Episode 401: Hot Cargo, Cold Cash - Part Three
(Episode mount in progress. More soon.--Maer)
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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. Of course, she 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 one moon out of the 60-odd orbiting Heaven. Four of them are populated with any real density. The rest are privately owned. 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?
(Episode mount in progress. More soon.--Maer)
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