Editing Episode 207: Flashpoints
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As we wait for the repairs to finish, Christian goes to a cargo-broker and arranges for passengers to White Sun. The broker takes his cut but even so, we end up with a fair amount of pay up front from our five passengers. | As we wait for the repairs to finish, Christian goes to a cargo-broker and arranges for passengers to White Sun. The broker takes his cut but even so, we end up with a fair amount of pay up front from our five passengers. | ||
| − | One is a high-level executive of You-Go, a Ms. | + | One is a high-level executive of You-Go, a Ms. Shin Xie Wei, and she will be travelling in her own custom container unit, complete with her Sikh bodyguard, Mahassam N’Dala (addressed as Bala by Ms. Shin). We shift Rick’s arboretum container to the lower deck and install hers off our passenger lounge when it arrives. She shows up nicely and conservatively turned out in Core-side Sino fashion, as befitting her Chinese ancestry. Her bodyguard is a muscular and taciturn six-foot-five Sikh, and very protective of her. |
| − | Our other passengers are two young twenty-something men newly mustered out of the Alliance Navy, by name of Mike Carmen and Paul Forrest, who will be paying for second class passage; and a first class passenger by name of Pierre | + | Our other passengers are two young twenty-something men newly mustered out of the Alliance Navy, by name of Mike Carmen and Paul Forrest, who will be paying for second class passage; and a first class passenger by name of Pierre DuChamp, in corporate mid-level management. |
The repairs take ten days to make the Gift spaceworthy. We decide to invest in another fuel pod to boost our range and have that added to the bill. Once installed, we fill our ships tanks to full, and when we lift off it’s with 820 hours of fuel. The morning of March eleventh dawns and we take off. Our course is set for White Sun. Once there, we will make our way to Red Sun and hopefully, help for Lem. | The repairs take ten days to make the Gift spaceworthy. We decide to invest in another fuel pod to boost our range and have that added to the bill. Once installed, we fill our ships tanks to full, and when we lift off it’s with 820 hours of fuel. The morning of March eleventh dawns and we take off. Our course is set for White Sun. Once there, we will make our way to Red Sun and hopefully, help for Lem. | ||
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'''09:25 hrs, ship’s time'''<br> | '''09:25 hrs, ship’s time'''<br> | ||
| − | Nika had Rina yank the ''Gift''’s nav pinger when we lifted off, the better to run the blockade around Blue Sun. As a result, we dare not link up to the Cortex until we are past Sampson Array, about 12-14 days out from Highgate. We have cards for our passengers’ amusement, but thanks to the decon at Sho-Je Downs we’d lost all our entertainment and music chips, board games and paperbacks. We’d had little opportunity since then to replace them. To make up for the diversions lost to us, Christian steps up and performs nightly on his musical instruments, sings and regales our passengers with stories. So the time passes til the morning of the fifth day out, when we pick up a Cortex signal emanating from Ms. | + | Nika had Rina yank the ''Gift''’s nav pinger when we lifted off, the better to run the blockade around Blue Sun. As a result, we dare not link up to the Cortex until we are past Sampson Array, about 12-14 days out from Highgate. We have cards for our passengers’ amusement, but thanks to the decon at Sho-Je Downs we’d lost all our entertainment and music chips, board games and paperbacks. We’d had little opportunity since then to replace them. To make up for the diversions lost to us, Christian steps up and performs nightly on his musical instruments, sings and regales our passengers with stories. So the time passes til the morning of the fifth day out, when we pick up a Cortex signal emanating from Ms. Shin’s container. |
| − | Christian goes to the woman’s door and after verbally wrangling with her bodyguard to gain an audience with | + | Christian goes to the woman’s door and after verbally wrangling with her bodyguard to gain an audience with Shin Xie Wei, he tells her to go silent via the waves. Shin is contrite and agrees to the order and Christian leaves under the disproving eye of Bala. |
| − | + | Shin and her bodyguard aren’t’ the only passengers who offer potential trouble. Mike Carmen and Paul Forrest are pleasant enough but come off as a touch twitchy. Given what we know going on in Blue Sun, they could be deserters and not actually mustered out. It makes no-nevermind to us. As far as we know, they’re legal passengers, paying their passage with legal tender. More than that, we’re not responsible for, right? Privately, Rina sympathizes if they do turn out to be deserters, but then she’s got reason. Which she keeps to herself. No amount of sympathy will induce her to share confidences with these two. She’s twitchy for her own reasons and the very next day illustrates why. | |
| − | + | Shin Xie Wei sneaks out from under her bodyguard’s watchful eye early the next morning and goes down to the crew gym to do a little weightlifting. At least, that’s what we piece together afterward. All we know is we’re at breakfast when she runs screaming from the gym, in disheveled condition and quite upset, with Mike Carmen still inside sporting no shirt and visible scratches across his chest. | |
Bala is absolutely livid and it’s a close thing keeping him from executing Mike Carmen on the spot. Not that Rina’s that far behind Bala. Cooler heads prevail and Nika and Christian manage to get Mike to tell us what happened. It seems Shin had arrived first to the gym and Mike was just being helpful spotting her on the weight bench. Everything was fine until she lost control of the barbell during a bench press and she panicked when he tried to lift the bar off her, seeing his efforts to help as inappropriate groping. | Bala is absolutely livid and it’s a close thing keeping him from executing Mike Carmen on the spot. Not that Rina’s that far behind Bala. Cooler heads prevail and Nika and Christian manage to get Mike to tell us what happened. It seems Shin had arrived first to the gym and Mike was just being helpful spotting her on the weight bench. Everything was fine until she lost control of the barbell during a bench press and she panicked when he tried to lift the bar off her, seeing his efforts to help as inappropriate groping. | ||
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On hearing that, Bala nearly kills the man. Again we manage to restrain him. Shifting her focus to include both Bala and Carmen, Rina stands off to the side with her gun drawn behind her back. Just in case she has to shoot either one of them to keep the peace. Or for the satisfaction of shooting a would-be rapist if that’s what the Gift’s acting-captain decides. In matters like this, a Captain’s word is law in the Black, Nika is our agreed-upon Captain, and so Rina waits to see what Nika says. | On hearing that, Bala nearly kills the man. Again we manage to restrain him. Shifting her focus to include both Bala and Carmen, Rina stands off to the side with her gun drawn behind her back. Just in case she has to shoot either one of them to keep the peace. Or for the satisfaction of shooting a would-be rapist if that’s what the Gift’s acting-captain decides. In matters like this, a Captain’s word is law in the Black, Nika is our agreed-upon Captain, and so Rina waits to see what Nika says. | ||
| − | In the end, Nika decides that it cannot be proved conclusively either way—the matter is too much a he-said/she-said situation. To make amends for the scene, Shin assures us that she’ll confine herself to her container. At her prompting, Bala apologizes for his exuberance in pursuit of his duties and we extend him ours for what happened on our vessel. When | + | In the end, Nika decides that it cannot be proved conclusively either way—the matter is too much a he-said/she-said situation. To make amends for the scene, Shin assures us that she’ll confine herself to her container. At her prompting, Bala apologizes for his exuberance in pursuit of his duties and we extend him ours for what happened on our vessel. When Shin retreats to her container and shuts the door on all of us, Bala’s demeanor hardens and he marches into the galley to make his charge her breakfast, exiting when it’s done. |
As for Mike Carmen, under Nika’s orders, he goes nowhere by himself. Furthermore, he and the others are not allowed below decks, and no one uses the gym without crew escort outside of the hours which we’ll now post. Matter settled, we settle to Christian’s excellent breakfast. | As for Mike Carmen, under Nika’s orders, he goes nowhere by himself. Furthermore, he and the others are not allowed below decks, and no one uses the gym without crew escort outside of the hours which we’ll now post. Matter settled, we settle to Christian’s excellent breakfast. | ||
