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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1810555" data-attributes="member: 515"> Chapter XII Date: 166-993 Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven and the Oser, Sentry systemSwann heads over to the Oser’s bridge area while talking to whoever is on the bridge. After a moment, the iris valve leading to the bridge opens to reveal the sandy–haired, vacc–suited man who originally waved them onboard. He has his hands on his head. A snub pistol lies just inside the airlock where the man presumably threw it. A little wild eyed and with a slight tremor, the man speaks: "I can’t open the iris valve leading to the port airlock. I don’t know if your ship’s first shot shorted it out or what happened. I’ve unlocked all iris valves though. Please, just let us go." Saro heads over to look at Ian. Unfortunately, since Ian is in his vacc suit, the only way that he can really examine or treat Ian is to either cut away the vacc suit or have Ian remove the suit. He stops the bleeding as best he can, then heads to Eric and Mark who are still tranqed out. Eric is in fine shape (though unconscious). Mark is still bleeding significantly, and Saro stabilizes him. It’s hard to tell how long the two non-pirates will be out. Probably a few more minutes at least. Meanwhile, Ian gathers the magnum pistol and snub pistol in the lounge and puts them on his belt. Keeping an eye on Swann and the man from the bridge as much as he can, Ian stands up with his gauss pistol ready in case Swann needs backup. Swann pats down the sandy–haired, vacc–suited man. He doesn’t find another weapon. The man seems to be pretty compliant at the moment, and cooperates with Swann’s instructions. Speaking into his suit comm, Ian says. "Ian here. Looks like the man on the bridge is surrendering to Swann." -----"Understood, Mr. McConnell," Kevon replies. "Standing by with their engineering section targeted." On the Bray Keaven's bridge, Vargas and Kevon keep a watchful eye on the Oser’s turret. The turret is still bearing on the Keaven, but Vargas notes that the turret seems to be powered down. -----In port engineering, Martha continues to diagnose the comm system damage. The damage looks pretty extensive though she may be able to jury-rig a repair to enable some very short-range communications. She will need to do an EVA to get to the damaged area though. Martha comms the others. "Comms are down on the ship. I can jury rig something, but that entails me going outside for a little EVA work. Sounds like it’s clear on suit comms, but if it isn’t, somebody better tell me." Martha starts to gather the necessary tools and materials to make the repairs. -----After he finishes his search for weapons, Swann tells the man from the bridge, "Lay down on the floor and keep your arms spread away from your body. Ian, keep your gun pointed at his head, and shoot him if he moves." Swann approaches the iris valve to the bridge with shotgun raised. He enters the bridge, checking carefully first to see if anyone else is on the bridge waiting to jump him. Seeing no one on the bridge, he opens his suit comm unit and says, "This is Swann. The Oser’s bridge is clear. I’m going to power down their turret." Swann picks up the discarded snub pistol and sticks it in his belt. He then goes to the gunnery controls, turns the turret away from the Keaven and powers it down. Checking the airlock controls, Swann finds that the inner iris valve for the port airlock does appear to be malfunctioning -- it doesn’t show up as operational at all. He radios Vasilii: "Vasilii, this is Swann. I’m going to attempt to bypass the airlock’s inner door controls. Stand by." -----"Copy that, Swann," Vasilli replies. "You might have a time of it, though; controls on this side look a little damaged. If you can’t do anything with that iris, there’s the other iris in here that I believe opens to an air raft bay, maybe you can open that one from the bridge?" -----Aidan comms the bridge and Martha on suit comms and gets no response. So, he heads over to the outside iris valve of the Oser and raps on the iris valve. Inside, Vasilii hears someone knocking on the iris valve. Vasilii stops working on the bulkhead the second he hears someone tapping on the airlock iris. "Martha or Vargas! Hot damn! I'm out of here!," he says to himself, now hopeful at his change of prospects. He keys his mike, about to thank Vargas or Martha for responding so quickly, when Aidan’s voice comes over the suit comm. "Aidan Silver to Vasilii. Come in Vasilii. The weather’s fine out here and if you evacuate the airlock you can come back this way." For a brief moment, Vailii’s face is frozen in mid-thought. "What the frell else can go wrong today?" he thinks to himself. He draws a long breath and sighs to calm himself down as he steps over to the controls to the outer iris valve, then speaks in a pleasant but somewhat loud conversational tone (that he hopes the others will pick up on): "Mr. Silver, may I ask what you're doing on the outside of the Oser’s airlock, rather than safely remaining in the designated passenger area on the Bray Keaven?" Aidan replies, "What ho, just looking for a spot of adventure. Besides, thought you chaps might need a bit of help with this piracy thing the Oser is trying to run. Anyway, shall I come aboard?" "He CAN’T be serious," Vasilii thinks in disbelief of the bravado. "Alright, if he wants to play nice, I’ll play nice," he concludes. In his best "legalese," and in the most pleasant tone he can muster, Vasilii says, "Mister Silver, while I would like to extend the heartfelt appreciation of the entire crew of the Bray Keaven for your noble and selfless effort, there is a certain *legal* context that should be considered here. Specifically, when you purchased passage aboard our ship, *you,* the party of the first part, entered into a legally binding contract with the party of the second part, the Bray Keaven’s crew, on behalf of the party of the third part, your employer, to deliver you and your cargo to the appointed destination as detailed in your passage purchase, in exactly the same, or better, condition as when you and your cargo were first placed aboard our ship, at which time, we, the Bray Keaven’s crew, assumed full liability for the welfare of you and your cargo until delivery to, and subsequent offloading at, the appointed destination starport. "Now, being fully and wholly liable for your welfare under the terms of your passage agreement, *we* would be legally and ethically remiss in our responsibility for you if we were to knowingly allow you to come aboard a vessel known to be occupied by armed aggressors, in this case pirates. And, if any subsequent injuries were to befall you while aboard such a vessel, we would be leaving ourselves, meaning the crew of the Bray Keaven, vulnerable to a financially devastating lawsuit, or lawsuits, filed either by you, if you survived, or at the least by your employer, on the basis of breaching the agreement of your safe passage, to say nothing of compensation for all financial damages relating to your untimely demise, if deceased, or, in the event you are only injured, your absence from work due to any period of recuperation and possible rehabilitation, as necessary. And all of this, of course, is in addition to the obligatory punitive damages." -----Listening from the bridge, Vargas quips, "Gee, I sure hope Vasilii took extra air with him." "Son of a . . . , " Kevon breathes as he focuses in on the comms between Vasilii and the ship’s passenger — only because his eyes starts to automatically glaze over at the sound of legalese. "That Silver character’s at the damned airlock. Did we lose security protocols in the fight?" -----"So you see, Mister Silver," Vasilii continues, "the fact that you purchased passage on our ship legally *obligates* us to actively *prevent* you from coming aboard the Oser at this time, and regrettably, we must continue to do so until such time as the Oser has been deemed ‘secure’ in it’s entirety." Vasilii pauses for a brief second. "Is there anything else I can help you with today, sir?" Aidan, nonplussed by the stream of legalese, replies, "My good sir, I’m quite impressed. I had not realized that anyone of else of the legal persuasion was on shipboard. And I look forward to discussing this with you in the future. In the meanwhile, please be informed that, according to Imperial statute IM3419.25, paragraph 34, that the crews of ships facing piratical activity are specifically exempted from liability, both individually and generally. Aidan pauses for a moment to let that sink in, then proceeds. "Therefore sir, it seemed in my best interest to attempt to protect the crew myself in order that we might return to the legal relationship you mentioned earlier and carry me on to my destination safely. Besides, I do rather hate sitting around doing nothing." Then, slightly embarrassed and in a less stern voice, says, "Errr, have I mentioned that your computers need a security upgrade? I rather think I can do some work in that area that would be beneficial to your carrying me on to my destination safely." The briskness returns to his voice. "Meanwhile, standing by to render assistance!" -----Checking his sidearm, Kevon unbuckles himself and heads off the bridge with an, "I’ll be right back, as soon as I put Silver back in his place." The lieutenant commander heads down to the airlock. </blockquote>

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