High Law and Low Justice, Part 5

[DrZombie]

"Ready."
Gwydion takes his leather jacket, puts Tommy in his shoulder and joins Saanath on the way to the docking bays. He scratches the pet between the shoulder blades, feeling a bit guilty about neglecting the little creature lately.

""You seem a bit upset, Saanath. What's on your liver?"

 

[Shayuri]

When the message screen goes blank again, Tess sits back in her chair and purses her lips to breathe out slowly, making a hollow whistling noise. She trusted Theoklitos...as much as she trusted anyone these days. Even so, her days as a happy, carefree Scout were long gone. Now she was always listening for what wasn't said, always considering worst case scenarios.

It was kind of depressing, really.

Still...this 'Gwydion' was on remote assignment in a whole different subsector. The odds of him having any connection to the Vyrkis incident were too small to mention; roughly on par with not only getting hit by a micrometeoroid in deep space, but managing to catch it in your teeth too. Besides, the trap had already sprung...right?

She hoped so. If it was a doublecross, the only place left for her to fall to was prison.

And it would almost certainly cost yet another Scout his career...

(bum bum BUM! )

 

[Wilphe]

Gwydion/Saanath:

Ruzz'koff stands and drinks his koffee and says nothing; but his tail twitches from side to side rythmically like a pointer with a scent who is trying to work out what it is, "This place is filling up with your disreputable associates Gwydion," he gives a brief predatory grin at Tuan, "Still I am sure our Silent Partner has her reasons for not being silent."

In the file:
[sblock]Tess is from Gashuki, about 6-7 parsecs Corewood of Glen Murdoch and Gergigi.
"Girl next door", remarks Ruzz'koff.

Her most recent assignment was a mission similarly to your own - if more overt. She was part of one of many teams aiming to shore up Imperial support amongst the Client States of Diamond Prince and ensure that outside, potentially hostile powers like the Hivers, K'kree and Khuur League did not gain influence. In this they were not successful, and failure was crowned when her own HomeWorld of Gashuki became a Hiver Client.

Just about every Scout involved in the project was dismissed in disgrace and a couple of frontier nobility - already out of favour to begin with - have fallen further from grace. Tess, having previously been a fairly successful Belter was able to afford to travel to Dukh to protest this decision where she met Tjoyia.

Tjoyia's accompanying notes indicate the following:
That she believes (and reading between the lines so does the Emperor) that the fault lies with the complacent Domain administration and nobility and the Archduke's cronies rather than the Scout Teams who were used as scapegoats.

However, it is too politically sensitive to act on this at this time and they is a marked lack of evidence so Tess has been sent to you unofficially to assist and redeem her reputation.

[/sblock]

On your way to the terminal you are able to keep your appointment with the Missarge Development Corporation. Without going into detail they are more than happy that you are heading there and assure you that a cargo will be waiting for you when you arrive. This of course reliant upon you taking a consignment of mail and about 10 dt of spare parts with you and arriving within 21 days from now.

Tess:
It will be another 4 hours before the fast shuttle arrives at Shirgegge, not long after 172 hours in jump, but long enough. Local news indicates not a lot, and a cursory search of the local news tickers reveals that the Vykris had a "mysterious death" during her jump in and was detained by the Navy on arrival.
Apart from that most talk is about the harvest - more than anyone really needs to hear about unless it directly affects them; and at least two of the local channels are showing badly sub-titled K'kree soap operas - each of which has a cast of about 100 and trying to work out who is who makes your brain hurt.

 

[doghead]

ic - HLLJ

"You seem a bit upset, Saanath. What's on your liver?"

Saanath finishes reading the file before looking up. He shrugs before turning to stare into the distance. After a moment he returns his attention to the tattooed hulk beside him.

"Not at all what I was expecting," he says gesturing to the file. "Interesting. You should read it. Seems like we are once more pieces in the great game of the hob-nobs."

Saanath frowns. "If they try the on us that they pulled on Tess, I'm personally going to kick their hob-nob butt. The Arch-Duke and his family so have it coming."

 

[Wilphe]

Tess:
Customs and immigration are prolonged and tedious, as is to be expected, but otherwise painless and unremarkable. After only an hour you clear customs and enter the arrivals concourse, seeking out any members of the crew of the Vykris according to the holos you have.

Saanath:
Ruzz'koff reports that the animals and handlers for Bleue Mer have arrived and that he is supervising their loading. There will be 25 Dt spare, allowing you 15dt for any speculative cargo for Missarge or points onwards once you have filled up with the consingment for the Missarge Development Corporation.

Gwydion:
There appears to be a lot of secuity effort gone into checking those leaving Shirgegge today and a lot of security bodies around. You do wonder if Eleanor Carnot will be trying to leave today, but don't spot her. In comparison immigration control appears to be comparitively lax - by Shirgeggean standards anyway, and you spy Tess enter the Arrivals concourse only a hour or so after her ship landed

 

[Shayuri]

Tess finds her way into the terminal at last...even with it only being an hour, she still had fond memories of the ISS expedited checkpoints where you basically just walked in. Being in the service of the Imperium had its perks. Reinforcing those memories, she was wearing her olive green all purpose shipboard jumpsuit...inches away from being a Scout suit, only with the patches and badges filed off.

She consults the data displayer in her hand, cycling through the faces she would be looking for. It surprised her now how nervous she was. She really wanted this to work, really wanted to like this crew and be liked by them...maybe even be able to help out. It seemed like the deck was stacked against her though. She was coming from an event that might all but blacklist her on a reputable ship. Not only that, she was being forced onto them, basically...not an auspicious start. For the first time in a long time, Tess wished maybe she'd grown her hair out a bit...maybe worn something prettier. They were all men (though the vargr didn't really count)...maybe they'd find it easier to relate to a more traditional woman?

Then again, how long could she keep THAT up? No...better they reject or accept her on her own merits...or lack therof.

Worriedly chewing at her bottom lip, Tess looks around, searching the crowds for a now-familiar face.

 

[DrZombie]

"Welcome home, scout." A rough voice with more then a hint of an accent says. The reptilian creature on his shoulder looks at the new companion.
"Let's get back to the ship, we'll talk there."

 

[Shayuri]

Tess looks up, startled, but recognizes Gwydion almost immediately. She tucks her display away and offers her hand.

"Thanks. Good to be here. You come highly recommended, by the way. Lead the way...we've got plenty to talk about, that's for sure."

 

[Wilphe]

Ruzz'koff, Trelene, Tuan and Ktarle have the situation well in hand by the time you return. If by "well in hand" you mean the hold is half full of straw and animals. They have finished loading and are relaxing in the lounge waiting for you.

Ruzz'koff is a slightly built Vargr with dusky grey fur and a seemingly omnipresent navy foil at his side, "Welcome aboard Tess, I am Ruzz'koff and I am at least nominally in charge around here. The two humans are Trelene, our chief Engineer amongst other things and Tuan, who is a disreputable associate of Gwydion who you in turn have already met. Over there is Ktarle, our Doctor and science guru," he indicates an Aslan female in the corner.

"However, I am sure you know all about us - or at least you know what Tjoyia knows," he pauses, "or wants you to know. And we know all about you," there is another pregnant puase, "or what Tjoyia wants us to know."
He looks at Saanath, "Have you done the why are we going to a ball of spit full of scientists breifing yet?"

 

[Shayuri]

"Nope," Tessa demurs with a grin.

"In fact, we barely said hello before he whisked us off to the ship." She gives Gwydion a curious look.

"Cute lizard though. What is that?"