NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1707779" data-attributes="member: 515">Swann looks around the lounge again, rubs a hand across his face and says, "Which brings us to what happened tonight. Back when I . . . was working as a Belter, my co-workers and I used to hear rumors, tavern tales of sophants with amazing psionic powers. Many just dismissed them as spacer static, but others claimed they were true. These sophants were called Wraiths because of their ability to teleport themselves from place to place. "The first Wraiths I heard of were burglars, able to get past the best security systems and hired guards. Later, I heard of Wraiths who made their living as hired assassins. If they took a contract, the target was as good as dead — there was little chance of escaping them, and very few places offered security from their special ability. "The only limitation on this teleporting ability, if I recall correctly, is that the Wraith must have actually seen the location where he is teleporting to beforehand. He either has to visit it, or see a picture of it, or have someone who has visited it describe it in complete detail. "That’s why I was sure our visitor tonight was either our blonde-haired bombshell, or one of her companions. She saw where the plants were when she was here, so she could teleport in — if she can teleport psionically — or could give someone else a detailed enough description so that they could teleport in." Saro chokes on his coffee and looks wildly around the room at the others. "What?! She saw where the plants were? Who the hell decided to parade them around? I thought we had agreed to space all of it the next time we took off? Was there a new plan? Were we going to make money by charging admission to look at the highly illegal contraband?!" Swann continues. "In fact, that might be why they were interested in the plants in the first place. Doc would probably be able to answer this better than I can, but the starflower pollen might have some use in psionic-boosting or psionic-activating drugs. "So now we should decide what, if anything, we plan to do. Do we pursue the plants, or just take the money and call it even? We still have the collected starflower pollen, but they don’t know about that, and I say we just space it on our next jump and be done with it." "Yes, yes, most emphatically, yes! Space it! I’d much rather have it floating about in the void then myself!" Saro looks a bit red in the face, his skin a little tight around the eyes. "Anyway, they probably won’t be paying us any more unannounced visits. And if they do, the pollen is in the safe in Kevon’s cabin, and he can deal with them." Swann smiles at Kevon and laughs. "Oh, thanks," the commander quips, rolling his eyes. "We also still have the mystery of the original bomb that was planted on the ship before the trip to Alief," Swann continues. "I doubt our blonde friend and her cohorts were behind that. But maybe a competitor or rival of theirs knew the plants were on the ship and wanted to destroy them. Which means they might try again. "I personally believe the bomb was meant to hamper the relief effort, and had nothing to do with the plants, but I could be wrong. So what are we going to do next?" Swann sits down to listen to any discussion at this point. Vargas hesitates but briefly before speaking. "Lest I be thought a coward, is anyone interested in getting out of here? So far someone has put a bomb aboard and raided the ship for a highly illegal plant, a raid conducted by a possible psionic teleporter. There could be other . . . organizations out there which might just want to pay us a visit as well, albeit in a less dramatic fashion. "Just wanted to ask the question. I’m here for the long haul." Sheepishly, Martha will clear her throat. "I’m pretty sure she was psionic. When she came through engineering on her visit here, she . . . spoke to me . . . in my head." Martha pauses, looking very uncomfortable. "I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about it. Didn’t know if there was a reward, or what, for these people, or what kind of business they might be into. Now, it’s easy to see that the Imp videos might be true. I mean, they broke in here, just like she broke into my mind. I . . . I don’t know what to do . . . about them." As she speaks, it becomes obvious that the weariness of the young engineer is not entirely due to the early hours. Looking around, Martha continues. "I think they’re after me. She ‘told’ me, up here," taps her temple, "that I had something, and she seems eager for me to meet with her again in the future. Whatever it is I have, I think she wants it. I just don’t know what it is." She sighs, then continues. "Do you think they’re going to come get me if I don’t go?" Martha obviously looks scared, due in no small part to the official Imperial stance on psionics over the last two centuries, and the media’s portrayal of psions as ruthless killers and mind-rapers. Ian listens with a concerned look. "I noticed you two had some sort of connection when she shook your hand. I saw the expression on your face. Nobody is gonna kidnap anyone on this ship if I can help it! If it would put your mind at ease, we can take turns being your personal bodyguard at least until we jump from this planet. We should all be on high alert until we leave anyway, since ‘they’ obviously still have an interest in us. If what Swann says is true, then our blonde friend could pop into the ship anywhere she visited." Martha calms herself somewhat. "Thanks, Ian, but I don’t think that’s going to help much. Right now, she seems to think that I’m going to go to them. It’s when I don’t that I’m mostly worried about. But they’re here, and they’re also on Adukgin, which probably means they’re on other worlds in this cluster." Looking around, she smiles meekly at the others. "I just don’t know what I should do. Leira, I guess that’s her name, said not to tell anyone, but after tonight . . . " Swann realizes Martha is truly, utterly scared. "Assigning a guard to Martha might not be a bad idea. I’m certainly no expert on psionics, but I’ve never heard of a Wraith being able to teleport away with another person. However, since we really don’t know, better to play it safe than to be sorry." "If you guys think that’s going to work," Martha says, shaking her head. "Might I suggest then that we take what cargoes we can and head out?" Vargas says. "I’m not at all comfortable with the thought that someone can pop in here any time, whether it be psionically or traditionally. Until we lift, we can set ship’s security on ‘high’ and even depressurize the processor bays. How’s that?" "I can set that up," Martha replies, making a note to herself on her hand comp. The thought of something to do would help keep the fears from overriding her. After listening to Martha’s and Emile’s statements, Kevon politely clears his throat. "I had originally planned to suggest we go after this psionic marauder and her minions — I figure I have enough authority and credibility to stand up against any accusations she may try to make about our involvement — but given Ms. Smythe’s revelations, I suggest we follow Mr. Vargas’ suggestion and leave the planet immediately. Do we have cargo that we can load this morning?" "Yup, I’m getting tired of this place. Let’s get the hell outta here. I’ve lost that warm fuzzy feeling with people popping in and out of the ship pretty as they please," Ian says with a scowl. "I’ll second, and third, the motion to get the heck out of here," Saro says. "What about that Silver fellow? He was offering pretty good cred for himself and a small cargo. Why don’t we check him out and see what’s what. And take on some nice boring minor cargoes that no one will want to hijack, steal, or execute us for?" Swann says, "If no one has objections to taking a stranger on board, after everything that’s happened tonight, I say we take his money and take him where he wants to go. As my daddy used to say, ‘Let’s stake a claim or get off the rock.’ " Vasilii sits and listens to the others talk, his mind wandering. He reads the paper again, and looks down at the cred chips on the table. When everyone has said their piece, he clears his throat and speaks up. "I believe that our ‘friends’ may have inadvertently done us a favor. I wanted to get rid of the plants as bad as anyone, but the chance to turn a profit lured me on. Now, the plants are gone and we do have a profit, albeit a small one. "I agree that the residue isn’t worth the risk, we should dump it at the first opportunity. As to getting out of here, I agree but we need some kind of cargo to help pay for the work we want done at Fonnein." Vasilii goes to his room and pulls out his hand computer. Returning to the lounge, he logs onto the shipping site checking for cargoes. "Mr. Silver seems to be sincere, and his credits would be helpful. If we take him and his cargo that should leave us with about 50 dtons of space. "We also have an offer for transporting a cargo of electronics for double standard rates. That would be nice, but a single dton of electronics won't make for much of a profit. "I’ll recap our finances for Mr. Holland, which is Cr275,154 with a management reserve of Cr18,000. I think that we can safely take on some cargo and exit this system within 2-36 hours. If you like, I can arrange a suitable cargo transaction and commence loading in just a few hours." Everyone agrees. -----Martha depressurizes the processor bays hoping that the mystery boxes won’t react poorly to being in a vacuum. She also sets the ship’s security system and the berth security system at high level before turning in. -----The crew goes to sleep rather fitfully for a few hours while they trade off watches. The rest of the night passes smoothly if not restfully.</blockquote>

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