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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1810563" data-attributes="member: 515">Exiting the bridge and moving to the port airlock controls, Swann tries an old double–interrupted–cycle trick. The trick works, and the iris valve reveals Vasilii conversing with Aidan in legalese. Swann briefly considers shutting the iris valve again. -----Outside the Oser’s airlock in the "barely there" boarding tube, Aidan stands on the boarding tube’s severely damaged walkway (magnetic boots clamped), waiting for Vasilii to evacuate the airlock and trading banter with Vasilii and the rest of the crew. -----Kevon, upon realizing that Aidan is actually off the lounge deck, leaves the bridge carrying his laser pistol. He meets Martha (in her vacc suit) headed to the starboard airlock towing a grav pallet with thruster pack, tools, and parts. The engineer looks distracted as if already trying to visualize the damage and a jury–rigged repair. Kevon proceeds to the port airlock. The inner iris valve is closed. Using the vidplate, Kevon sees that the outer iris valve is open and that Aidan is waiting outside the Oser’s airlock. Aidan’s cutlass is in its sheath at his belt. -----Swann looks in the airlock and shakes his head slightly, then says, "There's nothing sadder than two men debating who has the larger . . . tort knowledge." Vasilii, still holding his hand to his injured side as he’s talking with Aidan, sees the iris open, and like a rat deserting a sinking ship, he quickly scrambles out of the airlock, leans against the bulkhead opposite Swann, and switches off his suit mike. "Hey, I was trying to be polite about it. I figured the legal angle would be the hardest to argue with, who knew that out of the *trillions* of people who travel through space every day in the Imperium, *we* would end up with the *one* vigilante lawyer." "Vasilii, you might want to have Doc take a look at any injuries you sustained," Swann says. Vasilii takes his hand away from his injury for a moment to look at it. "Hurts like a bugger, but I’m more worried about the suit at the moment. I think I’m gonna have to find another one over here before I can go back to the Keaven." Into his suit comm, Swann says, "Keaven, this is Swann. As far as we can tell, the Oser is secure. We have three prisoners. Ian and Vasilii are injured, but nothing that appears to be life-threatening. Two of the prisoners are also injured, one fairly seriously. Doc is working on them now. I guess we’ll sit tight until the authorities arrive. "Mister Silver," he continues. "I understand you are outside the Oser’s airlock. If you can hear me, let me first thank you for your concern for our well-being and willingness to help during our recent crisis. But since the situation is now in hand, I suggest you return to the Bray Keaven. If you still feel the need to do something, and since you are already suited up, you might see about helping our engineer, Martha, repair any damage the ship received during our recent tete-a-tete. Swann out." Vasilii says, "I wouldn't leave him *alone* with her, not until we know a little more about him. I’m still not certain he isn’t working for the pirates." "Damn Swann, you tryin’ to get Mr. Silver Killed? Lately, Martha’s been jumpier than a golthedape on a hot slther roof!" Ian says with a half grin. He limps closer to the sandy–haired man lying on the deck but stays well out of his reach. -----Kevon keys his comms following Swann’s message and adds, "Mr. Silver, step back into the airlock now, and prepare to surrender your weapon. You have 30 seconds, sir." -----Aidan says, "Hand over my weapon? But sir, there are dangerous pirates on the other side of that door. Besides, I have some details on those cubes they seemed to be interested in, and I’d like to make sure my interests are properly taken care of. You’ll note that I’m not threatening anyone, but am rather fond of my cutlass. Now sir, shall we chat about this after the current crisis is resolved?" -----Swann turns from the airlock and heads back toward the lounge, thinking to himself. "That Aidan’s a piece of work. Sneaky AND a lawyer. Two reasons I won’t regret having to space him during jump if necessary. "And waiting for the authorities to arrive after an altercation — that’s a new one. This is going to take some getting used to." Vasilii follows Swann back toward the lounge area where Saro is working on the two injured pirates. Recognizing one of the men, Vasilii taps Swann and Saro on the shoulder, then nod in Mark’s direction as he says sarcastically, "Well, well. Gentlemen, say hello to Hil Seirl, or whatever his real name is. You remember him, don’t you? He was the *other* one who also wanted us to take his ‘urgent’ cargo to Fonnein." As Swann starts back toward the bridge, Vasilii puts a hand on his arm to stop him for a moment, looking at the snub pistol in Swann's belt. "Saro doesn’t have a gun. Can you leave that one with him?" "Sure, I don’t need two." Swann hands the gun to Vasilii to give to Saro. Vasilii holsters his own gun for a moment and takes the gun from Swann. He checks the magazine to see how much ammo is in it, puts the magazine back in, then makes sure the safety is on and hands it to Saro. "Don’t leave home without it," Vasilii quips. Swann shakes his head sadly at Vasilii and then goes to secure Eric and Mark before they wake up. He finds that they had a small pile of plastic ties hidden to the side, just ready to be used for securing people (how convenient). Swann uses them to secure the two men. -----Vasilii starts searching the pirates and the lounge for concealed guns, blades, anything useful or incriminating. He overhears the exchange between Kevon and Aidan and, not wishing to leave the lieutenant commander by himself to face the well-honed, venom-dripping intellectual fangs of a lifeform as cunning, ruthless, and insatiably carnivorous as a lawyer, while at the same time not overlooking the possible benefits of having such an ally and therefore wishing to keep the dealings as cordial as possible, regrettingly stops his search and keys his mike to rejoin the verbal fray: "Mister Silver, what I believe Mister Holland is trying to say is that the fact that the pirates are on the other side of the door is entirely the point: They can’t get at you. Moreover, you can be *even further* on the other side of that door by returning to the Keaven’s passenger area on the upper deck, which at this time would be the most prudent thing for you to do. "Additionally, as Mister Swann has already pointed out, the situation over here is rather in-hand and we do not require any further assistance, though we are immensely appreciative of the calibre of your diligence and bravery. Passengers of your merit and capabilities are indeed rare. "And, if I may, Mister Silver, though in less tactful terms, there are more of us in the Keaven’s response team than there are of you, and we are quite determined to keep you from coming aboard the Oser, as you are a passenger aboard our ship and we are professionally obligated to keep you in the safest possible setting, regardless of legal liabilities or lack thereof. "The fact that you also willfully breached ship’s security, to then willfully leave the passenger area and move around in non-passenger sections of our ship with a weapon, together with your continued insistence to come aboard now, is also causing no small amount of added tension among the crew, regardless of your expertise in tort knowledge. "Thus, with that said, sir, we are *insisting* that you return to the Keaven’s passenger area, and that you check your weapon at the airlock." -----Kevon is content to let Mr. Kugiikishshi spar with Mr. Silver in their native legalese. -----Aidan replies, "Well, I can perhaps see you point of view sir. Although I trust I’ll get rather more of a hearing on this and would be obliged if I were updated on the situation on a regular basis. "Now sir, as for the ship security, well, I merely felt it incumbent on me, knowing the sensitivity of my current mission, to discover whether this ship was indeed sufficiently secure to handle the current mission in the face of the evident interest of other parties in a certain element of your cargo. Now that I’ve explored these systems I believe I can assure you that the issues are fixable and I would be happy to work on them. "At this point, since you seem to have the affair settled with the pirates, I’ll happily return to the ship, until we can discuss this further." Aidan returns and cycles the airlock. To Kevon, who stands waiting there, he says, "Well sir, I see that I am indeed deemed dangerous if you need a laser pistol. Glad to have developed a reputation." He grins. "Now, I trust you’ll return this cutlass safely to the weapons locker? Shall I get started on making the necessary repairs to the ship computer security system until the crew is ready for a conference?" "Save your banter for the courtroom, counselor," the lieutenant commander replies dryly. "Your cutlass, please." After handing his cutlass (sheathed of course) to Kevon, Aidan strides purposely back to the lounge area. Head held high, of course. Kevon escorts him. "Feel free to contact Ms. Smythe about aiding her with the ship’s repairs; I’ll let her make the decision to accept your aid," Kevon adds. "Please remain here until you are authorized by either me, or another member of the crew, to leave." -----Once out of the lounge, Kevon heads for the ship’s locker to stow the cutlass, then back to the bridge. "We do seem to meet the most interesting people on these little jaunts. Might as well get used to it, Kevon. Now, where are our naval friends?" says Vargas as he scans the console. Kevon takes his seat and pulls up the comm system diagnostics, and taps his suit comms. "Ms. Smythe, Bridge. Do you need assistance on the comm repairs?"-----"Actually, not at the moment," Martha replies, grunting as she maneuvers the hydrospanner into position. "I hope to have ship communications up shortly." After a pause, she continues, "What’s this I hear about Mr. Silver breaking into our security protocols? Can you check that out? That's attempted piracy in some areas, if I recall my interstellar law training. I don’t want him near anything related to engineering or how this ship operates until we find out whose side he’s on, and if he’s cracked our protocols." She definitely sounds more agitated as she continues. "But that’s my opinion, sir. Where is the bast. . . passenger now?" Another grunt accentuates the effort used to release a component fried in place. -----Swann kneels down next to the sandy-haired man from the bridge — keeping out of Ian’s line of fire — and says, "Well now, I have three questions for you. The first one is easy: What is your name? The second one is also easy: Do you have any more friends on board we haven’t encountered? The third one has multiple parts, so listen closely: Who are you working for, and what do they want from us?" The man starts to say something, but Swann interrupts. "Now, before you answer, I think it’s only fair to warn you that my friend over there, the one pointing the gun at your head — he’ll know if you are lying. He has an innate talent for detecting lies. And he doesn’t like people who lie to us. He’s already mad about getting shot in the leg. He’s not concerned about the hole in his leg — that will heal — but he’s really upset about his vacc suit, which now also has a hole in it. It was a very expensive vacc suit, and now it’s ruined. So he’s not in the mood to listen to any lies." Turning his head just enough so the prisoner can clearly see his missing ear, Ian cracks a big grin, crinkling the scarred skin on the side of his head. He repositions the gauss pistol slightly and loudly (and unnessessarily) clicks the safety "on" then "off," just for effect. "So let me ask you again," Swann says as he chambers a round into the shotgun and pushes the barrel against the back of the man’s head, "What is your name? Do you have any more friends on board? Who do you work for, and what do they want from us?"</blockquote>

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