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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 2068360" data-attributes="member: 515">Chapter XXVIIIDate: 174-993Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven Vasilii lets out a groan of pain. "Ohhh, that hurt. Uh, he’s still there? Hmph. Well, that puts a perspective on things out here. "Well, right now Kevon is smacking our hull into the liner. I suspect it’s because he got outvoted on the idea of continuing to the shipyard, and got volunteered into making this rescue attempt instead, but that’s just my take on it. I’m no engineer, but I’d say we just did some pretty nasty damage to the hull — I’d be amazed if we didn’t have a breach somewhere. "Alright. I’m not sure we should talk about specifics on this channel, this could be a party line. At some point soon, I think we’re going to dock with the liner and take on some of its passengers, which means that we’ll have to put in at a berth somewhere to drop them off. As soon as we get a berth number from traffic control, I’ll let you know, and you can try to meet up with us there. We can talk specifics then. "Look, I’ll be honest with you: This isn’t a crew thing, this is more my thing. I could be wasting your time for nothing. And it’s not that I think I’m hot on some trail — point of fact I’d actually be happy to be wrong." Swann cuts in. "Then let it go for now. If you’re not hot on a trail, then let it go for now. Help with the rescue — that has to be your top priority right now. The rest of the crew needs you, and the passengers on that liner need you. Whatever you’re chasing after will still be there when this crisis is over." The Merchant continues as if he didn’t hear. "I just can’t afford to be right this time. Vasilii out." After picking himself up and answering Swann’s call, Vasilii cuts the lining on Aidan’s two expensive–looking suitcases. He doesn’t find anything unusual in the lining of either suitcase. The Vilani Merchant doesn’t think that his shoulder is dislocated — he can still move — but he is in significant pain. Vasilii then heads down to the ship’s locker. He reaches the main deck as Saro is preparing to receive visitors through the starboard airlock. He passes by the doctor on his way to the locker. Saro looks at Vasilii oddly, particularly since he can see Vasilii wincing in pain with every move, and then goes back to checking his medical supplies and preparing to receive survivors. Vasilii opens the locker and looks for Aidan’s weapons. Aidan has a locked fancy rifle case, an auto pistol in a shoulder holster with four magazines, and two heavy, gray plastic boxes. Both have the words "Uruukishi, ILC" in flowing script on them. One has "5.56mmx64mm" also on the box while the other has "9mm" on the box in small block numbers/letters. Pulling the auto pistol out of the shoulder holster, Vasilii gets the impression that the weapon is extremely well–made though not flashy. Looking at the magazine well of the pistol, it looks like the well of almost every other pistol that Vasilii has seen in his limited weapons experience. The magazines look like auto pistol magazines filled with what are between 10 and 15 rounds of ammunition The magazines all weigh about the same, and the top round in each magazine is the same — full metal jacket. -----Martha dashes back to port engineering to run damage control diagnostics. She detects a depressurization in the forward cargo lock and a slight pressure drop in the main cargo bay. Luckily, any iris valves and doors to those areas are currently closed and locked. The jump grid appears to be damaged also. -----On the bridge, Vargas runs a similar diagnostic and comes up with a complete pressure loss in the forward cargo lock only. -----Martha touches the screen with an almost motherly caress, her face wrinkled in a pained look of concern. "Kevon, I think we’ve lost some integrity in the forward cargo lock, and the main cargo bay is suffering a slight pressure drop as a result. Probably a leak; I can fix that quick, once I know where it’s at. Both are contained for now. "A side note: the jump grid is damaged." Martha's voice is a mix of relief and concern. "Good thing we’re getting our maintenance started today," she adds with a half-hearted chuckle. -----At the controls, Kevon backs off from the Marellia Landing. The collision and boost appears to have almost completely arrested the rotation, and Kevon sets up an approach for the passenger airlock on the second deck. Docking proves to be simple compared to the previous maneuver. -----By the starboard airlock, Saro can see that the docking tube has extended and has green lights indicating a pressure–tight seal. -----"You need help herding gomers, Saro?" Vargas asks. "I could get my shotgun and meet you down there." -----"Doc, only passengers in vacc suits go to the main cargo bay. We’ve sprung a leak. If I can fix it shortly, we can move more in there, but keep that in mind while taking on passengers, OK?" Martha informs Saro. "You got this, so I can try to locate and fix that leak so we can get more people on? Or do you need me to help with crowd control?" -----As he quickly works at donning his vacc suit, Saro responds to Martha’s comm. "Roger that, Martha. Since Vasilii has gone and disregarded me and gotten himself banged up again, he’s in no condition to help me aboard the liner. See if you can get him to direct people into cabins or any other space we can pack them into. Go ahead and work on that cargo bay leak. I’ve got a feeling we’ll need every cubic centimeter we can get to pack the survivors in. I’ll take Mr. Vargas with me to the liner." Contacting Emile, Saro says, "I dunno how much help a shotgun will be, but if you want to," Saro shrugs to himself. "But get your butt in gear, I want to head over now, if not sooner." -----"Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with the concept of panic? I'm not saying a shotgun is a good solution but it makes me feel better. On the way." Along the way Vargas stops at his cabin behind the bridge for his vacc suit. -----Inhaling, Martha starts shouting, so as (hopefully) to be heard throughout the ship, in case Vasilii has turned off his comm unit and is hiding and freaking out in some closet somewhere. "VASILII! WHERE IN THE HELL ARE YOU? WE NEED YOU UP HERE, NOW!" -----Vasilii startles at the sound of a shouting Martha coming through the comms. He turns and glares at the comm panel for a moment with a look that could freeze water. "Oh, for the love of," he curses under his breath. "Just trying to save another planet from what happened at Alief, but nobody seems to care!" he mutters to himself."They’re not going to give me a moment’s rest until I jump for them," he thinks to himself. He lets out a sigh of exasperation. "Fine! Fine, whatever! I’ll just have to come back to this." He puts Aidan’s guns back in their cases and holsters, pushes them aside, throws up his hands in frustration, and turns back to the comm unit, about to pound it with his fist to give Martha a piece of his mind in kind, but then stops himself."If I yell at her, she yells back at me, then we’re yelling at each other, and nobody’s getting much done," he realizes. "If I work with them, they’ll work with me. If I work with them, they'll work with me. But I don’t want them frellin’ walking all over me, either. Not feeling very cordial after being yelled at, certainly."He takes a deep breath to calm down and focus. "Alright, then. Passengers. Let’s deal with passengers. They’re going to be panicking; they’re not going to be reasonable. We need to be able to make them listen."He looks around the locker, spots the shotguns sitting in their racks on the wall, boxes of buckshot ammo on the shelves under them. He steps over Aidan’s weapons, grabs one of the boxes, slides it out of its sleeve and tosses the sleeve over his shoulder. He lifts the nearest shotgun out of its rack, then steps back over to the comm panel. Setting the ammo box down on a shelf next to the comm, he thumbs the magazine release and slides the pump forward to open the chamber so he can load the magazine. He cradles the gun in his right arm, then reaches for the comm with his left. He pauses for a moment to consider his next words, then pushes the call button. He speaks as he’s loading rounds into the gun."Martha, Vasilii. Just a thought. When you yell at people, they tend to want to yell back at you. And all the yelling usually ends up pretty unproductive after that. So rather than starting down that road, I’ll just assume you’ve got a lot on your mind right now like everyone else. I mean, this is the only ship I’ve ever actually worked on, but — well, I’d have to say I’m pretty impressed with what you’ve been able to do with it, and I suppose you’re able to do all that because you’re damn well intelligent, you’re on top of your game, AND you can juggle all the details in your head, probably much better than I’ll ever be able to."But whatever you might think of me or whatever I might be doing at any given moment, you can be certain that I’m doing it because I believe in what I’m doing, no less than you believe in what you’re doing at the same moment. And I’ll, I’ll leave it at that."-----Martha breaks in. "You don’t leave an emergency to run around doing whatever and risking our lives by your neglect! That’s how you get killed, and that’s how you get others killed. I don’t know your experience in space, boy-o, but you always help a wounded ship, because next time, it could be you! I should know!" -----Vasilii takes a deep breath, lets out a short sigh. "Alright then, I’ll assume that little tussle the ship had a couple minutes ago didn’t do us any good, so I’ll ask the question this way: What don’t we have now?"Martha tells him about the cargo bays losing pressure. Vasilii thinks for a moment on the problem. "Alright. You’re the engineer, I won’t presume to tell you anything, so I’ll say that I would like to pitch the idea to you that for the sake of time, we forego trying to use the cargo bays for now. Point in fact, I’d like to suggest that you finish depressurizing them yourself and try to conserve what air you can from them, because in a few minutes we’ll be taking on several times the number of passengers our life support system was designed for, and I don’t think it will do anyone any good if the passengers and the crew pass out from lack of oxygen on the way back to the high port. I’m no expert, but I suspect that could get messy." -----Martha responds. "We’re freshly loaded, and so we have the capacity to carry 140 people for the two-hour trip back to the high port without even touching our reserves. Heck, probably double that, so set your mind at ease, Vasilii. The life support systems will be taxed, yes, but we’ll have the air to make it." -----"For now, we could use all the common areas and staterooms to take on more passengers," Vasilii says, "and pack them in, sitting on the deck, until there’s no more floor space left. And those are my thoughts on the issue, for what they’re worth." -----"Acknowledged. Now, you gonna help us out here? Or do you want to stand around and make suggestions all day long?" Martha asks tersely. -----"Alright, then. I’ll start putting passengers in the staterooms and common areas until there’s no more room left. If you haven’t patched the leak by then, how about we disengage from the liner, let the cutter pick up some passengers, and we start heading back with what passengers we have while you keep working on the leak?" -----Martha heads towards the cargo hold and begins the necessary location and repair of the pressure leaks, in anticipation of taking on the passengers and crew of the liner. -----When Vargas reaches the starboard airlock, Saro looks at him and says, "I’m assuming as a Scout you’ve had at least rudimentary med training, so take these. I think you need them more than your shotgun." Saro holds out a handful of doses of Medical Slow Drug. "Save them for the really bad cases. Those with broken bones and such will have to do without until we can determine how many folks are in a very bad way, and how much stuff we have to go around." "Right. Alright, let’s do it." The former Scout tucks the Med Slow Drug in a big suit pocket and readies himself to move out. "Ready? Let’s go." Saro takes a deep breath inside his suit and opens the tube.</blockquote>

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