Arts And Shopping Adventures
    Sunday, 302-1112: 10 am
Artistic Differences Over Breakfast

     By 10am, Munarshu was in engineering checking the ship's maintenance logs and hoping to learn a bit of the ship's history, as well as its needs.  Eventually, he'd searched through the very short log and again saw most of the work logged there had actually been done by naval engineers.  This was an odd thing, since the yacht was a civilian ship.  But, without any other guidance, Munarshu realized he had to ask Dame Aali.

Mikah and Zimzod were sitting watching vids, while Rol cleaned his galley.  Having been joined by Aiden and Sir Terin, Mikah asked about the concert the night before?  Both Aiden and Terin said how bad they thought the concert was.  And while they made it clear they were uncertain why they'd suffered the punishment of the so-called concert, Dame Inger calmly ate and said they just didn't understand the performance.  Aiden complained that it had no harmony and Inger just called him, "Uncultured swine."  Terin compared the performance to the most widely known musical failures he could remember.

Returning to the lounge, Munarshu heard the men describing the performance, and that piqued his curiosity.  Joining the chatter, Munarshu actually said he was disappointed to have missed the chance to attend.  Inger said she could get more tickets and they could go again.  Hearing that, Mikah quickly accepted the offer and asked Aiden if he wanted to go back?  The pilot happily said he'd wave good bye with a big fuzzy finger and a laugh.

When the conversation moved on, Mikah reminded them that Zimzod and Terin's surgeries were scheduled for the next day.  Munarshu said he was going to do some research on engineering tools.  When Mikah asked which ones, he said he was mostly looking into a sonic probe and gravity screwdriver.  But, he'd look into other tools, to see what he found?  Mikah nodded apporvingly at his apparent commitment to his job as Munarshu sparked up a terminal to search on.

Going about his research, Munarshu quickly realized the sonic probe was legally questionable in the Rhylanor system.  Reading up on the issues, Munarshu saw the probe was largely considered a "break and entry" tool, and could be a reason for arrest in-system.  Still, it was available from some of the high-end engineering shops on-station.  He also saw that if he bought one, he'd have to be careful with its use off-ship.  The gravitic screwdriver was a much simpler matter, because he had one of lesser quality already.  So, getting a newer and better replacement would be a simple matter.

When Rol finished cleaning, he asked Inger if the invitation to the concert was open to everyone and Inger said "sure".  Off to the side, Terin warned "Don't do it." in a stage whisper when Rol said he'd be interested in going.  Mikah laughed at Terin's words.  Rol said he'd been in the hospital and was glad to be out, and to get off the ship too.  Aiden threw in, "You won't be glad for long." in a tone that held subdued foreboding.  Hearing Rol join in, Zimzod told Inger she'd have to tell the port to bring the "armored limo", and got a laugh from Mikah.

A Pause In The Action

     While the others talked about the concert, Terin was more concerned with other options, like what the crew wanted to do "now"?  Rol admitted it wasn't something they should do right after having breakfast, but suggested they go back to the restaurant they'd eaten in before the shooting.  When they gave him looks, Rol said it would be a good way of showing they didn't blame the restaurant for what happened.  He even suggested they could walk through the same passages and intersections they had before.  To show they could.  Rol also said they'd all be armed and "ready for something to happen" "this time".

Looking up from the terminal he was working at, Munarshu mentioned the ship's engineering logs, and said they appeared almost non-existent.  When he asked what happened to the logs, Mikah happily answered, "Nothing", as if that settled the question.  With a smile on his face, but in an authoritative voice, Zimzod said, "We keep things neat and clean on this ship.  You got a problem with that?"  The way he said it made it clear he was taunting, but also suggested Munarshu would get no more of an answer from the XO than the Captain.

Munarshu admitted he didn't have a problem with the answer, but did ask if the older logs were kept in a historical database somewhere?  Mikah said they were somewhere, but followed that up saying, "But you can't look at them." before giggling.  Zimzod followed that up, saying "I'm sure they're somewhere.  I'm not worried."  From there, the answers got less complete and Munarshu realized he wasn't going to get what he wanted from them.  He decided to wait until he could discuss it with Aali.

Given how her recovering wounds felt, and knowing she had a full day handling two operations each on the next two days, Mikah decided to spend the day handling in "some" light activities.  She wanted to walk around the station and go shopping.  Not only to end Munarshu's conversation, but because she really did want to get out in the station's open spaces and relax.  When Munarshu spoke up, saying he needed some things, Mikah rolled her eyes fearing he'd just find ways to continue the same conversation off-ship.  Still, she was sure she could ditch him if need be, so she said he could join her.

Moving in a different direction, Terin said he'd be going for a run, and asked if anyone wanted to come with him?  This got a much less than enthusiastic response from those in the lounge.  Especially with Rol, Emkir and Mikah having recently been wounded and Rol just being out of the hospital.  Inger and Aiden said they also wanted to go shopping with Mikah.  And Aiden especially wanted to hit a book store.  Mikah didn't say she had any specific plans, but admitted she needed to go back to InstellArms to replace her lost executive armor.  When Rol said he wouldn't join them, Mikah joked that they needed a defensive magnet to draw fire, and Rol graciously ignored the jibe.

When Zimzod said he'd stay with the ship, Terin asked if he wanted to go out for a run, saying he just planned five kilometers.  Zimzod snorted back at him saying, "Running is for people who need to get in shape.  This is prime!" as he indicated his body.  Zimzod finished verbally stomping Terin in a proud and firm voice.  The others in the lounge burst out laughing for a bit.  They soon went to their staterooms to get ready for the excursion.  While most wore shipsuits, Inger wore jeans and a tee shirt and planned to buy some shipsuits.  Munarshu also went out in casual clothes and planned to get some shipsuits, now that he wasn't operating daily in a scout uniform.

Munarshu had no rights, and went unarmed, while Mikah holstered her snub pistol, with ball ammo, on her thigh.  Inger brought her blade, in an ankle scabbard.  Aiden hip-holstered his custom snub, loaded with ball and tranq.  Terin planned to go unarmed, in a running outfit for his run.  While the others prepared, or waited for people to arm up, Terin changed into his running gear.  While they were gathering in the lounge, Emkir and Aali came into the lounge and Zimzod reminded Mikah they had wanted to call a crew meeting.

Endings And Beginnings

     Remembering, and since everyone was there, Mikah had everyone take seats and started with the decision what to do with Zach's remains?  Mikah had already decided they'd cremate the body at some point, but not decided if that would be before or after the funeral?  Of course, Zimzod reminded them all that he preferred to use the body for target practice.  Mikah reminded them they'd already told the port they wanted a Darrian ceremony.  After some chat, they doubled down on having Zach cremated, and Mikah assigned Terin to set that up after his run.  When Terin asked about authority, Mikah logged into a terminal and sent a message to the hospital stating Sir Terin would be their agent regarding Zach's body.

When Terin asked if the body should be cremated before or after the funeral, Mikah admitted there would likely be a lot of people who wanted to come and make sure Zach was dead.  So, she told Terin to have the body presented for viewing in an open casket funeral before returning to the hospital for the cremation.  When he asked, to confirm, Mikah told him the funeral was in four days.  Two days after the last of the stent operations.  Mikah also reminded Terin he had to have the body dealt with by a mortician, to be prepared for the funeral.  While Mikah and Terin discussed Zach, Emkir told Aali he'd like to get a replacement for his executive armor and even suggested buying two, to have one spare.

After the discussions over Zach's remains, Mikah and Zimzod told the group about Baron Sir Kelslundt and his tattooed friends.  Zimzod explained how he'd met the Baron, and told them about bringing Mikah in and meeting the "contact".  No one had any doubts the couple were an underworld contact.  This, Mikah said, was why she had to miss the concert the night before.  It did bother the crew that Zimzod and Mikah couldn't say who the couple were connected to?  Zimzod said the job was to deliver a cargo, unmolested, to a contact in the D'Ganzio System.  He said it was stressed that the cargo be delivered outside normal channels.  When the crew asked, Mikah and Zimzod had to admit they didn't know what was in the cargo either.

After the preliminaries, Zimzod delivered the "good news", saying the system was controlled by InstellArms, as a corporate depot for all operations in the Spinward Marches Sector!  Zimzod told the crew that succeeding in this operation would allow them to become agents of the government, which presumably meant they'd be agents of InstellArms too.  Emkir's first thought was that it sounded like a "Win - Win" for the crew.  When Zimzod was asked how large the "cargo" was, he said the couple didn't say.  He said they told the couple they might have less cargo space and were told that wouldn't be an issue.

Of course, there were issues the crew had to think about.  The shippers wanted them to smuggle a cargo into an InstellArms controlled system and not tell InstellArms about it.  Aali admitted to concerns about that, saying the deal had, "the distinct odor of fish about it."  Sir Terin played "Captain Obvious", saying it was obviously a smuggling job before asking if there was someone on the crew who could forge documents?  When Terin asked if there was some hollow or place they could put the cargo to hide it, Zimzod leered and laughed as he said, "Stick it in the sex doll."  That got a laugh from the whole crew and cut the tension as they talked.

Of course, there were even more laughs when Munarshu said, "Wait!  Wait!  Wait!  It's mine now..." which left the door open for Terin to say, "If the sex doll's gonna get so much use from him and smuggling, it has to be sturdy."  Getting back to the job, Zimzod was asked what was in it for them?  He had to admit the crew would only get status as "Agents" for a government.  He also admitted he wasn't told directly that it was the InstellArms government.  Zimzod also said he wanted that because it could get him permission to buy an FGMP-15.

When that gave Aiden a reason to ask if they really wanted to put that kind of firepower in Zimzod's hands, Inger spoke up.  She pointed out that Zimzod had always used force properly in her experience.  She said there had only been one point where he and Mikah had gotten into things over Mikah's gauss rifle, and Zimzod had been the one to get shot.  So Inger was OK with that idea.  Rol agreed with Inger, but reminded them that a person wants to find a reason to use it once you give them a toy.  When Inger chidingly asked if they were blaming the weapon or the man, Mikah made it clear she blamed Zimzod for anything he might do with an FGMP-15 in the future.

After that, Inger firmly said she felt Zimzod had proven himself responsible with military hardware.  Rol just said, "It's dicey.  And obviously something we don't want on the books."  Then, Mikah taunted Munarshu, answering Rol's comment with, "A lot of people don't want stuff on the books.  Like all of our maintenance records."  Rol joked that this was the first he'd heard of the ship actually having maintenance records.  That got a laugh from Mikah as Munarshu looked at Aali and asked her where the ship's records were?

Getting To The Meat Of Things

     When Aali asked what he meant, Munarshu said the logs on the engineering computer only went back a couple of weeks.  He wanted to know where the last year's records were?  Taking the steps slowly, Aali told Munarshu there were reasons why he wasn't able to see the full records.  She also told him he was too junior on the crew to have that discussion yet.  Munarshu prepared to answer her but Aali assured him there would probably come a time when he could have the data.  She said, "They eventually had to tell me."  When the crew backed Aali up, Munarshu found he had to agree with the Chief Engineer because he had no other options.

So, Munarshu accepted the situation and backed off, and the ship's share holders agreed they wanted to accept the job Zimzod and Mikah told them about.  Mikah asked Zimzod to make the call and Terin also suggested they should ask the size of the cargo container?  Given his junior position on the crew, Zimzod shot him a look that said, "Stop pretending you know more than the crew, little boy. We know what we're doing."  Of course, shooting a glance to say that meant not having to take the flood of jokes and negative responses he'd get if he'd made that claim out loud.

Joking about the comments, Rol asked Terin if he was asking Zimzod how big his package was?  Terin answered Zimzod's glare saying, "Well, judging by the size of guns he likes, his package can't be that large."  That got a loud "Ohhh!" from the others, who expected Zimzod to possibly put Terin through a bulkhead.  Zimzod answered the challenge nodding and saying, "So..  We'll be doing some zero-gee training later, I'm sure."  When Mikah jumped in saying, "Oh Yeah, I still have to teach you that, don't I Zimzod?", he answered, "Don't worry Sweetie.  I'll bounce you around real nice-like." with a growing smile.  Terin took her comments as a path out of the conversation.  He then asked Mikah what the crew should do, now that they'd be in port two weeks at least?

Mikah considered selling Brian's books and the parts he'd recovered from the gravWreck and dead android.  She decided to move the books forward, saying they had to have the books scanned.  When he heard this, Terin ask what books she was talking about and they explained about Sir Brian's book collection.  Mikah said they had to be scanned before a sale could be set up.  Both Munarshu and Terin were intrigued as the crew described the collection of centuries old, or in some cases millennia-old, books.  Terin wondered how much the books were worth and Munarshu suggested his mother might be interested in them.

When Mikah asked if his mother had several million credits to spend, Munarshu corrected his comments to suggest the university his mother worked for might be interested.  Mikah shrugged as she off-handedly said, "Sure, they can buy them if they want."  But her comments didn't address the fact that the crew wanted to sell these books in-system and "now".  And it would take at least 2.5 months just to send a message to the University about the books.  By the time that message got to his mother, they intended to be off world and on their way.  So, whatever argument Munarshu made to keep one or more of the books would have to be a strong one, given he couldn't even prove there was interest.

While they talked about that, Inger was just amazed at the personality traits this new crewmember displayed.  Admittedly, Zimzod had recently mentioned visiting his homeworld.  And various members of the crew had written home about their good fortune.  Zach, a bit later than he should have, had given the turn of events.  But Munarshu's direct consideration was new to her.  Emkir joined in, mentioning Munarshu's 'early to bed and early to rise' work ethic.  Of course, Emkir suggested he just thought it made them all look bad.  In any event, Mikah reclaimed the conversation making it plain she wanted to get the books scanned and then get them on the market fairly quickly.

And that left no time for the months of communication Munarshu suggested, unless he came up with a very good answer.  Because he had an interest in at least one of the books, Emkir volunteered to head up the effort to get the books scanned.  Mikah let him have it, since she certainly didn't want to have to do it herself.  Emkir figured that after he started putting the calls out to look into who he should use to do the scans, word of mouth about the project would also get out to possible buyers too.  So, the process would, at some point, start driving itself.

The older members of the crew were happy Emkir had learned not to ask for written bids.  And the high-end collectors would likely be more restrained than the hordes of media networks who had hoped to score off the crew.  With that issue settled, Aali brought up the spare parts Brian recovered and said Wall-e had a record of all the parts and their condition.  She also said the list had changed from point to point over the last months, because of being moved about.  While she didn't go into details about why they were moved, everyone except Munarshu and Terin understood the subtext.  Mikah asked Aali to go ahead and try to find buyers as the engineer remembered Brian's auctions, cut short the by the events surrounding by his death.

Aali figured she'd use the records Wall-e stored to start creating auctions for the parts.  She planned to sell off the gravCar parts first.  She'd save the 'droid parts to compare them to the units they were buying, banking spare parts or even replacing dead parts on the androids.  Aali also considered saving some parts of the gravCar, as spares for their air-raft.  With that settled for now, Mikah brought up the Darrian cybernetic parts and began another early conversation about doing something with them.  Emkir's suggestion was to sit on them until they could get a good bid.  But that didn't suggest "How" they could legally get any bids.

Terin said he was at the start of his research on how to do that.  He had to admit he couldn't reliably estimate when he'd be done, but hoped to have some better answers in a few days.  That would be delayed by his stent surgery.  He groused that the research had also been interrupted by the concert the night before.  So, he was uncertain when he might have anything concrete?  With his report on his newly started activities, Mikah asked if anyone else had anything to discuss?

After The Meeting Was Over

     Inger asked if it was OK for her to try to pick up side jobs with the port, and was told she could.  Terin again asked what the crew should do for the time being, since they wouldn't leave port for two weeks.  He was, and they were, told to keep out of trouble.  Talking about that, the crew went over the steps those getting stent implants had to complete.  Asked to let the stents heal for a week, they would each then have a class on using the things.  TAS would set that up for Aiden, Zimzod and Rol where Terin would need to set his own up.

After that class, they would work on their own to make use of the stent and schedule their initial scans if they had cloning insurance.  Of course, Sir Terin didn't have to do this since he was on record saying he wasn't interested in cloning.  He only hoped to use the implant to improve his navigational work.  So, they wouldn't be stuck in-system even two weeks if they could get their various issues taken care of sooner.  Still, there were recommended times they had to deal with.

After covering the implants, Aali reminded Mikah she'd not been taken off the monthly payroll since becoming a share holder of the ship.  Mikah remembered that had been brought up before, and opened up the ship's crew management files on a terminal to make the changes.  This was important since they were three days away from the new month and pay day.  Mikah also paid a pro-rated salary of Cr 130 to Munarshu for the three days of the current month he'd been on staff.  While she did that, Zimzod pointed out Terin was an indentured servant and wouldn't get paid.  Aali also voluntarily gave up the salary she'd earned since she had been given a share of the ship back on Mora.

With the finances done, Aali asked about the fact that Munarshu was the only crew member who didn't have any right to carry weapons.  She felt that might make him a liability in some circumstances.  The first thing they did was review what their rights let them to do.  Their rights to bear arms really only let them carry weapons "in Imperial space", except where some systems and governments recognized the Imperial rights on their sovereign territory.  Like Rhylanor.  But, at the same time, all systems and local governments could restrict that right.

The crew had seen that in the country of Runips on Jae Tellona, where they had to have special negotiated permission to carry "any" weapons at all.  Even on Rhylanor, they had been told they could only bear weapons of a non-military nature.  So, even going out with just her gauss pistol was pushing it for Lady Mikah.  The best solution was not to push the issue.  If it looked like there was going to be shooting, or the shooting had already started, Munarshu could always be thrown a weapon.  That is, if one hadn't been dropped already.  Of course, that last got a few comments on how well a dropped pistol had worked out for Rol recently.

Mikah said Munarshu's ability to carry weapons wasn't something they were going to solve soon, and they started talking about shopping again.  Emkir and Aali both wanted to go to InstellArms, to replace Emkir's executive armor at the least.  So, the rest of the crew waited while they hung weapons off their shipsuits.  Emkir chose to bring his 9mm while Aali brought her snub pistol.  Of course, while had Aali reviewed her weapons, she considered she just might want to also buy a 20-round mag-fed snubbie too.

While they geared up, Mikah told Rol to order the ship's re-stock of food and then called for a vehicle able to carry the six shoppers.  The comments about Rol being the cook surprised Munarshu, who'd only seen him cook one meal so far.  It took a bit of explanation by Emkir and Aali, who jokingly suggested Rol's cooking was the source of the war crime accusations.  When they pointed out Munarshu had missed the day's breakfast by getting up so early, Munarshu decided he had to consider the new information.

Mikah called a transport company and ordered a vehicle and driver for the day while the others talked about Rol.  When she confirmed the request, Mikah made sure to say the vehicle should be durable if it wasn't armored.  She then gave the berth and ship name with her credit information and got no questions.  Mikah made the decision to have one vehicle and a driver, Zimzod said they should make sure the driver kept the motor running whenever they were at a destination.

The others got ready to leave while Rol pulled up the data the detective inspector bumped him while he was in the hospital.  Calling, Rol identified himself and the Inspector asked if Rol would prefer they sent a car for him instead of him making his own way to the compartment?  The officer then asked Rol when he'd like to come in and estimated it would take Rol about an hour to complete the work.  Considering it was about 10:30am, Rol suggested 1pm and the Inspector said they'd send a car for him.  Done with security, Rol started considering the food order he had to make.  With nine crew aboard, that was 27 meals a day on average.

Checking the calander, Rol figured he'd have to order three week's worth to re-stock what they'd eaten, and also cover the next two weeks.  Then, there would have to be another order before they lifted from Rhylanor, to wherever they head out to.  Eventually, Rol decided on 14 days standard fare and seven high.  Skimming the port services sites for ship foodstuffs suppliers, Rol was able to find a deal for Cr 3,500.

Billing the ship's funds to pay, Rol told the caterer he wasn't interested in any of the other specialty items.  Rol was told they'd deliver the food sometime that day and was asked to confirm someone would be at the ship to take the delivery?  Rol asked if they could deliver it before 1 pm?  Checking the current time, the caterer said they could do a rush order for an extra Cr 200.  Rol didn't need to hear any more and said, "Done."  After that, they closed the deal.

While Rol was making his calls, Terin checked the location of the hospital where Sir Zachariah’s remains were, to see if he could do a run to the location.  He quickly found the facility was too far to run, and decided to call them to set things up.  When he had the hospital morgue staffer on the line.  Terin started by asking about the possibility of having the body prepared for a funeral, then returned to the hospital for the cremation?

He was brought up short when the staffer told him they weren't a funeral home.  Terin was told the hospital was only holding the body until the crew could decide what to do with it?  When they came to get the body, the hospital's job was done.  They were a medical facility and certainly didn't have the staff to prepare a body for a funeral viewing.  When Terin asked them for a recommendation, the hospital staffer said the families or insurers generally handled that.  The hospital could only advise him to check the port directory.

Thanking the staffer, and saying they'd call again to make arraignments to move the body, Terin cut the call and checked the port directory for morticians.  Seeing the data scrolling off the screen, Terin figured he'd need to do some filtering.  He tried the basic search for those who handled Darrian ceremonies.  Even with that filter in place, the number of places was huge.  Figuring he might find a short cut, Terin called the Order's concierge to ask if they had a recommendation?  The Concierge he connected to made it clear they "could" research a facility, but reminded Sir Terin that funerals were very personal.  Because traditions and observances varied so widely, this wasn't an area the Order had a presence in.

They also made it clear it would take them a number of days to give him options, and he'd have to start from square one with those.  Terin thanked them for their time and cut the call.  Looking up, Terin tried to get Sir Rol's attention but the Knight made it clear he was busy with station security.  When Terin tried to suggest Rol make some time when he was done with security, Rol made it equally clear he was going to spend some time with security.  And Terin's insistence on interrupting was bothering him.  Realizing he wasn't getting through to Rol, Terin set up a search for station-net sites which hosted customer ratings for funeral homes.  He then went out for a run.  Having pre-mapped his route, Terin planned to run five kilometers in a circuit to return to the berth.

Targeting Deals On Toys

     When the transport arrived at the berth, the six crew boarded and found comfortable places to sit in the spacious cabin.  Settling in, the driver asked where they wanted to go first and the group quickly agreed InstellArms would be the first stop.  Handling all the details, the driver called I-A to set up a parking space for his vehicle and introduced himself to the group he was driving.  When they arrived, the crew found an organized contingent of concierge personnel waiting as they pulled up and began to debark.

Having been to InstellArms more than once, Munarshu came ready for a hike.  He knew their venues tended to be large in the more important and populous systems, and knew he could spend an hour or more even getting to the store section he wanted to shop in.  The garish and noisy advertizing robots he expected didn't dissapoint.  But, he was surprised to see a neat formation of InstellArms people standing with datapads regarding the van as he gotten off of.  He was even more surprised when a Human female stepped up and introduced herself as his personal concerge for the shopping visit!

Munarshu was stopped flat-footed as this was very certainly different than his previous visits to their stores.  When asked what he was interested in, the engineer told his concierge he was looking for personal and light weight armor.  Nodding and saying, "OK", and led Munarshu to a small, four-person cart before climbing in herself.  When they were seated, the woman punched in some coordinates and they were off riding through the facility!  Munarshu dealt with yet another shock as they rode the normally 15 to 20 minute walk to the personal armor section.

Along the way, Munarshu realized the tram was an android driving itself while the concierge turned to chat with him about his interests and armor needs?  Munarshu divided his attention between her questions and their surroundings.  Not to mention the many people walking or using people movers, and staring daggers back at him while they wondered how he rated a vehicle in the shop?  To help in her advertising efforts, the concierge used the tram's windscreen, which was itself a touch screen datapad.

While talking and riding, Munarshu narrowed the list down to a set of executive armor and a ballistic cloth armor load-out.  He also brought up the idea of upgrading the firmware on his weapons.  On that, the concierge told him they could send a messenger to his ship to recover his weapons so they could do the upgrades.  Then, she started explaining the fees that would be involved.  When he asked if he could just do the work on-ship, they said it would be best done by an armorer.  Of course, Sir Rol was an armorer and Munarshu realized he didn't need to pay for something the crew could do amongst themselves.  So, Munarshu decided to just shop for armor as they passed through many very flashy displays of almost everything else on the way.

One set of ads that caught Munarshu's eye were those about the new advanced Laser pistol, tech level 16 and fully operational with no backpack!  When he asked about the pistol, Munarshu learned each charged magazine powered five rounds.  Cringing a bit, he asked about the costs and was told the pistol, with a magazine, cost KCr 30.  And each extra magazine cost Cr 5,000.  When Munarshu visibly cringed at the price, his concierge used his reaction to further dial in the economic footprint of her "client".  In the end, Munarshu ordered a set of executive armor and an enhanced ballistic cloth bodysuit for a total of Cr 1,750.  Paying the costs, Munarshu was taken to be fitted.

Getting off the van as they arrived, Mikah was greeted by a personal concierge who hoped she was enjoying her laser pistol?  Mikah said she was, and couldn't wait for a chance to use it.  When the concierge reminded her they had firing ranges, Mikah said she might stop by during the next week.  She'd enjoyed firing it on their range when she bought the weapon.  When he asked Mikah how they could help her, she said she had to replace her executive armor and wanted to buy at least two or three sets more.  Without missing a beat, the concierge asked, "Is there anything else we can help with Your Ladyship with?"

Pausing, Mikah couldn't think of anything else she needed, and was told they had her data from the last fitting so she didn't have to go through another.  She was also offered a break on the three sets she eventually ordered, paying Cr 1,000.  The concierge invited Mikah to browse while her order was made up.  When she agreed, he asked her what section she'd like to check out?  After a pause to remember the technical details on her vacc suit's PLSS, Mikah remembered Sir Terin's issues and asked to look at survival supplies for the ship.  She also admitted they had pretty near nothing when asked what they already had on the ship?

Boarding while guiding Mikah onto a cart, the concierge asked how much gear they could fit in their storage, and what capabilities Mikah was really interested in?  Mikah said they had the equivalent of a bare-bones world surface survival kit and four rescue balls.  Then she asked what was "out there", looking for ideas.  The representative said larger ships could carry a lifeboat.  But, for their class ship, that wasn't an option.  So the concierge asked if Mikah preferred space or surface-based survival gear?  Mikah said she hoped for both.

Since Mikah was asking for the best of both worlds, the concierge felt the need to explain some parameters.  He reminded her space-based gear would provide extra vacuum and fire-survival options.  And even ranged up to inflatable in-space habitats that could be deployed in an emergency.  The rep admitted, could easily fill a ship the size of theirs with only a small sample of the surface-based survival equipment needed to survive in the many environments they could encounter.

Nodding, Mikah said she wanted a general kit she could give to each of her crew.  When the rep went over the many options she could consider or focus on, Mikah tried to call her "survival expert", Sir Terin.  But Terin didn't have his comms powered up while enjoying the clarity the run brought to him.  Saying she'd get back to him on the survival gear, Mikah was asked if there was anything else she'd like to browse?  When Mikah couldn't think of anything, the concierge invited her to see some things he'd like to show her.

Mikah agreed and he drove the cart to a section containing pre-packaged survival kits.  The concierge started with larger pre-packaged survival suites, which took up large amounts of cargo space but provided many classes of options for emergency response and survival.  Impressed with the huge array of options, Mikah had to admit they didn't have that much spare space to devote to one emergency kit, much less kits for the crew.  Nodding, the concierge led her to a selection of duffel-sized individual survival systems.

Looking over the systems, each apparently was meant to break out into multiple items which could be stored in varying points on the ship, carried or stored in the duffel.  This allowed each item to be placed where most useful in given situations.  When she asked, Mikah was told these systems worked up from single-person systems to multi-person units.  Counting the crew and considering Terin had his own survival gear, Mikah decided to buy nine duffels, to distribute to everyone except Terin.  The ninth unit would be placed in engineering.  The cost of each unit was Cr 1,000 and she paid the cost from the ship's funds.

Considering her own safety, Mikah asked about options and was told those were either vacc suit-based or combat-based.  Outside actual armor, Mikah asked her options and was told about a variety of shipsuits which were made of ballistic cloth.  They were more bulky than a normal shipsuits, but would provide regularly wearable armor in case of a surprise.  Considering that a good idea, Mikah picked up two suits.

Mikah left with her guide while two concierges moved over to Aali and Emkir from carts of their own, in case they wanted to shop for different things.  When asked how they could help the couple, Emkir said he just wanted to replace his executive armor and got a duly sympathetic reaction to his being wounded.  Waving it off as just a flesh wound, Emkir said he wanted two suits of replacement armor and Aali said she wanted one.  Since they, like Mikah, had already been measured, they were asked what else they might be interested in?  Aali said she wanted a semi-automatic snub pistol.

When they got to the snub pistol section of the venue, Aali bought a weapon handling 20-round magazines and got two additional clips, along with the one that came with the weapon.  She also bought an additional stock of 200 rounds ball ammunition.  Both Aali and Emkir asked for some range time, with Aali suggesting they have an instructor step in too.  They eventually spent Cr 1,850 for that as Aali took stock and came up with another question.

Inger left the van and was met by her personal concierge.  Inger said she wanted a few sets of shipsuits and wanted to browse anything that was interesting.  Her concerge confirmed she wanted standard suits and Inger was told they'd be Cr 10 each.  The Knight accepted the price.  After that, the concierge offered the wide variety of weapons, combat gear and general spacer's goods the facility could provide.  Pausing to think, Inger decided she could use a good pair of steel-toe boots.  When those registered for Cr 50 a pair, Inger decided she'd buy two pair.  Done wiht that, Inger suggested she might want to see personal armor options and they rode off in the cart.

The concierges were totaling their order when Aali asked if they sold ballistic cloth-based shipsuits?  The answer was that they did sell them, though Aali was reminded that class of shipsuit was a fair bit bulkier than the standard garment.  Aali accepted that and they told her the cost would be Cr 1,500 each.  Aali said she wanted a set as she also asked Emkir if he was interested?  Emkir wasn't interested in those.  While they talked, another cart rolled up as Inger and her concierge rolled up to check out the personal armor Aali and Emkir were shopping around.

Greeting each other, Inger asked Aali's impression of the suits and why she thought they were worth it?  Aali said it would be something one might be wearing day to day, in case of surprise.  Inger couldn't see the logic of running around the ship expecting to be boarded by surprise, but accepted Aali's thought while privately wondering if Captain Paranoid was rubbing off on the engineer?  Still, Inger decided to drift with the others and see if they found anything that sparked her interests.

When Aiden stepped from the van into the care of his concierge, the pilot said he wanted executive armor, having been impressed with how it helped in the ambush.  Having to be measured for the suit, the concierge had him join her on a cart as they rode off to that section of the store.  Looking over the display before buying, the concierge used the updating data on her hand-comp to see a number of the crew were opting for ballistic cloth shipsuits, and offered the idea to Aiden.  Ever the counter-optimist, Aiden liked that and ordered a ballistic shipsuit.  Done with the mundane, Aiden decided to entertain his passion by diving to see handguns made of meticulously crafted pieces and sections.  He spent a pleasing amount of time touring those sections of the venue, then asked the concierge to go through the books on handguns he might find interesting.

While being fitted for his armor, Munarshu decided to ask if the concierge could recommend any local weapons clubs where he could get some range time?  She said InstellArms had ranges on-site.  She asked if he was interested in some range time with a loaner weapon and Munarshu said he would.  He also remembered he'd first come out to get shipsuits and asked about options?  Being told about the ballistic cloth suits, he ordered three in a grey/blue pattern meant to fade into machinery.  Then, reviewing former combat training exercises in his mind, Munarshu's memories sparked again.

While finishing with the fitting, he told his concierge he "had to have" a shotgun.  Given the data-feed coming across from the other members of his crew, the concierge was surprised, but confirmed that he wanted a simple shotgun.  When Munarshu nodded, she ordered up a simple Cr 750 combat-rated shotgun.  At his asking, she added in 490 4-guage rounds at a credit each and 10 HEDP fragmenting anti-armor rounds for Cr 150.  After that, it was off to the firing range for Munarshu.

Aali and Emkir went to the range to fire off rounds with Aali's new snub pistol and Emkir's 9mm, each spending Cr 50 on ammo to use.  Mikah soon joined them, getting practice with her snub pistol too.  Munarshu eventually joined them to test his shotgun, spending Cr 25 in ammo.  Inger watched and took notes on the performance of the variety of weapons used while chatting with Emkir, since they both had 9mm handguns.  While the others were on the range, Aiden continued to browse the gun sections and go over books with his concierge as she dreamed of a real client and commission.

Terin's Wild Run

     Several clicks into his planned run, Sir Terin was on a concourse with a number of bars when a group of men burst out into the concourse.  It was immediately apparent to Terin that a brawl was spilling out in fromt of him and the drunken battle was blocking his way forward.  Not wanting to abandon the path, since he thought these fights generally burned out fast, Terin looked for a place to take cover and watch things develop.  Not expecting much, Terin found taking partial cover was a wise precaution when gunshots sounded and everyone started diving for cover too!  Backing deeper into cover but still watching, Terin saw a man half in and out of the bar's entrance who'd started yelling, "That's right!  I'm armed!"  His tone let all in hearing know he thought the gun made him a God!  He continued, daring anyone to come and kill him before laughing a bit maniacally.

All Terin could think was, 'and me without my weapon'.  Shrugging while turning on his comms, Terin flinched at the sudden blast report of a shotgun just before he could call port security.  Terin saw the fired blast had sent the 'now wounded former-God' spinning out of the doorway to collapse on the edge of the concourse, with his blood starting to pool around him.  Security answered his line and Terin thought, 'Sux to be him.'  The navigator could see what looked like the operator of the bar stepping from the door with a shotgun held across his hips.  Looking over the weapons as he began identifying himself and the compartment number of the concourse section he was in, Terin could see this was a standard, "no frills or add on's" weapon.  A work tool and no more.

When asked the situation, Terin was direct, "There was an asshole with a gun and the bar owner put him down with a shotgun.  You might want to get here sometime real soon."  The tone of voice Terin used made it clear the comment was not a slight but recognition responding officers would possibly need to cover some ground to arrive if there was not a local patrol.  The dispatcher thanked Sir Terin for the report and said they had units responding.  When he cleared the call, Terin could see some of those in the concourse had risen and a shouting fight was starting.  Friends of the now wounded man took issue with the bar man's actions and that man's friend's began a defense of the shooting.

Terin watched things start to devolve faster as factions formed over specific disagreements about how events played out.  Different groups seemed willing to fight over issues from 'if the barman should have fired only in defense' to 'if they should have let the man run out of alcohol fumes and rounds in his magazine'?  In such an erudite gathering of educated elite, Terin simply kept down in his cover a bit more and waited for security to show up and take them all off to an "official conference site".  But, a few of the wounded man's friends moved forward saying they wanted to help the man, and the bar man raised the shotgun threatening all to back off from the dropped pistol.

Seeing the direction things were moving would soon lead to more bleeding bodies on the ground, Terin decided it was time for a Knight of the Imperium to do "something".  And the something he chose was to announce himself loudly, and demand everyone put their weapons down while advancing from cover.  Looking at Terin, the barman acerbically responded, "Well, Sir Knight.  Since I'm the only one armed, and these morons wanna grab a weapon, I'm not gonna be putting anything down any time soon.  If you wanna come and secure the weapon on the ground, then I'll be willing to put my weapon down."

Terin firmly announced, "Done!" as he advanced to the dropped handgun and bent to pick it up by its barrel.  Of course, the man's comments incited more shouting and threats.  Still, only Terin was actually moving as he crossed into the center of the fight, to the gun.  Ironically, just as as he knelt to take the weapon by the barrel, the first security vehicle rolled up.  So, as he stood, Terin was brought under the aim of responding troopers who ordered him deliberately to put the weapon back down and raise his open hands.

Raising his hands after gently setting the handgun down, Terin considered identifying himself as the officers shouted instructions at him.  After he'd complied enough for the shouting to die down, Terin identified himself as a Knight of the Imperium who was intervening to restore order.  When he spoke, he was thanked and told to stay in his pose until they were ready for him.  Soon, four vehicles were on scene and enough officers that one called Terin to slowly move towards his vehicle.

Close enough, and "wearing" a good number of laser-dot aim points, Terin was told to stop and asked where he had his Ident.  Saying where he carried it, an officer moved cautiously forward to pull it before stepping back to examin the credentials.  In the meantime, more officers were moving in to disarm the barman and take him into custody, and to secure the wounded man and onlookers so they could bring in medical support.  Soon, the officers returned his Ident and asked Terin how he was involved in the shootout?

Terin briefly said he'd been out on a run and suddenly found his way blocked as the fight broke out.  He said he waited, hoping it would die down, and when the man with the gun was shot, he wanted to calm things down and secure the weapon so there wouldn't be more shooting.  Terin could sense the change in the officer's attitudes as one of them asked, "So, you're one of those people who doesn't realize exercise is fatal?"  Having had instruction from a center where they could review the video from the concourse, Sir Terin was told his testimony had been confirmed.

They also suggested that the next time he saw an incident like this he, should call security and stay clear personally.  Terin missed the chance to say "Thank You, Officer" and pointed out that he did call security.  That gave the officer a chance to point out to the self-important nobleman that the important thing was to stay out of the situation after making the call.  After Terin did thank the officers, they let him go on his way.  Continuing to the end of that concourse, and not much further along his planned route, Terin was passed by a hovercraft which then pulled over ahead of him.

A Stray Shot From Left Field

     The gull-wing doors opened and a very well-dressed and groomed man stepped from the vehicle before starting to waving for Sir Terin to join him.  Not able to recognize the man, Terin could only tell he appeared rich and his vehicle had no identifiable markings.  Coming to stand by the man, Terin said, "Good morning Sir.  How can I help you?"  The man introduced himself as "Harlo" and said he'd been in the bar to meet some people and cut a deal.  He then said the folks he planned to meet must have gotten frightened off by the shooting.  Harlo continued that he'd been impressed when he saw Sir Terin step into the fight to calm things down.

Terin looked for any sense of purpose in the man's comments, and Harlo said he and those he had planned to meet had set their meeting on neutral ground.  But now that the meeting had been blown, Harlo had to go to their berth to complete their deal.  He hoped Sir Terin would be willing to help him balance things out, with the authority inherent in his rank?  When Terin seemed uninterested, Harlo offered Cr 5,000 if Terin would help?  Still not on board with the idea, Terin said he wasn't armed and was obviously not a "brawler type".  Calming Terin, Harlo said he thought that Terin's "just being a Knight" would balance things.

While Harlo worked to convince Terin there was no danger, Terin pointed out that Harlo hadn't expected the bar meeting to go bad either.  Harlo answered, "My people didn't screw up the deal, some drunk did."  Letting that slip past, Terin asked what the meeting was about and Harlo said he was buying some equipment from a guy.  Terin asked the guy if he was a merchant and Harlo said he was the owner of a ship.  Terin assumed it was a merchanter until Harlo corrected the Knight that he owned the ship, and had a Captain working for him.  He even asked Terin if he were looking for a job?  Terin said he already had a job, though he kept the details to himself.

Still, Terin decided he could use Cr 5,000 and said he'd help.  When that was decided, Harlo invited Terin into his GEV and they rode off to a somewhat rundown concourse.  On the plus side, as they rode, Terin saw he had a message from Lady Mikah and called her back to see what was up?  Unfortunately for Terin, Lady Mikah was on the weapons range at that point and he got her voice mail.  Leaving the message, "Just calling back.  Talk to you later", Terin cut the connection and settled in.  On arrival, they found the berth entrance guarded by two men with weapons.

Looking past them, all Terin could see was the open cargo entrance to the ship.  That looked to be mated to the station seal.  This suggested the ship had docked "seal to seal" and wasn't in a bay but connected to the outer hull of the station.  Terin figured the ship must be over 2,000 tons.  They rolled up to the guards and the driver rolled his window down.  When that happened, the driver pointed to Harlo, who said he was there to meet a person.  The name he used meant nothing to Terin.  The guard said something into a comms mike and waited before pointing at Terin and asking, "Who's the other guy?"

Harlo grandly answered, "This is a Knight of the Imperium." and gestured to Terin saying, "Sir?"  Seeing he was being invited to introduce himself, Terin said, "Yes, I'm Sir Terin Yundis, Companion of the Knight Defenders of the Marches."  The guard heard this with a look that suggested he was trying to figure out how that was supposed to change things?  Still, he told the driver to pull the hovercraft into the cargo bay.  Parked there, the gull-wings rose and Terin and Harlo stepped out as others of the ship's crew also arrived.  Most of them were armed with low-grade weapons.  Revolvers and a few shotguns.

Being on the ship itself, Terin realized that meant the enforcible law was now a mix of Rhylanor and "the ship's law".  Terin considered the look of things, with himself in a running suit, his "patron" in a suit which certainly cost several thousand credits and a gathering of armed and dirty ship's crew.  The most heavily armed among the crew present was holding an ACR.  Some of them looked to be expecting trouble because they'd apparently grabbed some body armor too.  Despite the show of force, Harlo didn't seem to be concerned.  Terin tried to look important while an apparently ranking crew member arrived.  In a booming voice, he said "So!  Harlo!  I see my choice was better than yours." and clearly enjoyed rubbing the situation in Harlo's face.

After a pause, the new arrival asked, "Did you bring the money?"  Harlo turned to signal his driver and the man opened the vehicle's trunk to withdraw and open a briefcase.  He showed off a large cache of "physical" Imperial currency!  This took many forms across the Imperium, with more advanced forms in the more advanced systems.  In Rhylanor, each note was actually an acrylic, silicon and electronic amalgam shaped into a pocket-friendly mini-tablet.  Such financial instruments could be plugged into verification devices to confirm they were authentic and provide other official details.  Ultimately, the art and denominations would be printed on embedded plastic billets sandwiched into the bills.

Like a scene out of any covert-exchange vid, the man stepped up with a device that shot five lasers into specific points on a number of randomly selected notes while also connecting to two ports on each selected bill.  The data from the tests had to come up with a number of expected results and images in order to prove each was authentic.  And there seemed to be no issues with the cash at all, as far as Terin could see.  While one man tested the cash, another counted it and made a comment Terin and Harlo couldn't here.

When the one man was done with his tests, he looked up and said, "Harlo.  You're 20,000 short."  Terin's optimism sank as Harlo began to negotiate and the security unlimbered their weapons.  Keeping calm, Terin listened as Harlo's efforts started going downhill quickly.  Considering his experience, Terin looked for anything he might have experience in.  He also reflected that Harlo being KCr 20 short on that deal didn't speak well for him being good for the Cr 5,000 he'd promised.  Looking for any hint of either a pay day or a chance to get out of this without shooting, Terin noticed Harlo had almost no jewelry besides a very fancy watch.

When Terin mentioned that, the lead crewman ignored Harlo for the moment, to turned and ask Terin, "OK.  Are you even a real Knight?"  Terin said he was.  Pointing to Harlo, he said, "Any real Knight would know the watch he's wearing isn't worth the KCr 20 he's short," showing the man had noticed Terin's appraisal.  After that, Terin and the man exchanged comments over what they each thought the other should know while the temperature in the bay dropped.  Finally, the lead crewman asked if Terin was really with Harlo and Terin admitted he'd hired himself out to 'lend some authority' to Harlo's bid to do business with them.

Terin could see that had an effect on the equation as the man asked, "Are you enforcing the authority of the port?"  Terin admitted he was just out to earn some extra cash, missing the chance to name drop those members of his crew who "Would" have been able to bring the might of the port down on any target.  There was a pause after Terin spoke before the man asked, "If I gave you Cr 500, would you forget you saw any of us?"  In the pause, he measured Terin with his eyes.  Realizing this road had come to a very definite fork, Terin said "I know nothing" as he took that branch of the road that meant he was going back to the ship instead of a hospital.  Or the morgue.

While Harlo viciously tarnished his silver-spoon raised lips cursing Terin out, one of the henchmen came forward and fished in the briefcase.  The man pulled a Cr 500 instrument from the case and stepped over to hand it to Terin.  Terin was then escorted back out of the berth as the lead crewman pleasantly said, "Goodbye."  Out of the berth, Terin spent an extra half hour running on pure adrenaline to get back to the Hotel California.  That covered the extra distance he'd ridden in the hovercraft.  But, all in all, Terin was pleased to have gotten out of there with his skin after hopping into a vehicle with a stranger who had no references or background.

Browsing The Bling

     While the others spent ammunition on the InstellArms ranges, Aiden finished his shopping and bought Cr 50 in books covering antique mechanically-built handguns.  Done shopping, Aiden settled in to read through his book for a brief time until the others prepared to have stuff delivered to the ship and were ready to go back to the van.  While boarding, Aali asked if they could visit a jeweler's next, so she could have the lanthanum and Tellona diamond ring sized?  Taking a recommendation from the driver, with no associations on-station, the crew soon ended up in a shop where Aali presented the ring.

The jeweler was duly unimpressed by the lanthanum metal, despite its value as a starship material.  He was much more impressed when Aali pointed out the gemstone chip was a Tellona Diamond!  This even caused him to gush a bit, wondering where the Knight had gotten the stone?  He even said there had recently been a Tellona Diamond auction on-station.  The man was truly excited about two such stones appearing so close together, because it suggested a larger supply while demand and prices were both up for the stone at the moment.

When Aali suggested that she preferred to watch as the jeweler worked, the man did his best to hide the insult he felt.  He pointed out his shop and staff were fully bonded and insured.  Everyone's hackles settled and the man explained the process of sizing the ring so that both Aali and Emkir fully understood the process.  And the time it would take after they left the ring in his care.  Eventually Emkir and Aali agreed to have the ring sized for Cr 90.  She agreed to leave the ring overnight to be worked on and the paperwork was done.  The ring was secured in the jeweler's safe and a recpit was handed over.

The couple worked with one of the staff while Mikah looked and was disappointed to not find any loose stones for sale.  Still, she browsed until she heard Emkir asking the man if he and Aali could see the shop's collection of Tellona Diamond jewelry?  The man admitted that the stones were very rare and the shop didn't have access to any to sell.  Twisting the knife for her own pleasure, Mikah raised her hand and said, "What? I have one." in a tone that inferred the stones couldn't be all that rare.  And while few othrs in the crew intentionally showed off their rings, the man added two plus two.  He realized Mikah's ring matched Aali's as he began looking at the hands of the others.

There was a moment of astonished silence as the man began to realize the number of Tellona stones in his shop at the moment.  When the man, and his staff started speaking again, they seemed to have all turned to a very "business-only" manner.  They asked only those questions which were needed for any transactions.  Still, they were friendly and interested in helping the crew with anything they were interested in.  All the same, they made an effort to keep the special treatment unnoticed by those few other shoppers in the store.

While Mikah browsed, she got a call from Terin and took a few moments to answer.  Terin had been back at the ship, reaching out to funeral providers to deal with Zach's body.  When Terin explained to Mikah what he'd been told, Mikah made a face at the cost and gave him permission to make the deal with an annoyed sigh, before cutting the connection.  Turning back to the shop's offerings, Mikah felt she needed a change of attitude and made the idle comment that she could use another set of earrings.

Saying, "...because I can't always wear the Starburst earrings", several of the staff nearly tripped over themselves trying to help her.  They started asking about materials, styles and any other property of ear rings and Mikah turned to Munarshu and said, "Gladys?  Watch and learn."  She then slid comfortably into being served and cared for.  At the same time, a very well-dressed man came out of the back of the shop.  The man stopped to take a relaxed breath and made a point of looking over his domain, before the manager approached her saying, "Lady Kirlim!  It is wonderful to find you in my shop.

The effect on everyone in the shop was instant!  The crew realized they'd been identified and braced for the reactions of those suddenly in the company of celebrities.  The staff of the shop realized just how much more special the group they were dealing with were and the very few other shoppers found themselves sharing rare air indeed.  Of course, the many weapons the crew wore insured there was no rush "to meet" where someone might mis-read the action, given the recent news.  When Mikah's clerk asked her what material she wanted, Mikah said she liked Lanthanum.  The worker apologetically admitted this was rarely used as a fashion metal.

He did quickly say the shop could easily get some of the metal to work with.  After that, the clerk began showing Mikah various pieces in styles they could cast from lanthanum for her.  Asking what stones she preferred, the Manager stepped in to apologize that Tellona Diamonds couldn't be offered.  Mikah was very friendly as she said she wasn't interested in another Tellona Diamond.  She then went on to say she'd seen enough of Tellona diamonds to last her for a lifetime.  This, of course, stopped everyone who'd heard it yet again, as they tried to justify what they knew of the value and rarity of the stones with Lady Mikah's attitude.

Despite the reactions of the others, the manager just nodded knowingly as Mikah asked what they had in rubies?  Leading Mikah to a display, they begin showing off the styles, cuts and settings they had.  The clerk said they could easily pull the stones from an existing setting to mate to a set of lanthanum pieces to match.  The collection in-store, as well as that presented on video, but able to be ordered in under a day, ranged from the 'easily affordable' to 'jewelry for the elite'.  Their most expensive set of ear rings were priced at KCr 250, which was well out of what Mikah was looking to spend.  She did spend a few seconds examining the set, which was created from gold, silver, iridium, set with rubies and diamonds.

Mikah checked out the bling while Aiden asked if they made anything out of ship's armor, or other heavy duty composites?  Assuming the Knight meant to have something worked out of a keepsake lump of debris he'd carried out of the war, they said they hadn't worked on a medium like that.  They did know such products were asked for from time to time.  Mikah admitted her piece could just be plain gold or platinum rather than lanthanum.  When she said this, the clerk and manager introduced a collection of pieces made to represent the many Counties, Duchies and other political organizations and fiefdoms that made up the Marches and nearby Deneb polities.

When she asked, Mikah was happy to see if they'd create a pair of ear rings representing the Domain of Deneb's new Unicorn insignia?  While they didn't have any pieces in stock, they could order pieces and set the vid to display and holographically project examples.  Mikah saw a piece she liked and she asked how long it would take to make?  The manager asked if they needed to rush the order?  When Mikah said they only planned to be in-system for two weeks or so, they said it would only take a week's time at a normal pace and cost her KCr 30.

The manager went over the details of the earrings with Mikah, pointing out the two pair of brilliant rubies, one each in the eye socket and nostral of the two unicorn heads.  He told her those were imported all the way from the Ruby system.  This was ironic, considering her service in the neighboring Emerald system.  But soon, the man moved on to point out the 24-carat gold-base sculpture, highlighted by micro-platinum "piping" bringing out the lines of the unicorn heads.  He then finished up with the descriptions of the ten round cut diamonds which equaled five carats in total.

They began the paperwork for the sale and the manager asked Mikah if there was a special occasion she was shopping for?  Mikah shrugged and said there wasn't.  Munarshu kept his comments to himself as the others were used to this sort of thing from Mikah.  Deciding to continue "welcoming" Munarshu to the crew, Inger caught his attention as he browsed and said, "You should get something for your mother."  This comment got a good laugh from the crew members in the shop, and smiles from the staff.  They had no clue what was so funny, but were willing to join in because these customers were important and wealthy.  And spending.

Following the jokes at Munarshu's expense, Inger couldn't help considering her stolen jewelry as she browsed the shop's selections.  Mentioning her lost loot, Aali asked if anyone else had followed up with the JAG to see what had happened with the complaint investigation?  When no one spoke up, Inger suggested they should.  The chatter died out, and Inger planned to follow up when back at the ship.  Inger looked for something that would complement her lanthanum ring.  The nearest clerk suggested she couldn't go wrong with something in yellow gold.

When she asked if Inger wanted a ring that interlaced with the lanthanum ring, Inger said she was also looking for earrings, like Mikah.  Examining Inger's ring, which was a clear stone mounted on "bronze-ish" lanthanum, the woman started offing choices of yellow or white gold, platinum, iridium and various colored precious stones.  While Inger looked over the pieces in the display, a pair of emerald-set gold earrings caught her attention.  She liked that they would match most of her party dresses.  Asking to see the pair, the clerk drew them out and Inger was able to catch the cost of Cr 2,000.

Looking closer at the pair, they were made in a "drop stone" style with the emeralds surrounded by a spray of white semi-precious stones.  Looking in a mirror, Inger was pleased at the "green planet surrounded by stars" effect against the flaming universe of her red hair.  After trying them on, Inger went ahead and bought them.  Mikah and Inger made their buys while the others browsed, but no one saw anything that really caught anyone's attention.  They were going back to their ride and talking about the next stop soon enough.  When Munarshu suggested shopping for engineering and ship-support tools, Aali agreed and they were off.

While riding, Mikah saw she had a message on her comms from Terin.  After hearing the Knight's message replying to her earlier call, Mikah called him back.  Making a bee-line back to the ship, Terin was almost at the berth when Mikah's call came through.  When Terin asked how he could help her, Mikah said she'd earlier called to get his opinion on survival gear, but they'd already bought it so it was too late.  When Terin asked, Mikah explained what she'd bought and Terin made some comparisons with his gear.  Mostly, that the new gear came with fire survival gear.  Soon after the call, Terin got to the ship to find Zimzod relaxing and watching vids and Rol making lunch.

Lunch Plans And Paybacks

     Rol had ordered the food after the others left, and then set an appointment with security.  Around 11am, as Rol did gear maintenance, the caterer arrived.  As usual, the man activated a small troop of androids that loaded the food order into the ship's galley.  When that was done, Rol relaxed until it was time to start cooking lunch, and even adjusted his ingredients as Terin returned from his run.  Terin went into his stateroom to shower and dress while lunch was cooked.  In his stateroom, Terin hid the Cr 500 instrument.

Leaving his stateroom, Terin found Sir Zimzod blocking the way after opening his door.  Surprised, Terin asked, "Sir Zimzod?" and the First Officer asked, "Hi Terin.  Wanna get in some zero-g practice?"  And Terin couldn't miss Zimzod's menacing grin.  Terin said he would but would wanted to eat lunch and check up on his research first.  Affecting a surprised tone, Zimzod said, "Wow, I thought you wanted to practice in the cargo bay the way you were shooting your mouth off earlier."  Terin responded, "I do.  After an hour to eat lunch and check my research." in an easy voice.  Accepting that, Zimzod said, "Ok then, let's grab chow."

After eating lunch and cleaning up, Rol checked his emails and found the usual requests and offers for appearances and interviews.  There were a few from TAS, which Rol actually read thanks to his experiences with the network.  The TAS requests were invitations like the others, asking if he wanted to make further interviews?  They also asked after the crew, and especially those who'd been aboard the Dawnstar Horizon.  He was even offered a "Finder's fee" if he helped convince those crew to participate.

When Terin finished eating, he checked the search he'd set up and found it listed a huge number of computer sites which would provide ratings for funeral services and cremation.  Starting to manually check each site, the first level of refinement was to ignore the sites demanding a paid membership to check ratings and reviews.  The few other sites he checked into seemed to be listings of thousands of links by the name of each Funerary provider.  Each time he clicked on a link, Terin would see another monstrously large list of items which varied in the type and apparent quality of data entered by the reviewer.

Trying to make usable sense out of so much data, Terin only checked a few links from a handful of sites before he accepted that there was just too much data to do more than take one of the positive reviews at its claims.  So, Terin made his selection and called a mortician's contact to be greeted by a representative who asked how he could help?  Terin said he represented a ship which had lost a crewmember recently and needed to hire a firm to retrieve the body from the hospital and prepare it for a viewing.  Then, to recover the body after the funeral, cremate the remains and deliver the ashes to his ship.

The representative started asking questions and Terin started giving names, and he could see the bells ringing behind the rep's eyes.  It quickly became apparent the man knew exactly who Terin was talking about, and everything that had been publically released.  Including the fact the Duke planned to be involved in the funeral somehow.  When Terin asked about costs, the man said a lot depended on the combat damage to the body, since they wanted the viewing to be open casket.

The estimate was between KCr 5 and 10, and would be firmed up once they had custody of the body.  Now with some information to share, Terin said he had to check with the ship's captain before he could give any authorizations and cut the line.  Calling Mikah, Terin got the approval to proceed and called the funeral providers back.  Getting the same representative on the line, Terin said the ship's captain had approved the price range and was given the explanation of steps that had to be taken.

First, Terin had to call the hospital and grant the providers permission to take custody of Sir Zachariah’s remains.  Then, he'd need to tell the port about the providers, so they could interface with each other to get the body to the ceremonies.  They would even send files to Terin, identifying the vehicles and personnel involved.  So there were no questions when it came to identification and security.  When Terin agreed, and signed off with them, he quickly received the file and made the calls to the port and hospital.

Done with that, and wondering what to do with the rest of his afternoon, Terin turned from the terminal to see Zimzod hovering over him...waiting.  After flinching from the initial surprise, Terin responded to the Knight's evil smile saying, "So impatient." with a nod of his head.  As the two regarded each other, Zimzod asked if Terin was ready to go "play" and Terin said he was.  After securing his terminal, Terin and Zimzod went back to the cargo bay to turn off the gravity and "play".

More Fun On The Station

     Stopping at one of the many engineering services and support stores along the way, Munarshu went to investigate the gravitic screwdrivers in stock.  Using gravitic force to push or pull or apply force to connecting screws, bolts, etc, the hand grip was an electronic work aide.  Checking the offerings, Munarshu found a more advanced unit than his failing screwdriver for Cr 500.  Aali, who'd followed her junior engineer in, saw what Munarshu was looking at and made it clear she approved of the buy.  They then considered buying microfoil, but decided they had enough supply of that.

When Munarshu looked for a sonic probe, he found the device was largely considered a "burglar’s tool".  So the chain they were in didn't sell the device.  Checking the port-web on his net-connected glasses, Munarshu also asked Aali if the ship had a portable densometer?  Aali said it did as she and the others browsed the shop.  Eventually, Munarshu's search brought back a few dozen sonic probes for sale with a bulk of them on auction sites.  Trying to ignore the auctions, Munarshu tried to hone in on the top quality items.  But he found those were only being sold on the auction sites he wanted to avoid.  Even worse, many were not even pictured in the sales.

Eventually, Munarshu realized he wasn't getting a probe and paid for his screwdriver before they moved on.  Munarshu said his best suit was fifteen years old and he'd like something new for the concert later.  Inger jumped on that bandwagon, saying she needed a new dress.  When that started, they all agreed to stop for lunch and then go to a clothing store.  While riding, Aali said she didn't need anything despite Emkir's suggestion she get something fun and frilly.  But she was used to life in the scouts and a lack of room for a large wardrobe.  Checking that space, she and Emkir shared a stateroom and the storage there.

The place they stopped for chow was "middle of the ground" and cost everyone Cr 20 each.  While eating, they saw their first signs the media were aware of their activities.  Then they moved on to a mid-style scanner-based clothing store.  As they arrived in the shop, Munarshu made it clear he was looking for the sort of suit which would be fitting for a concert.  Inger told him casual dress was accepted, but if he wanted to dress up, he certainly had that option.  The staff at the shop were ready to help with a suit and wanted to know what accessories he needed as well?  As they talked, Inger admitted she liked to dress up and Emkir said that it was worth the wait to see Inger dressed up.

As they talked about the kind of suit Munarshu wanted, and Inger suggested a casual suit, Aali reminded them all Munarshu would need a suit for the funeral too.  Emkir chimed in, reminding them Duke Leonard would be part of the funeral and Inger suggested a casual suit for the concert and a more formal suit for the funeral.  Munarshu suggested a single suit with some other shirts and accessories which were alternatively formal or casual.  Eventually, with the help of the shop staff, Munarshu spent Cr 1,200 on a single civilian Vilani style suit with an additional shirt, shoes and basic accessories.  With that decided, they led him off to be scanned and begin the fabrication process.

Mikah spent the time looking at options and decided to go for a Solomani style grey business suit with slacks and flats while Emkir worked to convince Aali she needed more sexy frilly things.  But Aali waved that off as Inger looked for something "not green".  "Not green", for Inger, meant purple and white.  Mikah's suit cost her Cr 1,000 as Inger went for a knee-length party dress showing a bit of cleavage.  The shoes were matching two-inch pumps and a pair of white gold and amethyst ear rings.  These eventually cost Inger Cr 1,500.

While Aiden had the suits he'd bought on Mora and wasn't going to the concert, he considered the upcoming funeral and thought about combining needs.  A new suit should be solemn enough for the funeral, and also have the ability to be used casually.  Next, he wondered if they could make it out of the same ballistic cloth Inger had a suit made from?  When he settled on a black suit with accessories, it ended up costing Cr 2,000.  With no one else adding to their wardrobe, the crew went out to the van to see a much larger media contingent and Mikah made the decision it was time to return to the ship.  Despite the barrage of called questions and requests, even Munarshu acquitted himself well as he repeated the mantra "No Comment" and they got back aboard the van and returned to the berth.

Meanwhile, The Others were...

     When the station security vehicle arrived, Rol went out to give his statement on the attack at the trade show.  Despite the event having happened only just over 100 days before, Rol had the feeling it had been years since then.  Still, he was able to recall the event in enough detail to give his testimony.  All his comments and answers were recorded and he was placed under the restriction of a testifying witness during the process.  It did help that the authorities had a full video of the attack, which allowed Rol to assume the roll of narrator and commenter on the events.  Eventually, after half-hour trips to and from the station and an hour giving testimony, Rol returned to the ship.

When Rol got back to the berth's lounge, he could hear what sounded like Zimzod...giggling.  Stepping into the lounge proper and asking, "What's so funny?" Rol saw Zimzod giggling at some kind of comedy vid while Terin was on the other side of the lounge working at a terminal.  Stopping and looking closer, Rol realized Sir Terin was all bruised up.  They greeted each other and Terin answered the unasked question glumly.  "We did some zero-g training."  After Rol replied, "You don't seem to have had much training."  Zimzod laughed out, "Dude!  I used him like a beachball!"

Looking at Terin, Zimzod happily continued, "Dude, you bounce off ship walls real good."  Terin did reflect to himself that he learned something despite Rol's opinion.  He learned not to piss off Zimzod.  Rol only nodded and said, "Well, you're lucky he went easy on you."  Zimzod admitted to Terin that he'd set the grav-fields so that they never actually hit any walls.  Anyone getting too close to a surface would be repulsed back, though this often used some interesting levels of force too.  Of course, he said this with a level of condescension, making it clear he could have made things a lot worse for Terin.

When Rol asked when the next training session was, the unspoken answer was, 'When the bruises heal.'  Done with the conversation, Rol settled in to ask about Terin's run?  Terin told Rol how the rest of his day had gone.  After that, Terin returned to work on his research until the rest of the crew returned.  Rol went into his stateroom and busted out laughing for a bit.  Then, he went back to watch vids with Zimzod after laying out the suit he planned to wear to the concert.  Before watching the vids, Rol snuck a chance to take a picture of Sir Terin and his bruises.

At a point in the afternoon, a courier from InstellArms had arrived and dropped off gear from a shotgun to duffle bags marked as survival gear.  Zimzod took charge, as First Officer, and had the gear moved into the ship's locker until it could be sorted.  Zimzod did check out the shotgun and nodded because it was effective.  Nothing special, but effective.  When the bus-load of crew returned, the bills came to Cr 60, and Mikah paid.

    Sunday, 302-1112: 4 pm
Dinner And Deliveries

     Back at the ship, Mikah saw Terin's new 'coloring' and went up to slap him on the back and ask how things were going?  She didn't know how he'd gotten beaten up, but enjoyed the flinch of pain that resulted from her slap.  Straightening up, Mikah asked, "What happened to you?" and Terin said "I'm probably a little bit tender there."  Zimzod jumped in saying, "He's probably tender everywhere!" with a huge smile on his face.  Explaining he'd done some zero-g training with Zimzod, Terin returned to researching the cybernetic parts and planned to do that for the rest of the evening.

Mikah finished with Terin and asked those planning to go to the concert if they wanted to have dinner aboard the ship or at a restaurant?  They agreed to eat on the ship and Terin joked, "Eat light".  He suggested they might see the food again on their shoes thanks to the concert.  Rol asked the returning crew how the shopping went and Mikah said, "It was fantastic."  When Rol asked about anything significant, she told him about the various armored items the crew had bought.

After that, Rol updated her on the cost of the food he'd ordered.  After Rol's report, Mikah took a shower, changed cloths and relaxed until dinner was ready.  Told the gear had arrived from InstellArms, Munarshu grabbed his toys and looked around the ship's locker for a spare datapad.  He was disappointed, based on what he'd heard about Emkir's datapads, because there were no longer any spares aboard.

When she returned, Aali settled her new items and then started setting up auctions to sell the parts from Brian's gravWreck.  Munarshu came back out from the ship's locker and Aali asked him to help her with the auctions, explaining how they got the parts and hadn't sold them yet.  Because the data on all the parts were in a file provided by Wall-e, it was a simple process to research the parts to see what they were selling for on the station before grabbing the basic blurb from some site selling them new, then setting a price.  The most important part was setting the terms of delivery, so no one was coming to the ship unless they had proven credentials.  The two worked on that until dinner was served.

Inger called the JAG to ask about their stolen goods, and was told they could only say they were following up leads and had no new information on the case.  While Inger was doing that, Emkir called Captain Musnim and checked on their application status.  When he got Musnim on the line, Emkir asked if he'd had fun the night before?  The Captain asked, in a very cautious voice, if that conversation was covered under Admiral Saigacrem's umbrella?  When Emkir assured the man it was, the captain formally said, "I have decided it is in the Imperium’s best interests to certify your ship to carry x-Parcels."  Emkir smiled to himself as he answered, "Excellent!"

The Captain told him they should get notification early the next day, and Emkir repeated "Excellent!"  Emkir thanked the man, telling him the crew appreciated his help.  The Captain looked Emkir in the eyes and said "We appreciate your service to the Imperium."  When the Captain asked if there was anything else he could do for them, Emkir said he was grateful for the help and they were all set.  Cutting the line, Emkir started thinking about the need to have a safe installed and updated Mikah, asking where they wanted the safe?

Mikah said they wanted it in the cargo bay, and they discussed the size of safe to order.  They checked on the sizes available and saw they could have a three or five ton safe installed.  The maximum cargo carry amount was 5 tons, so they decided to go for that, which would take up seven tons of their cargo bay.  While they did that, Aiden put his purchases away, then grabbed an e-reader and sat in the lounge until dinner, reading and "enjoying the entertainment" that was Terin's condition.

When Rol started cooking dinner, Zimzod said he was ready to make the call and tell the tattooed man they were taking his job.  Mikah said they should call the crew together again to discuss it again before they made the call.  So, they called a crew meeting.  With everyone together, Zimzod reminded the others they had talked about the job and this was their last discussion before they accepted it.  Munarshu was of the opinion that he had no say, as hired crew.  Rol suggested they make sure to keep a full tank of fuel.

Inger asked about the pay again, and they discussed that the only real compensation was in possibly being made agents of a government.  Beyond that, they would get a payment of Cr 10,000 and the benefits that being a government agent would provide.  When Aali asked how many jumps away this was, they checked the charts and saw they'd have to jump from Rhylanor to the Equus system.  Then they'd have to jump to the Skull and Resten systems, moving into the Lunion subsector.  Next, they'd jump to the subsector capitol, Lunion, before passing through the Rabwhar system, on the very edge of the empire's borders.  Finally, they'd jump to the D'Ganzio system.  So it was six total jumps.

That was also one jump short of the Lanth system.  When they asked about how to get to Zach's homeworld, to deliver his body, they started to discuss how they'd get to the Gothe system.  They saw they could run the Imperial border in a rimward line and then cut spinward to the Five Sisters subsector to get to Gothe.  If not that, they had to continue spinward through the Vilis subsector and then turn rimward through the Darrian Confederation.  When Zimzod asked again if anyone objected to taking the job, Inger asked if 'credentials for a gun' were really worth all this?

Zimzod made it clear he thought it was worth it, and even Sir Terin said that being agents of a government could open doors for them.  Rol countered that, saying it could close doors too.  When Inger again asked if this was really worth the price of the weapon, she was reminded this wasn't paying for the weapon.  It would just give them permission to shop for the weapon.  When Zimzod said he hoped that doing a favor for InstellArms would help them cut the price down, they talked about how there was no evidence they were doing InstellArms a favor.  For all they knew, they could be helping someone smuggle something into the system which InstellArms didn't want imported.

When that point was made, it became clear this could put them on the wrong side of InstellArms if it went bad.  Terin joined Munarshu in admitting he had no vote.  With a smile on his face, Zimzod joked, "You're a servant.  Shut up bitch!" and got a lot of laughs.  Rol brought up the legality of the unknown cargo and Zimzod and Mikah both said the tattooed man had said the cargo would be completely legal.  Rol said he'd hardly have told them if it was illegal, and they all had to admit that was true.

Still, Rol said he was neutral on the job.  He would do it to help out Zimzod, but saw no other reason to do the job or not want to do it.  Aali admitted she felt she was in the same place Rol was.  She only wished there was some indication what was in the cargo they'd be shipping?  When Zimzod suggested they could find a way to open and re-seal the container, both Emkir and Aali said that was not an option, given the encryption on a cargo seal.  Rol warned that they could possibly activate something explosive or significantly destructive opening it in their own cargo bay.

Still, Rol and Aali admitted the crew had to start setting up jobs on their own, and those jobs would include risks.  And they were troubleshooters, so they had to run the line and take risks.  Aali admitted she felt they 'had' to take the job and Emkir said he was willing to take the risk, in hopes of a good reward.  When Emkir said his one reservation was that they didn't have a good record not getting caught with things, Rol joked that there was always a first time.  Getting serious, Rol pointed out they had to establish themselves and this would help with that.

Discussing the ramifications of the job, they all began to agree this was about more than certifying one crew member or all of them.  And they agreed they had to establish themselves.  They had to move beyond their past record and become known for doing jobs, and who they helped.  In the end, they all agreed this would be a first step, and felt there were no obvious negative implications for the Imperium.  So Zimzod called the contact number the tattooed man gave him and found himself talking to the woman instead.

Surprisingly, the woman appeared to be near the top level of a high-rise spire, dressed in very expensive professional garb which appeared to cover up all the tattoos except her throat, face and hands.  It also seemed she was in charge of, and pausing, a meeting of executives.  Looking down at her comms as if she were communicating with him every day, the woman said, "Sir Zimzod.  So pleasant to see you.  Do you have an answer for me?"  Caught by surprise, as she was obviously not your garden variety air-head after all, Zimzod said, "Uhhh...  Yeah." recovering from being a bit stunned.  When she raised an eyebrow, Zimzod continued, saying "We decided to do the job..."

He got that far and she interrupted him saying, "That's wonderful!  I'll have my people contact you about the details later on."  She then cut the contact!  No sooner had he been hung up on by the woman than there was a buzz from the berth.  Reacting to that, Mikah said, "Wow!  that was fast!"  When Mikah answered, she saw a delivery person at the berth entrance with a box.  Mikah asked who he was and what his business was and the man said his delivery firm was paid to deliver a condolences package.  Not sure what that meant, Mikah looked at Munarshu and said, "Hey Gladys, could you go out and get that?"  Aali said, "Don't open that on the ship."

Saying "Sure", Munarshu went out through engineering and grabbed the portable densometer before walking to the berth entrance.  Standing opposite the delivery man, Munarshu scanned man and package with the densometer through the plexiglas.  What he could see of the package suggested sub-packages within the main one, appearing to contain small and neatly organized substances that showed some level of composition variation.  When Munarshu tried to fine tune the scan, it appeared the items were not "hard-dense", so they didn't appear to be solid objects.

Not having any more real data than he had before, Munarshu decided he would sign for the package and at least get a shot of the delivery man's ride since he seemed ready to just leave anyway.  Taking the package, Munarshu brought it into the cargo bay as the most presumably armored compartment in the ship.  There, he opened the package, which was not wrapped to be difficult to open, and found a plastifilm sheet that read "condolences for your loss, from the Open Skies Corporation".  As soon as he reported that, Mikah and the others started laughing, which confused both Terin and Munarshu.

Munarshu asked who Open Skies Corporation were and could see through the sheet of plastic to the stacks of chocolates below it.  Mikah first said, "They are no one you have to worry about." with a chuckle.  When Munarshu reported that it looked like chocolates, she told him to try one, to the laughter of the rest of the watching crew.  Munarshu simply said, "There are many things I'm willing to do as ship's crew.  This is not one of them."  He also said he was not the indentured servant, but said he didn't think the stuff would go boom.

Seeming to be investigating one of the boxes, Munarshu asked what they wanted him to do with the delivery?  Mikah said to put it in one of the rooms off the central berth space.  And when he'd done that, out of view of the crew, Munarshu took and wrapped four pieces of chocolate from one of what turned out to be ten boxes.  He saw the name on the box was that of a fairly high-end chocolatier!  Munarshu closed the opened box leaving the rest of the chocolates in the berth galley.  Eventually, Munarshu returned the densometer to engineering and made a stop in his stateroom, to store the wrapped chocolates out of view of the others.  He then returned to the lounge.

With the excitement over, Emkir got on the comms and started looking for information on a place to have scan Brian's books.  Not going to the concert, Emkir planned to spend the whole evening researching the best place to hire.  Aali also wasn't going to the concert, and planned to meditate on her stent in their stateroom.  After eating dinner, Inger changed into her new dress and prepared for the concert.  When she considered a weapon, Inger felt her hip holster just wasn't going to cut it.  Thinking about her shock cane, Inger realized it wasn't a significant defensive weapon.  Eventually, she decided not to wear a weapon at all.  Mikah changed into a casual skirt and blouse with her gauss pistol in a thigh holster.

Rol dressed in the suit he prepared, and wore his snub pistol from a hip holster.  He loaded half the six shots with Tranq and half HEAP.  Munarshu wore his suit and couldn't carry any weapons.  Zimzod put on a suit and carried his K-bar visibly, while having two of his throwing knives in a left-leg under-slacks scabbard.  Not going to the concert, Aiden decided to read a bit, watch vids and relax as Captain Paranoid felt it not smart to go out on the station by himself.  Terin planned to continue his research and recovery from the bruising.

The Evening's Events

     Of those who went to the concert, Rol really enjoyed it.  He even liked it better than Dame Inger.  Munarshu and Mikah thought the concert was "OK".  It wasn't something Mikah or Munarshu would do again if it was the same music.  But they weren't sorry they went, and had a good enough time.  Still, after the first ten minutes of the performance, Zimzod said "I'll see you later" and left.  When he was asked later, Zimzod's view was that, while he didn't agree with Aiden much, and didn't know Terin, he thought they were 100% correct on this concert.  Before Zimzod left, Munarshu offered his four companions a piece of chocolate each.

Rol asked, "Where did this come from?" and Mikah accepted one saying she planned to save hers for later.  Inger took hers and munched on it right out as Rol examined the piece and noticed it appeared to be very high-end chocolate.  Very appreciably, after swallowing the candy, Inger asked "Where did you get these?" in a voice that suggested she'd leave 'right now' to get more.  Munarshu told them these were four pieces of the chocolate which were delivered from Open Skies.  Mikah told Inger she'd observe the former administrator medically just in case and Rol tried his.  It tasted...really...good!

Recognizing the name of the chocolatier, Rol mumbled, "Oh Man!  I've been wanting to try these guys for a long time."  Still not certain about them, Mikah looked for a way to wrap hers up and save it so it didn't melt.  At the same time, Zimzod ate and enjoyed his before asking Munarshu for another one.  Munarshu said he pulled them from a box that started out with 12 pieces, so there were eight more.  The rest were in the galley in the berth.  When Rol said he wanted to experiment with the chocolates, Munarshu pointed out there were nine more boxes in the galley at the berth.

Still, despite the chocolates, Zimzod eventually left them and went to a bar to see if he could get laid.  Leaving the theater, Zimzod checked into a number of the places nearby and found the prices too high, the people too over-dressed and too snooty for his tastes.  So he grabbed a Cr 15 cab out of that area of the station and asked the driver to find a good drinking bar.  When the driver asked some questions about his tastes, Zimzod made it clear he was just ship's crew and had been brought into the wrong part of the station.

Taking a hint from their conversation, the driver dropped him at a working class bar where Zimzod's suit set him apart almost as much as his visible blade sheath.  Still, there were no fights and Zimzod was very friendly with everyone, even raising a toast or two.  But after spending Cr 40 on drinks, the Knight ended up spending another Cr 20 to get back to the ship without a friend in tow.  On the way back from the concert, Munarshu geabbed the last chocolate himself.

On the ship, Terin had confirmed that he'd have to sit down and have a heart to heart chat with the captain about dealing with the underworld on the cybernetics.  There were no other options he could see.  Emkir spent the evening researching who to hire to scan Brian's books.  By the evening's end, he narrowed his search down to four or five facilities advertising they served a number of museums and confirmed the claims were true.  So, these five would be the ones he'd like to meet with, and perhaps bring one of the books as an example.  Alongside him, Aali worked on the auctions alone after Munarshu left for the concert.  Aali was saving the 'droid parts until she could compare them with the 'droids they were buying, and see if any of them were useful as spares.

    Sunday, 302-1112: 10:30pm
Where everyone is at the end of the session:
     After the concert the night before, everyone had returned to the ship

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Next: Hobbing With The Nobs