Character: Vlad
NPC:Yipven Toanes
Location: Miishakaal upper deck
System: Umilikha
1125.10.1 - 11:05
Vlad is in the passenger lounge. He'd been dozing in the first level of sleep,
the state where each and every sound awakens him, until the ship entered
Umilikha's atmosphere. He's been awake ever since.
He was in the middle of calisthenics when the captain's voice came in over the
comm, "Vlad?"
"Vlad here captain."
"Would you please inform our guest that her presence is requested by starport
security."
"Yes!"
Vlad marches right over to Yipven's quarters and rings the buzzer.
"Yes?" Yipven's voice comes through the door speaker.
"Miss Toanes. We have arrived at the starport. Starport Security would like to
have a word with you. I am to escort you to them."
"Just a minute," she sounds mildly annoyed.
A minute goes by and the door opens. Yipven is back in her vacc suit but a quick
whiff of the nostrils informs Vlad that she has recently showered.
"This way Miss Toanes." Vlad escorts Yipven to the lift and down to the
starboard airlock.
Characters: Vlad &anp; Shiraamer
NPC:Yipven & Chuck
Location: Miishakaal starboard airlock
11:10
Vlad and Yipven arrive at the starboard airlock.
The captain, who is holding the flight recorder, greets them, "Good morning Miss
Toanes. I hope you slept well."
"As well as can be expected, thank you."
"And you Vlad? Sorry that you only got three hours of sleep."
"It's nothing captain."
Chuck's voice comes in over the comm, "Starport Security is here. Shall I let
them in?"
"Yes, go ahead Chuck," the captain replies.
The airlock cycles. Two men in standard Imperial Starport Security uniforms
arrive. Each has a sidearm holstered.
"Lieutenant Kiviat requesting permission to come aboard captain." He's a dashing
man of Solomani appearance, probably south Asian. Looks to be in his early
30's.
"Permission granted," the captain smiles.
"I take it this is the survivor."
"Yipven Toanes," introduces herself.
"Miss Toanes. I am sorry for what you had to endure. I'm also sorry that per
Ziru Sirkaa regulations, I must take a statement from you regarding the
incident." To the captain he says, "Is this the flight recorder?"
"Yes it is." She hands it over to him.
"Thank you. I have one further request. I'll need a copy of your sensor data
from the moment you arrived in system." He presents a holocrystal. "I'm sorry
but it's for the investigation. You may use this holocrystal."
He hands the holocrystal over to Shiraamer.
"Just a moment," Shiraamer heads to the bridge.
Once there she hands it to Chuck and explains to him what she needs. She adds,
as per her routine level of paranoia, "Make sure nothing's on it first. I don't
want any computer viruses or spyware on my ship."
"Aye aye cap'n."
Shiraamer rejoins the group at the starboard airlock. "It'll be just a minute.
My bridge officer is downloading the data now."
Yipven has a warm smile on her face as she says "Captain, many thanks for
picking me up. As you know I'm on route to Ashki so I'd ask if you can give me
passage. I'd be happy to work for it, or pay standard middle rates."
"I'm sorry," the captain replies, "We're not taking passengers at this time."
"Thanks anyway."
Lt. Kiviat places a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry Miss Toanes. I'm sure
that you'll find passage soon enough." He casts a glance at the captain but
continues to talk to Yipven, "Plenty of traders passing through here take on
passengers."
An uncomfortable silence lingers for a few seconds and is mercifully broken by
the return of Chuck.
He jogs over with the holocrystal, "Here you go cap'n. It's all good." He hands
it to her and returns immediately to the bridge.
Shiraamer hands the holocrystal over to Lt Kiviat.
"Thank you captain. If you have any other information that you think may be of
use in our investigation, please feel free to contact me. And again, thank you
for your search and rescue work."
"Glad that I could help."
Lt. Kiviat, his unnamed escort, and Yipven Toanes leave the ship.
Characters: Lakir &anp; Shiraamer
NPC:Chuck
Location: Miishakaal
11:20
Lakir is awakened by the captain's voice over the intercom, "Lakir. Time to rise
and shine. I'm going to contact Umilikha Mining and find out when they're
coming over."
"I'm up," Lakir yawns.
The captain continues, "Gvarokh has you down as cargo handler today since you're
the only one who's had a full night of sleep."
"Fair enough."
Lakir gets dressed and heads down to the galley to chow down some breakfast.
He's just started to eat when the captain enters to refresh her coffee.
"Hi Lakir. Umilikha Mining will be here to pick up their bots in a few minutes."
Noticing that he's eating, she adds, "Sorry."
"No prob cap'n."
Lakir inhales the rest of his breakfast and heads into the cargo hold. As he
opens the main hatch he sees a cargo tractor pull up. Behind it are several
empty tram carts. Lakir waves to them after they park. Two men get out and walk
over.
The taller, older, and burlier, of the two asks, "Miishakaal, right?"
"That's us," Lakir replies.
The tall, burly man extends his hand and shakes Lakir's, "Patrick Gadsby.
Umilikha Mining. Freight Procurement." He looks like he's in his 40's.
"Lakir. Cargo schlep."
Gadsby chuckles, then introduces his assistant, "This here's Michael." He's
looks to be in his mid-20's and has a medium build. Lakir shakes hands with him.
Gadsby points in the general direction of the cargo as he pulls out a datapad,
"Mining robots courtesy of Hrun, right?"
"Yep."
"Alright then. Let's get to it. We'll give you a hand."
The three men get to work maneuvering the crates out of the hold and onto the
tram carts.
"Know any good places to catch a bite....we're kinda new around these parts..."
The two men exchange glances and then laugh. Gadsby then says, "Now that's a
question we often ask ourselves."
Seeing the confusion on Lakir's face he adds, "If we want to dine out, as it
were, all we've got is the food court. There are three chains that lease the
space from the mining company and one independent. You've got The Wandering
Shugilii, which is all Vilani fare, El Matador, which is a Mexican
chain, and Shakiiralii Sandwiches, a Vilani-Solomani fast food chain. The
local caters to the breakfast and lunch crowd. The gal who runs it dubbed the
place Hell's Kitchen. It's probably the most popular of all of them,
besides the company cafeteria, as people know she's one of them. Anyone who's
been topside finds the name..." he pauses to add a smile, "fitting."
"Hunh. Thanks for the tip- sounds like ya ain't got a very scenic spread here.
You boys seen much traffic through here lately?"
Gadsby shrugs, "No more than usual. Demand for our resources is always good, and
the war only adds to it. Once word gets out that there's been pirate activity
here, we might see a drop in business. But I'm sure the company heads will
remind people that we've got a naval base here, even if it is a small one."
"Yeah...we came across the remains of a poor schmuck lookin like he tangled with
a pirate...ship called the Roundhead. Don't suppose you've heard of her...?"
"Sure have. She was just here. She delivered medical supplies, took on
passengers and I think some potassium chloride. Mike, do you remember?"
"Yeah, it was potassium chloride. Her hold had other stuff in it so she didn't
take more than a ten tons or so."
Gadsby continues, a bit somberly, "And there's the downside of this war. It's
great for business but lousy as shit on living."
"Crappy way to go...have your ass shot outta space for ten tons of antacid...
'less you plan on fabbing your own sand canisters." Lakir lets out a sad chuckle
and goes back to unloading.
The rest of the unload goes smoothly. The captain had the cargo hold packed, so
even with help, it takes a couple hours, and a couple trips with the cargo
tractor to get everything. Once it's all done, Lakir heads up to the galley for
some water and comms the captain to let her know the hold is empty.
Character: Shiraamer
Location: Miishakaal bridge
11:30
After waking Lakir, contacting Umilikha Mining to arrange pickup of their
cargo, and refreshing her coffee, Shiraamer is ready to begin checking out
CargoNet to see what's available for hauling or speculating.
Chuck excused himself to go shower and eat.
CargoNet appears to focused on one thing: ores. And the hot surface conditions
have made refining them a snap. The prices are low enough that the captain is
tempted to speculate. Since Ashki is the next stop on this trip, the captain
narrows down her search accordingly. She considers speculating but decides that
the ship's bank account is too low to risk it. Instead she keeps it simple and
just picks those freight lots that will fill up her hold.
She contacts Umilikha Mining an informs them that she will haul 50 tons of
aluminum and 10 tons of copper. The remaining space she allocates for hauling
the mail, a much more lucrative freight per capita. A delivery time is set up
based on when she thinks Lakir will be done and all of sudden the captain's
work is done for the day.
Checking through her email, she notes that Vincent has seen to the refueling and
refurbishment of life support. The fuel is now purifying.
It is now 12:30 and the captain decides that it's time for lunch.
Characters: Lakir &anp; Shiraamer
Location: Miishakaal crew lounge
14:00
Lakir has just entered the galley, having finished unloading the ship. He's just
commed the captain to let her know that the hold is empty. As he drinks some
water and begins to prepare himself some lunch, the captain enters.
"Lakir, just so you know, our next batch of cargo arrives at 15:00."
Lakir notes that that gives him an hour to rest and eat. He nods to indicate he
understands.
15:00
Lakir has made his way to the cargo hold just as the first shipment of the
outbound cargo arrives. The grav truck is loaded down with aluminum rods.
Fortunately, it comes with a forklift so it looks like Lakir won't be needing
the pallet jack. Two burly women get out of the truck and walk over to you.
The driver introduces herself as Angie McGuirt and her assistant is Gladys
Wachovia. Lakir introduces himself in return.
"Good. An empty hold. That'll make for easy loading," Angie says.
In the meantime, Gladys heads over to the forklift and fires it up.
Character: Gvarokh
Location: Gvarokh's quarters
15:00
Sometime around 11, Gvarokh was awakened by a rumbling in the ship. A glance at
the terminal in his room, which is always linked to the Bridge computer,
revealed that everything was normal. A quick check through of the telemetry
coming through the sensors indicated that the ship was entering Umilikha's
atmosphere. Everything was just fine. Gvarokh went back to sleep.
And now Gvarokh has awakened, feeling refreshed after 8 hours of sleep.
After showering, Gvarokh heads to the bridge before grabbing himself something
to eat. The captain is there, staring out the window with a cup of coffee. Her
back is to the iris. Chuck is there as well. He looks tired, but alert.
"Afternoon Gvarokh," Chucks says briefly before resuming whatever it is he's
doing.
Gvarokh acknowledges him, "Chuck."
Upon hearing Chuck greet Gvarokh, the captain turns and greets Gvarokh, "Hello
old friend. Sleep well?"
"Yes, thank you," Gvarokh replies. He makes his way over to where the captain is
standing. He sees Lakir hard at work loading the ship with what appears to be
aluminum columns. The ship appears to be underground. The walls are clearly
bedrock. "What did I miss?"
"Not much," she shrugs, "Lakir's loading up our cargo for Ashki. Vincent's
refining the fuel. We should be good to go sometime this evening." Apparently
the captain has taken care of everything while Gvarokh slept.
Next: Leaving Umilikha