Episode 401: Hot Cargo, Cold Cash - Part Three
Monday, 14 April 2521- Wednesday, 16 April 2521
Kuiper II class, Summer’s Gift
En route to Urvasi
Patching up human hurts aside, going over the damage done to the Gift, Rina ascertains that our maneuverability, sensors, power—virtually everything save life support and related systems are at half capacity. So we’re flying, but not as well as we could be. Over the next two days, Rina tries fixing everything she can.
Kiera and the girls settle into the passenger routine. The girls keep to themselves for the most part and Kiera mixes a little more with the crew. She gets a tour of the med bay from Arden and she notices that it’s really well stocked for a ship of this type. She also notices that whereas a ship of our class would normally have just one medical bed that doubles as an exam table, we have a separate wardroom with three additional beds. How strange. Then again, her introduction to the crew and the ship couldn’t hardly be called… calm.
It’s glaringly obvious looking at the facilities that we’re in the rough and tumble quite a bit. It’s also obvious to her trained eye that everyone on the crew has suffered injuries from the rough and tumble. In addition, she’s noticed that though Rina’s ethnically Russian, her cheekbones and chin don’t follow the Slavic model but instead are… not. And then there’s the matter of her nose having been broken and set, but... Oh, what she could do for that poor woman if given enough time… and likely vodka.
And of course, Kiera can’t resist checking out Arden’s rear and nodding to herself whenever she passes him and such is her sense of humor that she twits him on it.
Kiera: Saggy butt. I can fix it. No man wants to deal with uneven butt cheeks, that’s all I have to say.
Arden: I really don’t care how even my butt cheeks are but if it bothers you though, that’s another matter…
Rina: (in passing, coffee in hand) Maybe she can kiss’em and make it better.
Arden: (smirking) Maybe.
And the conversation just degenerates from there.
Wednesday, 16 April 2521
Kuiper II class, Summer’s Gift
Urvasi, moon of Heaven
Kalidasa (Xuan Wu) system
09:45hrs, ship’s time
We come out of pulse pretty much blind. Our sensors are pretty much shot—Rina wasn’t able to do much with the repairs in transit, given the array is on the outside of our girl. Coupled with all the lights still blinking on the bridge, it’s hard to make out which light is a warning and which is just something on the fritz. Still, Nika drops us out of pulse and we manage not to auger into a moon or plow into anybody.
Comm: ##re ##si con##am ###to ##epar## ##e #ord## st## to…
Nika checks our short range sensors and we’re getting nothing but periodic blips. It could be a hiccup due to damage or there could be another ship out there. She can’t tell. She’s pretty much reduced to looking out the windows at this point. Urvasi’s just one moon out of the 60-odd orbiting Heaven. Four of them are densely populated. The rest are privately owned. Even so, that makes for a lot of signals traffic to sift through. Nika reduces our speed, slaps on the Gift’s emergency beacon and gets on the intercom to the crew.
Nika: Guys, our radio is out. I’m going to attempt to put us into orbit and not land us yet. I’m not sure we can make it through atmo.
Arden: Can we make the radio work somehow?
Nika: That’s next. Rina, do what you can.
Rina: I’m on it.
She heads aft for the machine shop. Arden calls after her.
Arden: We’ve got the English wheel.
Rina: Fuck you, Arden.
Arden: I didn’t mean it as an insult.
Rina: Yes, you did.
Arden: No I didn’t.
Rina: Vernitieh vas.
Joshua: Please, not over the comm.
After all, it’s not like our passengers are deaf or anything.
Joshua: All passengers, there’s nothing to be worried about.
Arden: I hate it when he says that.
Rina grabs her tools and gets to working on the bridge comms so Nika can alert Varansi traffic control we’re coming in. Nika meanwhile flies our ship through the crowded space over Heaven. Our emergency beacon seems to have attracted the attention of several ships and looking through the bridge windows Nika spots two of them approaching. They appear to be small patrol craft of some kind. Rina manages to get the comms fixed enough so we’ve more signal than noise and it’s not long before we’re hailed.
Comm: (Hindi-accented) Maintain your current course as best you can. We are going to try to dock with you. Do not attempt any maneuvers.
Nika: Patrol craft, you are advising no maneuvering and are attempting to dock.
Comm: That is right.
Nika: Acknowledged.
Nika gets Kiera on the comm.
Nika: Nobody on this planet is going to be chasing these people, are they?
Kiera: Not that I know of. They belong here.
Yes, along with the rest of the 80 million people of Urvasi.
Nika orders Joshua to stand by the airlock to meet the docking party.
What appears to be an armed and armored shuttle craft approaches alongside. Rina’s on the bridge and she examines it with a critical eye. It’s not a fighter craft by any means, but it does give one cause to wonder just how rough it is out here that even shuttles are so augmented. Or perhaps Urvasi and her sister moons are scrambling to build a navy any way they can. Maybe it’s a good thing that Christian has the ASREV safe on the ground with him.
There’s a jolt and a bounce and the ship docks with us. Joshua breaks the seal on the airlock when it’s safe and meets those who walk aboard. There are four men and they’re wearing uniforms. The uniforms are clearly non-standard, hastily assembled with the pins and the patches and indentifying details pulled off, and others put in their place. With the Balkanization of the Verse and the pulling back of the Feds to the Core, we’re going to be seeing a lot more of that as time goes on.
Joshua waves the men on board.
Joshua: Greetings.
Uniformed Man #1: Good day to you, sir. So you appear to have some damage throughout your ship.
Joshua: I’m not the engineer so I couldn’t give you the exact details but I know it has to do with a bad pulse. If you’d like to come this way I can lead you to the engine room.
Uniformed Man #1: Is there anyone who is injured?
Joshua: No, we’re all okay. We have a doctor on board.
Uniformed Man #1: We are able to shuttle the injured to hospitals if necessary.
Joshua: I think we’re okay but we appreciate the offer.
They hit the stairs to the upper deck.
Uniformed Man #1: (gesturing at bulkhead) Kuiper class?
Joshua: Yes.
Uniformed Man #1: Hmm.
Rina’s in the engine room affecting further repairs now that we’re no longer firing our engines and Joshua’s entrance with strangers sets Rina’s twitchy to twitching. Watching the men look over the engine room, she’s fully expecting them to kill us all to steal the Gift. Uniformed Man #1 examines the thruster package she’s installed and addresses her.
Uniformed Man #1: You made this yourself?
Rina: (grudgingly) Here and there. As I can.
Uniformed Man #1: I do not believe this is a spaceworthy vehicle. I should probably—
Joshua’s on Rina in a flash, keeping her from saying or doing anything that we’d all regret. Uniformed Man #1 notes something down on the data pad he’s holding, which only ratchets Rina’s nerves a magnitude tighter.
Joshua: (softly) Rina. Rina, breathe. Breathe.
Uniformed Man #1 looks dubiously her way and continues.
Uniformed Man #1: —move to our shuttle.
Joshua: How big is this shuttle of yours?
Uniformed Man #1: It is forty tons. We have adequate space for us. We are a rescue vehicle.
Under his hands, Joshua feels Rina simmer down. Time for a change of scene.
Joshua: Why don’t I let you talk to our captain? Hold on one second. Follow me.
He gestures the men to follow him out of the engine room and out of range of the Gift’s engineer. He talks as he guides them to the foredeck.
Joshua: We were hoping you’d have some repair capabilities.
Uniformed Man #1: We do. Your vessel might be … repairable.
Joshua: We would certainly prefer to repair our vessel and continue on our journey as opposed to moving onto your shuttle.
Uniformed Man #1: I very much doubt you can repair it in orbit. It would be a hazard to let this vessel, damaged as it is, to land in a populated area. If you were to lose control, you could kill hundreds of people. Perhaps thousands.
Joshua: And we certainly wouldn’t want to do that.
Rina’s keeping her temper in check and she’s following quietly along, not trusting these uniformed men one bit. Joshua comms Nika he’s coming forward and Nika meets him in the passenger lounge. Arden sees her pass the med bay door and he follows in her wake. It’s a miniature town meeting by the time everyone’s gathered round. Only Kiera and the girls are absent, both parties deciding to remain in their respective quarters for the time being.
Joshua: So, Captain.
Nika hates it when he calls her that.
Joshua: It seems our situation here is—I’m sorry, I don’t think I got your names?
Uniformed Man #1: I am Lieutenant Netu.
Joshua: (nods) Lieutenant Netu here seems to feel our vehicle is not currently spaceworthy and that we cannot make the repairs in orbit.
Lieutenant Netu: Certainly not safe for atmospheric flight.
Joshua: And so he is offering to allow us to…?
Lieutenant Netu: I will give you passage to the planet and put you in contact with orbital repair facilities.
Nika: How far is the nearest orbital repair facility?
Lieutenant Netu: Well, these would be independent ones. They will come to you.
Nika: (nice!) Oh.
Lieutenant Netu: I have a cousin who operates one.
Rina: (getting wise) Oh.
Joshua: That’s nice.
Lieutenant Netu: Of course, you would have many to choose from, if you wish.
Joshua: Of course.
Lieutenant Netu: But I am afraid looking at the ship as it is and damage outside, which you may not realize, is quite extensive. It would not be safe to allow you to enter atmosphere.
Nika’s quiet as she considers the report.
Nika: Certainly we don’t want to land her anywhere we might potentially lose control of her and injure innocent civilians.
Lieutenant Netu: I appreciate your… acquiescence. So shall I arrange for your—
Hey, hold on now!
Nika: Is there a local open space where we will be able to put her down so we can take a better look at her?
Lieutenant Netu: I am not so much concerned about the amount of space that you might take up but that you might lose control upon reentry.
Arden’s joined our little knot of crew.
Arden: She means if we can land in a desert someplace.
Nika: (to Arden) Thank you.
Lieutenant Netu: Well, Urvasi has a population distributed quite evenly. It is a small moon and there are 80 million people who live on it.
Joshua’s getting the sense that maybe the Lieutenant might not be entirely on the up and up and while he’s talking to Nika, he looks a little deeper into the man. Joshua’s pretty sure that the Lieutenant can be motivated in our favor if given a little personal … inducement. Which is pretty much to be expected because even though he is a law enforcement officer and it’s in entirely within his authority to inspect ships and detain them if they’re hazards, who’s to say a little shakedown action doesn’t happen here and there.
Rina:(quietly) Captain. I can put on a suit, go outside. Take a look.
After all, the Lieutenant Netu isn’t an engineer. What would he know from damage?
Joshua: Could you give us a couple moments?
Lieutenant Netu: Of course.
Joshua draws Nika and Rina aside.
Joshua: As far as I can tell, other than having a financial motivation to make sure that we have to go through his cousin to get repairs, he seems he’s generally on the up and up.
Rina: What makes you think his cousin isn’t going to monkeywrench something behind our backs?
Okay! Rina's paranoid worries aside…
Joshua: We have money.
Nika: (through her teeth) Can we pay him off and get him off our back?
Joshua: Probably. The question is do we have credits that we wish to do so?
We have Kira’s agreement to pay for the repairs. As Joshua said, we have money.
Joshua: So we just have to get our passenger to fork over some credits. We can certainly grease the wheels.
Nika: Do what you can do to see if you can get us down. I’d rather have Rina take a look at it and perhaps, you know, we would be more than willing to have his cousin to assist us with whatever repairs we need. But we’d rather have our engineer to also take a look. Because it’s her baby.
Joshua relays the orders to Lieutenant Netu.
Joshua: We really would like to have our engineer to be able to take a look at it. She’s one of the best there is.
Lieutenant Netu: Were you thinking of an… instant certification?
Joshua: Yes. That would be great.
Lieutenant Netu: So if she’s a trained engineer, then she should be able to pass the instant certification and she can verify the ship is safe for atmospheric travel under theose conditions. Let’s see… I believe the certification fee is 300 credits.
Joshua: The last time we had to go through an instant certification we only paid a 100. 300 seems awful steep.
Lieutenant Netu: Well, that was back when the Cortex was online. Of course, now these things take longer and it’s more paperwork for me.
Joshua: I see. Well, perhaps we could…you know, 300 credits. It’s going to be hard for us to make repairs and leave if we’re paying so much up front for instant certification. Perhaps we could…?
Lieutenant Netu: If you wish to wait for the repair crews, you could perhaps negotiate with them. Perhaps they will allow your engineer to help them. For a reduced cost.
Joshua: I see.
Lieutenant Netu: Or perhaps it will cost more.
And that’s the name of that tune. Joshua’s well aware of Rina’s reputation with repair crews and can already see how that scenario will play out.
Joshua: I’d rather pay you the instant certification fee up front than having to funnel it through the repair crew.
Lieutenant Netu: Perhaps for 250? I would take a hit myself. I empathize with your situation.
Joshua: I appreciate that.
Joshua takes a read, hoping to find out if this new figure is the Lieutenant’s bottom figure, the bargaining anchor. Maybe, maybe not. They bargain some more and when all’s done, the handshake sets it at 200 platinum.
Joshua: I’ll have our engineer work on the instant certification to make sure all the forms are filled out properly and such. If you could make sure to let us know where we may land…?
Lieutenant Netu: I will let you land and fill the certification out so it will be retroactive instant certification, but you will need to check with the starport authorities.
Joshua: Much appreciated.
Lieutenant Netu: Which starport are you going to?
We’re going to Varansi.
Lieutenant Netu: Who is your pilot? I encourage you to take a southerly route. That way if you explode in atmo you are in mostly sparsely populated areas.
Nika: Fair enough.
Joshua: We appreciate your thoughtfulness. Thank you for your help.
Well then!
Lieutenant Netu: (pleasantly) If there’s no injured people to be transported?
Joshua: (ditto) No. We appreciate your quick arrival.
Lieutenant Netu: If you are still in orbit, we’ve noted that your orbit will probably decay in the space of 48 hours. So if you’re still here after that time, I can’t guarantee that another crew won’t board your ship.
Joshua: Sure. We understand. (a beat) Once again, much appreciated. Thank you.
Lieutenant Netu gives Joshua a special code to broadcast to let others know our status. Our comms is in good enough repair to send out a simple emergency code and the one Lieutenant Netu gave us shouldn’t be a problem. The Lieutenant leaves and Joshua hands it over. We go to the bridge so Rina can install the code.
Arden: So our radio’s fixed up enough to communicate and land? I’m thinking of landing directions, you know. So instead of it being ‘Spot X’, it’s going to be ‘Spot—fshhshhtffttth!’
Joshua: She can fix it.
Certainly enough to alert everyone to get out of our way. RUN!
Nika: Yeah. ‘Run.’ There’s a lot of that going on when we land. Every time we land, it seems like, lately.
Rina: I wonder what the betting odds are?
She’s thinking of our flippity-flop landing on Beaumonde for the Mossakis-Nguyen job and how money changed hands amongst the gathered ground crew.
Joshua: It’s going to be smooth.
Nika: (snickering) I don’t know, but I’d like to get in on some of that.
Joshua puts on some soothing music over the PA for our passengers and we get underway. He keeps our passengers calm while Nika whiteknuckles us through atmo. At one point we drop an unexpected 3000 feet—drop like the proverbial rock—and Joshua assures everyone aboard that it was part of our landing sequence, everything is just fine. Just please, strap in. Because…no, just strap in.
He gets buzzed on the bridge by Kiera in her quarters.
Kiera: Is my container still on?
Joshua: We’ll find out when we land.
Kiera glares impotently at her comm panel and lies back down on her bed. If she’s going to be bouncing due to turbulence or worse, she’ll at least start on something soft.
Kiera: (yelling toward the comm) There’s no Oh-My-God straps in these damn places. How do you people fly these things?
Joshua: The Oh-My-God straps are in the second class cabins. That’s the problem with being in the first class cabins.
Kiera: No, there’s no Oh-My-God straps anywhere on this ship.
Arden: (cutting in on his comm) Why do you think I’m in med bay? I’m in those straps.
Kiera: You’re in the straps? Oh, now, you really interest me now.
Because sexual innuendo is fun when you’re about to die.
We approach Varansi spaceport and get permission to land, the controller’s liquid accent flowing from the comm.
Traffic Control: Welcome to Varansi Spaceport.
Joshua: (murmuring) Well done, Nika. Well done. (on the all-ship) We’re here. You are free to move around your cabin.
Varansi Spaceport is rather like Eavesdown Docks on Persephone. It’s a hodge-podge of vendors and businesses, buildings and containers, pedestrians and vehicles, strays and livestock. We look for our landing beacon and we find it…and as best as we can make it out, it’s in a field crammed with people and animals.
Varansi Spaceport, do we have the correct beacon? we ask. Summer’s Gift, it is a landing pad, Traffic Control assures us.
And sure enough as Nika lowers us to our assigned spot, the crowd parts like the Red Sea before Moses and allow us to land without squashing anyone or anything. And immediately the human tide washes back against our hull, holding aloft things to sell: food, trinkets, animals…the works.
Arden: I’ll bet our ship’s guns would take care of them.
Joshua: Whoa! You better hope I didn’t hear that.
Arden: Joking! Joking…
Kiera checks with her girls, and motions their spokesman over.
Kiera: Channa, did Alima give you a contact to get in touch with?
Channa: You are to take us to the Holy City and from there she has a contact with one of the monks who we believe will decide what we are to do.
Kiera: All right.
Channa: Some of the girls wish to remain in the Holy City and others, like myself, would like to see about finding a life outside.
Kiera: Fair enough.
Channa: We cannot return to our homes.
Kiera: (puzzled) Can’t go home at all?
Channa: We were… sent… to live with that man by our families.
Kiera: So basically you were bartered. Well, fair enough.
Channa: As part of a deal.
Kiera: Let me see if I can’t go figure out some transport for you.
Kiera leaves the girls and goes right to Joshua.
Joshua: Yes?
Kiera: Um, I need someone to arrange transport for the girls to the Holy City.
Joshua: Okay, do they know where they’re going once they get there? It’s a big place, from what I understand.
Kiera: They’re going to the Temple.
Joshua: There’s only one?
The Holy City is the Temple. Varansi Starport is a separate city and the Temple is a hundred kilometers away. There are no roads to the Holy City. It’s under restricted airspace. One gets to the Holy City by a single train.
Joshua: There’s a train. We’ll buy the girls tickets. Will you be travelling with them?
Alima was somewhat vague on that point in her dealings with Kiera.
Kiera: I think once we get them on the train they’ll be okay.
Joshua: Okay, I’ll see what’s involved with the cost of the tickets and—
Kiera: Oh! And a repair crew. Cuz my thing’s got holes.
Her container, what held all her worldly possessions.
Kiera: If you could get me set up with a repair crew, my cargo container has holes in it.
Joshua: Rina could probably repair it with the right materials. We’ll just have to take a look and see what we have.
Kiera: Is she a good repair person?
Joshua: Well, yeah. She’s fantastic, actually.
Kiera: So I would not be worried about breathin’ space if I let her fix it?
Joshua: No. She’s good. She’s one of the best and it would obviously save you a ton of money to have her do the work with the materials.
Kiera: If you could convey to her that I would appreciate it if she’d make my container spaceworthy…
Joshua: Of course. Are the girls ready to leave pretty much at any time?
Kiera: I know right now I’m not in a hurry.
Joshua: I’ll make sure they’re ready to leave when we get their tickets.
Kiera: If you arrange their train fares, they have their own funds to do this. If they do not, I can cover part of it.
Joshua: We’ll work something out. I can get the tickets and they could pay us.
Kiera: Fair enough.
Joshua: I’ll go brief the Captain on this.
Kiera: Now see? I love having a porter I can just send to do things. ‘Go get me train tickets…’
Joshua: That’s what I’m here for. I serve the passengers. Whatever you need. Especially the first class.
Kiera: Oh, I could get used to this again.
Meanwhile Rina gets out on the hull and starts assessing the damage, trying to see just what she can repair and what needs to be hired out, as per the agreement with the inspector. Every burn, every nick, every gouge on the hull doesn’t escape her eye. And every complaint and curse she utters over them doesn’t escape Nika on the bridge. The women have a comm channel open to better share the damage assessment: We’ve got cluster burns. We’ve got what looks like percussive damage on the hull. We’ve got—!
Nika just eyerolls at Rina’s bitching and keeps her engineer on task. Joshua walks into the middle of this and Nika turns down the volume on Rina and turns her attention to her steward.
Joshua: It looks like they’re travelling to the Holy City and there’s only one way in. It’s a train, so I need to go out and get tickets for them. And they’re going to pay us back and that discharges our service to the passengers. So I’m just letting you know.
Nika: You’re going to have to get me a repair crew as well.
Joshua: Rina?
Rina: (over the comm) Did somebody say my name in vain?
Joshua needs to know—are we having Rina do the repairs or are we getting a repair crew to do the repairs. Nika replies that she’s having Rina do what she can for us first, then we call in the crew for anything we can’t handle.
Nika: I don’t know what parts we need yet. How much do we have to work with?
Joshua: I know we have 200, 225 credits. I just wanted to give you a heads up because I don’t have any idea how much fundage she has on her.
Meaning Kiera.
Nika: Okay, go deal with the train, I’ll deal with the… (big sigh)… I need to know what kind of repairs we actually need made.
Joshua: I’ll be happy to negotiate with her for it.
When asked for a ballpark figure, Rina comes back with 200. After all, she’s going to need to fabricate fasteners for the outside gear we got off the Orcus and repair the dent in the hull and oh, replace the fuel lines and so on with her laundry list. And that’s the price it’ll cost us if Rina’s doing the work and does it well.
Rina: And that’s on a good day. I’m not charging you for my labor or time. Obviously. This is just the parts.
Nika: All right. I’ll send Joshua to have a discussion with our passenger, see how much of that she can cover.
Joshua goes back to do just that but before he does, he finds Rina to relay Kiera’s request. Miss Sullivan needs repairs done on her container as well, he tells her. Figure out how much it’s going to cost and let him know, and he’ll let Kiera know. And then he retraces his steps to the first class stateroom. He finds her getting ready to walk out her door to go shopping.
Joshua: Rina’s come in on a 200 credit estimate on the repairs to get us spaceworthy, which is actually extremely reasonable. So—
Kiera: You’re talking. Hold your hand out.
Joshua holds his hand out. Kiera slaps a stack of cash in it.
Kiera: 200 credits. There you go.
Wow. Best. Passenger. Ever.
Joshua: Can we keep on board for a little while?
Kiera: (waves) I’m going to go shopping because I’m not going to be seen in that. So she can take whatever she wants and…(gestures impatiently) … whatever.
Joshua: Okay. I’ll let you know how much the repairs to your container are then.
Kiera: Oh I don’t want it repaired. I’m getting’ rid of it.
Really, she is. When Joshua left to brief the Captain, Kiera got to thinking about having a new container custom made. No need for the old one. Was shot up to hell anyway.
Kiera: Jus’ tell her to do junk with it. I don’t want that.
Joshua: Fair enough. You are the best passenger ever. We love having you on board. Have fun shopping.
Kiera leaves and Joshua tells Rina the good news. Nix the repairs on the container. Just take whatever you want.
Rina: Really? I love you!
Rina lights up like Christmas, throws herself on Joshua, and bearhugs the stuffing out of him.
Rina: You are the BEST negotiator! I could kiss you!
Joshua: I didn’t even negotiate that but I wouldn’t object to the kissing.
Rina: No, seriously. She just flat-out gave it to us?
Joshua: (seriously!) Yeah. Plus the 200 credits for repairs.
Rina: Sweet.
Well, the interior has been exposed to the vacuum of space and is pretty much ruined for the purpose it was made.
Rina: (grinning) But but but! It’s metal. If nothing else, it’s METAL and I’ve got a TORCH! AND an English Wheel!
And she just goes monkey-nuts over the prospect of scrapping the container and playing with the parts. Joshua leaves her to it to tell Nika of the new development. It takes a minute and he wraps it up.
Joshua: And so I have no idea how much money this girl has because, Good Lord, she just decided she doesn’t want the container anymore. So she’s going shopping for a new one.
Nika: Must be nice.
Joshua: So maybe she has a job going somewhere else and…
Maybe we can convince her to let us take her to it.
Joshua: Anyway, I’m going to get the train tickets.
Nika: (pleased) Knock yourself out. Go to it.
Joshua: Thanks.
Rina takes a moment or two to inspect Kiera’s container and she sees it’s a fancy spa inside. There’s a chair that reclines into the full horizontal and is made somewhat like a dentist’s chair. It’s got straps on it, suggesting it could be used for a spa chair plus… well, who knows what? Straps to hold people down…screaming? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s also got setting controls for massage and other things, which controls are now burned through. There is a stateroom built into it to one side and it’s obvious that had the container been spacetight, Kiera would have bunked there. Looking it over, Rina finds some articles of clothing discarded as ruined by their owner and unfortunately there is a lot of spa product for hair and skin that has either frozen or boiled or been otherwise ruined by exposure to vacuum. Not much managed to remain in its original bottle and large portions of the container are splashed and smeared with the stuff.
The interior is, in a word, a wreck.
Rina determines she can salvage conduiting and wiring and couplings and such from the interior and from the exterior, container-specific parts off Kiera’s container, those things that are always failing and falling off ours. Once she’s finished with her torch, the container is going to be pretty much unusable inside and out.
However, while there’s little more that Rina would love to do right now than get to work salvaging the container, the Gift is her baby and her baby comes first. Rina leaves her torch in the machine shop and gets back to damage repair. And looking it over, she has to revise her estimate upward to 300 credits. Furthermore, what she can scav off the container isn’t going to help much.
Even so, parts is parts. If not for this job, then for the next one.
Meanwhile, Joshua’s making his way to the train station to buy those tickets. As he walks he notices that the seething hive of activity that swarmed our ship when we landed wasn’t a fluke. In fact, it was pretty much a prelude of what was to come. There is a virtual sea of people between him and his destination. He has to fend off people eager to sell him something, dodge the refuse left by the animals that roam the streets, and keep an eye out for pickpockets. He manages to make it to the station in one piece and with his wallet unmolested by thieves.
The tickets at the station, as is to be expected, don’t cost much. Classed travel is available, but Joshua’s instincts tell him that the classes become irrelevant once the train starts moving. Twelve credits cover the six girls quite handily for their one way trip and Joshua doesn’t bother overmuch with the class. Turning away from the ticket window and casting a critical eye on the environment, Joshua’s already rethinking the wisdom of dropping off the girls on the platform and leaving them to their own devices... and the tender mercies of the crowd. A decent and gallant man at heart, Joshua’s uncomfortable with the very idea. He turns right around and for ten credits buys one-way tickets for the crew. There’s no way we aren’t escorting the girls to their destination. They may be off our ship and as such no longer our obligation as passengers, but there is the obligation of human decency that is owed. Joshua leaves the station with a clear conscience and returns to the ship to tell the Captain of yet more unexpected developments.
Meanwhile, Rina’s crawling around on the hull again and on one of the deflector vanes, she finds something that looks like a soda can with a blinking light and an antenna sticking out of it on one end and a plunger on the other. Hinked it may be bomb or a tracking device, Rina makes short work of determining it’s not the former and taking out the latter with a hammer. She gets on the horn to inform her Captain that the Sheik might very well know where we are.
Rina: Nika. We got a pinger. Somebody's slapped a squealer on us.
Crap.
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