Plans, Profit And Thrown
      Punches

    Monday, 1114-117:
Outcomes And Delays
     It was mid-afternoon and the crew's Monday had been interesting, to say the least.  What started as a "war" declared against them by an Aslan clan had become a One-On-One between Zimzod and one of the clan's warriors.  That was to be fought in a week's time.  Aali was working to figure out what the issue was with the cargo pods storing their radioactives before the port took that cargo away from them.  They were now preparing to meet the Aslan at their restaurant, the Khu Feast("Feast of Five"), to eat with the challenger and the four warriors he'd selected for his claw along with others from the clan.

After that, Mikah and Zimzod told Aiden to fly them downwell to a hospital in their cutter.  Mikah would work the over-night shift there while trying to get Zimzod autodoc privileges.  At the same time, Jocelynn's 'to do list' had grown.  She wanted to visit the shipyard project manager to talk about having plumbing work done on their ship.  She also had to sell their cargo and spare gear.  With the other responsibilities from becoming the ship's Captain, her life was the Chinese sort of interesting at the moment.  Setting that aside for now, she was trying to reach into the darkness of the local network.  She hoped to find super-top-secret sales sites she'd accidentally accessed when she'd suffered the mind-blast in the Denotam system.  Of course, that system was four parsecs away and she had no idea if the same network connections existed from Lanth.

Aali called the lawyers before deciding what to wear to the party, so she could learn what the protocols and dress codes were?  When she made the call, Aali was given the best cultural read they could.  Sadly, that wasn't their expertise, but they did say it was likely a "warrior thing" and dress should meet that.  They said it could also be open to 'business casual' as far as they knew.  As an example, Sekea had planned to wear his casual black, conservative Vilani business suit.  Rol planned to wear his dark-blue colored suit.  Aali decided to go formal and wear her Order of March Defenders uniform, along with her medals.  Colinne planned to wear her dark pant suit while Jocelynn wore her sleeveless black dress.  She added her leather jacket and black necklace with maroon spacer stones.

Jocelynn had moved into the stateroom she'd selected in the berth to try connecting to and navigating the station's computer networks with her stent.  Colinne had joined her to help make sure she didn't suffer a second 'melt down', like the event on Denotam that had caused her psionic blossom.  When she first connected, Jocelynn was able to simply connect and navigate around several of the generally public sites.  That felt pretty good by itself and fed her confidence.  Soon after she'd felt she had control, Jocelynn bent her mind to memories of the sites where she'd seen warships offered for sale. Having reached them from the Denotam port, those had been highly restricted non-Imperial Navy sites.  After an hour parsing through very public sites that had chatter about Imperial warships, Jocelynn realized she wasn't connecting with the content she wanted.

While she worked, Aali found the readings from the cargo pods containing the radioactives showed variances meaning the dampeners were not working properly.  The more she looked, the more Aali found no 'big catch-all' problem.  The failures she found were a mass of smaller issues, likely due to component-level problems.  She could only guess the pods had been so often used and re-used that the older electronics were suffering from age.  The age-worn pods simply had to be replaced instead of trying to repair them.  Shrugging, Aali sparked her comms up and called Jocelynn to give her the bad news.

When she connected to Jocelynn, Aali explained the situation and sent her report via comms.  She told Jocelynn five of the six pods were bad and had to be replaced at best.  Not having had any success trying to connect to the sales sites, Jocelynn said she'd call the port to get working on that.  Especially since being able to sell the radioactives was their "cash cargo" and of higher importance.  Colinne moved on to do her own thing while Jocelynn called and eventually connected with the port's cargo transfer operations team.  Being familiar with the crew and ship, the port workers were not particularly friendly on the comms.

Despite their attitudes, the station people asked how they could help and Jocelynn said they had tested the cargo containers the port had claimed were out of variance.  Jocelynn continued that her ship's engineer had found the containers were just so old the electronics were failing, which caused the issue.  Because of that, she said the crew wanted to buy new containers to replace the defective ones, to solve the problem so they could sell the cargo.  Flat and less than helpful, the tech only asked, "So, you're seeking a permit from us to do that?"  Not knowing a permit was needed, Jocelynn just went with that, saying she was so she seemed cooperative.

The tech then went over the limits and restrictions of the permit, once it would be issued.  It would let the crew buy new or replacement containers to repackage the cargo.  That sucked because the containers would be handed off to the buyer with the cargo and wouldn't remain owned by the ship.  So, they had to pay for hardware they'd be giving away.  Before the permit could be issued, and the ship charged for it, the tech said the station would send a technical team to the crew's berth to check their engineer's findings and confirm what had been said.  If approved, the permit would also cost the crew Cr 5,000.

After dealing with the port, Jocelynn called Aali and updated her both on what the port tech had said and the fact they'd be having tech visitors to confirm Aali's findings.  She then also called the lawyers to keep them up to speed, in case they were needed to fight back the port's bureaucracy.  Nearly forty minutes later, Jocelynn was told she had a visitor at the berth's entrance.  Expecting the port team, she told the berth worker to let the visitor in but was entirely surprised by what she saw.  An extremely unhappy station security officer escorting two armored and armed Aslan warriors who were themselves escorting an older Aslan female!

The officer, a Lieutenant Gapshapii, had all eyes on him as he stopped and addressed Jocelynn.  He said he had been sent because the Lord of the Khtaeiyousta'aaah hlea'airl Clan had made a demand.  Since the dinner that night was meant to be a meeting of warriors, the crew had to be permitted to present themselves as warriors.  And that meant they had to be allowed to be armed.  Because of that, in contravention of standing orders, each of the crew would be allowed to attend the dinner bearing honor weapons.  Despite the very displeased look on the officer's face, Jocelynn gave a whoop and snarked, "Time to break out the sword!" Not caring what she was on about, the officer stayed only long enough to deliver his message and bring back a list of the team's weapon selections.  Jocelynn spread the word to cheers from the crew.

Mikah planned to bring her most advanced laser pistol, Fesic planned to bring his snub pistol.  Rol would bring his gauss pistol and Aiden, his custom snub pistol.  Aali planned to bring her number 2 snub pistol.  Colinne selected her gauss pistol and Jocelynn chose her LaSlug pistol.  Sekea chose his own gauss pistol.  While the crew were reacting to the decision to let them be armed for the dinner, the expected team from station engineering arrived.

The station engineers were a smug and self-assured group and expected Aali to explain her findings to them in detail.  Jocelynn joined the meeting to make or enforce any decisions Aali put forward.  Of course, the engineers ignored Jocelynn.  The attitudes didn't matter to Aali because she was the expert in the room.  So, after nearly an hour, Aali had proven her points and convinced the station officials.  That team told Aali they'd return to Station offices and provide their report.  When that was done, they told Aali the station would then either issue a permit for the work or contact her with further steps.  Aali thanked them and let them go.

During that work, Jocelynn got a comms and found herself speaking to a port technician.  After making sure they were talking to Jocelynn, the tech said their paperwork had been processed.  Dame Jocelynn Guerrek was now officially Captain of the IMV Upgrade and Sir Rol Kaihvos was the ship's First Officer.  When Jocelynn announced that, Mikah busted loose with a loud celebration before wishing Jocelynn luck with the power.  Mikah then went looking for a chair she could sit in with her feet up to watch events proceed.  When Jocelynn asked if she wanted a piña colada, Mikah said, "That would be great!" and ordered, "Go Get me one, Captain."  Jocelynn grabbed her a cup of water and delivered it, saying, "Pretend it is piña colada flavored.

Before they had to get set for dinner with the Aslan, Jocelynn wanted to call the shipyard and set up an appointment to discuss changes in the plumbing for the drink serving station.  The project manager said he had teams going 24/7 so he wanted to know when she wanted to meet?  Because she worried about how rowdy the dinner would get, Jocelynn didn't want to have the meeting the next day.  But, two days from then was the TAS interview so that day was taken.  Given that, she decided to set the meeting for later in the afternoon the next day.  Jocelynn then told Aali about the meeting since she wanted the engineer to join her.

Dinner And Entertainment
     As they were told, the clan had sent a transport to pick them up at the berth.  The driver was an Aslan male, and he was minimally armed.  As far as they could see.  The passenger compartment was comfortable, and windows were trans-steel but easily able to view through.  They soon arrived at the restaurant and found the place wasn't closed for business that night.  Still, a large section of the place had been cleared off for their dinner.  The warriors there were dressed in a sort of "Casually armored" motif.  Sections of armor covered parts of their clothing, and there were different images or even Trokh glyphs Emkir would have been able to define.  Ealekheieaahaiw had the position of honor at the middle while the four others of his claw sat 'two to either side'.  At the head of the table, the clan's Lord was seated and next to him the senior most female of the clan.  Since the clan had other settlements in other systems, they could only guess this was the clans senior male in-system. 

While the females stood back and did not interact much, the warriors Ealekheieaahaiw had selected for his claw were reserved but respectful in their greetings.  Recognizing each of the crew as a warrior, the Lord welcomed them in a way that made it clear they were beneath him.  Not to mention being visitors on his clan's land.  Jocelynn and the others who'd read about Aslan culture and interactions could guess those who didn't work at the restaurant lived lives more insulated from the station's human populations as much as they could.  That meant the experience was more dangerous because the warriors might not recognize common human behavior.  They all knew they had to be careful not to give insult.

For her part, Mikah hoped to connect with one of the more senior females and learn more of what she could regarding Aslan customs.  What she got were descriptions helping Mikah understand the division of labor the Aslan culture lived under.  When Mikah asked questions about combat or their concepts of honor, the females deferred those questions to the warriors.  Where that happened, Mikah kept working to get to know the female better.  Aiden did his best to find any of the Aslan with ship flight skills to talk shop with but the claw had been assembled for ground combat and none of the males had those skills.

Zimzod started trading war tales and became so popular Jocelynn and the others joined in.  Things were going nicely even when a group of reporters from the Interstellar News Network showed up.  Sekea also talked about boarding and subduing the crew of a pirate craft.  Saying they were there to eat, the group of humans made an attempt to move towards where the crew and warriors were until they were pointedly moved to the opposite side of the venue.  Seeing that, some of the reporters actually tried to push the staff into seating them closer to the crew.  When that started generating complaints and loud words, the four warriors of Ealekheieaahaiw's claw rose with him to back up the women.

The wave of warriors then swept across the space to come up behind their females.  And, from what the crew could see, the females really hadn't needed the backup.  But when they arrived, Ealekheieaahaiw snarled, "Can we help you?" in his very accented galanglic.  Suddenly seeing the warriors, the reporters quieted down quickly, followed instructions and took the seats the staff meant for them to sit in.  One of the female Aslan then moved a lakh haihui(loosely translated as "room divider") between the reporter's table and much of the restaurant.  The warriors then returned to the dinner party.

When Mikah suggested they retaliate against the reporters by limiting the available foods to the most expensive meals on the menu, the Aslan female shrugged.  She told Mikah the issue had been solved and the women running the restaurant had never had any need for back up.  She added, "They're used to dealing with stupid Humans."  Mikah only answered, "Thank you" to that because it had been said back when she, Fesic and Jocelynn had visited before.  With everyone seated, the service came around and it was time to order food and drink.  The choices were Human food and drink, Aslan food and drink or a mix of choices.

Aali chose to order food from the human menu, but ordered drink from the Aslan alcohol.  While she liked the food well enough, she didn't much like the alcohol at all.  While she didn't vomit there at the table, Aali did have to make a buzz line to a basin in time.  Colinne kept her choices firmly on the human menu.  Despite his past experience, Fesic ordered Aslan food and not only enjoyed it as much as the last time, but kept it down too!  He did order human drinks.  Jocelynn not only had Aslan food and drink but also enjoyed a healthy dessert too.  Aiden went Aslan for both the food and alcohol.  The meal wasn't the best but he'd had worse.  Sadly, something in the alcohol triggered a reaction that didn't give him time to run for the basin.  So, Aslan workers stepped in cleaning up and replacing food and drink after he liberally coated the dining table to deal with the mistake made by yet another stupid human.

While Mikah had enjoyed the Aslan food the last time she'd eaten at the place, she felt the flavor wasn't as good this time.  Like then, she also had no problem keeping it down.  Rol also ordered Aslan food and also didn't really enjoy it while also having to make a run to the basin like Aali had.  While Sekea ate, he pronounced the food great!  And while there were a few queasy moments, he was able to hide those and keep the meal down.  Zimzod ordered Aslan food and made it clear the Aslan booze was to 'keep coming'.  So it was that he enjoyed both food and drink but eventually had "more than enough", which meant the man was becoming progressively increasingly coarse in the slurred words he used, and careless in his comments.

It was clear to many he had drank too much and, to the crew, was becoming dangerously drunk.  While both Colinne and Sekea started suggesting it was time to go back to the ship, Mikah grabbed a quikInject of Oxy-adrenal.  That was a drug that flooded the Human bloodstream with "oxygen-bonded" enzymes helping clear the alcohol from a system.  That helped capture and dissolve alcohol in the bloodstream faster than waiting for it be filtered by the liver.  The broken-down blood-chem results would be caught by patient's kidneys and filtered from his body normally.  Mikah also told Colinne, Sekea and Jocelynn they just had to give Zimzod water for a bit. 

Talking with the Aslan during the meal, they learned each of Ealekheieaahaiw's four warriors selected for his claw had served in clan units that fought for the Third Imperium in the Fifth Frontier war.  Two had even served in the Fourth Frontier War.  The chat broke the wall between groups and the conversations continued as interests were shared.  The Aslan said they regretted the fact Zimzod had to die in the coming fight.  Zimzod answered back, "Speak for yourself.  I plan to live forever."  Raising his mug, Fesic called out, "Or, at least as long as our ship has cloning gear!" and the others laughed.  The Aslan also cheered though they were surprised by the cry.  From their point of view, it meant they could face a worthy opponent again in the future.

When the evening finally came to an end, the Aslan ordered a car for them to ride to the berth in.  From there, Aiden, Mikah and Zimzod had to grab their over-night gear and board their cutter, to fly downwell to the hospital Mikah would be working at.  Along the ride, Sekea gave them more information on the ship boarding he'd led.  In 1111, he'd led a customs team to board the Sword Worlds ship Niksedven Dene which had been masquerading as a Solar Wind class yacht(the same class as the crew's ship).  The important piece he hadn't mentioned with the Aslan was that investigations showed that pirate corsair had planned to meet with another ship somewhere in the Sonthert system.  That added more information to anecdotal reports that smugglers had used the system for in and out repairs and refueling.

Boarding the cutter, Aiden called the port for clearance while lifting the cutter to start the flight dirtside.  He settled the cutter down on hospital grounds after the forty-minute flight and then made himself comfortable while Mikah and Zimzod checked in with the hospital administrator.  A man named Mr. Igkanmii Uushki met with them and explained the situation from the hospital's point of view.  Autodocs were rare on Lanth, and important for critical and crisis patients.  So, letting someone continue healing in theirs meant they needed to have a team of doctors with the caliber to handle those cases.  And, if Mikah's skills couldn't meet the need, they would pop Zimzod out and use it for that patient.

Certain she was up to anything Lanth could throw at her, Mikah waived away the man's concerns while her apparent arrogance made him wonder if he should have turned her away.  Still, the deal was struck and he let her put Zimzod under and then introduced her to the rest of the emergency trauma staff.  After the introductions, Mikah settled in to see what kind of night it might be?  She certainly knew all the really nasty cases would be routed to her scalpel in order to test her. 

Back at the berth, the rest of the crew were joking about Aiden's 'containment failure'.  Some even asked why he couldn't have managed to scoot over to the table with the INN reporters?  That got lots of laughs from everyone.  Soon enough the chatter ended and they all changed out of their party clothes, relaxed and got ready to hit the sack.  Downwell in the hospital, Mikah hit herself with a stim patch to keep her going through the night-long shift.  Over a night that was moderately busy, Mikah's exhaustion showed and the hospital administrators were not impressed.  But not so much that they pulled Zimzod from the autodoc because it had not been needed.  Still, there were warnings if Mikah's performance was as lack luster the next night.  So, Mikah endured the night while Aiden slept in the cutter and Zimzod in the autodoc.

    Tuesday, 1114-118:
Questions, Answers And Profit
     While the day began early for most of the crew, Sekea and Colinne were facing a rare day off.  Mikah, Zimzod and Aiden had to return to the berth from the on-world hospital and go with the others to be interviewed by TAS.  Mikah was already dragging and knew that taking more stims was a very bad idea.  She considered 'calling out sick', but knew she'd signed a contract and couldn't just play sick.  Especially not when breaking a contract on Lanth, given their laws.

While they left the berth, Sekea and Colinne decided to check the directory of museums to see where they wanted to go?  Colinne had been interested in natural history museums and both she and Sekea preferred to stay on the station rather than going to the planet below.  Both of them made certain to change into executive armor and ballistic shipsuits.  Just in case.  When they first started checking, the two had intended to look for any museums of natural history.  Setting that aside, they noticed a listing for the "Interstellar Center of Imagery" and wondered what that meant?  The listing showed that museum largely educated visitors on stellar and interstellar information through imagery, tri-vees and other display data.  Getting directions, they chose to go there and Sekea paid the Cr 20 for the cab ride.

Arriving at the TAS Studios, the crew were shown the "open space" sound stage on which the interview would be handled.  No special decoration or walls of green screen, there were specific large-screen displays and other items to support the reporters asking the questions.  But there were no obvious trick systems or other issues.  Just the crew and the reporters sitting facing each other.  the next steps were basic introductions and explanations of who did what among the news production crew.  The program director and his staff were mostly "Hi, nice to meet you.  Now I'll shut up and do my job."  The reporters had a bit more to say including their recognitions, awards and such.

To get things started, they had each of the crew briefly introduce themselves.  For a laugh, Aiden waved at the camera and called out, "Hi Dad!".  They next turned to Rol and asked him softballs about how he felt since being exonerated by the Imperial authorities on the question of war crimes?  Rol shrugged into his answers explaining to the reporters, and so to the audience, how difficult command in combat was.  Especially while dealing with the fog of war.  He still admitted he was happy the weight of the questions were removed from his back metaphorically.  He also admitted he still dealt with issues thanks to opinions in the Jesedipere system, and others whose minds had been made up without the facts.  Still, the questions had no wrong answers in most markets and they all felt they were incredibly safe.

The questions then shifted to the events which led to Rol joining the crew of the Hotel California when it left Regina.  They had been sent from Regina with then-Duke Norris' seal of approval to help one of the nations in the Inthe system(Regina) deal with criminal vargr elements.  Rol gave the best answers he could, keeping them in line with the fact they'd managed to get one of the Vargr who'd had a senior position in the port to turn Crown's Evidence and allow the local legal forces to sweep in and break the gangs that had a hold on the port at the time.  While official reports had been chaotic and incomplete, the win had been unmistakable and many smugglers and other criminals had been imprisoned.  Rol did his best to rely on comments like protecting his trade secrets to avoid giving concrete answers.

Turning to Aiden next, they ask if he'd been the command pilot of the Dawnstar Horizon during actions in the Rech system?  That had long been a matter of public record so Aiden agreed that was correct.  Almost like a slap, one of the reporters asked how it had felt to have had his ship shot out from under him during that fight?  Considering his words, Aiden said the same thing combat veterans had for centuries.  He said things had blended together in a flow that didn't give him time to think or feel, but were sparked with moments of sudden anxiety and terror.  Then, everything had gone black when enemy fire vaporized the back half of the scout ship.  Just like piloting the ship, that led to a "what just happened" moment where he and van Ryddoth had done everything they could to bring up backup systems.  Only to realize there were no systems to bring up, and they'd become floating debris.

Aiden continued that he felt he'd had the chance to do some of his best flying, even though it wasn't enough.  Still, he said he'd had and felt sensations he'd never experienced before and would remember the events for the rest of his life.  When one of the reporters probed how he'd felt "in the lead" in an unarmed ship, Aiden said it was just like an uptight Imperial Navy officer to stick the Dawnstar Horizon out front while she sat safely in an Imperial cruiser some thousand miles behind him.  Turing, the reporter asked Mikah, "Speaking about warships, we understand the Tigress-class dreadnaught is your favorite class."  Mikah said that was true and mentioned she'd served on one.  She described them as 'amazing'.  Pivoting from that, the reporter asked what her role had been during the fight in the Rech system?

Mikah considered her answer because that was central to their involvement with the Quasar Viper.  Mikah only said the situation was hairy and she'd done what she did until she was injured.  Mikah admitted she was wounded and didn't remember much of the situation.  She even pointed to her facial scars, which had pre-dated that battle, and said, "See the scars" to further her claims.  Accepting she might not properly remember parts of the event, the reporters didn't chase that point.  They then turned the same question on Zimzod.

Zimzod threw it back at the reporters, saying he handled everything he as ordered to do by then Lieutenant Commander Gadagush.  She had been the acting captain of the INS Tamesha Kargaa after the ship's captain had been killed.  His answers told the reporters they'd have to go back to that officer, now commanding the same ship as Captain, if they wanted more than he would give them.  Eventually, the reporters got no more than "Yes, our crew was there", "Yes, the Dawnstar Horizon had been there and was destroyed in the event, "Yes, the Tamesha Kargaa had been there, which was all well known.  Past that, Zimzod said everything else was a wad of confusion thanks to the fog of war and other issues.

The reporters still counted what little they'd gotten as a victory because no other reporters had been able to get them to speak on or off record about the events.  One of the reporters then started in a different direction saying the lives of the crew had gotten a good deal more interesting.  So much so that Lady Mikah and Sir Zimzod had stepped down from the Upgrade's command.  The reporter then asked, "Dame Jocelynn.  What are you feeling as the new commander of the Upgrade's crew?  Leaning back on her career in the Marines, Jocelynn answered, "It is an honor and I look forward to getting to know each of the crew even better."  At the same time, Mikah stretched as if yawning and moaned "Free at last" while the others did their best not to laugh at Jocelynn's answer.

Turning to Mikah, Jocelynn continued, "I've learned so much from this lady and I look forward to continuing the great traditions of this ship."  Deciding there'd be nothing more on that line of questions, another of the reporters then asked about the bounty that appeared to be offered to kill them?  Getting serious, Jocelynn made it clear there was no basis in truth regarding the bounty and yet innocent people were being hurt and killed because of it.  Jocelynn pointed out the crew of the ship had dealings with the Stepozhevaci that went sour and the most likely answer was that someone made up the claim to get revenge.  With little else to really say, Jocelynn circled back to the fact innocents were being hurt, killed or put in danger.

Rol asked if he could step in and Jocelynn nodded as she waited to hear what he had to say.  Rol addressed the reporters, saying, "We're gonna flat line it for you.  The nation Stepozhevac no longer exists and was recently implicated in helping the world government of Natoko to build shadow fleets of rogue ships.  And the Natoko government also no longer exists.  And, neither have any money left to spend.  Do you really want to accept claims made by anyone who survived the downfall of two governments that the bounty is real?  After Rol spoke his piece, one of the reporters asked if any of the others had anything to add to what he said?  Jocelynn said that had been well put and none of the others had anything to add.

While that happened, one of the production aids asked Jocelynn to step to the side.  When she did, the PA told Jocelynn they were getting warnings from station security that two of their crew might be involved in some kind of riot in a museum.  Rolling her eyes, Jocelynn knew she couldn't just walk out on the interview so she asked for as much information as they could give her.  The production aid said security had only told them that much and no more.  So, they were passing that on to her.  It appeared station security were helping clear up the situation and they had no more data to give.

When some of the reporters asked what the crew had planned next, Mikah said they had no idea what might happen later that day much less next?  At the same time, Jocelynn joked, "If we told you that we'd have to kill you" with a smirk on her face to show she was joking.  When Aiden said, "Ask us tomorrow" Mikah added, "At the end of the day, so we have something to say."  That still brought up questions about the Aslan "War", and it was left to Jocelynn to explain it as best she could.  She did her best to explain how fighting a noble foe simply for honor was an acceptable way to gain and show honor in the eyes of the Aslan.  For more technical explanations, Jocelynn directed them to speak to Aslan authorities.

Mikah and Jocelynn admitted the idea of it had been a shock at first.  Mikah admitted they'd known very little about Aslan culture when they got a call about the war declaration.  Mikah admitted she'd first thought it to be a joke, or something coming out of the so-called bounty.  But both Mikah and Jocelynn said they now better understand the Aslan and why the challenge was issued.  Jocelynn continued that they now respected the Aslan culture and were honored by the challenge they were given.  Still, she said it had boiled down to Sir Zimzod, who was prepared to fight the clan challenger with honor in what she could only call a spectacle.

One of the reporters asked, "Now that you understand it, can you explain this challenge to our viewers?  Jocelynn used the metaphor of gaining wealth to explain how the challenger wanted to build his reputation and honor.  So, like someone with the skills working into the circles of the wealthy to bet and invest against them, the Aslan warrior wished to challenge their crew because they were recognized Imperial nobility.  As things negotiated down to a one-on-one between Zimzod and Ealekheieaahaiw, both were prepared to face off in the name of honor.  That turned questions to Zimzod, and one reporter asked if he'd ever fought an Aslan warrior before?  When Zimzod simply answered, "No", he was asked how he felt going into the challenge?  Zimzod only shrugged his shoulders and said, "Meh" to suggest he had no concerns about the up-coming fight.

When reminded he could die, and asked how he felt about that, Zimzod again shrugged and answered, "Meh".  Reporters then asked if Zimzod had any tactics or moves he'd learned while in the Imperial Army which he planned to use?  When Zimzod only answered, "Probably", and the reporters asked if he could give any details, he only answered "No" while Mikah tasked back, "Why would anybody reveal what they planned before a fight?"  The reporters soon realized Zimzod had to be partly enjoying giving his monosyllabic answers and frustrating them.

Eventually, the topics were talked out and all the facts they felt they could discuss were covered so the interview ended.  In post-interview discussions, the producers said they felt they could get enough segments out of the work to broadcast.  They were especially happy about how the bounty questions had led to fraud questions and other issues.  Because a mystery that wasn't solved grew, and people would argue about it.  So, they felt that had legs.  That said, they had a last post-production meeting with the crew before they paid them.  KCr 25 for Mikah, Zimzod and Aiden.  KCr 10 for the others, before calling a transport to get them back to their berth and hotel rooms.

No Good Deed...
     While the rest of the crew were off handling the TAS interview, Colinne and Sekea had decided to visit a museum named the 'Interstellar Center of Imagery'.  A quick check showed the main museum was downwell, but they also had a full annex and learning center on-station too.  Given they expected the others to be at TAS all day, this was a 'day off', and they planned to be at the museum the whole day themselves.  When they arrived, the main atrium had a number of screens designed to engage people passing and draw them in.  That meant there were facial recognition systems identifying visitors and showing content of interest to anyone on camera.

For Colinne and Sekea, the system could have been more intelligent than it was, but it was obviously based on display numbers.  Because of that, both Sekea and Colinne recognized the clip, if from a different angle for Colinne.  The clip being shown was from coverage of the ambush and was split screen with data on each of the crew.  So, even though Sekea had not been caught in that situation, his image and name were presented.  And while the two of them recognized what they were seeing instantly, it wasn't long before they heard the voice of a young child half-whining, "Mom.  That's her" in the excited tone of a kid that had not yet come to grips with people on a screen appearing in real life.  To say the least, their stomachs dropped a bit at that sound.

Because some of the bored people waiting on lines will look at anything, it wasn't long before Colinne and Sekea were centers of attention.  Even if, at the same time, they were not aware the museum's IT were flashing the facility's management the fact celebrities at arrived, things around the pair were changing quickly.  Used to largely military crowds and not being famous, Sekea considered politely commanding the civilians to be orderly.  That wasn't working.  Colinne was more used to fading into the woodwork as best she could, or fleeing.  That also wasn't an option as the crowd focus changed and people turned on them to greet the pair, introduce themselves, try to glom onto the celebrities or worse.

The "store front" staff of the museum had seen crowds turn and were busy shutting down stations and closing things up to protect property.  Soon, as the crowd gestalt shifted, a pair of docents arrived in the space and not long after that, a curator.  Just before they arrived, Sekea hit on the tried and true "News conference" idea and tried to call the civilians to order.  Sadly, these were average work-a-day people, not reporters, so when Sekea offered to find a place to organize and then said, "We'll answer each of your questions" each of those people took that as a promise from Sir Sian to personally "talk to me and answer my question".  No larger blank check had been written by a crew member since Emkir had promised to answer "every written interview request" from media agencies on Rhylanor.

Regardless his skills and experience, Sekea couldn't herd the mass of people acting like cats.  While Sekea's attempts to manage the situation were failing, the curator had heard his offer to answer questions and come up with a possible solution.  Getting the docents going with the idea, the curator used his authority to reach Sekea and Colinne while the docents started announcing that they would set up a forum for questions to be asked.  The curator told both Sekea and Colinne he had a solution if they were good with it.  He said they could move the crowd to one of the museum's class rooms to try and restore order.  That was, so long as their Lord and Ladyships approved.  Since he wanted to be as friendly as possible, Sekea was good with that.  And since Sekea said "He would" answer their questions, she was good letting him do that.  So, the group was soon being moved to a classroom set up at the moment thanks to the curator's request on comms.

Getting the mass of people into the classroom went a far distance to getting them calmed because they now seemed to be getting what they wanted and/or expected.  Sekea was very pleased because this gave him a setting that was formal and would help him regain order.  Still, those who had heard his offer expected him to answer "all" the questions they had.  Each person individually.  As Sekea waded into the questions, Colinne backed off and let him handle the flood.  What neither of them knew was that the museum management had reacted to Sekea's offer by posting announcements on their digital maps and other data that an impromptu seminar was being held by Sir Sekea Sian and Dame Colinne Paan, of the IMV Upgrade where questions from the public would be answered.  They even posted that event on their public-facing network pages, inviting all who could to come visit the museum and take part!  It would come back to bite them that they'd not asked Sir Sian or Dame Paan before doing that.

When they did finally get things settled down, the crowd was more or less orderly so long as raised hands were called on and questions were answered.  As she'd planned, Colinne did answer some questions, or those posed directly to her, but let Sekea answer most of them.  After an hour, Sekea had been getting tired of the multiple "unfortunate" or off-color questions and tried to beg off claiming other duties.  Not accepting that, many in the crowd were upset and Sekea was forced to keep answering questions to prevent things turning nasty.  Still, he had only himself to blame for that, since he had made the offer to answer their questions.  Crowds of people had a nasty way of holding a person to their offers.  Still, Sekea planned to find a way to cut this impromptu seminar short sooner than later.

As time proceeded, Sekea also tried to make an impression by trying to lean more towards the questions of children than selecting the adults.  Sadly, these people were not that polite and would not cede him control that fine-tuned.  Adults would cut in, barking out their questions before kids could speak, or parents would put their question forward instead of their kid's when their family was selected.  Time and again, the raw attitudes of the civilian crowd failed to match up with similar groups of military members or even civilians attending a military event on a base or even in a municipal setting.

The more questions they took, the more inappropriate they got as members of the public felt they had the freedom to loosen up.  Both Sekea and Colinne ignored questions like those which asked which members of their crew they'd most like to "connect with romantically" or prefer to ignore?  Some were border-line offensive or worse.  Not more than thirty minutes after they tried to cut things short, the pair both noticed a man entering the classroom with other new arrivals.  After he'd found a seat, the man set up a very obvious recording device!

When Colinne stepped in and said she did not want this session recorded, the man identified himself as a fully credentialed freelance reporter and pointed out the "seminar" had been advertised as a public event.  Sekea pointed out they hadn't agreed to the advertising or free nature of what they were doing and felt they should stop answering questions and leave.  The curator and docents were still in the room as the sentiment of the crowd changed.  Seeing that, Sekea tried to suggest those in the room blame the reporter but those who often feel they have been cheated very often follow the straight lines of anger rather than following the twisting paths of logic.  Things were turning and it was time to get out of any public space of the museum.

Things at the museum started going downhill as soon as the pair decided it was time to leave.  Some of those still waiting had been there when Sekea had "promised" to answer each question individually.  Others had been made aware of the "seminar" and rushed to the museum.  So, they'd disrupted their lives to try and ask a question.  Only, they were suddenly told the Knights were shutting down the session almost as soon as they arrived.  To far too many, it didn't matter who started it.  It only mattered the Knights were 'taking their toys and going home'.  So, it was the Knights most people blamed.

The curator and docents in the room did their best to defend Colinne and Sekea until a part of those in the room became an angry wall moving towards the Knights.  Museum security had been called but they had been spread all through the facility, protecting the artifacts and displays.  So there was a delay as galleries were flushed of all visitors and locked down to let the people security that space join in the response.  Because of that, the head of museum security made an early call to station security, which is where the term "riot" was added to things.  The teams did arrive in time to keep things from getting really bad but there were minor injuries and arrests.  That guaranteed news coverage as reporters moved in.  Ironically, the freelance reporter who'd started the entire situation likely got paid huge money because he'd been there from the start and had the ultimate scoop!

They finally got Sekea and Colinne into a secure section of the museum while security did their job, so the two were able to relax.  Sekea bitterly complained that he blamed the reporter for starting things.  But He'd not realized that no longer mattered.  While that man was the trigger, the "current" issues were managing the crowd's anger and clearing the museum.  Until that was done, "who started it" was meaningless.  When station and museum authorities did sit down with Colinne, Sekea, the curator and docents, the reporter was identified.  But it was clear the reporter hadn't broken any laws or done anything punishable by law.  His actions did lead Colinne and Sekea to try to leave.  And "that" was really what triggered the anger in the crowd.  The crowd were only angry because Sekea had promised to answer questions.  If he'd not tried to make everyone happy, there would have been no reason for anyone to demand anything.  So, it was Sekea's attempt to be friendly that was the real cause for what happened.

Station security did ask who had made the decision to advertise the so-called seminar and a member of the curator staff admitted they had done that.  When asked if they'd gotten permission from Sekea and Colinne, the administrator admitted they had not.  Nodding with finality, the security officer made it clear that was a contributing factor in what happened.  They were told they were also responsible for the reporter's actions because they'd advertised the event and claimed it was public.  But any legal claims could be balanced using either charge.  The rest would be for the lawyers to work out.

While the situation demanded the museum shut down for the rest of the day, their senior curator and chief administrator both offered Sekea and Colinne a private guided tour of all their displays.  A tour which the pair gladly accepted even though Sekea mumbled that it was the least the museum could do.  The tour ultimately also provided lunch and a sit-down dinner with the administrator's and curator's staff.  So, while they got back to the berth late, they were well fed and the museum paid for a car to get them home.  By the time they returned, the others had finished their day and dealt with dinner before getting into their evening activities.

By the time they'd finished the interview at TAS, Jocelynn had been told the situation at the museum had been resolved.  She was assured the "riot" wasn't the fault of either Colinne or Sekea, and that they were safe.  They also told her the pair were being given a personal tour of the museum, which had closed to the public for the day.  Happy to learn that, Jocelynn told them she and Aali had to go to the shipyard to talk about work on their ship.  Accepting that, the TAS people paid for the rides for them to the yard, and the others to the berth or their hotel rooms.  For Mikah, that meant she finally had a chance to grab sleep before having to wake up, fly down well and work at the hospital again.

With spare time until he had to fly, Aiden went looking for any kind of training simulator because it had been some time since he'd even tried to practice driving a gravCar.  The berth computers had very little on the subject, so he went looking out on the station-network.  Sadly, as he'd learned well before this, Lanth was not so advanced a society that grav-cars were common.  That had even been a consideration in buying the lot of luxury gravCars they had as cargo.  Because of that, even trying to find a simulator to buy turned out to be a task.  And if he had found one, they didn't have a ship's computer to run such a simulator on.  So, Aiden eventually gave up and sparked up a video game to play until dinner.  After dinner, he planned to ask about a group stent training session.

Fesic sparked up a terminal in the berth and started generic computer training and practice applications.  Rol first reminded the others he was ready to help them with weapons and armor, since he had his kit at the ready.  Rol then sparked up the communications training application he had installed on his comms.  Zimzod sparked up the stent-based mechanical training class he'd bought and got into that while Mikah was sleeping until that evening well after dinner.

A Project With Legs
     During the ride, Jocelynn asked Aali if she felt it would be good to ask for a walk-through, to check on the work already in progress?  Aali agreed that would be a good idea and Jocelynn nodded as they rode on.  Arriving at the shipyard, Jocelynn told the gate worker she and her engineer wanted to speak to the project leader whose team their ship had been assigned to.  That was a man named Emsho Lapa Coul, who met them quickly enough after he'd been told visitors had arrived for him.  When he connected to them on the station's dockside comms and asked what he could do for them, Jocelynn and Aali reintroduced themselves and said they wanted a meeting with the man.

Mr. Coul had them led through the latticework of companionways and passage to his office.  Entering the space, there were wide vista-like views of various work projects along with a number of vid-screen displays of project work.  Not sure how Coul would take the news they had more work needed, because he'd essentially forced them to bribe him to do the fuel line work, Jocelynn eased into the plan saying they hoped to tour the work being done first.  While he walked them through the work where plating had been cut away for access to the fuel tank spaces, Jocelynn casually asked about adding plumbing from the ship's cargo bay to the crew's lounge?

When Mr. Coul asked why they would do that, Jocelynn explained they hoped to put in a "drinks service" station in their lounge.  To do that, she continued, they had to put water-holding cargo pods in their cargo section and run plumbing connecting those to a stanchion to be installed in the lounge space.  As she talked, Aali handed the man a datapad with the drawings she'd done while working with Jocelynn to plan the installation.  In for a credit already, the man sparked an application up on his hand-computer and scanned the drawings in.  They watched as he called date up from what he already had from their ship project and started doing maths.  Mr. Coul then told them the plumbing mod wasn't unusual and wouldn't be hard to add to their existing project.  He also had word for them on that, since they'd only handed the ship in asking how hard the fuel changes would be, how long that work would take and how much they'd cost?

Jocelynn was pleased with that and talked with him on the larger project.  With her there, Mr. Coul pulled up the primary project files for the fuel line reengineering and went over the progress his people had on that.  He explained that a percentage of the hull had to be opened to get access to the spaces where the work would be done.  At the same time, a team had to purge the fuel tanks and plumbing involved after sealing those off.  Teams could then cut the existing pipework and begin the redesign work.  Along with installing new cryogenic-rated fuel plumbing, they'd have to include a properly rated electronically controlled shunt to shift fuel feed between jump and normal space tanks.

Mr. Coul said they hadn't yet come up with a full work time for the larger project, or a cost, but they were closing in on the numbers.  He still said he could add in the plumbing work for Cr 15,000 because it wasn't an unusual modification.  The women were pleased with that and Jocelynn figured they just had to wait until the yard came up with their final answers.  They could then choose to pay for the work or try switching yards.  At the moment, the things slowing them down were a combination of the custom work done to the ship along with repairs to damage the ship had suffered in the past.

The techs and designers had prepared a design and were now checking to see if that would work or had to be modified.  Thanks to that, they expected to have a plan to offer soon.  Jocelynn nodded at the information she got and thanked them.  She then said they'd come back when there was more for them to hear.  With that, Jocelynn and Aali hired a Cr 25 cab for which Jocelynn paid and they returned to the berth.  When they got there, Aali began looking into the processes and issues for transferring hazardous cargos from one cargo container to another.  Of course, she checked the procedural table of contents first and saw there'd be permits required.  But she would tackle those with help after she checked the technical steps.

The tech was entirely based on 'smaller than starship' scale nuclear dampener tech.  Aali was entirely familiar with that.  That tech let any cargo container safely hold cargos emanating nuclear radiation.  The issue they'd face with a transfer would be dealing with any radiation while the cargo was removed from containment.  Aali knew the containers were available to buy, but that was usually something the cargo shippers dealt with, not the transporting ships.  Given that, Aali decided to let Jocelynn deal with that now she was their Captain.  Still, she sent the specs to Jocelynn with an update on what was needed.

When they'd gotten back to the berth, Jocelynn first called station central to check on the decision regarding their cargo pods.  As things stood, the station team had left saying Station Central would make a decision on the issue.  They'd expected the station to make a decision that day, but that hadn't happened, so the crew had had more time.  When Jocelynn connected with the station offices, she was told they were still working on the issue.  Even before she got the data from Aali, Jocelynn then started looking into buying cargo containers because she was certain the station wouldn't just give them five out of the goodness of their hearts.

Jocelynn did see there were a wide variety of cargo containers for sale, from standard sizes to custom jobs.  Containers had various capabilities, like refrigerated or frozen, radiation containing, etc...  There were also ranges of prices from brand new to dented and used.  Jocelynn shied away from the used section because that's how they gotten into this situation in the first place.  Eventually, Jocelynn found they could get new containers equipped with counter-radiation systems for Cr 12,000 each.  That didn't make her happy because the crew had to buy five of those.  Added to that, they would only be buying them to hand them over to whoever bought that cargo lot.  So, it was money essentially being thrown out the airlock just to be able to sell the radioactives.

Shrugging, Jocelynn started setting up a deal to buy five of the containers only to find her actions frozen!  The station had set up limits to prevent their crew from making such purchases or attempts to sell the cargo because of the restrictions in place.  Suddenly, Jocelynn found herself blocked because she'd not yet gotten a permit to swap the cargo containers.  That was almost immediately followed up by a fine against the ship for Cr 5,000.  Shocked, Jocelynn read the notice and saw the fine was for violating station orders, which she had by acting before she'd gotten the needed permits.

Having had entirely too much of the antics of the system government, Jocelynn paid the fine from ship's funds and started saving her data for after they did have the permit.  Ironically, Jocelynn got the call that their permit was granted ten minutes after she'd paid the fines.  Jocelynn could only nod and say, "Look at that.  They set a trap and are giving me the permit now I fell into it."  Truth to tell, the odds were she had just jumped the gun and there hadn't been any intent on the part of the station offices.  Still, Jocelynn was then able to call the supplier she'd been investigating and finish the deal.  Before Jocelynn cut the line with the station, Jocelynn asked about any regulations before they could transfer the cargo and was told she'd be sent a manual.

When Jocelynn received a free electronic copy of the manual, she saw it was five hundred pages thick!  Feeding that into an AI engine for a summary, she saw there seemed to be five separate offices she had to visit to ask for and get permits to transfer the cargo themselves.  She only had to visit three offices to get permits letting her hire a third party to do the work, but she'd then have to pay that third party firm.  Whoever they were.  Then, there'd be yet another permit to dispose of the irradiated cargo containers on top of everything else.  Jocelynn did figure the locals would have a better grip on the process, so hiring a third party might be faster if not cheaper.

When Jocelynn called the port back to start applying for the permits, she found the first three permits cost a collective KCr 25.  After Jocelynn paid that, she was told the process of approving the permits would take a few days.  While she worked on that, Jocelynn got another call, and answered to see it was the broker!  After she greeted it, the bwap said it had found a buyer for their cargo of luxury grav-vehicles.  Telling Jocelynn about the deal, Mie Ver-bwhep was pleased with itself because Lanth really wasn't the sort of market for luxury vehicles of any kind.  Much less grav-vehicles.  He sold what they'd bought for KCr 60 in Ghandi for KCr 150 on Lanth!  A profit of KCr 90!

Still, that "profit" on the sale wasn't a profit for the ship, so the crew were not getting a payout.  They'd spent Cr 87,873 in the Ghandi system, and this deal had barely covered the cost with just over Cr 2,000 to spare.  That now had to be devoted to paying off the bills they were building up in Lanth.  After doing the accounting, Jocelynn let Rol know what had happened and was pleased she didn't have to tell Mikah.  She knew Mikah was in her hotel room sleeping and didn't want to have any reason to wake her.  Aali finished up reading into what she had to, then found a "cat romance" video game in the berth's entertainment systems, which she sat down to play.

As she played, Aali did her best to capture particularly poignant scenes between the animated cats to share on the ship's screen savers.  She had issues fitting them in because the crew had been collecting 'unfortunate crew moments' in video or still for some time.  Several involved those who were no longer members of the crew, such as Munarshu, Terin or Emkir.  In one, Aiden was handing Munarshu his taser-secured pistol when the latter had only just heard of the weapon.  It had happened in an InstellArms facility and the vid showed Munarshu collapsing after being tazed and peeing himself on the floor.  Another had Munarshu shooting Rol with a Tranq round as he staggered back to their ship after a drunk the night before.

Another video showed Aali barely not getting shot in the head when she and Emkir had interrupted a store robbery.  Yet another had Zimzod decking Terin after he'd suggested Zimzod cry into a rag after they'd delivered FGMP-15's to a destination.  A still shot showed Rol out cold in a hospital bed with a large Human, negroid dildo stuck to his forehead like a pornographic unicorn.  A short clip showed Mikah kneeing Rol in the crotch while brawling.  Another video showed when the newly cloned Aiden had returned to the ship's crew and been tazed by his own weapon after Mikah had reset the DNA-tester.  Several vids shot by Fesic showed Munarshu's antics while on a hunting trip on Regina.

One of those vids showed Munarshu having been secured but holding a toy gun with a "BANG!" flag deployed in a hospital room.  Another showed Munarshu stepping in a gopher hole and windmilling while mistakenly firing his rifle while hunting on Regina.  Jocelynn stared in one clip where she'd learned she'd been cheated by a criminal and attacked Zimzod as "the nearest person" while Zimzod just laughed and batted her off.  Or, Jocelynn shattering Terin's frozen corpse and throwing his remains out the airlock after he'd been killed and the "medical authorities" had frozen his body in the Tremous Dex system.

Because of the many videos and the algorithm that decided what showed after what, Aali had an issue finding places to add cat clips in.  Aiden asked if the others wanted to do a stent group practice?  Before that could form up, he was reminded he had to ready himself to fly Mikah and Zimzod back down to the planetside hospital.  So, he spent his time preparing for that before playing video games.  Still, Aiden planned to do stent practice on his own while downwell.  Rol had joined the group in the berth until he planned to leave for his hotel room so he joined Jocelynn, Fesic, Colinne and Sekea joined in the practice.  Zimzod also took time to do stent practice in his hotel room, until he had to leave for the hospital.  Aali continued playing her cat romance video game.

After the stent practice ended, Colinne considered going back to investigating the intruder software package.  Before that, Jocelynn asked if they wanted to take advantage of the fact nearly half the crew were gone and move into a stateroom to do psi-work?  Colinne agreed and they did that for the rest of the evening.  Fesic went into his stateroom and did more lock pick practice.  Rol got into his communications training while Sekea continued practicing cutting chess pieces from stock metal with his artist's factory.

When the three landed, Aiden prepared himself for his evening of isolation while Mikah went to put Zimzod under in the autodoc.  She then joined the hospital's emergency medical staff for an evening where the hospital was slammed!  Estimates of patient treatment times got longer and longer as they were all working many cases.  Happily for Mikah, she was on her game that night and handling cases at a rate outstripping the others.  At a point the sort of case came in which the department described as "One victim, five legs".  There was so much damage to the lower body that very little could be interpreted without advanced scanning.

Lucky for that patient, Mikah also had advanced tech toys with her the hospital couldn't provide.  Because of that, Mikah spent more than half her night leading work on that case.  Eventually, they got the patient as "re-assembled" as they could and stabilized.  Still in critical when Mikah finally left, the patient's survival wasn't assured, but the hospital administrator admitted their chances were much higher than if Mikah had not been there.  Because of that, he was good clearing Mikah for the rest of the week she'd asked for while she continued handling shifts.

    Wednesday, 1114-119:
Managing The Toys
     Like the day before, Mikah peeled off her scrubs and went to collect Zimzod from the autodoc.  They then went out to the cutter to wake Aiden and return to the station and berth.  During that flight, Mikah settled in and took a nap.  A thing that bothered Aiden was the bureaucratic delays that meant the flight lasted nearly two hours!  Where regular flights took between forty minutes and an hour, "private flights" suffered delays and round-about flight path authorizations that often made those flights several hours long.  When they got to the berth, Mikah paid a Cr 15 cab to return to her hotel and went to sleep. 

While they closed on the port, Zimzod decided he wanted to rent a range from InstellArms and practice with his weapons.  Since he had to have them transport his weapons on-station, he paid the Cr 50 to have a transport pick him and his weapons up at the berth with his weapons.  His concierge was happy to help him after he said he also wanted to burn off chunks of money playing with their FGMP-15 again.  Especially since the specially shielded range cost Cr 5,000 alone.  The smile on the face of his concierge got wider when he said he wanted to spend four hours playing with the weapon.  Especially since that rental cost Cr 1,000 per hour.  So, with the transport, he was already in for Cr 9,050.  Still, they even served him a boxed lunch!

While flying the cutter, Aiden had heard Zimzod calling InstellArms and asked if he could join in.  Zimzod had no issue with that so Aiden picked up his LAG and sniper rifle from the berth.  Since he wasn't going to be playing with the FGMP-15, Aiden had to pay Cr 500 for his own range and planned to burn off 100 rounds with each weapon.  Because the sniper rifle was a "single shot" weapon, he spent more time targeting and firing with it than playing with his LAG.  His bill eventually came to Cr 2,000 for the sniper rifle using military grade ammo and Cr 400 for the LAG for a total of 2,900.  Hearing Aiden and Zimzod's plans, Jocelynn joined them with her LasSlug pistol and new zero-g .45 semi-auto pistol.  Sharing Aiden's range, her bill for 100 rounds each came to Cr 400.

Even more exciting for Jocelynn, she was riding to InstellArms when her comms lit with a call from the Interstellar Scout Communications Office.  They told her they'd received a message from her in the most recent x-boat from D'Ganzio.  Jocelynn paid the Cr 5 transfer fee and opened the message on her hand computer.  Then, Jocelynn saw it was from Gamotwtu Fre, the freelance weapons designer.  He told her he could make her spare magazines for the weapon at a cost of Cr 100 each.  Of course, there would also be cargo-transport costs added to that from D'Ganzio to wherever she ended up.  And she'd also already had InstellArms make her spares for Cr 50 each.  So, ordering from him was not happening.

Happily, he'd included the design specs in the message.  So, she could hand that to any weapon or metalsmith to duplicate.  Writing the man back, Jocelynn thanked him for replying and for sending her the specs.  She did say that she'd use the specifications to have magazines made locally where she could.  She also hoped he wouldn't mind if she kept his contact data against any needs in the future?

At the berth, along the way, Zimzod also picked up his 45 semi-automatics "Pain" and "Misery" along with his .50 cal auto-pistol and submachinegun.  Zimzod burned off fifty rounds each with the handguns and 100 rounds with the SMG.  the ammo cost Cr 120 for Pain and Misery, Cr 67 for the .50 cal and Cr 100 for the SMG.  So, the total ammo cost was Cr 287 added to the rest came to Cr 9,327.  While he did that, Sekea had been going through his morning routine when his comms started to buzz.  When he answered, it was someone from the lab he'd hired to grow the gemstone stock for his project.  They were a day early and told him they'd finished growing his order.

Very pleased, Sekea asked if they could deliver the stock or if he had to pick up the order?  When he was told they could deliver it for a Cr 50 fee, he paid the fee and thanked them.  Taking the payment, they said the delivery would arrive at his berth in several hours.  When Aali decided to do stent practice, she'd intended to do that individually but Sekea talked her into letting him join in.  After starting her day, and with a healthy dislike for walking in public on the Lanth station, Colinne decided to devote her morning to working on the intruder software.

Fesic spent some time looking into the station's green spaces.  Deciding to visit one of them, he dressed in as common an outfit as he could hoping not to get recognized.  He then hired a cab for a Cr 30 ride and spent the morning in the park.  Concerned about having individual crew out without protection, Rol decided he'd discretely follow Fesic and make sure he stayed safe.  Especially where Fesic wasn't as combat-savvy as other members of the crew.  That served Fesic, and Rol as well, until lunch time.

After Aali had eaten lunch, she decided to log into the station network and go jewelry shopping.  What she hoped to find was a necklace with a pendant shaped like two Terran cats cuddling.  She wanted their eyes to be cut red gemstones set in such a way that light passing from the back of the pendant would "light" the eyes of the cats.  Colinne worked on her Zhodani language studies while Fesic had lunch and stayed in the park, entirely unaware Rol was trailing him.  Lucky for them both, no one noticed or recognized them as they moved.

Aiden and Jocelynn burned through their planned ammo faster than Zimzod, and watched for a part of his time with the FGMP-15.  The rest of the time they spent browsing what were, admittedly, more civilian-based goods.  Even the sales skills of their concierges couldn't get them to spend on general items.  Eventually, Zimzod had to say goodbye to the plasma weapon and the three had lunch in a nearby eatery for Cr 15 each.

Aiden returned to the berth with Jocelynn and he went into his stateroom to play with his new musical instrument.  Jocelynn sparked up a terminal and did some clothing shopping.  Sekea got into gear maintenance, concentrating on his zero-g weapons and vacc suit.  Colinne did gear maintenance and care for her suits.  Jocelynn was looking to buy basic tee shirt tops and found three for Cr 20 each.  Those were dark green, navy blue and dark wine.

The sounds Aiden was making with his musical "instrument" were truly horrific, so he was lucky they didn't escape the stateroom he'd selected.  Still, he continued on madly as he worked doggedly at the keyboard.  That was because it was easier than trying the strings.  While he did that, Aali had been shopping and found a silver pendant of two Terran cats curled together and looking at each other's faces.  The four visible eyes had tiny cut garnets in place.  While it didn't come with a necklace, Aali figured she could wear it on the chain with the combined wedding rings she already had.  Shrugging, she ordered it for Cr 85.

In the park, Rol noticed it seemed Fesic was looking for a cab to return to the berth so he stepped up and managed to jump into Fesic's cab before it drove off.  Seeing Fesic react in surprise to his appearance, Rol only said, "Oh!  Good.  you're paying." with a smile.  Fesic sat back and worked at his surprise while saying, "Oh.  OK." and continuing to watch Rol in case the man offered an explanation.

As dinner time approached, in her hotel room, Mikah's alarm woke her and she started checking with the hotel's concierge to find a high-end place she'd not yet visited for breakfast, since it was her 'wake up' meal.  She eventually decided to order from room service, but still spent Cr 75 to eat well.  In the berth, Aali sparked up an app and had her dinner delivered for Cr 60.  Eating that, Aali began to survey the games they could download to the ship's entertainment collection before lifting for Sonthert.  Sekea ordered delivery and spent Cr 60 on his meal.  Zimzod had Cr 40 room service before leaving with Mikah for the berth.

Aiden ordered delivery of his dinner for Cr 40, then prepared to load up the cutter and fly Mikah and Zimzod downwell.  Colinne also ordered in, spending Cr 50, and then offered a group stent session to everyone in the berth.  Sekea, Fesic and Jocelynn joined in.  Since he'd returned to the berth from the park with Fesic, Rol also joined in.  At the hospital, the emergency department had a rare easy night.  Given that, they reorganized their staffing and asked Mikah to work with the other doctors to teach them what she could.  After the stent work, Colinne returned to studying her Zhodani language classes.  Fesic decided to watch vids.  Jocelynn did gear maintenance while Rol and Sekea joined Fesic.  Aali was still researching games.

    Thursday, 1114-120:
A Day Of Busy Work
     For Mikah, Zimzod and Aiden, this day was a tale of 'wash, rinse, repeat' as she woke Zimzod from the autodoc and returned to the cutter.  There, Aiden had woken and prepared to fly them back upwell so he could hit his stateroom in the berth to shower, re-dress and get on with his day.  After starting her day, Aali brought up the idea of doing a group stent practice.  Colinne chose to work on the intruder software instead, while Fesic joined in on the practice session.  Jocelynn and Rol joined in on the stent practice while Sekea asked if anyone wanted to go to InstellArms for firearms practice with him?

When no one changed their mind about the stent practice, he was ready to call and set up a weapons pick when Aiden and Zimzod returned.  When he did, Aiden asked Sekea if he wanted to work together to exchange piloting and navigation knowledge.  Rather than leaving the berth alone, Sekea decided that was a better idea and chose to work with Aiden.  After the stent session, Aali relaxed with video games.  Jocelynn wanted to check on their permits while Rol hung his armorer tag out and offered to help people.  Zimzod relaxed with one of his cigars and heated a packet from his teas of Regina.

After Jocelynn called and learned the permits weren't ready, she sat to talk with Zimzod.  When she sat, Jocelynn admitted they were committed but really wanted to know if Zimzod was OK with the coming fight against the Aslan?  When Zimzod only shrugged and said, "There's no backing down now" Jocelynn nodded but said she still wanted to get a sense of how he felt about the situation?  Raising his mug, Zimzod smiled and told her, "When this is all over, I'll drink something stronger than tea."  When he added, "It is what it is" Jocelynn answered, "I know.  But I don't know if I should thank you or slap you for volunteering to do this."  They then both agreed she should probably do both with a laugh.

Jocelynn reminded Zimzod they could clone him in the case something went wrong and he lost.  Jocelynn then laughed and said, "With all your body has been through, cloning might not be a bad idea."  Zimzod joked that he still had a few places left for new scars.  They both laughed at that and Zimzod told her, "It's a mission like any other mission."  Jocelynn had to agree with that because you didn't decide if you like the orders or not.  You just did the job.  Especially since your failure meant others had to step up and there would definitely be a very bad reaction if they backed out.  Having a hefty bounty on their heads was one thing but having an entire Aslan Clan hunting you as a matter of honor...  No one wanted that.

For her dinner, Aali ordered a Cr 60 meal delivered to the berth.  After eating, she started looking for video game titles the ship didn't have in their entertainment package.  Aiden looked for a different place than where he'd ordered before and had a Cr 50 meal delivered before he had to fly Mikah and Zimzod downwell.  Once he was dirtside, Aiden planned on stent practice and video games before he slept.  Colinne also found a place to order a Cr 50 delivery before taking a break to watch vids and relax for a few hours.  Fesic ordered a Cr 40 dinner and reminded the crew Lanth had a fully enclosed amusement park downwell with roller coasters, other fun rides and a virtual reality fighter vs fighter game everyone can join in on.  He then joined in with others playing video games.

Jocelynn ordered a Cr 50 dinner in before going back to reading up on Aslan culture and traditions.  Rol smiled when Fesic mentioned the amusement park, because everyone on the crew at the time had fun.  When Aiden curiously asked how far the park was from the hospital Mikah would be working in, Rol suggested he check a map because Rol hadn't flown them to the park the last time they visited and had no idea where the hospital was.  Rol did remind Aiden he had the cutter so he could just do a short hop and asked if Aiden planned that for that night?  When Aiden said, "Not tonight", Sekea piped in saying, "Make sure you have all the proper permits for that." and everyone laughed.

Rol did order a Cr 40 meal and then cracked open the next vid-class he had on the Fourth Frontier War.  Sekea ordered a Cr 60 meal and then managed the Artist's Factory while it cut chess pieces out of gemstone blocks.  Zimzod spent Cr 50on his dinner before he had to board the cutter to go downwell.  On-world, Aiden did some stent work, played games, read and went to sleep.  Mikah had another night of medical fun while Zimzod was treated in the autodoc.  Eventually, the evening wore down and those on the station went to sleep.

    Friday, 1114-121:
Getting The Work Done
     Hoping to sleep in a bit, Jocelynn was annoyed when her buzzing comms woke her bright and early.  Annoyed, she did her best to marshal her tone when she answered, and saw it was a tech from the port offices.  The good news was that they had completed the permit work she'd been waiting on for the cargo containers.  The not so good news was that they had come to the end of their berth rental and had to pay to renew the rental or leave.  That cost Cr 7,000 which Jocelynn paid from ship's funds.  That had them paid until the 128^th day of the year and added to the expenses they were trying to cover with their cargo sales.

On the cutter ride back to the station, Mikah gave Zimzod an evaluation to see how well he was recovering.  To her surprise, he was nearly fully healed.  She was pleased with that but wanted to keep using the hospital's autodoc until the night before the "war".  On the station, Aali had her breakfast and offered to have another stent practice session for anyone who wanted to join.  Having returned from the hospital, Zimzod joined in.  So did Aiden, Jocelynn, Fesic, Colinne and Sekea.  Continuing the pattern, Mikah went to her hotel room and to sleep.  Aali did extra physical workouts while Aiden did drone practice in the berth.

Colinne finished the stent work and then returned to working on the intruder software.  Fesic practiced his computer work.  Now that Jocelynn had the permits needed to hire a third party, she could start looking for a firm that could get the next permits so they could move forward.  Rol spent some time doing physical therapy.  Sekea signed up for some local medical classwork on line just to refresh what he could from the local tech.  Zimzod started doing research into the visual and perceptual weaknesses of the Aslan.

To figure out which firm she wanted to talk to first, Jocelynn decided to look for reviews with the definition of 'companies that handled dangerous cargos in port'.  What she found were a number of angry, whiny, nasty and even petty reviews because that was what humans were.  Of the firms, between ten and twenty, Jocelynn couldn't find any that were highly reviewed.  Considering the few contacts they had, Jocelynn thought about calling the lawyers, but decided to call the elder female from the Aslan Yoloaeakhhkaiyestiyseiei Clan.

Jocelynn found her name was Iyeheas Ftaoiou.  When she reached the woman, Jocelynn said she was looking for a cargo management service skilled in transferring hazardously radioactive cargoes from failing cargo containers to new units.  Jocelynn also asked if any of the clan's businesses did that kind of work?  Iyeheas Ftaoiou said they had internal cargo services managing their ships and businesses, but they didn't sell that service to outsiders.  Jocelynn understood that to mean they had their own service centers for their craft and people only.  When Jocelynn asked, she recommended a Human firm named the "Lanth Freight Forwarding and Enterprise Management" company.  With that, Jocelynn thanked the woman and cut the call.

Jocelynn then called LFFEM and explained what she was calling about.  As soon as that was explained, the tech on the line asked Jocelynn to send them copies of the permits the port had granted.  Jocelynn sent copies of those files and the tech was pleased, because too many callers simply picked up their comms while not being aware of the permits or regulations.  The tech then asked if their ship already had the replacement cargo containers or not?  Jocelynn said they had ordered the containers after getting their permits but hadn't yet paid the supplier.  When LFFEM asked which supplier, Jocelynn told them and they put her on hold for a bit.

The LFFEM tech came back on line saying they'd connected with the supplier and they could manage the container delivery, transfer them to the crew's berth and do the work.  The only question they had was when the crew wanted to be able to leave the port?  That told them how fast they had to get their permits and handle the job.  Jocelynn said she wanted the work done as soon as possible, but didn't tell them it was because they had to sell the cargo.  She was reminded the containers cost them Cr 12,000 each and LFFEM wanted Cr 8,000 for the work to be done on each.  So, that would cost them KCr 20 on each of the five containers, or KCr 100.

Jocelynn wasn't happy with the large chunk of cash, and she was less pleased when they reminded her they'd have to file for the post-work permits to certify the containers had been properly switched.  Calling Fesic over, she asked if he thought they could do the work by themselves.  He said they could try, but he didn't sound certain or comfortable with the idea.  Jocelynn also considered the regulatory costs of a failed attempt to shift the cargo and how expensive Lanth's fines would be?  Nodding, Jocelynn accepted they had the crew by the balls and they'd have to pay the hundred grand.

Again, they asked when Jocelynn wanted them to start and she asked how soon they could?  The tech said they were already working on the permit requests and could start the work that night if she gave them the go ahead.  Accepting fate, Jocelynn transferred over the KCr 100,and the tech said they were submitting the permit request, which also cost Cr 5,000 they would expect the ship to cover.  Rolling her eyes, Jocelynn sent that too, and the ball was now rolling.  They were then promised they'd have the permits quickly and work teams would show up later that day to start the work.

The crew went about their afternoon activities or chosen work until mid-afternoon.  After they'd had lunch and were working at their chosen tasks, one of the berth workers got their attention and told them a "crew of workers" had arrived at the berth entrance with large containers and vehicles!  While the Humans and Vargr on the crew were to be expected, the crew were entirely surprised by the presence of a Virushi!  When the foreman introduced his crew, the Virushi turned out to be their heavy equipment manager.  Their train of vehicles included a tractor daisy-chained to two carts with each of the cargo pods.  A second engineering vehicle had the robotic arms, cranes and more needed to do the work.  They also had a third vehicle that would manage spray-foam radiation control chemicals to create safe barriers behind which to do the "hot work".

    Friday, 1114-121: Mid-Afternoon
Where everyone is at the end of the session:
     Mikah: In her hotel room waking up and ordering dinner
     Aali: In the berth doing physical workouts
     Colinne: working on the intruder software in the berth
     Jocelynn: Working with the crew arriving to exchange the cargo containers for the radioactives
     Aiden: In the berth finishing drone practice
     Fesic: Practicing his computer skills
     Sekea: In the berth using on-line tools to practice his medical skills
     Zimzod: In his hotel finishing research on the weaknesses of the Aslan and ordering dinner
     Rol: In his hotel finishing physical therapy and ordering dinner

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Next: Pending The Next Session