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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Truestar" data-source="post: 3127073" data-attributes="member: 24374">Chapter XXXIVDate: 241-993,  1237 to 1315 hrsLocation: Aboard the Bray Keaven and in the port cafateria and aboard ship, Liar's Oath Starport (aka Covenant Downport)After the Major and his teams leave, Vasilii immediately places a refueling order. The sergeant who takes the call cheerfully replies that they'd be happy to refuel the ship and that he can have a crew over to the Bray Keaven in 30 minutes. Refueling should take about 30 minutes.  After a brief discussion, Ian places a call to the Major's office to hire a perimeter security team. The lieutenant who takes the call replies, "Of course, sir. I will have a squad dispatched within 15 minutes. Major Polenshek informed me that you should get a discount, which will bring the fee to Cr800."  About 20 minutes later, Ian receives a comm from Major Polenshek's adjunct who informs him that the squad is on its way and that the squad leader is Sergeant Danforth.A few minutes after that call, Ian receives a comm from Sergeant Danforth who indicates she is at the gangway hatch. Ian goes to meet her with Swann and finds the Liar's Oath Army squad standing at attention. The squad of 9 are clad in combat environment suits and armed with assault rifles (with a grenade launcher). After some discussion, Sergeant Danforth dispatches six of the troopers to stand perimeter guard in the open air berth while leaving two troopers to stand guard at the gangway hatch (the sergeant evidently plans on floating). Satisfied, Ian and Swann return inside.  Though Martha was the first to suggest going to get breakfast, The interviews took hours, and she had already pulled a shift before they landed...  So she heads to her cabin to collapse into her bed while Aidan, Swann, and Vasilii head out for breakfast at the Starport Cafeteria that Major Polenshek suggested.Their first view of the cafeteria isn't very promising: looks like all of the army chow cafeterias they've ever seen in holovids, but the smells are certainly encouraging. The cafeteria is mostly filled with soldiers, but there are a few tables occupied by civilian spacers and one occupied by SPA personnel.  As the omelets is cooking, Swann notes they are using Regular yellow looking eggs (though it's not clear if they were chicken eggs or not).  He asks that the cook hold off on the parsley garnish and some green seasonings that the others got, thinking about Martha's request.  Amazingly, the omelets *are* very good. The rest of the fair is pretty good, but the omelet cook could easily get a job at some of the better hotels on Sentry. While eating, Swann talks with Vasilii about the possibility of jumping from a point very far away from the rendevous coordinates taken from Thulon. Vasilii agrees, "Yes, if we can pick a jump point that they can't reach at 3g fromthere, without getting shadowed by the moon or the gas giant..."  Placing their five take out orders and , Aidan pays Cr40 for the meals and then, Happily stuffed, Aidan, Swann, and Vasilii head back to the ship.On the way back, Swann stops and looks at Honest Ab's ship briefly, longingly, then sighs and continues on to the Bray Keaven.  Vasilii stops too, and gives Swann a significant look. "Mr Hellinic, I've heard of Honest Ab. He's highly reputable and I gather he'll go out of his way to make a sale. Why don't we comm him and ask for a quote for a few weapons, cash on delivery to the ship in the next two hours, permits to be shown on delivery? If we take the first figure he quoteshe might just manage it... He may even have an ACR. And if anyone with a class 3 permit took it into their head to buy a nice SMG with a HUD link and dot pointer, well, I expect I might buy it off them when they got bored with it."Once back on board, Vasilii comms Honest Ab's and get the message, "Hello, this is Ab. I'm afraid that I can't take your call right now.  We are currently busy filling an order with the Liar's Oath Army, but we will be open for general business to properly licensed individuals and groups at 1700. Please call then or come by and look at our latest inventory!"Hearing this, he sighs "Oh well, let's get out of here."Swann reeplies, "Yeah, we might run into Honest Ab another time, in another system. I just hope we don't run into that Trader Jim character. I've heard some stories."Meanwhile, back on the Bray Keaven, Vargas monitors the surrounding area from the bridge and turns to Kevon and simply states, "Captain, there is no sense in both of us being exhausted on this bridge. I have been on bedrest forever and am somewhat awake now, Why dont you get some sleep so at least one of us will be reasonably awake for the travel to the jump point?"Caught in a middle of a yawn as Emile speaks, Kevon snorts a slight chuckle. “I was about to say the same thing,” he admits. “I’ll see you in a couple hours, then. Wake me when they bring breakfast.”Time passes pretty sleepily for the rest of the crew except for Martha who is out completely.  The army refueling crew arrives on time, and at least a couple of the perimeter watch squad seem to know the refueling crew. Refueling is completed on schedule.  On the bridge, Kevon and Vargas note that the free trader and one of the far traders lift off, and a scout courier and a subsidized merchant land. The subsidized merchant is an interesting looking ship painted in a garish green and purple color scheme with a blinking set of letters projected on the hull which read "Honest Ab's Intersteller Mercantile Emporium."  Shortly after the garish subsidized merchant lands, the Bray Keaven a message with the title"[ADV]: Visit Honest Ab's Intersteller Mercantile Emporium!" The body of the message is a text, graphic, and video message from "Honest Ab" a sydite merchant who apologizes for the advertisement, but invites all interested spacers to visit his ship after 1700 when his ship will be open to the general public."  Aidan thinks back lovingly to his collection of tacky garden gnomes collected from all over the galaxy and wonders whether Honest Ab has any.  He then banishes the thought from his mind and gets back to business.Saro doesn't find any mail for him in the system (more likely to be at Sentry), but he does send off the message to Gina. While perusing the news articles, he does see one short article that catches his eye. About 50 days ago (192-993), an out of control scout/courier smashed into the Federin Airport on Mamdinga. The impact and explosion destroyed what doubles as Mamdinga's starport along with most of the city of Federin.  A little while later, Swann, Aidan, and Vasilii return with bags of delicious smelling containers. They give Saro the proper passcode, come aboard, and the rest of the crew eats.Vargas wakes Kevon when the food arrives and signs after the others do.  While the others are eating, Aidan quickly draws up papers indicating that Kevon is the captain of the ship and he is general counsel. Swann looks over the papers carefully, and signs them not spotting anything peculiar other than the clause affirming that the crew and ship will uphold the Intersteller Rules of War which ban Lawyer Insertion Torpedoes along with any impromptu weapons of that sort.  Ian will take a long look at the captian document, taking his sweet time before finally signing off on it.  Vasilii signs off on the new post, once he is happy with the details, after talking to Kevon to make sure he *wants* the job assuming it's created.  To Vasilii's question, Kevon replies, “Yes, I’ll take the job, but only if you allow me to stop a deal that I feel could unnecessarily put the ship and crew at risk,” Kevon says. “I certainly won’t attempt to pretend I’m a merchant – a recruiter maybe, but not a merchant – but I want the authority to protect us from some of these last fewmore…difficult…cargoes. Deal?”.Vasilii sighs. He wonders if Kevon is saying "yes" to a different question from the one he's asking."Let's be clear. In the matter, say, of whether I head for the bridge or the engine room when an alarm goes off in jump, that was an emergency situation. This role would have the authority to say 'Communications Officer to the bridge' or similar, and I'd just do it. Or if you tell Mr Swann to stay aboard and man the guns during a boarding, he stays, period.""In the matter of whether we'd accepted this cargo for Jarvis, or cast Mr Vargas adrift, or bought that sculpture, it confers no authority. You'd be the senior professional advising the owners, and we'd be mad not to take you very seriously, but you'd no more countermand the board's decision that you'd countermand an Admiral who told you to escort the left side of a convoy rather than the right. We're creating a role of Master and Commander of the ship, not Admiral of the Fleet."Also during breakfast Swann brings up the subject of jumping from point well away from the rendevous coordinates with Kevon and Vargas.  Kevon replies,“I can plot a round-about course that may take an extra hour or so, but should put us far from the standard jump point. It shouldn’t affect our jump trajectory."  For her part, when she awakens, Martha reviews them briefly before signing, comfortable in Kevon's leadership during crisis.   After everyone signs the papers, Aidan files them with the SPA legal system, which will disseminate the electronic version of the papers throughout SPA ports.When he senses an appropriate point in the conversation, Saro tells the others about the out of control scout/courier incident at Mamdinga.  Saro wholeheartedly agrees that skedaddling as soon as possible is the best course of action. The sooner they discharge their obligation to Jarvis, the sooner they can be dragged into another life-threatening situation...He recommends at least one thorough sweep of the ship before leaving port, just to root out any pesky hitchhikers that may have spontaneously generated in the many little hidey-holes in the ship.Swann tries to do some research, checking the registry of any ships currently in port, checkingcon the Urroe, the Oeskhoes Pack, and Dzuekskini, but he doesn't find much, partly due to the fact that the Liar's Oath port is only a class C starport maintained mostly by the TL-8 Liar's Oath military.  The other ships in port are Honest Ab's Mercantile Emporium(400 dTon subsidized merchant-modified registered out of Sentry), Alakinak (100 dTon scout/courier registered out of Kerin's Tyr), Mah's Folly(200 dTon far trader registered out of Sashi) and Nereilia(400 dTon merchant-probably a modified subsidized merchant registered out of Weston).  None are registered to any names anyone has heard of except for Honest Ab's.  The Urroe is listed as a Princess Kyuseita class Far Trader (200 dTons, same as the Bray Keaven) registered out of Weston to Oeskhoes Mercantile ILC. The ship is fifteen years old.  Oeskhoes Mercantile ILC has two other ships registered to it. One is a Hullen class scout/courier, and the other is a Tomakii class 300 dTon merchant (no information available on the Tomakii class).After breakfast, the crew takes a four hour nap, except for Martha and Kevon.  She wakes from her sleep and dives into her work, preforming routine maintenance best handled in port, also preparing for the upcoming lift and jump. He wakes and joins Vargas on the bridge.  The rest of the crew awaken entirely too early at 1230. and still short on sleep.Swann takes a cool shower to wake up, then gets dressed and helps with any pre-flight tasks as needed. In preparation for take-off, he gets into his vacc suit, then puts on his flak jacket. He takes up station in the starboard turret with his normal shipboard loadout, including his snub pistol and two spare clips, auto pistol with two spare clips, and gauss rifle with three spare clips.In the lounge, Aiden says in general, "Lady, Gentlemen, let us go.  Now.  If not sooner.  If you'll pardon me, I'm going to surround my person with weaponry and a suit and take up station in the Port Turret.  Thank you."Ian replies,"You bet!! Lets get outta here!", while loading up his normal loadout for pre/post jump.Following his nap, Vargas somewhat awake places Rustii in his cube, suits up carefully loads and holsters his pistols, and takes his position on the bridge in preparation for launch. He then asks Kevin for any orders.For the trip out to the jump-point, Saro will remain vac-suited, and carrying his pistol and med field kit.Finally, Vasilii settles the ship's accounts and informs traffic control that the ship would like to depart within the next hour. Traffic Control sounds a little surprised at the short visit, but informs Vasilii that the Bray Keaven is welcome to depart at 1315.  The crew share  a quick lunch while they examine and get the final signatures for the captain and general counsel papers, the crew preps for liftoff. Ian informs Sergeant Danforth that the Bray Keaven will be leaving at 1315. The sergeant sounds a little perplexed at the short visit, "Leaving so soon sir? You've contracted for twelve hours. I doubt that you'll get a refund for the prorated amount."Just before departure, Major Polenshek comms, "I'm sorry that you are departing so soon. I hope that we are not the cause of your early departure, and I hope that you'll come back soon."With the crew suited up, armed, and waiting at their combat stations, the Bray Keaven lifts off on schedule at 1315.</blockquote>

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