Vargas deftly flips the Bray Keaven and accelerates on an intercept course towards the stricken Oser while Kevon attempts to contact any IN vessels within range. A few moments after the initial message, he receives a response: "Bray Keaven, this is RA-133. I’m not going to be much help (being just a modular cutter with a full cargo load), but I will relay your message to Sentry Navy. Please stand by."
-----
About 10 minutes later, the Bray Keaven receives a hail from RA-133: "Bray Keaven, this is RA-133. The SNS Fallow’s Knife is getting underway shortly. They ask that you assist the Oser until they arrive. ETA is two hours. RA-133 out."
-----
Vargas contacts the Oser and receives a reply. "Thank the Most Benevolent One! We’ve got two critically injured crew. Mark and Koolishu were in the cargo bay when something exploded, and they’re pretty badly burned on most of their bodies and have some shrapnel wounds. Joa is dead. Eric has some minor burns on his arms but he’s OK. I think that I’m the only uninjured one since I was on the bridge. Please hurry."
-----
Vasilii informs Swann of his discovery in Aidan’s cargo and distributes a snub pistol to him as well as grabs one for himself. He then heads up to the lounge to talk to Ian.
-----
Ian opens a shipwide channel. "This is Ian. Swann, Vasilii, once we dock I will need your services. I plan to board the ship with Doc. I would like one of you to accomany me and the other to stand guard at the airlock. Any other suggestions?"
Ian silently wishes Darishun was still on board — nice intimidator!
-----
In the lounge, Saro heads downstairs to prepare what he can in the adhoc sickbay. Aidan attempts to follow, but he is stopped by Ian who gently asks him to remain in the lounge. Ian does go to his cabin to put on his reflec and vacc suit as well as grab his gauss pistol. Vasilii follows Ian into his cabin and tells Ian of his discovery behind closed doors.
"So, Mr. Silver is transporting old electronic equipment. And this is a concern? Am I missing something here?"
Vasilii explains that if the Oser’s Signal GK is a ruse being used by pirates to get aboard the Bray Keaven, the electronics parts cargo could be a cover to get an accomplice on board who would then be in a position to help take over the Bray Keaven.
Both then return to the lounge to watch Aidan.
-----
Martha checks her systems and runs some quick calculations. The Bray Keaven will probably be just outside the 100–planetary diameter limit when she meets the Oser, so jumping in a hurry shouldn't be too much of a problem. Arriving at a high velocity makes Martha a little nervous, but it's better than being snagged by pirates.
-----
After the status if the injured crew is relayed to Saro, he quickly gathers equipment and treatments for burns, and sets out the items he’ll need to treat internal trauma.
When he has done as much as possible to ready the sickbay, he grabs a medkit with hopefully enough supplies to stabilize the two worst crewmembers in order to ferry aboard the Keavon for more extensive treatment.
After Saro dons his vacc suit, he heads to the airlock with medkit in hand, ready to move aboard the crippled Oser as soon as docking is complete.
-----
In the lounge, Mr. Silver becomes a little peeved when told he can’t leave to go watch from the bridge.
"Come now, Mr. McConnell. Might I return to my room for my vacc suit? I will then be happy to return to and stay in the lounge. This intercept sounds rather dangerous, though, and I’m loath to not have some minim of protection."
"Mr. Silver, by all means go don your vacc suit and return to the lounge. I would not deny you your last defense against space and it's denizens. You may keep tabs on the situation through the ship’s comm."
"Much obliged, Mr. McConnell, and please, if any assistance is needed I do have some minor facility with ship’s weaponry. And my own personal arms of course. Or, if you need something more dangerous, I am a lawyer as well."
Ian opens a channel to the bridge. "Vargas, Ian here, just wanted to remind you to initiate the anti-hijacking program before we dock. By the way, which airlock are we gonna use to dock?"
-----
Martha wears her vacc suit, helmet on. She takes a few moments to retrieve her snub pistol and load it with standard rounds, then resumes her work in engineering.
-----
Between calls, Kevon hops across to the port side to retrieve his laser pistol from his cabin, then returns to the bridge.
"Mr. Vargas, can we lock the bridge down entirely? I want to make sure we have a little extra time if this goes south," the commander asks as he straps himself back in and starts to check the standard deck plans for a Hullen-class starship. "That dorsal turret of theirs makes me a little nervous; can you keep us on their ventral until we’re ready to dock?"
"No problem, commadore. The bridge will be locked and I’ll keep us away from that turret. Now, which ’lock do we want to use? I say port because it makes it more difficult to rush the bridge, but maybe someone else has an idea worth sharing."
"Don’t promote me just yet, Mr. Vargas," Kevon quips, a wry smile on his face. "I’m not ready for the admiralty."
Flipping on the internal comms switch, Kevon adds, "We’re inbound folks; Mr. Vargas suggests going in on the port side to keep the bridge as far as possible from any incident. Thoughts, ideas?"
-----
"Sounds good. I've got green lights on both M- and J-drives, and am monitoring internal security, in case we have to play with the plating again," Martha says with a smile.
-----
Swann flips on his comm unit. "Port is probably the best way to go. If it is an emergency, they are closer to the sick bay. If not, the only thing in danger is Mr. Holland’s cabin."
Swann chuckles and goes back to studying the surrounding space with the turret’s targeting sensors.
-----
"Fine by me," Ian replies open channel as he heads toward the port airlock. "I will be stationed at the port airlock. All crew not performing critical duties please meet me there with weapons of choice."
-----
After listening to the crew’s confirmation of Emile’s suggestion, Kevon taps the comm closed. "Port side it is," he says. "I’ll keep an eye on the Oser as we maneuver."
Kevon scans the Oser, attempting to glean everything he can out of the other vessel.
-----
About 30 minutes later, the Bray Keaven is closing on the Oser fairly quickly. There doesn’t appear to be any external damage or atmosphere leakage, but the Oser is tumbling and its drives appear to be out. The Oser is a 100 dTon Hullen–class scout/courier, and she appears to be a standard type except for the fact that she is armed with a triple combo turret (one laser of some sort, one missile launcher, and one sandcaster). Docking with the rotation may be a little tricky, but nothing beyond Vargas’ abilities.
-----
As they close within 10 km of the stricken scout/courier, Vargas raises the scout/courier again: "Bray Keaven to Oser, we’re ready to dock with you."
"Thank you, Bray Keaven. Please use the port airlock. The fire is out in the cargo bay, but engineering is pretty damaged."
-----
Once Ian arrives at the airlock, he looks at Saro. "Well, Doc. What’cha think?"
Saro turns his head to look at Ian, an anxious expression on his face.
"I think we are going to be seeing Sentry again, sooner than we hoped. Be this a true emergency, or some kind of trick — where else can we go?"
As he speaks to Ian, Saro absent-mindedly keeps touching and re-touching his equipment and the seals on his vacc suit.
"Nothing’s every easy," he mutters to himself, sounding almost like an oft-used mantra.
The Bray Keaven closes on the tumbling Oser. Vargas smoothly matches the scout/courier’s rotation and brings the far trader’s port airlock on a course to match with the other ship’s port airlock. He also positions the Bray Keaven so that she approaches from the ventral side so that a minimal amount of the far trader is exposed to the scout/courier's triple combo turret (basically, the bridge and the underside of Kevon’s cabin).
-----
During the closing, Swann carefully searches for any threats in the area and finds none.
-----
Martha puts on her vacc suit, retrieves her snub pistol, and returns to engineering. She makes sure the drives (both maneuver and jump) are ready to go at a moment’s notice, and then settles into her engineering station to monitor the security cameras, grav plate controls at the ready.
-----
Saro reads the makeshift sickbay and gathers his gear to treat burn wounds and internal trauma after returning to the lounge to grab his vacc suit.
-----
In the lounge, Aidan puts on his reflec armor followed by his vacc suit and continues to monitor the comm.
-----
Ian and Vasilii drop the discussion of Aidan’s cargo for the moment and prepare to board the stricken ship. After a bit of thought, Vasilii puts on his vacc suit and goes to join Ian, snub pistol firmly in holster. Leaving the lounge, he gives Aidan a mistrustful glance.
-----
As the Bray Keaven closes for docking, Kevon scans the Oser best as he can with the limited sensor set. Muttering under his breath and wishing for a proper sensor suite, say from the Jueil–class destroyers, he ends up scanning for most of the time spent docking. The information that he is able to obtain is limited, but he can tell that there doesn’t appear to be any externally visible damage to the drives and that the power plant appears to be in a normally powered state.
-----
The ships clang together and the docking tube extends slightly to mate with the airlock on the Oser. Swann quickly exits the starboard turret and runs to join Ian, Saro, and Vasilii.
The docking tube atmosphere light goes to green, and the quartet at the airlock sees the Oser’s airlock (both doors) open all the way. In the corridor beyond, a vacc–suited man with its helmet hanging back gestures for them to come aboard. The man appears to be in his 30s, fairly fit, and with sandy brown hair.
Ian, Swann, Saro, and Vasilii step into the Bray Keaven’s airlock, close the inner door, and open the outer door. A slight smell of burnt organics and plastics permeates the air.
Ian tries to determine if the crewman has any weapons hidden on or near him. He then checks the inner airlock door and makes sure it is locked at the high security level. Turning to Saro, he says, "Doc, I’d appreciate it if you’d let Swann and I go first, just a cautionary tactic."
Glancing at Vasilii, Ian nods. "Thanks for the help, stick with Doc and cover him if needed."
Vasilii nods to Ian, and positions himself behind Saro.
"Well, Swann, you ready?," Ian asks.
"No, but let’s go anyway."
Ian will turn and start to move toward the other ship. Opening a ship-wide comm channel, he says, "Ian here, we have visual contact with one crewman. There appears to be a burnt smell to the air, hinting that the emergency may be valid."
As Ian gets closer to the crewman, he tries to read his face, looking for anything that might tell him if the situation is a real emergency or a clever trap. His gauss pistol is in its holster, but within easy reach.
Swann also tries to read the man and the situation. Swann has his snub pistol in his hand, but he stands a little behind Ian so that Ian blocks the gun from the man on the Oser.
Saro starts to purposefully stride across the docking tube following Ian and Swann. As he gets closer to the Oser crewman he gestures with his medkit and says, "I’m Dr. Talbek. Where are your injured? Has there been any change in their conditions?"
When Saro starts forward, Vasilii nervously looks around for instruction. Finding none written on the bulkheads, the young Vilani edges forward a little to watch the others but does not leave the airlock area.
Ian steps forward into the Oser and towards the vacc–suited man in his 30s who is gesturing them forward. He observes the man and notes that he seems more wary and anxious than relieved to see him (though Ian feels that he is acting relieved). The few remaining hairs on the back of Ian’s neck also get raised because he feels that the odor of burnt organics and plastics is rather fainter than there should be with an explosion.
Swann steps in behind Ian with the snub pistol drawn and hidden as much as possible. Swann feels that the man looks pretty relieved, but he also feels that there should be a heavier scent of burnt materials if there was an explosion and fire in the cargo hold. After all, the air scrubbers on the Hullens aren’t that good.
As Ian and Swann close on the vacc–suited man, he backs up a little towards the corridor as he says, "Thank the Merciful Lord! Please see to Mark and Koolishu! They’re in the lounge." he gestures to his left down the hall. "I’ve got to get back to the bridge to reply to another hail." With that, he turns and goes to the bridge.
Through the open bridge iris valve, Ian and Swann see him go to the pilot’s station, press a button, and speak urgently about still needing assistance.
Looking to their right, Ian and Swann see to figures underneath silvered blankets, but can not see their faces. Both seem to be moaning. A hard–looking man in his late 20s sits in the lounge booth, clutching his arm under a blanket. His face grimaces in pain.
The man in his 20s replies to Saro in pain and distress, "I think they’re slipping. They seem to be less responsive than before, but I’m no medic. Please help them!"
Swann keys his comm unit and says very softly, "This smells like a trap. Be ready for anything."
He turns to Vasilii and says quietly, "Why don’t you stay near the air lock. Don’t let anyone on board the Bray Keaven unless we bring them aboard. And keep an eye on the one up on the bridge. Be ready to shoot him if things go bad."
Vasilii stations himself just inside the scout at the airlock, trying to maintain eyesight on the person on the bridge. He jokes nervously, "Oh, I’m ready to shoot everything."
Swann turns to Dr. Saro and says, "I guess you should have a look at your patients, Doctor."
Swann then turn to Ian and says, "Help the Doc with the two under the blankets. I’ll check on the guy in the booth."
-----
Saro has a funny feeling in his gut; it could be the current situation, nerves from the past few days, or just plain bad diet and lack of sleep. In any case, his first duty is to tend the sick, even in the face of adversity. Pushing his unease aside he steps over toward the figures under the blankets.
As he kneels down, he gets a hypo ready in order to sedate the two, so that they can be moved and/or tended to without causing undue distress.
With his free hand, he reaches over to pull aside one of the blankets. "Let’s see what we have here," he murmurs, half to himself.
-----
Ian walks with Doc to the two men lying on the floor, not liking one bit that their backs are to the man on the bridge. He keeps glancing back and forth between the two on the floor and the man seated in the booth, looking for any sign of trouble. He also tries to note which doors are open and which are closed as they enter the area. His hand does not stray far from his holstered pistol while approaching the men.
When they reach the two on the floor, Ian stands on the port side of the lounge, opposite of the booth, with his back to the wall so he can monitor the situation. He glances back up toward the bridge to see what is happening up there.
-----
On board the Bray Keaven, Vasilii, Martha, Vargas, Kevon, and Aidan monitor over open comms.
-----
Martha continues to watch and listen. "Come on, guys, give us some feedback. What’s going on?" she mutters.
-----
Vargas and Kevon are also keeping an eye out for any other ships or anything odd. Vargas doesn’t spot anything unusual. Kevon continues scanning the Oser, and he thinks that he briefly catches a faint echo of something, possibly debris, moving slightly away from the rear of the Oser for a moment. Looking at the area a little closer, he doesn’t see the echo again, so he isn’t sure what he saw, if anything.
"Did you see that?" Kevon asks Vargas as he refocuses his scans to find the ghost image. "Something seemed to move out the back of the Oser, but I can’t find it."
"Where?," asks Vargas as he strains to look.
-----
Aidan frets impatiently while listening to the open comm. He looks at the lift controls and figures that he could make a go at defeating the security mechanism if he wanted to do so. "Shouldn’t be too hard nor take too long since it’s a standard setup," he thinks.
Ian, Swann, and Saro head towards the lounge area where the figures covered by blankets (presumably Mark and Koolishu) lie and the hard–looking man in his 20s (presumably Eric) sits in the lounge booth a meter or so away.
Ian takes up position opposite the man in the booth (Eric) and glances towards the bridge. Swann moves towards Eric to examine his arm as Saro kneels to examine the first blanket–covered figure.
-----
Meanwhile, Vasilii boards the Oser as well, moving to just inside the Oser’s airlock.
-----
At the same time on the Bray Keaven, Kevon and Vargas turn their sensors towards the ghost that Kevon saw. About the same time, they manage to tune their sensors (visual and otherwise), so that they make out the shape of what probably is a man in a vacc suit coming around the ventral side of the Oser towards the Bray Keaven’s belly. He probably has a maneuvering pack on and seems to be holding something half a meter by half a meter in front of him. Distance to the vacc–suited figure is about 12 meters. ETA to Bray Keaven is about 10-15 seconds.
Just before Kevon and Vargas are about to shout out a warning, over the open comm they hear someone yell, "Freeze!"
-----
On the Oser, Saro kneels down to take examine the first figure (Mark), and he finds himself staring down the muzzle of a really big looking pistol and hears the man yell, "Freeze!" A split second later, Eric pulls a snub pistol from underneath his blanket (pointing at Swann), and Koolishu raises a shotgun from underneath his blanket (pointing at Saro, Ian, and Mark).
-----
Out of the corner of his eye, Ian sees the iris valve to the bridge rapidly shut.
-----
Vasilii jumps at the sudden shout and then finds himself trapped in the airlock as both iris valves shut suddenly.
-----
Aidan starts to fool around with the elevator controls but has an attack of conscience and tries once more to cooperate with the crew. "Lounge to bridge. I’m getting nervous up here, gentlemen. Any chance I might come out and arm myself? I’d be happy with the sword, the gun is not necessary."
-----
Vargas turns to Kevon. "I say we take this guy out," gestures toward the sensor screen, "before turning the laser on the scout. Our guys are all in vacc suits, right? Put a hole in the scout. If nothing else it’ll buy time."
-----
Swann quickly brings his snub pistol up, pointing it at the head of the seated man. He disengages the safety — but does not fire. "Looks like we have a Vargr standoff here," he says aloud.
"I have to find a line of work that doesn’t involve people pointing guns at me," Swann thinks to himself.
Ian draws his gauss pistol and points it toward the two men lying on the floor, resisting the urge to try and cut them in half with the weapon. With an open comm, Ian cracks a grin and says, "Only two pistols and a shotgun -- you boys can’t be serious!"
Ian tries to discern which of the two on the floor is the more dangerous, thus more likely to pull the trigger.
-----
Saro stiffens in response to the firepower aimed in his direction. His face begins to flush in anger at the crew's violation of the distress call trust. He feels his fists tighten at his sides as he resists the urge to slap someone across the face, knowing that now is a bad time to make a wrong move.
-----
Never taking his eyes off the seated man, Swann asks, "Why don’t you tell us what this is about?" Swann attempts to read the man in front of him.
-----
Vasilii hears the shout of the man behind him, and jumps for the cover of the airlock. He spins around with his weapon drawn just in time to see the iris valve close on him. He turns to head for the trader only to see another sealed valve blocking his way.
"Oh hell," he mutters and hurriedly makes sure his vacc suit is sealed. "Bridge, I’m locked in the scouts’ airlock but the others are in an unknown combat situation on board the Oser."
Vasilii scans the control panel in the airlock, and starts fiddling with it to unlock and open the iris valve to the Bray Keaven.
-----
Aidan, not hearing back from the bridge, goes to the nearest workstation and smoothly accesses the system without tripping any obvious alarms.
After entering the system, he attempts to add himself to the list of authorized crew and feels he has succeeded. Aidan heads downstairs, being casual about it rather than sneaky.
-----
In port engineering, Martha hasn’t been alerted to the floater behind the ship, so she turns her attention to the security systems. She sees that Aidan attempted to enter the lift initially, but the lift refused access. She assumes that the security system is functioning, so she begins sending data feeds to the incoming rescue vessel (SNS Fallow’s Knife).
Over crew comms, Martha reports, "I’m sending the data feed back to the rescue vessels approaching, to be relayed back to the starport authorities. Our asses are now covered legally for dealing with these pirates."
Martha doesn’t know who might be listening to the comms, but if anyone aboard the Oser is, she figures the more work the Bray Keavan gives them, the more they’ll have to do, and soon they’ll run out of crewmembers to deal with everything.
Someone on the Oser is attempting to jam her, but she punches through the jamming efforts (for the moment) by modulating the carrier wave.
-----
"Yeah, this little ‘Radio Flyer’ is vapor," Kevon says as he quickly configures his controls to bring up the secondary gunnery controls for the port turret, gets the port laser swung around and takes aim at the floater. "It’ll take a couple of seconds to focus on him, but I only need to get within . . . a few . . . meters . . . of him . . . "
Kevon fires off a snap shot just before the floater is about to pass out of the arc of fire. Viewscreens show a flash of light as the floater and his cargo are vaporized. "Reach out and touch someone," he muses, a mischievous grin growing slowly on his sturdy features.
There seems to be a bit more of a flash than Kevon and Vargas would think, so they believe that the floater may have had an explosive of some sort.
-----
On the Oser, the tension stretches for a moment. Ian figures that the shotgun holder is more dangerous (both to Ian and Saro as well as his apparent comrade) and trains his gauss pistol on the man (Koolishu). Swann and Eric stare at each other across their respective snub pistols. Saro freezes and stares down the barrel of the magnum autopistol.
After a moment, the man holding the magnum autopistol on Saro ("Mark") laughs and replies to Ian’s comment. "Two pistols and a shotgun at this range are more than enough if we wanted to kill you. But, I’m a businessman, not a pirate. All I want is one of the cubes. We know that you still have two onboard. Tell your crew to bring one of the cubes to the airlock, and we’ll let you go after it’s safely onboard and we’re away."
Now that the initial shock has passed, Ian and Saro can see that Mark is a rather pudgy–looking fellow in his 40s with a brown receding hairline who definitely looks more like an accountant — if not a businessman — than a pirate. Of course, he is still holding the magnum autopistol in a rock–steady grip in Saro’s face.
-----
When "Mark" mentions the cubes, Swann’s knees almost buckle from relief. But he maintains his aim on "Eric."
When "Mark" finishes speaking, Swann starts laughing. A big, hearty, gut-shaking laugh. Tears come to his eyes. After he stops laughing, Swann says to "Mark" (without turning his head to face him), "You want the cubes? You concocted this elaborate charade just to get one of the cubes? I ought to shoot you just on general principles. What were you thinking?
"If you know we have the cubes, they you probably know a little bit about us, enough to know that if you had just approached us directly yet discreetly, we could have come to an agreement with a lot less trouble and danger involved for everyone.
"I’m a reasonable man. I’m willing to accommodate your request. But it’s not my decision to make. I need to confer with the rest of the crew. Excuse me."
At this point, Swann checks to see if his comm is open, then tells the crew aboard the Bray Keaven what is going on.
-----
At the mention of the cubes, Saro’s face darkens some more. When Swann finishes saying his piece, Saro cannot hold himself back any longer.
"The FECKING cubes?! You violate the sanctity of a Signal GK call for that?! You fecking pull weapons on us for them?!" Saro rages at the Oser’s crew before he turns towards his fellow crewmembers. "Didn’t I say we should just fecking space those fecking cubes?! Why doesn’t anyone listen to me? I tell you what, that fecking ship is going to be laid bare so we don’t have any more fecking surprises, if I have to tear out every fecking bolt and rivet myself!!"
He finds himself standing, his muscles clenched tight, his whole body quivering in a combination of rage, fear, exhaustion, and indignation.
-----
Ian tries to calm the Doc a bit — and in the process, move him back away from the pistol toting "non–pirate." "Alright Doc, I understand your concerns," Ian says as he tries to place his free hand on Saro’s shoulder and guide him away from the pirates. "We have yet to have an opportunity to deal with the issue. Let’s keep focused on the situation at hand."
Ian keeps his eyes on the shotgun guy (Koolishu) and the "non-pirate" (Mark), with the gauss pistol still trained on Mr. Shotgun.
-----
Vasilii listens to Saro’s tirade over the comm channel as he continues to try to get the outside airlock iris open. Just for a second, he’s glad that there's a locked door between him and the Doc.
"Maybe we can trade the cube for information about exactly what they are and/or do?" He listens to whatever he can hear over the open channel while he continues to work.
-----
Martha clears her throat. "Gentlemen, could this man be the one that tried to use our ship to smuggle contraband by secreting it aboard without our knowledge? Our data feed is being sent to the authorities right now, and I’d love for them to hear his confession."
The young engineer prays silently to St. Elvis as she hopes to salvage something for the crew from this bizarre situation that "Mark" has forced upon the Bray Keavan.
-----
Grimly satisfied with the success of his shot, Kevon turns the port turret to where it will do the most harm to the Oser. He takes careful aim at the scout’s forward section, as close to the bridge as possible.
His thumb hovers over the trigger, ready to let loose the first volley, when he hears Swann’s proposal. Quickly pulling back, Kevon turns and asks Vargas, "What cubes?"
Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven and the Oser, Sentry system
On the bridge of the Bray Keaven, Kevon swings the port turret around to target the forward port side of the Oser. He is about to fire a blast from the pulse laser when he pauses in response to the negotiations onboard the Oser.
-----
In port engineering, Martha continues to send the data feeds from the Bray Keaven and the open comms towards the rescue vessel. The Oser has apparently dropped the jamming attempts.
-----
Aidan descends in the lift to find an empty corridor (the iris valve to the bridge is shut). Finding no one, he saunters towards the ship’s locker. The iris valves along the way obligingly open for him. As he gets to the port airlock, he finds the inner door shut. Aidan then retrieves his cutlass from the ship’s locker.
-----
In the Oser’s port airlock, Vasilii attempts to bugger the outer iris valve open somehow. Though lacking tools and any electronics expertise, he initially feels like he is making progress. Unfortunately, his next attempt seems to short out the controls for the outer door lock. At least, that is what he is assumes from the tiny wisps of smoke rising from the controls.
-----
Onboard the Oser, Saro stands up indignantly, sputtering at almost everyone. Slowly, and still smiling a little, "Mark" stands up followed by Koolishu. Mark steps slightly to the side to be out of the line of fire of Koolishu. Everyone still has their guns trained on their opposing number.
Then, Koolishu swears. "Dammit! Buris says that Erica is gone! Frecking . . . "
Mark cuts him off with an icy command, "Cool it! Remember business. Erica knew the odds."
Continuing to Swann, Mark asks, "Well? Do we have a deal? Better decide soon before Koolishu loses it."
-----
Ian tries to gauge Mark’s truthfulness. He isn’t sure one way or the other. "And who is this Erica person?" he wonders. Anyway, Ian moves Saro a little back and away.
-----
Aidan casually strides towards the airlock attached to the Oser. Once there, he attempts to open it (hacking as necessary) with the intent of poking his nose in to see if he can help out the Bray Keaven’s crew.
-----
Martha continues to monitor the comm channels, piping the information back, and doing what she can to protect the integrity of the signal. In passing, she mentions over the comms: "Gentlemen, their use of our ship to smuggle goods is probably a High Crime. All of this conversation is being fed directly to the authorities. I recommend we not negotiate with these people, unless our lives depend on it. We are not smugglers, and they’ve already admitted they placed these goods on our ship without us knowing. We can turn over the contraband they placed on us when the proper authorities get here, along with these smugglers."
-----
Kevon frowns and furrows his brow, then seems to make a decision. "I have a shot, folks," the lieutenant commander says over the comms as a way of warning them to brace for impact. "I’m taking it."
-----
Hearing Kevon’s statement about "a shot," it takes Vasilii a brief moment to realize that "the shot" is meant for the Oser, and the turret is very close to his position on it.
As he puts his faceplate against the window closest to the turret, the Vilani merchant yells, "Kevon! Wait! We’re over . . . "
He sees the turret pivoting to bear on the Oser, the laser emitter quickly gaining in brilliance from the pre-ignition. The laser’s committed.
" . . . here," he finishes in a muted tone.
Performing the universally accepted response in such situations, Vasilii dives out of the laser’s way as best he can onto the seats on the opposite side of the airlock. He hooks an arm through the nearest seat harness and holds on for dear life in the probable event that one of the airlock bulkheads will get breached, resulting in explosive decompression.
-----
Thinking quickly, Swann says aloud, "Roger that. We’ll wait here for your delivery." He smiles at "Eric" as he says this, hoping the gunman will think the cube is on its way.
-----
Ian utters a curse/prayer (depends on the point of view) under his breath, widens his stance, leans against the wall, and grabs any handhold he can find with his free hand in preparation for the blast. His gauss pistol is still trained on Koolishu.
