down the passage away from their suite door, gunfire broke out!  There was no way for Mikah and Jocelynn to figure out if she'd given the order to shoot someone or someone acted to shoot her people?

More a "Reactor" or "responder", Jocelynn leapt up to try looking around the passage curve and look for any information.  All she did see was the continued curve as the passage led on.  At the same time, the agent leapt up and moved past the still controlled Vermene, towards their suite door and the lifts that would let her escape to the hotel's public levels.  Mikah was right on her tail as the agent ran, and quickly caught up with and tackled the woman to the passage floor.  Mikah began beating the agent to encourage her to stay down, when a female hand holding a pistol came into her vision, pointing at the agent's head.  A woman's voice also said, "It's OK Lady Mikah, we have her now."

Looking up, Mikah actually saw a woman in civilian clothes.  Behind her were another armed man and woman.  That second woman had been the one who shown up at their dining room table.  Realizing they were IRIS, Mikah asked, "What took you so long?  We've been out here an hour!"  The IRIS agent only rolled her eyes.  Especially since they'd only been out in the passage nearly half an hour.  When the Zhodani agent struggled under Mikah, the IRIS woman seemed to concentrate for a half-minute before the agent suddenly went slack.  When Mikah looked, the Zhodani's eyes were still alert and seemed panicked.  Seeing that, Mikah released the Zhodani and said, "Well, good job I guess." while raising herself up over the downed woman.  And, even without Mikah's weight, the woman still seemed unable to move and Mikah could feel that hum in her mind.  So, she must have left the coverage of the zhodani device and Mikah guessed the IRIS woman had a talent she didn't know about.

Around the bend of the passage, Jocelynn couldn't see very far down the passage and didn't want to move too far away from her people.  Grabbing her comms, Jocelynn called into the suite saying they were in some shit and asked where their backup was?  She could hear the gunfire first intensify before eventually starting to settle down.  It was soon only sporadic gunfire as the Vermene details moved up in the direction of hostile fire.  They did their best to form some protection around Jocelynn.  Not a word was mentioned about the "gap" in their awareness.  Still, it suggested to Jocelynn that the Zhodani agent had been "dealt with" somehow.  While that was all happening, Mikah comm'd the others in the suite and told them things were resolving.

In the suite, Rol had worked to grab his pistol as best he could, while still dealing with PT and building his musculature and strength.  Colinne was the only other person in the suite, and she'd reach the suite's door faster than Rol would.  Rising to act, Colinne suddenly felt immense levels of psionic power being used nearby, on a level with the last time she'd been in a psionic duel!  Reacting to that, she threw her shields up as hard as she could.  She also threw a low-level talent out to figure out where the energy was coming from?  She could feel, like Jocelynn had earlier, that whatever had happened had only been just outside the walls of their suite.  And just around a passage outside the space.

The space was just four or five strides to the right of the exit from their suite.  While she'd done that scan, Colinne had also grabbed her pistol and moved to be the first one out the suite's door to the passage.  What she saw were three people in civilian clothes surrounding Mikah.  Mikah also had a woman in civilian clothes pinned to the floor!  Still, the woman leading her group had a pistol to the pinned woman's head, she saw the pinned woman stop struggling.  Added to that, she saw the two following the woman with the gun.  A man and the woman who'd shown up at their diner table an been told was IRIS.  So Colinne figured the cavalry had arrived.

Ironically, Mikah called into the suite to say the cavalry had arrived before she saw Colinne.  Figuring information was the prize now, Colinne called out, "Mikah!  what the hell is going on" and Mikat told her and all the others, "I'm all right.  While she was still upset and panicked, Mikah could tell the Zhodani prisoner wasn't struggling anymore.  Mikah had to wonder if that was related to what "someone" had done to the Vermene agents?  And, it had to be someone else, because the woman they'd captured was inside the psi-blocker field.  If that device really did block "everyone"?  And if the woman had not had a way through the field.  The device could have been a training unit or even a trick unit to give the Tavrchedl a step up on any opponent.

With the Zhodani woman in custody, Mikah was happy to let the pancake lie where she was on the floor.  The Vermene agents with Jocelynn were both confused and upset about the gap in their awareness and the fact no one else seemed affected.  Jocelynn only told them the Zhodani were involved and said they'd done well so they shouldn't worry about it.  So, there might be a need for explanations later, but for now they were quiet.  Leaving them to watch the passage, Jocelynn grabbed the psi blocker the woman had offered her.  Still, she didn't turn it off knowing there might be other Zhodani teams about.  Seeing Jocelynn grab the toy, Mikah told the IRIS agents the woman had said there were two or three others around.  So, there could be more than one other Zhodani team about.

Jhieanisse told them both, "You may have heard some gunfire down the passage.  That was her back up team, and likely what she meant by 'two or three others'.  Nodding, Mikah smiled and said, "OK!  We're cool."  The IRIS agent with the pistol corrected, "We're clear locally.  Other wheels are turning."  Mikah waived that off and said, "I don't need to know."  She also turned to the Vermene men and said, "We just neutralized a Zhodani agent."  That gave the men even more cover for any failure they might have been concerned about.  Jhieanisse told them all, "We'll take care of things and help this poor unfortunate woman into a detention cell.  You should go back into your suite and let station security clean the rest of it up."  Jocelynn turned the psi-blocker off while they and their detail went back into the suite.  Ironically, that was when Rol reached the suite door and asked for an update.

Mikah dramatically and humorously faux-wailed, "Oh!  Esteemed war criminal!  I mean, hero.  We are all certainly OK."  While they filed back into the suite, Rol asked, "So, is this what you call a 'Lady's night out'?"  Mikah brightly answered, "Yup!  You gotta be worried about that PMS!" with a smile on her face.  Behind them, Mikah could hear the IRIS team were talking to another team, but she didn't care to know the details and let it fade behind her.  Jocelynn also showed them the Zhodani blocker and said, "And we've got a new toy."  Colinne saw that and suggested they let her look the toy over and hand it to Aali, to make sure it was "just" a psi-blocker and had no ulterior uses.  Mikah nodded and said they could after they left Ghandi, because Aali'd be in jail until then.

When Colinne had gotten back to her search, she'd started in the same part of the file structure where she'd found the position paper.  She'd hoped they'd set up directories specifically to store data on the situation.  When that didn't work out, Colinne started working laterally hoping that "level of the file structure" was used for issues of a similar importance or classification.  That didn't work out for her so she started bouncing up and down the adjacent directories.  Eventually, she found an Order of Battle that had been submitted to the station's Executive Director from Admiral Irsiismi.  The Admiral said the OB was a "planned response" in the event any Vermene ships took any provocative actions at all with regard to SDC ships or assets in the Ghandi system.  That meant anything from obviously hostile moves to simple things like closing distance between their ships.

When she read it through, Colinne couldn't tell if it was prejudicial, pejorative or cautionary.  Colinne did see that the orders had been distributed to all Imperial assets system-wide.  So, they were "live", so to speak.  While it also turned out the plans concentrated on Vermene more than Spinward Development, they did put in place active reactions to the behavior of ships from both corporations.  Realizing those orders were live, Colinne was certain that was a thing Tukera would want to know, so she had a member of her detail spark up a connection with Mr. Indama.  Getting him on the line, Colinne explained what she found and then sent him a copy of the data.  Scanning it, the man was very pleased and looked forward to anything else she found.

By dinner time, as people started returning to the suite, everyone got to enjoy the show as Sekea was followed in by his floating cloud of anti-grav luggage.  The others stepped up both to admire his new toys and for him to hand the stent wafers to Rol and Mikah.  Zimzod checked out the wafers and told Jocelynn, who had taken over management of the ship's locker, to work with Aali to set up storage there for the wafers.  Jocelynn would hold onto the wafers until Aali got out of jail.  Jocelynn looked over Sekea's new luggage and told him not to let Zimzod and Mikah near them after how they'd defiled Fesic's luggage back in Rhylanor.  Zimzod just said, "Good times" with a wolfish smile.  Others were helping being Rol's muscles while he cooked them chow.

While waiting for the meal, Zimzod regaled them with tales of the video-battles he took part in.  getting past that, Sekea happily announced that he'd happened on a shop selling stent wafers.  The chat talked to the wafers he'd bought and brought back to Mikah.  Mikah also told them of the wafers she knew Aiden had bought at Mordor Arms, including the engineering wafer.  Zimzod was as pleased with that as Mikah had been, because, as she'd told Aiden, they only had Aali and needed a backup.  Eventually, the ship's company now had control over a small but decent collection of stent wafers:
      Pilot 4: Providing for a backup starship pilot matching Aiden's "skills" but not his experience
      Small Watercraft 2: This would be open topped or small cabin (2-4 people) water craft
      Intel +1: Grants various affects during prolonged study and competitive events
      Blade 1: Providing basic skills using the Blade class of weapon
      Survey 2: Providing for a back up starship sensor operator matching Aiden's "skills" but not his experience
      Mechanical 1:Providing any user basic mechanical skills
      Engineering 4: Providing for a back up starship engineer matching Aali's "skills" but not her experience
          NOTE This does not include personally purchased and individually owned wafers

They were happy to have some level of backup due to their experiences and stories from when Brian and Terin had died.  Mikah reinforced her orders that the ship-owned wafers would eventually live in the ship's locker, under Jocelynn's control.  After they ate, Mikah suggested anyone who wanted to could join her in the cargo bay to play with the new pell 'droid.  Mikah asked if they had a Terin mask they could put on the 'droid, and Rol suggested it would look the same if they just painted it as a clown.  That got laughs from everyone.  Still, any who wanted to, other than Sekea, could also use the Blade-1 wafer if they didn't have the skill.  That was except Aali, who was in detention, Fesic, who was playing with Kuki and Aiden, who was with the most expensive sales girl/prostitute he'd ever paid for.

When Rol thought he might not be able to help team up on the pell 'droid, he had started to prepare his comms training.  But Mikah suggested he try to play along until he got too tired.  Then, he could step out and switch to his comms class.  She planned to fight the 'droid too.  Jocelynn also begged off the blade work because she still wanted to dig into the Stepozhevaci data looking for more friends and allies the government might have had.  Jocelynn specially wanted to check, while searching, for any hint the Zhodani were also involved with the Stepozhevaci.  Privately, Jocelynn wondered if the Zhodani agent might have actually been a bounty hunter hoping to collect on their bounty.  Zimzod suggested that wouldn't happen.  When asked why, he said that if the Zhodani were allies, they would only have sent members of the Tavrchedl based on the alliance.

Since the country of Stepozhevac didn't exist anymore, they wouldn't risk exposing agents just for money.  Zimzod added that any secret agent in the field would do their best not to do stupid things that could trip them up.  He smiled a big grin and said, "That agent must have been using brand x, because she screwed up!"  He also said he'd been told the Zhodani don't do "Bounty Hunters" because the Tavrchedl patrol every city and settlement on every Zhodani world to seek out wrong-minded people or those who were in hiding after have committed crimes.  So, the mind police would find and deal with them as part of their mandate.

Colinne and Aali were working using their comms and computer links to continue hunting for documents for Tukera.  Colinne did want to take a break from that and fight the pell 'droid for a bit, though.  Sekea also broke out his blades and "showed off", even if it was unintentional, by fighting with a blade in each hand!  After trying to get Mikah to join in in their bedroom, Zimzod turned all his energy into attacking the pell 'droid too.  Over the day's fading hours, Colinne and Aali found nothing new.  While much of the crew attacked the pell 'droid, Zimzod got a buzz on his comms and had to back out.  Most of the others were getting soundly beat by the android because they'd not practiced much in the last months.

Yet Another Bang In The Night
     Answering his comms, Zimzod found himself talking to a member of the Sladek Family.  The man on the comms said that since their crew were cowards, they wanted to offer one last chance, the next day at noon.  They can duel then...  Mikah interrupted saying, "You know what?  Let's do it now!  Right now!"  Zimzod agreed with Mikah, telling the man he had commitments he had to deal with.  So, the two of them demanded immediate satisfaction.  Jocelynn complained that she wasn't even part of the crew when this dispute started and Mikah had to order her to take part.  When the Sladek's grudgingly agreed to finish things "now", Jocelynn called out, "I'd like to remind everyone we have a three hundred million credit bounty on our heads." in an unhappy tone.  She added, "So going out to fight a bumper car war might not be the best idea."

Mikah said they couldn't hide from everything and she wanted to get done with them.  To have one less thing to deal with.  Saying they were gonna beat the Sladeks anyway, and she planned to bring a breaching charge for some reason.  When Zimzod asked why she wanted to bring the breaching charge, Mikah said, "Psychologic warfare." with a wicked smile on her face.  Zimzod told her the owner of the bumper cars would likely scream for security and they'd end up arrested.  Accepting that, Mikah backed down on the breaching charge, but also asked one of the Vermene people how many Aslan warriors were on shift that night?  She was told they had five, including two with Aali in the brig.  Nodding, Mikah told them to swap people around so all five of the Aslan were with them to meet the merchants.  While that started getting organized, Mikah called Fesic and ordered him to show up.  She also tried to reach Aiden but his comms wouldn't even connect for her to leave a message.

Considering that might actually turn into a real fight, the Vermene leadership got moving to get that done.  Jocelynn protested she wanted to keep her vargr and they made that happen too.  After the reorganization, the whole group of Vermene surrounded the crew as they moved to meet the merchanters at the bumper car concession.  They even made good time because the Vermene were concerned about maintaining security after word of the "duel" got out.  When Mikah's crew arrived, most of the Sladek crew were there and their XO made himself the spokesperson.  When he complained Mikah's entire crew had arrived armed, Mikah had everyone turn their honor weapons over the Vermene team.  The Sladek Xo accepted that.

Still, he asked about the Aslan and Vargr, and Mikah just waived them off as "our security team."  Accepting that, the merchanter turned to explain to the man who ran the bumper cars, because it turned out this was a frequent sort of thing on the station.  While Mikah had no idea, and hadn't looked it up or asked anyone, bumper car challenges were actually an accepted way to resolve disputes in the Ghandi system without getting security and the courts involved.  Even more of a surprise to Mikah, when the merchanter explained what was happening to the ride operator, that man suddenly got a look of glee on his face!  When Mikah asked what that was all about, the merchanter things started when competing ship crews would dock and want to have inter-ship competitions.  It turned out that had been going on long enough the man had started an unofficial book and started taking bets.

Mikah could only shake her head and roll her eyes about how bizarre this was.  Especially when someone else overheard and added that "the house" gets a share of every payment when the bets are resolved.  That explained why the man was so pleased even as he and his people started hawking the duel.  As the circus started rolling, Mikah's crew were a mote in a sea of public madness.  What they didn't know was that the ride operator's people were hawking the duel on social media and it was becoming a huge event.  So large that most of Mikah's crew would have pulled out guns if they'd been told.  Of course, they'd agreed with the Sladeks to hand their weapons over to their security, so they weren't armed anymore.

The more the situation started turning into a madhouse, the angrier Jocelynn got because she'd not wanted to come at all.  If she thought she was angry, she had nothing on Fesic when he and Kuki showed up.  And Kuki was even more angry because Fesic hadn't given her a chance to take a shower.  So he was more than ready to explode when he was told Aiden wasn't there!  Still, she somehow had come up with a flag with Fesic's name on it which made it clear she was Fesic's own little cheering section.  since Mikah had misheard the woman's name when the whole thing between her and Fesic started up, Mikah just shook her head and said, "Caligula speaks" in a disapproving tone.  Others in the crew heard her comment and laughed.

Soon enough, the Sladek crew had selected a member of their crew for each of Mikah's people present, and they were each directed to choose and get into a car.  When the grid was energized and the cars started moving, they all realized there were no speed controls.  That meant the latest surprised was that this game could be played for blood!  It was also quickly apparent Mikah's crew were being hit harder and the Sladek crew had done this before!  It took some time for Mikah's crew to come back together, and start putting some hard hits down.  Especially Zimzod, who managed to get through the mess and slam a Sladek car.  He even managed to hit hard enough to injure their crewman!  At the same time, Rol was having difficulties not getting injured himself due to his condition.

Things were fairly equal despite the minor wounds until one of their people managed to get out of the main cloud and make a run along a clear section along the side of the arena.  Gaining speed, the crewman suddenly pulled a revolver out of his coveralls.  with everyone buzzing in and out, most of the people on both sides had no chance to even see what the man was doing!  By chance, Mikah was one of the few who did see the weapon and she started screaming, "Hey Vermene!" and pointing even as she tried to move her car to hit that man's car.  The man still got a shot off, and had targeted Colinne's car!  She hadn't even realized the shot had hit the front of her car as she simultaneously heard the report of the revolved.  As good as their word, despite all the confusion, ALL of the Vermene people not only locked on the threat but opened a fullsade of weapons fire while everyone else was either ducking into or abandoning their cars and scattering.

Escape from the compartment was suddenly the law of the station as observers, betting people and even some of the ride operator's people scattered.  Sladek and stationer even as some of Mikah's crew also dodged out for cover.  Abandoned bumper cars blocked Mikah's strike even as the Vermene people turned the man and his car into a "Holed" relic.  The man, who would later be found to be a Sladek drive lacky from their engineering team, was dead before he could bleed out from the many holes in his body.  Not to mention the chunks of meat blown from his body by the exploding rounds the Vermene team used.  The sudden blast of weapons fire cut off just as suddenly as it had started and everyone in the compartment had the briefest moment of silence before the compartment's security alarms started to blast.  At the same time, the Vermene people moved in to locate and extract each of Mikah's crew while also covering every other person in the compartment with ready weapons.

From where he took cover, the ride operator had both turned off power to the cars and locked them to the floor.  Those who'd not been involved in ship-to-ship combat where also not experienced in bracing against sudden actions, and were thrown or jammed against their bumper cars as they jerked to a sudden stop.  Still, the ride was built for that, so any injuries were light bruises or the like.  In the brief moments before security flooded the compartment, there were those who reacted and those who's minds were only just catching up to what had happened.  While some hadn't realized where the shooting had started, Mikah was already out of her car and demanding her laser pistol from the Vermene agent she'd handed it to when her crew disarmed.

Certain things would go south as soon as they'd heard about the duel, station leadership had moved security teams in close to the compartment, waiting for an alarm.  Because of that, station security suddenly seemed to be everywhere.  Moving in, the security troopers demanded to see everyone's hands and surrounded anyone with a weapon with enough gun barrels to convince them to holster their weapons if not hand them over while everyone in the compartment was secured.  Mikah was frustrated when she'd demanded her weapon back and a security man blocked that while ordering her Vermene security to set down any weapons he had.  Of course, jurisdiction meant that no one had any right to be armed except security, until the current situation was resolved.

While they flooded the compartment, station security sat everyone present down after searching them for weapons and securing anything found.  A specialized team converged on the dead man in the riddled bumper car while a second group investigated the car Colinne had been in and questioned her about what happened?  Working with every person in the space, they had teams questioning the Sladek's XO in more detail.  Mikah and the crew were asked a number of questions, but their situation became obvious and none of them except Mikah had weapons when they arrived.  And, Mikah had just recovered her pistol from her security detail according to the compartment security vids.  So, for the crew of the Upgrade, the drill was to sit and wait.

Soon enough, Mikah was briefed that the Sladek XO suspected the dead man had waited until most of the crew on portside liberty had left the ship and then broken into their weapons locker.  He then grabbed one of the ship's revolvers, hid it in his clothing and slipped it off the ship.  Teams had boarded their ship to investigate and confirm that.  They then told Mikah the Executive officer had asked permission to speak to Mikah if she'd listen?  When Mikah nodded and the man approached her, she said, "You have five seconds" in an icey tone stressing the word "five".  The officer first apologized for the actions of his crewman, then said, "Our ships are now even."  He then thanked them for accepting the duel and turned back to his crew.  Despite the actions of the dead man, there were still some from the Sladek crew who were in shock or grieving his death.

Mikah had only snarled, "Get out of my sight."  The senior officer from station security told Mikah they were clearing corridors to both the Sladek berth and her suite.  They were also organizing an armed escort to deliver both crews to their quarters for the evening.  During the walk, Rol asked who was up for a game of poker?  Mikah said she'd play while Colinne said she would re-connect with Aali and get back to the document hunt.  She also updated Aali on the shooting at the bumper car venue.  Jocelynn went back to her hunt for friends of the Stepozhevaci.  Sekea and Zimzod also joined the forming poker game.

Having been escorted back to the suite with his crew, Fesic took Kuki's hand and led her to his bedroom, so they could have some alone time and play.  Passing through them without pleasantries, he shut themselves in his bedroom.  But, almost as soon as the door was closed, the lights in the room went out!  Concerned both because they'd not hit the light switch, and due to the attacks and recent events, Fesic firmly took Kuki's hand and made sure he could get them both out of the room safely.  Getting out to the hall, having left the door open, Fesic leaned back into the room to look over the darkened space.  And, as he did that, the lights came back on.

Fesic then called to the others, "Who's fucking with the lights?" but only got dumb looks back.  Looking at the room's light switch, he saw it was in the "On" position.  That meant it had either stayed in that position both when the lights went out and came back, or he'd missed seeing it changing positions both times.  Turning to the Vermene detail, who were confused about what was happening for the second time that night, Fesic asked them to do a sweep of the room.  He wondered if someone had gimmicked the light switch and/or put other devices in the room?  Like cameras.  The men stepped in and checked, both visually and with electronics, and said the room was clean.  That had both Fesic and Kuki stumped.

Fesic reached for the flashlight he always carried when he considered himself "On Duty", but he wasn't on duty.  He'd been on a date before they were forced to meet at the bumper cars.  So, he asked one of his Vermene detail if they had a flashlight he could borrow?  One had a handy-dandy "advanced" professional bodyguard special pen light.  It could even be networked to use as a distraction or for other reasons.  Leading Kuki back into the room, Fesic had only just shut the door when the room's lights went out again.  Ignoring that because he had the pen light, Fesic started leading Kuki to the bed.  They'd crossed half the space when the pen light went out, leaving them again in complete dark.  When he stopped, Kuki joked, "Ghosts?"  Fesic only said, "I don't believe in ghosts.  I do believe in evil Mikahs."  At first, Fesic considered thinking things through.  But then, he decided he and Kuki knew what they wanted and could do it by braille, so the hell with the lights.  Giving up on the lights, he pulled Kuki onto the bed.

Some time passed as they surrendered to their amorous desires, before the room's sound system started playing songs in the vein of the sort of "soft comfort tunes played in lifts and public spaces.  Not long after that, the lights in the room started flickering on and off repeatedly.  Neither of those affects slowed the couple down, though Fesic did let the thought he might someday try to find out who was responsible.  Not long after the lights started, as the two ignored the special effects, they heard a fan kick on and the room suddenly but slowly started getting colder!

Over the evening, Jocelynn worked on the Stepozhevaci data, while the file structure image was as large as the memory of an entire file system.  So, it was no surprise things went slow.  Colinne and Aali also worked on the Tukera project.  Colinne had set a number of small app-bots to chew through data.  Eventually, Colinne found an answer from the port Executive Director to the Admiral!  The Director said any ship appearing potentially belligerent would be refused permission to approach the station, much less dock.  They would also bath the ship or ships in an intense river of electronic surveillance while also initiating tracking on all Vermene or Spinward Development Corp. known to be aboard the station.

All the data and activity would be scrubbed to determine if there were any threats they could find or project.  The director would further have station security prepared to detain or arrest any of the targets based on what they were doing and intentions they could identify.  That meant all Vermene and SSDC personnel would be under on-going surveillance.  Including their security details.  That meant that, so long as they were with Mikah and the crew, the cameras would be surveilling her crew too.  Mikah shrugged and said she wasn't worried about that because her crew weren't doing anything.  Over in the suite's common area, Sekea was working his way towards being the night's big poker winner.  He was up Cr 345 while Zimzod was up Cr 75.  Mikah was down Cr 125 and Rol regretted suggesting the game because he was down Cr 295.

Also, over the later part of the evening, Jocelynn found files suggesting the Stepozhevac government had ties to the former government of the Natoko system(Rhylanor) before the Imperial Intervention.  They were also close and friendly with the government of the Paya system(Aramis).  The only thing Jocelynn could remember about Paya was that the world had been hit by a comet in the 1070's.  People who fled the world were now fighting to return to the world.  They were being blocked in exile by those who'd stayed on the world, and created a new government after surviving the devastation the comet caused.

The document said Stepozhevac was also friendly with five other "Private Ownership" countries on Porozlo, but that was no surprise.  All the Private ownership countries would have been bound in some kind of alliance or other.  More comments in the document suggested the Stepozhevaci were allied with a non-governmental organization that had supported the attempted coup in the Skull system(Lanth)!  Jocelynn was very surprised when she saw they had "friends" in the D'Ganzio system!  The document also had encoded names of some 45 starships the Stepozhevaci communicated with regularly too.  A file on the drive that was referred to was said to be an encoded report from a ship which had visited the Rech system(Lanth).

Another encrypted list said they had a number of friends in the Regina system too, and Mikah found that more interesting than the report on Skull.  It appeared they also had friends in the Mora and Rhylanor systems.  Trying to check a document, she found an encoded document with only two items "in the clear".  One was a corporation operating in the Rhylanor named "Gigua Keik".  The other unencoded item was "Zimzod Egosion"!  Seeing that, Jocelynn called Rol to see if he could join her at the terminal.  When he stepped over, Jocelynn pointed out what she'd found.  Especially the fact Zimzod's name prominently figured in an encoded document.  Calling Zimzod over, Rol asked if he had any idea?

Zimzod had no idea why his name was in the file, but something about the corporation's name tugged at his memory.  He said he didn't remember it outright, but thought it might be one of the corporations the tattooed couple were involved with.  Jocelynn had no idea what that meant, but Rol and Mikah did as she heard the comment and looked up from where she was.  Looking closer, Zimzod also realized one of the words Jocelynn thought was encoded was a region of Rhylanor called "Brusanus".  Bot Zimzod and Mikah remembered having to call the man and tell him to deliver the cargo to their ship.  For some reason, Zimzod thought he remembered the corporation was located in that region.  With her full attention, Jocelynn repeated the list of possible Stepozhevaci friends she'd identified.

When Jocelynn finished, Rol said that D'Ganzio was what most bothered him.  When Mikah asked why, he said it was because that was where they were planning to go after the Sonthert system.  When Mikah wondered about the connections to D'Ganzio, Zimzod pointed out that they'd picked up the killer android from the tattooed couple, bound for D'Ganzio.  That said, Zimzod suggested the android attack could have changed the politics in D'Ganzio, and let the Stepozhevaci friends change which faction ran the system.  Mikah and Zimzod explained the plan they believed was in place when Fesic screwed up, which led to the android being activated early.  And, how they thwarted the 'droid before it crashed a multi-billion Credit station into the planet below.

With that new information, Rol grimly mentioned that Jocelynn's list shortened the list of worlds they could safely visit.  That started a conversation where Rol and Jocelynn discussed skipping past Lanth and trying to play it safe.  Zimzod said they had committed themselves to jumping to Lanth, unless they stayed on Ghandi station long enough to sell off the cargo they'd already bought to sell on Lanth.  When it was suggested that they jump direction to Sonthert from Ghandi, Zimzod added that they'd have to spend even more time in-system buying up supplies for the expedition.

Reacting to that, Rol again started trying to do the math on places they could safely hide with Jocelynn.  Zimzod interrupted them, reminding them nothing would die down if they tried to hide.  He pointed out that things would only get worse.  So, there was no use in hiding.  Mikah stepped in, reminded them that the "friends" the Stepozhevaci had in D'Ganzio were not the people who controlled the system, so they shouldn't just write off that system because there might be bad guys there.  Zimzod added to that, saying there would be bad guys "anywhere" they went, so skipping Lanth wouldn't make sense.  Mikah agreed with Zimzod, but suggested they send an x-mail to Baron Aagirke od D'Ganzio warning him they might have found evidence of a faction in his government.  That way, he'd be warned before they arrived in the system from D'Ganzio.

In her x-mail, she described the bounty and her crew's issues with the Stepozhevaci after a "failed job" for them.  She then said data she'd uncovered from a Stepozhevaci computer image had "fallen into their hands".  While examining that, her crew had found a link between the Stepozhevaci government on Porozlo, and their links to world governments like that of Natoko.  She said they had evidence that the Stepozhevaci had links with a corporation on Rhylanor that may have ordered the android which attacked their station from that system to D'Ganzio in hopes the damage it would cause would force a change in management with the faction they'd uncovered in his government.  She then suggested he and his most loyal people begin an investigation before that faction tried again.  Connecting to the IISS X-mail system, Mikah paid Cr 2 to send the data-only message.  That meant it would arrive in two weeks.

The argument over hiding or moving forward circled for fifteen minutes before everyone settled on proceeding to Lanth as planned and being prepared to kill anyone gets in their way.  That done, Mikah called Maur to discuss meeting her and explaining the situation.  Rolling their own dice was a thing the crew would do but they wanted Maur out of any possible line of fire.  When she connected, Maur suggested they meet early for breakfast and Mikah agreed.  So, the next mourning she'd get up early and knock that issue off her to-do list.  Sekea also asked if he could go with Mikah to meet Maur, given their shared experiences aboard the King George.  Mikah said he could come along.

    Thursday, 098-1114:
Finishing The Chores
     As the day opened, Mikah and Sekea both woke early and "dressed up" moderately to meet with Maur for breakfast.  Rol also got up early, to cook breakfast for the rest of the crew.  Zimzod also had to be up to get to his gunnery class.  Fesic had to decide when to get to the Order house so they could measure and customize his new snub pistol.  After eating breakfast, and after Kuki went to handle her needs while Fesic would be on the range, Fesic considered securing his bedroom.  Considering his gear, Fesic eventually sparked up his two sensor ball drones and positioned one so it filmed the whole room from the back wall and covered the door.  He positioned the second drone so it shot "across" the door from right to left, so anyone opening the door and targeting the first drone would be recorded by the second.  Those set, he left the suite to test his new pistol.

Arriving at the Order house, Fesic stopped before he went to the weaponsmiths to shop for a gift to give Kuki.  When asked, Fesic said he wanted to buy her a bracelet and said it should be made of gold.  Fesic considered adding adornments to the bracelet based on his rank insignia in the Scouts or Navy.  But he realized those wouldn't mean anything to her.  Fesic eventually decided to have the name of the Upgrade applied in a platinum overlay.  Added to that, both he and Kuki shared an interest in the "miniature red orchid", so he wanted the jeweler to cut and place two "four red garnet stones shaped to look like orchid petals in the form of a flowering orchid" to either side of the ship's name.  In the center, he wanted a small "sparkling" diamond.  That custom item cost him Cr 7,000.  Fesic then went to work with the weaponsmiths.

In the suite, Colinne connected with Aali and they got back to work on the Tukera project.  Aiden had staggered in, after having cleaned up at Morder Arms, and looked at what to do to burn off the erotic energy still in his muscles.  He decided he wanted to play with his teaching suit and zero-g ops studies, so he called the Order house to set up an anonymous warehouse rental.  As he did that, Aiden thought it would be good to invite Fesic to come with, and bring his teaching suit too.  But Fesic was at the Order house on one of their shooting ranges.  Aiden told the Order House he wanted another half day and they said they'd call him back when they had a location.  Waiting for that call, Aiden told his Vermene detail about his plans and they started calling in assets they wanted.

Because Aiden had started making the calls earlier this time than the last, he'd get more time in the warehouse.  Because they were standard, to an extent, the price for a half day rental was Cr 1,000, which Aiden paid.  When he asked who wanted to join him, Mikah jumped at the idea but had to meet with Maur.  Wondering about when the Order house would deliver her "new toy", Jocelynn decided she needed some exercise to take her mind off the weapon and went with Aiden.  Rol dug into his physical therapy for most of the morning before returning to researching the response codes for the bounty on their heads.  While he didn't feel he'd get much if anything more from the search, he wanted to give it one last try.

Mikah and Sekea went to meet Maur at the restaurant she'd chosen to host a breakfast meeting.  After the greetings, Mikah told Maur they wanted to keep her safe given the events that were affecting their clues.  Mikah said they highly suggested Maur accept a full refund from them and that they could help her find another ship to Lanth.  If Maur wanted that help?  Mikah firmly said they didn't think Maur would be safe traveling aboard their ship.  Not having been "on the inside" of what had been happening, Maur asked Mikah to explain what new information made travel on the Upgrade unsafe?  Maur also pointed out Mikah had said the same thing in Denotam and it had turned out the trip to Ghandi had been perfectly safe.

Nodding, Mikah told Maur about the bounty, which had led to the mercenary attack on their ship's birth.  She then told Maur that, while they were still planning to make the passage to Lanth, they couldn't guarantee they wouldn't be faced with gunships intent on trying to destroy or disable their ship so they could claim the bounty.  Given that risk, Mikah said they absolutely couldn't guarantee her safety if they were engaged in combat.  Especially, from more than one ship or even a single larger ship with more and larger guns.  Mikah repeated that, given that threat level, they would help her book passage on another ship but didn't want to put her at risk.

Considering that, Maur asked if she could help in any way, even if she booked a different ship.  Mikah said the only real way to deal with the issue was to find the people broadcasting the bounty.  So, she said Maur could really only help by asking about where the bounty messages were coming from and getting that back to Mikah's crew.  Mikah also suggested that any connection Maur had could also help by countering the broadcast, and convincing people it was fake.  Maur pointed out that would be a drop of water into a lake of burning oil, but said she'd urge her friends to try.  Sekea thanked her for her work helping to identify the pirates and promised to update her on anything new he learned.

Maur thanked Sekea for the work he'd done under the difficult conditions he'd suffered.  She also said she look forward to convicting anyone captured and show all criminals the reach of Imperial law was long and deadly.  Turning to Mikah, Maur and told her that her other friends on-station had their resources and had been asking Maur to shift her booking to one of their ships instead of the Upgrade.  That wasn't particularly due to the risks, but more because they knew her and could "properly care for her" while bringing her back to Lanth.  When she said the merchanters claimed they could likely provide her with much better services, Mikah laughed and happily agreed with that claim.

Maur said she'd preferred to travel with Mikah's ship, but would change her bookings.  She also told Mikah they could keep her booking fee.  Nodding, Mikah said they preferred to return the fee but thanked her instead.  Mikah then remembered the hats they had and said, "Well, we'll be sending you a small packet i the next day."  Maur assured her she wouldn't be leaving Ghandi for two or more days anyway.  Maur also said she'd be traveling aboard the IMS Dukagi Gaaana and they should deliver whatever it was there.  Mikah nodded and planned to have one of their modified ball caps delivered to Maur.  The rest of the time, they shared breakfast and small talk.  Eventually, they returned to the suite.

    Thursday, 098-1114: Morning
Where everyone is at the end of the session:
     Aiden and Jocelynn: Waiting for an address before leaving for the warehouse for Z-g Ops training
     Rol: In the suite doing PT and researching the bounty response links
     Mikah and Sekea: Returning to the suite after meeting with Maur
     Colinne and Aali: Working with Aali on the Tukera work
     Fesic: Test firing his new snub pistol in an Order house firing range until lunch
     Zimzod: In gunnery school until the end of the day

_________________________________________________________________________
Next: Pending