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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1856145" data-attributes="member: 515"> Chapter XIV Date: 167-993 Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven, Sentry systemAfter the Sentry Marines depart, the sophonts left aboard the Bray Keaven begin to break up into discussion groups.Swann asks Martha, "What needs to be done to get the ship ready to jump? If you need to go back out to finish up, I will be happy to go along to assist any way I can.""I definitely could use some help, but you have to promise me something," Martha smiles tiredly. "No reading while we’re out on duty, OK?" She hopes that Swann catches the joking reference to the EVA incident from back when the ship was in orbit around Aleif.Swann smiles and says, "That’s OK. I only look at the pictures anyway."Martha continues. "Suit up. I’d rather go forward than back, so let’s see what we can do to make this a safe jump. Sentry’s been a lot of trouble."Then Martha turns to Kevon. "Sir, may I request that you address Mister Silver’s earlier actions? If it were up to me, I’d space ’im for his criminal actions, so I’m not the best person to work his madness out."She pointedly ignores Aidan’s presence in the room as she continues. "But if anything like that happens again, I already know my vote regarding how we should handle it."Kevon nods slightly. "Noted and understood," he replies in acknowledgement. He doesn’t add that he feels much the same way, or that he almost shot Silver in the airlock earlier, just on principle.Turning back to Swann, Martha says, "Meet you in the airlock shortly.""It’s a date," Swann jokes.-----Martha leaves the lounge, heading back to engineering to run another diagnostic from the comfortable confines of port engineering. After running the diagnostic, Martha evaluates what she can do to make the ship jump worthy.-----"Mr. Silver, unless the crew comes to your defense and can convince me otherwise, you shall be confined to your quarters until further notice," Ian says.He then continues, "I know I am the security officer, but I would appreciate it if someone more skilled than I would see what can be done about our apparently dismal computer security situation." As Ian finishes, he looks in Swann’s direction.Aidan says, "Yes sir, I shall remain humbly in my room, catching up on more back issues of the law review. Naturally, I’d be happy to show you the various back doors into your system, but only if you wish it. I shall keep away from the computer terminal otherwise."Ian levels a steely gaze upon Aidan while he is speaking, trying to discern the truthfulness of his reply. "Very well, Mr. Silver," Ian says once Aidan has finished. "I appreciate your cooperation. We need to get the ship back in order and on its way, and we do not need distractions. Good day, sir." Ian ends with a note of finality."Well, while I’m not the sharpest computer person around, and since everyone else appears to have their tasks for the moment, I could take Mr. Silver down to the computer room and take some very thorough notes on what he’s done to the computer, for Swann or someone to look into later," Vasilii offers."Oh, while I’m thinking about it," he continues, turning to Ian and lowering his voice, "do you think you could get the chance to look into that project I mentioned earlier, especially if Swann could give you a hand? Shouldn’t take long if you think you can, and I think it would be one less thing on our minds before we jump."-----Swann approaches Ian and Vasilii, and overhears the latter portion of Vasilii’s statement. "Since getting the ship ready to jump again appears to be the highest priority right now, I’m going EVA to help Martha finish up so we can get the frell out of here. If you two want to proceed without me on that little job, go ahead. Or if you want to just sit on Silver until jump, we’ll have plenty of time then to sort some things out. Including the computer system."-----Since he’s already suited up, Swann goes to his cabin to drop off the downloaded computer data and the credits he got on the Oser. He then returns his snub pistol to the ship’s locker. Then he runs a diagnostic on his vacc suit to make sure everything’s ready and charged up for his trip outside.-----After Swann leaves the lounge, Ian scans around the room, looking at each remaining crewmember while he speaks. "I would rather Mr. Silver be confined to his quarters until after we’ve entered jump. We have a good bit of work to do and need no more distractions. Captain Holland." Ian’s eyes stop on Kevon. "What is your decision?""Captain Holland?" Kevon thinks, puzzled. "I thought I was just the pilot.""Very well, Mr. McConnell," he responds aloud, giving no external reaction to his surprise.Turning to the lawyer, he adds, "Mr. Silver, you are confined to quarters until further notice, and are not allowed onto the deck unless escorted by a member of the crew. Further, your computer access privileges are suspended. Since Mr. Kugiikishshi wishes to discuss your computer intrusion, you will accompany him for the time being. Dismissed."Vasilii, if he so much as breathes on you, shoot him."Flashing a broad, mischievous smile at Aidan, Kevon turns and heads for his quarters.Aidan dashes off his best salute. "Aye, aye, Cap’n! The prisoner shall make his best attempt not to breathe!"-----Ian catches up with Kevon outside his cabin. "Captain Holland," Ian addresses Kevon, with a sly grin. "Thanks for playing along back there. I figured that Mr. Silver needed an authoritative figure to help quell his, ummm, mischievous tendencies? That a good way to put it? After his witnessing your conversation with the Marines, it seemed natural for him to assume you as the captain. In actuality, the issue of leadership has not been addressed by the crew since our personnel changes on planet. Just thought I’d clear it up a bit, didn’t mean to confuse you."Glancing at the door to Kevon’s quarters, "Hope you still have a place to sleep," Ian says with a big grin as he turns to walk away.Nodding, Kevon replies with a genuine smile, "I’d rather not have a place to sleep than have to spend Cr1,500 to replace my dress uniform."-----Ian then seeks out Vargas on the bridge and has a similar conversation. "So you see, it was a ruse straight off the top of my head designed to try and keep Mr. Silver in line for the rest of the trip. I had no intention of superceding any existing authority, assuming there is any. Speaking of which, who does carry the ‘Captain’ title now, or is this a democratic ship?"Ian raises an eyebrow. "Don’t recall the crew making any decision," he says as he rubs his stubbly chin with his hand. "Ah well, fatigue is taking its toll. Hell, I’ll just be glad to get the frell away from this system!"As time permits, Ian explains his "ruse" to the rest of the crew.-----"Mr. Kugiikishshi, please allow me to accompany you to the keyboard," Aidan says. "By preference, I’d appreciate the occasional breath while speaking, but naturally, being quite well schooled in the arts of lengthy exposition, can try to hold on for as long as possible."Aidan is lightly playing the clown, with visits to the royal court having represented an excellent training ground in looking harmless."Now, Mr. Kugiikishshi, please allow me to discuss with you the back doors into your current system. Version 3786.A of Galaktix, which you have running on this computer, has a number of documented security holes, if you would allow me to pull up the documentation on my reader.""Mister Silver," Vasilii says to get Aidan’s attention. His arms are folded in front of him. His tone is not outwardly hostile, more like a detached calm, even somewhat muted, and very matter-of-fact. "It’s entirely possible that you’ve done more damage than you realize. But setting that issue aside for a moment, I’d like to make the observation to you that, for the time being, you are entirely in the care of this crew. A crew, I might add, that’s having less and less regard for the Imperial legal code, since it seems to be doing less and less for us, certainly nothing to prevent us from having to deal with pirates and other sundry criminal elements on the one planet we were hoping to call ‘home.’"That being said, your treatment on this ship, as with any other ship, will depend heavily on your cooperation with the crew. At the moment, I think I can say that in that regard, you’re operating at a pretty large deficit, and have hardly earned any right to be dishing smug antics to the same crew that’s been charged with your welfare. And a week can be a very long time, depending on how others might want to see it spent for you."But enough on that subject. I think we can summarily dispense with repairing the ‘holes,’ as you describe them, in our computer’s security program. Frankly, I’m pretty certain you’d just be wasting my time, because I’d have to trust you to tell me about all of them for the effort to be worth anything, and I wouldn’t trust you to tell me the color of the sky at this point."However, I do have a few issues I'd like to address with you, not least of which is your cargo. Shall we have a closer look at it?" he says, extending his hand toward the lift.Looking, for the first time, genuinely contrite, Aidan follows Vasilii. "Truly, Mr. Kugiikishshi, I do most sincerely apologize. Having, perhaps one could say, ‘lost’ my home and having spent the last decade running around the galaxy without one, I tend to forget that there are others who are seeking a home. I suppose my wanderings have led me to maintain a veneer of inanity that borders on insanity at times." Aidan ruminates for a moment.During the pause, Vasilii shrugs with a nod of agreement. "Yes, I suppose I can sympathize with you there. It wasn’t too long ago I lost what I considered ‘home.’ It was all ‘just business,’ as they say, but then that’s what I signed on for at the time. If only I knew then." He trails off."I shall endeavor to shed my defenses," Aidan says. "I cannot guarantee that it will be easy for me. But I acknowledge that I have made things during this bit of misadventure rather harder than they should have been. I rather imagine you’ll be rummaging in my cabin to establish my credentials after this. Certainly, I understand that. You’ll find nothing but clothes and some objects of sentimental value. Please allow me to say that the actions of the crew during this bit of piracy demonstrated utmost professionalism, and I imagine that your dealings with regard to the cargo shall be the same.""Thank you for your candor, Mister Silver. From the crew’s point of view, the case against you is largely circumstantial, but then, there is a large amount of circumstance involved. Perhaps it would help your understanding of the situation if I was to fill you in on the specifics that have us concerned."While we were on Sentry, we were approached by a man we just discovered was a member of the Oser’s crew, who wanted to purchase passage with us in much the same manner as you. Specifically, passage for himself and a small but supposedly urgent cargo. We had declined his offer because of the circumstances surrounding his cargo, which he said would be waiting on a ship out near the jump point, and all we would need to do was transfer his cargo to our ship and continue on to the jump. This was a highly unusual set of circumstances that raised a few flags for us, and as I said, we declined him because of it. But from the Oser's crew’s point of view, it would have been the best case scenario if we had accepted that offer, so they had nothing to lose in asking."However, it would not be beyond reason if a second member of that crew were to approach us with a slightly different, more normal proposal, as a backup plan in case the ‘ideal’ proposal failed to be accepted. If you were to put that together with the fact that you had bypassed our ship’s security, armed yourself, and then seemed insistent on coming aboard the Oser while this crew was fighting theirs, well — I’ll say the overall picture carried a small weight of suspicion with it. And I concede that it may all just be general paranoia on our part, but paranoids tend to not be easily surprised," he finishes with a more genuine smile as they enter the cargo bay. His tone has gotten more relaxed as he’s been talking. "Which brings us to the last circumstance counting against you," he says, pausing next to one of Aidan’s cargo containers.He opens the latches and lifts the top open with a look of some confusion on his face as he looks at the contents. "I mean, look at this stuff," he proclaims, picking up a circuitboard with a thick layer of dust on it. "To be truthful, most of this looks like no one’s even laid eyes on it since probably before I was born," Vasilii pauses as he blows a small cloud of dust off the circuitboard, "let alone checked any of it to see if it still works. Most of this doesn’t even have any packaging of any kind."Don’t take this the wrong way, I understand the realities of buying on speculation, but this — you have to admit, this is a pretty unusual cargo," he concludes, giving Aidan a mildly dubious look."Errr, yes, I’m afraid the cargo was a bit of a ruse," Aidan admits. "Purchased it cheap. Surprisingly, some of those components could probably be unloaded I’d bet — there’s always a lower tech level around somewhere."For the real cargo — well, let’s say I have a line on 50,000 creds for the delivery of a certain set of cubes. I also have a guarantee that the cubes, undisturbed by intrusion, are harmless, certified by the Imperial authorities. I’ve been playing errand boy for several aristocratic types and so my name came up when this little matter arose."So, as we’re moving on in the right direction anyway, perhaps I could contribute a cut of the fee to the crew? Might that, in some small way, make up for my actions? I realize that the circumstances lie against me, but honestly, I really know nothing about the contents of the cubes. Although I must confess to a profound curiosity and will be inquiring of the patron on the delivery end."As Aidan talks, Vasilii raises an eyebrow and smiles at the mention of the credits. He also seems to make some form of mental note at the mention of the Imperial authorities. However, after Aidan mentions "moving on in the right direction," the Vilani merchant briefly closes his eyes as if in pain or some kind of angst. He continues to listen, though apparently with his mind on something else."I see," he says when Aidan finishes. "I presume, then, that your — ‘patron’ I suppose is the word — is therefore looking for this particular vessel to arrive in orbit? What I mean is, do they have the name of this ship, and are they expecting you to arrive on it, with the cubes?""That was the general idea, yes. That is, I sent along that I had obtained passage on this ship. I made no mention of the cubes being in the possession of the crew." </blockquote>

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