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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1285213" data-attributes="member: 515">Swann goes to his cabin to get his flak jacket, proceeds to the cargo hold to meet up with Darishun and Martha, then starts examining the explosives again. He squats down in front of the table to have a closer look at the leg. First thing to consider is, if it was placed there by someone who really knew what they were doing, they were all going to die anyway. So he may as well take some risks. He looks back at Darishun and Martha. "Right, may as well start. Martha, could you get me a couple of meters of non–conductive string? Darishun, would you rock one of the other tables slightly, so we can get an idea of their weight?" He watches as Darishun strains to lift the enourmous device. Well, that isn’t going to work. Darishun ambles over. "I’m afraid it's too weighty at the moment. I won’t be able to lift it unless we dial the gravity down a little." Swann thinks about it a little and decides that he doesn’t want to make any major changes at the moment. Martha arrives back, and she and the Virushi watch a master at work. The entire time Swann works, he’s talking out loud into the comm. Eventaully he starts cutting the casing back away from where it has already cracked. "Still no connection between the case and the explosive. The casing seems to be a quickly fabricated covering and not an integral part of the device." Eventually he cuts the casing almost totally clear on one side. "Choices. I can either dig into the explosive, and try and bore through to find out how big the bang would be. Each bit removed is one that won’t go off. Alternatively, I can keep removing the casing and looking for the detonators. Martha, would you throw a coin, please? Heads for the casing." After a while he hears her hesitant voice. "The coin says heads." "Oh well, I think the coin is wrong. I’ll start digging the explosive out. Could someone get me a plastic spoon and some bowls?" Shortly after that Swann is calmly and smoothly digging the explosive out and pilling it up in a kitchen bowl. "That’s the third spoonful. Swap bowls. Can someone take this bowl, wrap it tightly and put it somewhere a long way from here? I’ll keep digging." By the twelvth bowl, a good third of the explosive has been removed and Swann is getting down to the center of the device. "Oh, what have we here?" A wire ending in a small round ball is exposed to view. "Yup, they are defiitely cheap skates. The pastic is standard mining, the dets are standard electric dets. It’s all shelf gear. Cheap, too. That makes me very hopeful. It looks like this is definitely a bomb rather than a means of transfer. It is also a cheap one. "We’ve been focusing fairly hard for the last half hour. I think it’s time for a cuppa. Let’s adjourn to the lounge." -----Martha sips her Chocolate Mocca while Swann and Darishun chat. Darishun questions Swann about explosives and their usage; Swann answers, a little distracted. Vasilii comes in and sits down. "So did the walk through find anything interesting, Mister Kugiikiishshi?" Martha asks. "Indeed it did. I knew that it was a mistake to rush all the cargo aboard while the crew was still on its way up. There’s a pair of starship weapons right at the back of the cargo bay. It was only because we clambered over everything that we found them. It appears that someone is shipping arms. They didn’t even try to hide them." "A missile launcher and a pulse laser, right?" "That’s right, how did you know?" "While I was working on the port turret, I had to dismount them. Once the turret is working again, I’ll put them back out there. Didn’t you know?" "No I didn’t. I know that the captain has been worried about our lack of a turret. I don’t think he’s aware that we’ve got the guns to put in them." "Sorry, I thought everyone knew." Swann stands up. "Everyone ready, let’s get back to it. Oh Mr Kugeeky, have you found anything interesting on the ship yet?" "No I haven’t." He spared a pained look at Martha. "Nothing interesting at all." The explosives team troops back to the cargo bay. -----Swann wipes the sweat from his brow. This was painstaking work, and the flack jacket just made it hotter. Still, they were definitely getting there. He had removed the vast bulk of the explosive and revealed a small black box connected to a dozen electric dets. There was a large external button that he expected had been pressed to arm the device, but there didn’t seem to be any method of disarming. He thinks about it some more. It wouldn’t do any real harm if the device went off and all the dets fired, because there were no explosives nearby. "Martha, can you build me a small box to contain this thing and we’ll let it go off? Preferably something we can evacuate to reduce the blast." She returns shortly with a 20cm cube of cabin wall. The component walls served well as impromptu building equipment. "I figure that if I take it into an airlock and evactuate before the lid is sealed, it will be OK." Half an hour later, they have a small metal box with the trigger from the bomb inside it. "Well, I don’t feel comfortable cutting into the trigger or removing the dets. This way, whenever it decides to trigger, the worst that happens is it will kill the box." Swann starts taking off his flack jacket. "We’re just luck it was a shoddy, quick piece of work. If the builder had had time or expertise, we would have all been dead long since. I’ll go and report to the captain that this particular bomb isn’t a problem any more. Where did you guys put the explosive?" Darishun enthusiastically shakes his head from side to side in a bobbing motion and softly exclaims, "Well done, Swann! And, with this excellent box that Martha has provided, I’m sure that we’ll all be much healthier when this device goes off." Continuing in a more somber tone, "Perhaps we should put the box in the port airlock, after we remove the rest of the cargo piled there? It seems close to the low berths, but better those than the life support systems! "What do you think about the explosives? Scatter the bowls so as to minimize any possible explosions? Make little boxes for each?" Swann smiles up at Darishun. "Putting the box in the port airlock sounds like a good idea. I believe we should put the bowls of explosives in the starboard airlock." Darishun cocks his head quizically and says: "Starboard airlock? Near the life support systems and computer? Is that wise? Are the explosives ‘safe’ now? If so, or even if not, perhaps in the air raft compartment?" Swann considers what Darishun said. "The explosives are safe as long as there is not another explosion or charge of some sort to detonate them. But placing them in the air raft dock might be safer, just in case. It also will allow us to avoid having to move the cargo out of the starboard air lock." Swann then calls Argent on the ship’s comm to update him. "Captain Argent. This is Swann. We’ve finished disabling the explosive device. It was pretty crude and hastily constructed, just a detonater and the plastique. We’ve placed the detonater into a small box which should contain most of the explosion if it should go off. We are going to place that in the port airlock until we finish jump. The plastique is divided between several bowls, which we will place in the air raft dock until we finish jump." Swann then rubs a hand across his face, considering how to broach this next subject. "There’s something else I need to tell you about. It’s not life-threatening, but you should be aware of it. I discovered it before jump, but since it wasn’t a pressing matter and things were so hectic, I decided to wait to inform you. Now that things have settled down somewhat, I guess now is as good as time as any. If you will please meet me in the port engine room by the fuel scoops and processors, I’ll explain further." Swann goes to the engine room and waits for Argent. When the captain arrives, he reveals the smuggled bonsai trees.</blockquote>

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