Shadowdancer
First Post
And now, back to our story.
"It was a dark and storm night. Suddenly, a shot rang out."
Oops, wrong story.
"It was a dark and storm night. Suddenly, a shot rang out."
Oops, wrong story.
Traveller T20: Tales of the Bray Keaven [Updated 12-20-05]
- Thread starter Shadowdancer
- Start date
Shadowdancer
First Post
Chapter XXX
Date: 174-993
Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven and the Marellia Landing
Staying on the bridge, Kevon keeps the Bray Keaven in position as Saro, Vargas, and Vasilii make final preparations for the incoming survivors. While keeping station with the Marellia Landing, Kevon sees several small craft approaching and receives a hail from the first one.
"Bray Keaven, this is Fonnein Orbital ER1. We have a medical response team onboard and are prepared to assist. If you can take on the walking wounded, we can attend to the more serious cases and prep them for transfer to our low berths."
"Understood ER1. We do have a doctor onboard and he is preparing to board the long liner. Would you like him to stay onboard to assist you?"
"We would appreciate any help that we can get."
"Understood ER1. I will ask him and the rest of the crew if they will stay to assist while we evacuate the walking wounded to the station."
Kevon relays the request to Vargas and Saro.
-----
Saro listens to the relayed request and responds. "Mr. Holland, tell the ER1 that I’ll be aboard as long as necessary."
-----
Kevon also receives a second comm: "Bray Keaven, this is Tug 4. You’re frelling insane, but thank you. I don’t think that we could have done what you did. We can stabilize the Marellia Landing and get her back to the station once you and ER1 evacuate the survivors."
"Understood Tug 4. Thanks."
After that comm, Kevon hears a comm from Cutter C13. "Bray Keaven, C13. We’re going to dock with the crew lock to take on any injured surviving crew. We may transfer them directly to the emergency shuttle."
The two 50 dTon tugs and the emergency response shuttle take up stations near the Bray Keaven. C13 docks with the rear crew airlock of the long liner.
-----
Vargas and Saro cycle the airlock on the Bray Keaven side and enter the docking tube. The tube has full atmosphere, so they leave the outside iris valve open but close the inside iris valve as a precaution. When they cycle the airlock on the Marellia Landing side, they find themselves faced with a rather large and anxious–looking crowd. The crowd starts forward and then stops a bit warily when they see Vargas’ shotgun. Most of the crowd at least has some bruises or are cradling an arm. Almost everyone starts talking at once in relief, panic, or anger.
There are three crewmembers in Tukera Lines uniforms. The Tukera Lines crew do get the passengers calmed down, and one says, "Thank St. Elvis you are here. We have at least 10 passengers who desperately need medical attention. Most everyone else could use some care, but their injuries are not life–threatening. We haven’t been able to get up to the crew deck from here because of a pressure loss on that level. I have heard from the engineering crew. They have one dead and three injured in their area. I can’t raise anyone on the bridge or in the crew lounge area."
Saro takes in the crewman’s statement as he moves to look over the sophonts too badly injured to move. Almost absently he contacts Kevon as he conducts his evaluation. "Mr. Holland, can you relay to the ER1 that we have approximately 10 persons in the passenger lounge who are immobile. Also, the crewman here has indicated that there are three injured crewmembers in the engineering section and that there has been no contact with the bridge or crew lounge since the collision. I’m going to be too busy here to try to get to either of those areas, so if there are any other ships who can see to them they should concentrate there."
Saro trails off as he makes his way around the room performing his examinations.
-----
After a minute or two, Saro, Vargas, and the Tukera Lines crew manage to get the crowd sorted out and heading over to the Bray Keaven where Vasilii, with a shotgun of his own, starts directing them to the lounge and staterooms. A total of 30 passengers seem to be uninjured or lightly injured and in the lounge area.
Two of the Tukera Lines crew goes with the walking wounded passengers while one stays behind to assist Saro and Vargas.
-----
After the uninjured or walking wounded crowd head over to the Bray Keaven, Saro and Vargas survey the non–mobile wounded. Almost all of the passengers were in the lounge when the initial crash occurred. There are 10 severely injured passengers, two dead, and three uninjured or lightly injured passengers who won’t leave their more severely–injured companions. The remaining Tukera Lines crewmember, Tariq, appears to have some medical training, and helps guide Saro from patient to patient.
Saro gives each of the severely injured a quick look over. Nine have blunt trauma injuries while a tenth has blunt trauma injuries and several pieces of a splintered plastic table embedded in his side. Based on the quick triage, there are four who may die within the next few minutes (including the punctured man), four in the next hour unless stabilized, and two who are probably stable. Moving any would be unwise without proper support and bracing. Saro records notes about each passenger into a med recorder as he checks them over for later use (by him or by any other medical personnel).
-----
Finished with his initial evaluation of the wounded, Saro addresses Vargas and Tariq, "OK gentlemen, let’s get these folks stabilized. The ER1 will be here soon, but there are a few cases here we need to attend to now."
He positions himself to attend to the man with the plastic splinters in his side. "You two Slow those patients there," he indicates the other seven who are not stabilized, "and I’ll see what I can do for this man."
With that he administers a dose of Slow drug to the man and uses what tools he has at hand to try to locate the positions of the fragments.
-----
When Tariq and Vargas are finished stabilizing the others, Vargas asks, "Doc, you want me to stick with you, or should we split up and start searching cabins for stragglers?"
Saro addresses the Tukera crewman while maintaining his focus on the injured man. "Tariq, are you sure all the passengers have been accounted for? Did anyone check the staterooms and the rest of the passenger areas yet?"
Tariq indicates that not all of the staterooms have been searched yet.
Glancing up for a moment, Saro looks over to the three mobile, relatively–unscathed passengers, and says firmly, "I need someone to go with Mr. Tariq to check on the other passengers. I need Mr. Vargas to stay here to assist me, so if one or two could help Mr. Tariq, I would much appreciate it."
Getting back to his work, he addresses Tariq again. "Tariq, if you go by the sickbay, a deep-tissue scanner would greatly assist me."
-----
Meanwhile, Martha grabs a few patch kits and tools, and plops them on a grav pallet. She then enters the main cargo hold and attempts to locate the source of the pressure loss. After a few minutes, she determines that the hull breach is probably underneath the containers of spec cargo. She can’t move the spec cargo by herself, and moving the cargo will temporarily result in more of a pressure loss (the cargo containers are probably helping to seal any holes). Reluctantly, she returns to port engineering.
Hitting ship’s comms, Martha reports, "Damage to the cargo hold is more severe than I originally thought. I’m sealing it off and depressurizing it, to help conserve air reserves."
She executes the appropriate commands to evacuate the atmosphere from the cargo hold, after sealing it off.
"Hey, Doc, how can I help?" Martha asks over the comm.
Somewhat to her dismay, she finds that the Doc is onboard the long liner and that Vasilii is shepherding lightly–injured survivors all over the ship. Glaring at Vasilii briefly, she jumps in to help get the passengers situated.
-----
Vasilii does his best to get the passengers packed into the lounge and various staterooms. He does end up using all of the staterooms except for Kevon’s former cabin (which is severely damaged from the encounter with the Oser).
A Tukera Lines crewman, Sanjay, looks at Vasilii a bit incredulously when Vasilii insists that he stay with the three passengers placed in Aidan’s room so that they don’t disturb anything. Part of the incredulity is probably due to the rather ransacked appearance of Aidan’s room from Vasilii’s searching, his cutting of the suitcases, and the various papers and such strewn all over the cabin.
In Vargas’ cabin, Rusti actually ends up being quite a comfort to the family with two young children placed there.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Oh, don't worry. There's more on the way. 
Shadowdancer
First Post
Chapter XXXI
Date: 174-993
Location: Nupoc Diner, Fonnein Orbital
Ian continues to split his time between the monitoring the broadcast and watching the crowd. Given that the danger and drama seem to have past most of the crowd has drifted back to what they were doing before the coverage began. Ian catches snippets of conversation that alternately express outrage, disbelief, admiration, and other various emotions about everyone involved.
The news broadcast does list the crew of the Markov’s Daughter and the two passengers as well as flash their customs pictures. No one looks like anyone that Ian knows, though Swann thinks that Natalie Shu does bare a fairly good resemblance to his second cousin Kelly, at least before that ugly vibra–spanner incident.
Ian does keep an eye on the dark–haired man in coveralls. He doesn’t really seem to be too interested in the Bray Keaven trio, but he does glance over on occasion.
-----
Aidan looks for a bit of information about crime rings and sprees in the area. He doesn’t find much other than petty theft and some smuggling of weapons and medical supplies a few months ago bound for Alief. He does find an alert about a few incidences of high–value cargo jackings using a scout/courier faking an accident onboard.
-----
The newscast indicates that the Bray Keaven will dock in Outer Dock 2 near the Fonnein Orbital Medical Facility in 20 minutes and that the far trader has 30 lightly injured survivors onboard. The newscast also relates that the emergency rescue shuttle has docked with the Marellia Landing and will be taking care of the rest of the survivors.
Glancing at each other a moment, Swann, Ian, and Aidan decide to head over to Outer Dock 2 in order to meet their battered ship. Along the way, Ian doesn’t notice anyone following them.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Chapter XXXII
Date: 174-993
Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven and the Marellia Landing
Vasilii and Martha end up spending all of their time checking on the passengers on the trip back to Fonnein Orbital. Almost all seem to be somewhat daze if not in shock, and Martha’s limited first–aid skills come in handy when dealing with a passenger whose injuries seem to be a bit more severe than initially thought.
Martha does her best to help promote positive feelings and encouragement as she goes about her business. The more hope people have, she's found, the easier it is to recover.
-----
Kevon carefully guides the Bray Keaven back to Fonnein Orbital. Fonnein Orbital TrafCon directs him to dock at Outer Dock 2, which is apparently near the medical facility for the station. With launches on station to help relay communications and provide and escort, the battered far trader gingerly makes its way to the indicated outside berth. Docking the starboard airlock with the outside berth goes smoothly.
-----
The next hour or so is a bit of a blur for Kevon, Martha, and Vasilii. As soon as the airlock green lights, a swarm of medical personnel, emergency response teams, and Tukera Lines personnel board the vessel to take off survivors. The survivors are triaged in the lounge just outside the berth airlock.
-----
Aidan, Swann, and Ian show up with as part of the incoming swarm and help guide survivors off.
-----
Onboard the Marellia Landing, Saro and Vargas continue to treat their known wounded while Tariq and a drafted passenger check the staterooms. Tariq reports that a couple of passengers were missed in the first sweep of the staterooms and they are in serious condition. Saro finishes stabilizing the wounded in the lounge and then goes to see the two missed passengers.
When he returns, he finds that the emergency response shuttle has docked, and the shuttle’s two emergency teams are starting to examine his patients. Saro involuntarily smiles when he sees that one of the doctors, Dr. Noruk, is a Virushi.
The next hour or so flies by for Saro and Vargas as they help the station’s medical teams prepare the survivors for transport, deal with a couple of survivors whose conditions suddenly take a turn for the worse, get the survivors on the shuttle, and then attend to them as the emergency response shuttle returns to the station. Dr. Noruk and a Dr. Phillips both credit Saro and Vargas with ensuring that none of the patients died before the emergency response shuttle could arrive.
Vargas, in a quiet moment afterwards, leans over to Saro and says, "Nice to be appreciated."
-----
Shortly after the crowd leaves the ship, Swann checks on the cube. The cube seems to be fine. It’s just sitting in the port engineering smuggling hold where Vasilii dumped it.
-----
Ian checks the security system, the ship’s locker, and his stateroom. The security system appears to be functioning normally. Nothing appears to be missing from the ship’s locker that isn’t accounted for by being in someone’s possession. Ian’s room is a bit of a mess due to the collision, but nothing seems to be missing except for a couple of towels.
-----
Swann runs into Kevon in the passageway and suggests that the Lt. Commander contact Ms. Clegg and inform her that the exchange might be delayed. He also suggests that someone see about getting clearance to transfer the Bray Keaven to the repair facilities.
"I’d do it, but I haven’t been the contact person, so I wouldn’t want to foul things up by introducing someone new into the mix at this late date."
"I’ll contact Holly and make the clearance arrangements as soon as I’m done with the investigators," Kevon says.
-----
Martha also makes sure that the ship is secure after everyone departs, including running the anti-hijack software to help locate stowaways. She then contacts Fonnein TrafCon in order to reschedule the move to the Stork & Sons yard. The TrafCon rep says that the Bray Keaven is welcome to have almost any movement slot. After some consultation with Kevon, Martha chooses a 1300 time to move the ship to the Stork & Sons yard.
-----
Outside the ship, Kevon is almost mugged by a couple of reporters, Tukera Lines personnel (a manager and a PR spokesman), a TrafCon rep, an Imperial Navy lieutenant, an accident investigator, and assorted spacers who all want to talk to him about his, ahem, "piloting skills."
Not sure whether to be flattered by the attention, Kevon smiles slightly and answers the questions to the best of his ability. He downplays his heroics to the reporters, singing the praises of the medical personnel who "are the real heroes of this day."
-----
Once the face-time is concluded, Kevon will go with the lieutenant and investigator to provide his view of the incident.
"When I saw that the Marellia was going to hit the atmosphere in about 45 minutes, I knew that we wouldn’t have enough time for a safe evacuation unless I did something to keep her spaceborne. We couldn’t adjust her vector by just the docking ring, so ‘rubbing bellies’ was my only option.
"We took our time to make sure the approach was right, and I then moved the Bray Keaven into position," he continued. "I found that my angle was off a degree or two when I hit the Marellia too hard, but I was able to settle her in and slowly redirected the liner away from the planet.
"When I realized that we gave her about two more hours, I pulled away and initiated a docking maneuver to retrieve passengers," he concludes.
Both Imperial Navy Lt. Marks and SPA Accident Investigator Abazzed seem rather impressed with Kevon's daring and thank him for his effort and time.
-----
Finally, a little after a couple of hours after the initial crash, the exhausted crew of the Bray Keaven and Aidan assemble in the lounge for a moment of peace and an early lunch. Everyone seems to have questions.
"OK, where were we?" Vargas asks.
"So, has anyone called Ms Clegg in regards to the change in schedule?" Martha asks, a little wearily.
"Any word yet on the far trader that started this?" Vasilii asks.
As Ian arrives in the lounge, he hears the Vilani merchant’s query. "I’ll second that question. I haven’t had a chance to catch the news since we arrived on ship."
Looking over at Vasilii, he says, "Man, you look like you were
at, shot at, and hit both times! Has the Doc checked you out yet?""Sounds like everyone could use a rest. Shall I call out for a meal?" Aidan says. "A rest period might be good as well, but I don’t know how long we can keep Ms. Clegg waiting."
"A good meal would be welcome, thanks Aidan," Ian says. "I would like to get rid of the last cube as soon as possible. We need to contact her and make sure she knows we had an unintended adventure that disrupted our plans and schedule. We need to set something up with her today.
"Also, we should contact the shipyard to reschedule our arrival."
Martha informs him that the transfer has already been rescheduled.
-----
Aidan arranges for a fine lunch to be delivered from The Grotto. The restaurant manager, upon hearing where the food is to be delivered, immediately insists on providing the lunch for free. Aidan smoothly accepts.
-----
When he returns to the conversation, Aidan asks, "I say, is that spot of adventuring normal? If so, I think armor should be added to the ship."
Vasilii just blankly stares at Aidan for a few seconds, then buries his face in his hands, shaking his head.
"By the way, ahem, it seems that some of the evacuees you brought aboard were having fun going through my luggage," Aidan says. "You might want to check to see if anything was stolen.
"Now, I think the second cube was going to be delivered?"
"Hmmm, we need an interesting cover story," Vasilii quietly thinks to himself.
He quickly composes himself, and looks up at Aidan. "Yours, too? They went after my business suits, can’t imagine why though. I’d have thought they’d have picked up on the fact that the suits were tailored to their owner, but I guess that’s what happens with ungrateful passengers.
"Well, since it was my idea to put them into the staterooms, I’ll split the bill with you on repairing or replacing your stuff, if it’s damaged."
"No, no, of course not. Naturally I wouldn’t blame you. Luckily, there’s nothing of value there, an ID holder with my noble identity just in case, but otherwise," Aidan trails off, then resumes speaking. "Now I hope they didn’t damage my target rifle, that was quite expensive. Obviously someone thought I might hide things in the lining of my luggage. Romantics." He grins. "Some letters from old friends and lovers, perhaps."
"As for armoring the ship, well," Vasilii continues. "I really don't see it in our future, since the main and forward cargo bays won’t hold any air now, and we can only hope the jump grid’s not damaged any more than it was, on TOP of all the other repairs and maintenance."
"The jump grid’s most likely damaged. I’ll be doing an assessment either before or after we move her over to the shipyards, and I’ll let everyone know," Martha offers.
Vasilii looks over at Kevon. "I apologize, you were right. Next time there’s an emergency, the thankless little bastards rot and die in space."
-----
At first, Martha looks askance as Vasilii, obvious flashes of horror and disgust on her face at the mere suggestion. Then, making the assumption that the Vilani merchant was merely joking, the young engineer shakes her head softly as she looks back down at her plate, biting her tongue to avoid comment.
-----
Swann rubs a hand across his face and says, "Maybe we need to do a little PR work. Why don’t we contact the local news media, offer them an interview with the heroic crew that saved so many lives. During the interview, mention how much damage the ship received, and how we don’t have the money to pay for the repairs. This should get some public support for us, maybe even put some pressure on Tukera to offer to pay for the repairs."
Vasilii nods with approval as he looks into space, thinking. "Milk ’em while they’re the most vulnerable. Very nice."
He looks at Swann. "Should we get some copy together? Plan out a few good sound bytes? Hell, bring a camera crew onboard for a few good money shots of the damage."
"That sounds — distasteful," Kevon responds. "I don’t think it would be ethical to use whatever fame we’ve garnered from this incident to manipulate someone for financial gain. Just in case you didn’t notice, people died on that ship, and through no fault of the liner. And my maneuver certainly wasn’t their fault; I screwed up the approach."
Rubbing his face in an attempt to stay focused while his body starts to crash as the adrenaline rush begins to wear off, Saro says, "I agree to an extent. While it is distasteful, we are going to need some help repairing the Keaven. However, I say give Tukera and the planetside officials some time to offer to assist in repairs. If they never come forward, then maybe we can contemplate using some pressure for some assistance. If we start hardballing them before they even get a chance to offer, we could sour the grapes, so to speak."
"Sounds like a good plan there, Doc," Ian says.
Vargas absentmindedly pets the beaker sitting on his shoulder. "I gotta agree with Saro. I’d love to have someone front some money for repairs, but then we might get a rep as the folks to go to when there’s a rescue to be done. And we have a hard enough time just haulin’ cargoes."
Martha murmurs from around a bite of food. She swallows quickly, then repeats herself. "I agree. Let’s give them a chance. Mr. Silver, since you seem well versed on matters of interstellar law, what’s the correct process we should follow to make claims for damages, et cetera? I want to make sure we go through the right steps." Martha checks Aidan’s reply against her own knowledge of interstellar law.
"Certainly Martha, that makes sense. Hmm, please allow me a short time for review."
Aidan dives into his handcomp in order to form a detailed reply.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Chapter XXXIII
Date: 174-993
Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven
While the crew and Aidan are talking, Vasilii brings up a local news broadcast on the vid. The newscaster recounts the accident and heroics of all involved. There is a brief mention of the Markov's Daughter and a snippet of the interview with the owner (Niles Markov). The far trader was retrieved and is being towed back to the highport. There were two survivors and two dead removed from the ship, but the SPA currently isn’t releasing any information about who survived nor any information about the ongoing investigation.
There are a few interviews with various spacers whose theories range from an attempted hijacking (for criminal purposes), to a Sollie plot, to an attempted assassination of someone onboard the long liner under the guise of an accident.
-----
As everyone is enjoying the fine lunch, Swann brings up a tabled item for discussion -- Sare No. 2.
“I believe we had set a meeting time with him of 1300 hours, which is the same time we are now scheduled to transfer the ship to the repair berth. How do we want to handle this?
“I was thinking we might use this recent incident with the Markov's Daughter to our advantage. What if we tell Sare No. 2 that some people who are unknown to us stole the cube from the ship? And that those people then hijacked the Markov's Daughter and tried to escape aboard it with the cube. As far as we know, it was confiscated by the authorities when they retrieved the ship.
“He won't be happy, but at least his wrath and attention would be directed in someone else’s direction. Unless he believes in killing the messenger,” Swann finishes with a grim chuckle.
“Unless he has the same means of tracking the cubes that EVERYONE ELSE seems to have,” Vasilii says, “in which case he’ll know you're lying, and may get even more ticked off than if we had just told him someone else outbid him and the cubes are gone.”
“But by that time, we won’t have either of the cubes any more,” Swann replies. “He won’t be able to track them to us.”
“Well, if memory serves, we told him we would meet him at 1300 hours, which is the time we’re now moving the ship,” Vasilii says, thinking as he speaks. “He’ll be looking for us when we don’t show, or may just assume to go to our docking berth at the shipyard in the first place; you know how he likes things his way, on his time.
“In either event, if we’re making the exchange with Ms. Clegg after we make the move to the shipyard, I would say there’s a chance Ms. Clegg and Sare No. 2 could end up crossing paths, in our docking berth.”
“While that doesn't sound like a bad idea,” Vargas says to Swann, “if anything comes out in the media about that shuttle which contradicts our story, things could get -- interesting.”
“I still think we should attempt to get the authorities involved in this one,” Kevon adds. “He’s breaking at least one Imperial law that I know of in attempting to impersonate the original Sare to illegally gain access to property. If uniforms start showing up . . . ” he trails off.
“You know, maybe I can talk to Philipe -- Lt. Marks -- and see if he can do a favor for me,” the lieutenant commander interjects. “We may not even need to be there for the arrest.”
-----
Based on Aidan’s experience and knowledge, he reports that a request for expenses is fairly easy to file through the Starport Authority office. The ship will need to have a formal and notarized estimate drawn up by a sanctioned repair yard. A receipt for any supplies used must be created and a bid to replace those supplies must be included in the filing.
Martha thinks that Aidan’s analysis sounds about right, but she skeptical that it’s that easy. “Well, I’ll get a notarized estimate this afternoon, then,” she says. “Vasilii, you think you have time to create a receipt for any supplies used during the rescue? Don’t forget to include the overtaxing of our life support, if there’s any damage. I’ll check and let you know.”
After a pause, she adds, “And I don’t think you can claim your suits the passengers tore, nor Mr. Silver’s luggage. But I do think we might want to file some sort of report to the local Law Enforcers.”
-----
While the crew are discussing how to approach Tukera Lines, they receive a rather formally worded and certified comm message from Hubert Standish, the Tukera Lines Manager for Fonnein:
Lt. Commander Kevon Holland
Dr. Saro Talbek
Emile Vargas
Vasilii Kugiikishshi
Martha Smythe
On behalf of Tukera Lines, I, Hubert Standish, Tukera Lines Manager for Fonnein, would like to comment the crew's bravery and sacrifice as well as formally thank you all for willingly responding to the collision of our Marellia Landing and the Markov's Daughter on 176-993 without hesitation. As required by Imperial Regulation SPA-382K3E1T-003, Tukera Lines will be covering the cost of any repairs needed by the Bray Keaven for damage incurred during the rescue, the cost of any supplies used during the rescue, and any SPA fees incurred due to the rescue provided that notarized and certified receipts are submitted to the Fonnein Tukera Lines office by 276-993.
Additionally, in recognition of the selfless and immediate response instrumental to saving the lives of the passenger and crew of the Marellia Landing, Tukera Lines has deposited a Cr1,000,000 honorarium in the Fonnein Orbital account of the Bray Keaven.
As a personal measure of thanks, a high passage voucher good for one jump on any Tukera Lines vessel (space pending) is waiting for Lt. Cdr. Holland, Dr. Talbek, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Kugiikishshi, and Ms. Smythe at the Tukera Lines office.
Finally, Tukera Lines would like to extend an invitation to Lt. Cdr. Holland, Dr. Talbek, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Kugiikishshi, and Ms. Smythe interview with Tukera Lines for service with Tukera Lines under very favorable terms.
Hubert Standish
Fonnein Manager, Tukera Lines
Attached to the formal note is an informally worded vid message that the formal message is required protocol to make sure that the crew and Tukera Lines has a formal record, and Manager Standish would like to take the crew out for dinner at their earliest convenience.
Martha almost gets excited about it, before she realizes that it would leave the ship unprotected. “Guys, what would we do about ship security, with everyone gone?”
“Y’all can go have a good time, I’ll stay here with the ship,” Ian says. “I got to sit in a bar and watch the whole ordeal all safe and sound. You guys risking your necks deserve the opportunity to bask in the glory!” Ian finishes with a big grin, arms crossed in front of him.
Swann smiles and adds, “Yes, the five of you should definitely go have dinner on Tukera’s Crimps. Ian and I will stay with the ship, and Aidan if he plans on hanging around. We’ll entertain ourselves by swapping war stories.”
“I’m certain I can scare up some fine port to sip,” Aidan says. “And war stories sound lovely -- guerilla war experience, anyone? Martha, don’t worry, I’m sure the ship will be quite safe. Anyone who tries to come in will be immediately cast off for interrupting a lovely and peaceful interlude.”
-----
Shortly after the crew digests the formal note from Tukera Lines, a call from Holly Clegg comes in and Kevon answers the comm.
"Ah, Kevon. I’m quite glad to see that you made it through your adventure in one piece. I can see why the Marquis of Sentry recommended your ship and crew.”
“Good morning, Holly. I was about to comm you to reschedule our transfer for this afternoon. We are scheduled to move the Bray Keaven to the Stork & Sons yard at 1300.”
“Either before or after your new attempt to move the ship to the yard would be fine for us,” Holly replies.
Then, an odd look briefly crosses her normally sunny face, and she leans forward slightly into the pickup, before continuing. “Kevon. In light of the courage and honor that you’ve shown, are you sure that you want to go through with this?”
Kevon freezes as he’s about to speak, a puzzled expression crossing his features as he tries to figure out what Holly meant by that. He, too, leans forward as he answers, “I’m not exactly sure what you mean by that. As far as I’m concerned, we’re engaged in a legitimate business deal here with the merchandise we discussed earlier. It’s legal, so we’re legal. Is there something else that would impede my ‘honor and courage’?”
Holly smiles and says, “Yes, the cargo is legal, as I’m sure that you have a warrant for it. I just wanted to make sure that you’re OK with selling the merchandise to me knowing that I’m not the intended recipient. In any case, why don’t I come by the Stork & Sons yard with a few of my crew at, say 1500 hours to complete our business?”
“The courier is OK with this sale, so I’m comfortable,” Kevon replies. “Fifteen hundred hours sounds fine. I’ll see you then.”
-----
While Kevon is talking to Holly, a rather terse and gruff vid message
comes in from Sare No. 2. “I expect you to keep your appointment with me, and that cube had better not be damaged.” <click>
-----
Meanwhile, the others are listening to the newscasts. The shuttle has
been recovered. One crewmember is dead, the other is severely injured
(head injury).
-----
After ending the call to Holly, the lieutenant commander attempts to connect to Lt. Marks, who appears to be receiving the call in some sort of open office setting. “Philipe? Kevon here. We seemed to be embroiled in a minor situation that you might take some interest in,” he says, explaining who Sare No, 2 is without going into details of the cubes – calling it only merchandise at the moment. “We’ve already delivered the merchandise to the proper recipient, but the imposter is insisting on a 1300 rendezvous.” Kevon relays the location information and continues. “This purported ‘gentleman’ has already threatened force on us should the encounter not go his way.
“Do you think the Navy could act to apprehend him for violations of Imperial law?”
After hearing Kevon's query, Philipe responds, “I’d really like to help you, Commander Holland, but based on what you’ve told me, I’m afraid that I can’t do much other than put you in contact with Lt. Wuajel of the SPA Security Service as long as this fellow restricts his activities on station. If he comes after you off station, then I could do more.”
Kevon then places a call to Lt. Wuajel but gets sent into voice mail.
“Lieutenant, this is Lieutenant Commander Kevon Holland, Imperial Navy Reserve,” he begins. “We put into port at Fonnein Orbital to transfer cargo and make some repairs, and were contacted by two men who claimed to be the same person.”
Kevon will relate the story, again omitting the exact nature of the cargo. “He continues to demand we keep the scheduled appointment, and has already implied he will use force if the meeting isn’t met, or doesn’t go his way. I would appreciate any help the authorities can give to us. We’ve certainly had enough excitement for one day. Please contact me as soon as possible at . . . ”
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Martha takes advantage of the hour or so before the second attempt to move the ship to the Stork & Sons yard to head outside and complete her diagnosis. The jump grid definitely appears to be damaged, and the hull is breached underneath the forward cargo lock area (large gash) and a few meters inside the cargo hold. Martha is fairly amazed that the air pressure was maintained in the corridor between the port and starboard sides of the ship.
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The rest of the crew finishes their lunch and conversations and prepare for the Bray Keaven’s second attempted move to the Stork & Sons yard.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Coming soon is the second cinematic incident that when it happened, it made me think, "I've got to start posting this stuff as a story hour." And shortly thereafter, I did.
