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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 2528893" data-attributes="member: 515">Chapter XXDate: 210-993Location: Jarvis Nuuis' residence, Warne Highport, Kerin's TyrAs Martha and Doc Saro load Vargas onto the grav stretcher, the young engineer says softly, “Never knew that first aid course would come in handy so frequently around here. Thanks, Doc. That’s a great job with Vargas here.”-----A short 15 minutes later, Jarvis, Bakolin, and Othulki return. Jarvis looks like he is a little better off than he was when he left, but he is noticeably limping. Othulki strides up to Aidan and asks, “Is Mr. McConnell ready?” Upon getting an affirmative answer, Othulki continues. “Then I would recommend that all but the two primaries, we two seconds, and your doctor wait in the dining hall.”Curtly refusing Bakolin’s offer of aid, Martha and Swann take control of Vargas’ grav stretcher and lead Kevon and Vasilii to the dining hall. Saro, though torn about leaving his patient, stays for the duel.-----“I hope they finish this quickly, and with no further serious injuries,” Swann says as he maneuvers the grav stretcher into position for the fastest possible exit from the dining hall.-----After the others leave, Othulki announces, “As Mr. Nuuis’ second, I will officiate the duel. We will be using Old Imperial Classic, Single Fire conventions. Please remove all clothing, other than trousers, and any weapons.”Once both Ian and Jarvis have complied, Othulki goes on. “I have two rounds here, one for each pistol.” The business associate shows two rounds in his left paw before continuing. “As the challenged party, Mr. McConnell, you may choose your round first.”Ian walks up, decides that the rounds look identical, and chooses the round nearest to him. Jarvis then walks up and takes the remaining round.“Please stand back to back on this line.” Jarvis and Ian both do so even though the floor is still slick with Vargas’ thickening blood.“Please chamber your rounds now and then lower your pistols when ready.”After Jarvis and Ian lower their weapons, Othulki holds up a fairly large gold coin and says, “I will count off your 20 paces. After the 20th pace, I will, within a minute, drop this coin. When the coin hits the ground, you may turn and fire. Are you ready?”Once Jarvis and Ian both nod, Othulki begins counting off the paces. “1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . ”-----“ . . . 19 . . . 20.” After the 20th pace, Othulki looks to Aidan who, after a moment, nods. When Aidan nods, Othulki drops the gold coin at his feet. The coin drops to the floor and clinks as it bounces.Jarvis spins in a blur a beat after the coin clinks the first time, his revolver whipping around. The magnum revolver discharges a moment later and the round catches Ian in the left upper arm when the ex–Marine is still midway through his turn.Ian hisses through clenched teeth. Though he is still able to finish his turn and fire, the impact of the heavy round throws his aim off, causing Ian to just barely miss Jarvis. Ian manages to remain standing, but after the sound of the double report dies away, his heavy and labored breathing is very audible.-----Upon hearing the sounds of gunfire from the dueling hall, Swann briefly glances in that direction. He then turns to Martha and asks, “How’s Vargas doing? Still hanging in there?” in an effort to distract everyone from the duel.“He’s doing good. The Doc does great work,” Martha says as she places her hand on Var-gas’. “I’m not sure, but I think Vargas here owes his life to the Doc. The damage was extensive. The Doc’s good, though . . . ” The engineer falls quiet as she watches the man left in her care.-----As the echoes of the magnum revolvers’ reports fade, Aidan asks Jarvis, “As the challenger, has your honor been satisfied?”“Yes, my sfik is preserved. Even enhanced slightly for continuing with the duel after your packmate’s challenge.”“Then I declare that honor has been satisfied, and this matter concluded. Bakolin will collect the pistols now.”Saro, shaking his head and muttering about this bad, stupid holovid melodrama, immediately goes to tend to Ian’s wound. Saro decides that the wound is quite serious, but the doctor quickly applies first aid to prevent any more damage through blood loss.While Saro is working, Jarvis limps over to Ian and says, “You dueled bravely as well. I will have an associate stop by your ship’s berth to collect the particulars for your ACR permit. We will need to discuss the status of Emile Vargas once he recovers. Though your physician is a fine one, I do suggest that you may want to take him to Nateel Medical. I can arrange to have Dr. Talbek be given admittance and treatment privileges at that facility, though the facility will charge for a bed, supplies, and attendants.”Ian grimaces through the pain as Saro works to dress the wound. “Your hospitality is . . . ,” he pauses, either from pain or something else, it's difficult to tell. “ . . . appreciated. I’m glad this is behind us. That frelling permit has been more trouble than it’s worth. If I’d known it was gonna cause all this I’d’ve just spaced the damn thing.”His face becomes a bit more sincere. “Thanks for your help with the medical facilities for Vargas.”As he works on Ian’s wound, Saro mutters angrily to himself, “Shall we duel over that ‘honor’ as well?”Ignoring Saro’s reply, Jarvis continues. “Good night then. We have matters to discuss in the next day or two.” He then leaves with Othulki and Bakolin.-----“C’mon, Doc. Wrap this up so we can get Vargas outta here!” Ian starts trying to head for the door before Saro is completely finished.“Just stand still for a frellin’ second!” Saro snaps at Ian, tightening the bandage a bit more than necessary as he finishes. He starts to repack his medkit, every non–verbal cue exuding anger. “Between you and Vargas and that frellin’ furball . . . ,” he clamps his mouth shut cutting off the verbalization of his thoughts.He turns away and stalks out of the room, cursing to himself, “I frellin’ swear . . . ”Ian quietly follows Saro out of the room.-----Saro stalks into the dining hall ahead of Ian and crosses the room to immediately check on Vargas’ condition. After ensuring that he is still stabilized Saro turns to face the rest of the crew.“If you all decide to do business with this — Jarvis — keep me out of it. I want no part of anything to do with him. Split my share of the profits or whatever. I’ll not help you in any way whatsoever,” he snaps out angrily.“If you want to deal with someone who forces folk into a duel for defending themselves against mangy, thieving cowards ambushing them, you just go ahead. I wouldn’t trust him not to twist his ‘honor’ to force another duel in order to get out of any payoff he promises you.”Aidan looks mildly frustrated and says, “Think what you will Dr. Talbek, but as his honor is satisfied he will deal with us honorably in turn. As long as we watch him. But then, the same can be said of us.”Aidan snorts. “Is this concept of honor any better than the frontier justice at the last space-port? Or on Alief? In other situations I would not have been surprised to be shot at the table. And, of course, at the Imperial court, I would have wanted a food taster. The machi-nations there make this look like the work of rank amateurs.”Aidan shakes his head. “Or did you think that the position of ‘Imperial Poisoner’ was another vid drama concept. That’s not the title, but the position is, I assure you, quite real.”Saro snorts in turn. “Yeah this whole deal has been extremely honorable. We get ambushed by a gang of thugs. That’s honorable. After being told by Markul that he was OK with our killing one of the thugs in self-defense, he sends us off with a package which sets us up. That’s honorable. Then we get wined and dined before being threatened and pressured into a duel to defend the honor of the thug. That’s honorable.“Perhaps next time we get attacked, we should lay down and be massacred, because at least that way we won’t offend some frell–head’s ‘honor’ by staying alive.“We frellin’ dealt honestly with Jarvis and Markul; I don’t think we can say the same on their part. If you want to deal with parties proven to lie, deceive and force conflict with their business partners, go to it. Like I said, I want nothing to do with it.”Aidan shakes his head, but with mild humor. “No, no, laying down to be massacred would not increase our honor at all. Standing up to be massacred is what does that. Meanwhile, I think Vasilii should be brought to bear. If anyone can skin these folks — perhaps shear is a better word? The beauty of honor, Saro, is that if they make a deal, they’ll stick with it. And don’t you want to get a bit back from these folks? Swann and I will get some background on them, then Vasilii can start, errrm, working with them.”-----As Saro, Ian and Aidan come out of the dueling hall, Swann walks over toward them. He passes the obviously angry Saro, who is on his way to check on Vargas.“I see you’re at least still walking; that’s a good sign,” he says to Ian, looking at the ex-Marine’s bandaged arm. “Got you in your shooting arm, huh? What about your ‘dance partner.’ Did you step on his toes as well?”He looks from Ian to Aidan and back, waiting for details on the outcome of the duel.-----After he finishes his exchange with the Doctor, Aidan turns to Swann and says, “The duel was as I expected, honorably conducted, although Jarvis got off the first shot. Ian appears to have been a little slow off the mark on turning rather than Jarvis turning dishonorably before the coin dropped. If he had done so, I’m sure his second would have done the honorable thing and let it be known that Jarvis had dishonored himself. In the strictest cases, the second will then kill the cheating duelist.”“Yeah, just a nice way to say he got the jump on me and kicked my ass,” Ian replies.Aidan cracks a smile. “To say so seemed impolitic. But yes, I would agree. Perhaps some practice in a Wild West simulator would be in order before every punk kid out there tries to shoot you in the arm.”Swann breaks into a grin and says, “That reminds me of an old joke about a Vargr out for revenge. ‘I'm looking for the man that shot my paw.’ ”-----Bakolin returns to escort the Bray Keaven crew out of Jarvis’ quarters and to either Nateel Medical or the Bray Keaven.“Just get us to Nateel Medical. Now.” Saro barks out. Pointing to Kevon, Saro tells him to operate and ‘drive' the grav stretcher as he stays by Vargas’ side to observe him. When Vargas is set to travel, Saro turns to give Bakolin a stormy “Well why aren’t we moving?” look.-----Swann starts to speak, but turns at the sound of Saro’s angry outburst. He turns back to Ian, speaking in a soft voice. “I pity you having to be his patient right now; his bedside manner is going to be atrocious.”Swann is torn between his concern for his wounded crewmates, and concern for the safety of the Bray Keaven. Figuring the wounded will be in good care with Saro in charge, and that he would just be in the way, Swann decides he will head back to the ship.As Saro and Kevon get ready to transport the wounded to the medical center, Swann says to Ian, “I’m going to leave you in the Doc’s capable hands and head back to the ship — make sure we didn’t have any visitors during our absence. I’ll come see how you’re doing tomorrow, and challenge you to a game of WizWar. Don’t think I’m going to go easy on you just because you’ve been shot.”Ian grins at Swann. “Thanks. Send word about how the ship has faired when you can.”-----Martha, torn by her mutual concerns for both the ship and the wounded crewmates, finally decides to accompany Dr. Saro to the medical facility to make sure her friends are OK.-----Seeing that the crew wants to split up, Barkolin directs one of the mauve–dressed Vargr guards to escort Swann, Aidan, and Vasilii to the Bray Keaven while he escorts the rest to Nateel Medical.-----Nateel Medical is a small, private medical facility on Warne Highport that appears to be well equipped to handle emergency trauma and has a pair of armed Vargr guards (in mauve) outside the facility doors. The facilities human and Vargr staff is courteous and professional, and Saro can find no fault with their abilities, though the deference given to them, pre-sumably on Jarvis Nuuis’ behalf, itches at the back of his mind.Vargas is set up in a private treatment-recovery room. Saro and the Nateel Medical clini-cians quickly set to working on completely arresting Vargas’ blood loss, providing blood, and treating his wounds with artificial skin grafts.Ian, being in less dire straits, is seen by a Nateel Medical physician and her Vargr nurse in a treatment room. Both seem to be quite capable and seem to have considerable experience dealing with projectile–weapon wounds. After treatment, Ian is moved to a private recovery room across the hall from Vargas.-----Ian tries to be the “perfect” patient so as not to distract Saro from tending Vargas. “Um, hey Doc. Uh, thanks for patching me up back there. You performed at least a couple mira-cles with Vargas. Just wanted you to know we sure appreciate you as a member of our crew. Thanks.”-----After Barkolin makes introductions and spends some time talking to the duty director for the facility, Kevon catches him and asks to speak with him briefly. “As the captain of the Bray Keaven, I believe it is my position to discuss Mr. Vargas’ future disposition with your master,” he says. “I would appreciate it if you arrange it for me.”Barkolin noncommittally replies, “I will speak to Jarvis about your request. He may want to deal with Vargas directly given that Vargas made the challenge.”-----Meanwhile, Swann, Aidan, and Vasilii hurry back to the Bray Keaven’s berth with a very quiet Vargr guard leading the way. Swann notices that the fairly light traffic gives the guard a fairly wide berth, with some even pausing to let the Vargr and his charges pass before continuing on their way.Arriving at the berth, Swann and Aidan note that there doesn’t appear to be anything unusual outside the berth or inside. The berth locks appear to be in place, and no alarm has been tripped. The berth log does not indicate any traffic into or out of the berth.Entering the Bray Keaven with pistol drawn, Swann worriedly checks the security logs. Nothing seems to be amiss though he and Aidan spend the next hour searching the ship for anything odd anyway.-----Swann follows up with an outside visual inspection of the ship and the docking berth. He decides not to go to bed until someone returns from the medical facility with an update on Ian and Vargas.-----Vasilii starts reviewing the market for bulk freight and spec cargo that has been posted. The Vilani merchant wants off this orbital and out of this system ASAP. And he wants nothing more to do with that Vargr. He’s very grim, and not very talkative, for the rest of the evening.Vasilii also decides he will ask Saro to recommend a tutorial on first aid.-----After an hour or two of waiting with no word from the treatment room, Kevon and Martha finally ask one of the Nateel Medical nurses about Vargas’ condition. She goes in to check and reappears with word that Vargas is responding well and that Saro says, “Don’t interrupt me again in the middle of treatment.” Taking that as a hint, Kevon and Martha head back to the ship. On the way back, Martha comms Swann to ask about the security protocols.-----Luckily for Swann, Kevon and Martha arrive just as Swann is about to buzz Saro for an update on Vargas’ condition.-----When she arrives back at the Bray Keaven, Martha assists Swann in his inspections, updating him on the progress of the patients as they walk about the exterior of the ship. As she walks about the vessel, she looks for items of interest as an engineer in addition to the security check the two are providing.-----Later that night, Swann starts a computer inquiry into Jarvis, which he continues the next day. He asks Aidan to assist him. “Let’s just see how much power old toilet-bowl breath really has around this starport.”Aidan rubs his hands together. “I look forward to it, Swann. Let’s see what data sources we can suck dry.”-----Everyone sleeps fitfully through the night except for Saro, who doesn’t get any sleep at all.-----When Martha retires, she drifts off fairly quickly, as the entire evening has been quite an emotional drain on her. The next morning, she makes some notes in her encoded personal logs regarding her telling of the Alief events, to help her with her follow-up session with the shrink back on Sentry. Then she rises, eats a quick breakfast and takes a cup of piping hot bitterstouts to engineering, where she continues her maintenance work on the ship, loosing herself in the repair work. Occasionally she comms Vasilii to requisition a part, or answers an incoming call brusquely, but her focus remains on repairing the ship.-----The next couple of days pass by fairly quickly for everyone involved. Martha and Kevon concentrate on getting the ship’s systems repaired. The repairs go very slowly since Martha appears to be fairly distracted by recent events.</blockquote>

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