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1104-359 -- 1104-360 -- 1104-361

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Free & Clear

1104-359 -- 1104-360 -- 1104-361

Timing of events
6:00 - Start of Day
8:30 - Breakfast
9:00 - Cerabu / Cal Mission Meeting
0:00 - ?????

1104-360 - 06:00 - Cargo Bay

Cerabu rises without an alarm to wake him. It is a habit he has gotten used to, using an internal clock to dictate the times when he sleeps and when he does not. Having slept in the loose-fitting clothing he wore the previous night, Cerabu again makes his way to the cargo bay where he repeats his meditations and exercises. He has become a creature of habit. Two hours later, he completes his meditations. Before leaving the cargo bay, he opens his small cargo container and removes a sealed garment bag. Closes the container, and locking it, Cerabu returns to his cabin. Before he begins to clean up, he pulls out his spotter and scans for surveillance devices, then sits down to send a message to Cal.

To: Cal
Fr: Cerabu
Re: Briefing
Txt: 09:00. Secure location.

1104-360 - 06:05 Captain's Cabin

To: Cerabu
From: Cal
A/c/q/k/on/w/
A/w/c/k/n/
OK

1104-360 - 08:30 - Breakfast - Crew Commons

Cerabu enters the crew commons from the cargo bay (the only internal entry point) wearing the exact same outfit he wore the day before, including the trenchcoat and his cane. The cigar does not seem to be present. Taking just a moment to familiarize himself with the space, he moves to make himself coffee.

Ashe has, of course, made breakfast. It is a standard fare with bacon, eggs, and sliced fruit for the crew to enjoy at the table. Ashe is waiting for at least one other crew member to start eating as he sits patiently in front of his place setting. Once more, he is wearing the suit from yesterday. Or was it a new, identical suit? It was hard to say. He looks like he's already taken a shower, dried his hair, and done all the little things that entail a morning for Ashe. Plus, the early rises don't seem to be affecting him too much.

Seeing Ashe, as a greeting, Cerabu grunts with a slight jerk upward of his head. Cerabu pours his coffee. Black. He walks over to the table, grabs a chair and turns it around to sit in it backwards, facing the Darrian. Putting his oversized coffee cup on the table, Cerabu reaches out to grab a slice of bacon, dips it in his coffee, then puts it in his mouth and proceeds to chew and silently studies the steward for a moment before asking in his deep double-barrel voice. "Who is Ashe Volare?"

"I am Ashe Volare." Ashe sits upright in his seat, only occasionally pausing to sip a cup of coffee. "I am an entertainer primarily but I am also the steward and the back-up pilot in training on board the Free and Clear. Who is Cerabu?"

The ape smiles a closed lip smile, his eyes softening for the first time since he has been aboard. Then he lifts his cup to take a sip of coffee.

Jeet enters the crew room, grabs a cuppa, black, and pulls out his PDA.

"Morning all. Ashe, thank you for your efforts this morning. If it saves you a bit of effort, I can get by with cereals and grains, if they contain proteins. Depending on our patron's sensitivities," Jeet nods to M. Cerabu, "perhaps smells of cooking are only tollerated."

Amada Cerabu grabs a slice of fruit and sticks it in his mouth.

Jeet fiddles with his PDA, and the crew room's forest background fades into a desert scene, with a sunrise covering the ceiling, with salmon, pink, lilac, purple and blends across clouds. The center column is a very tall cactus-like plant. The ceiling looks like open sky, not a ceiling at all.

"This scene changes with the day, and can shift as desired.
Ashe, I have viewed a few of your presentations, online. If you wish, and the Captain doesn't oppose, anything can be replicated, or new things created to provide you with a backdrop for a performance. With the grav plates, you can fly, or emulate the depths of space. My robots can look like anything, if you want something to interact with, or move with you. We have time, over the next few weeks to do a lot."

<<<<<<< This is where Jeet, Ashe, and others dicuss changes to Cerebu's cabin?

1104-360 - 08:55 - Crew Commons

The captain enters, headed for the coffee pot. He pours himself a cup and sniffs it suspiciously. Satisfied, he sips. "Cerabu? You wanted to talk this morning?"

Cerabu nods toward Cal, then looks at the others and gives a slight nod as a form of saying excuse me as he takes his coffee in hand.

"Morning." The purser was late for breakfast having overslept and carried a case that he placed under the table. After the previous day's efforts he'd found himself running over events well into the night, replaying this turn of events and the deals he'd made. He'd awoke feeling taciturn but feeling that he'd squared away his thoughts and was ready for this new adventure.

Makhidkarun Logo He ate eggs and fruit and drank deeply of the coffee, liquid for the soul, and indicated his thanks to Ashe with an incline of the head and the faintest grin. Today, he was not a morning person, but for the benefit of his crewmates he attempted to brighten. "I brought aboard a gift to share with you all to ease the time in jumpspace. I just need somewhere to put it here in the common room." He brought the case onto the table, which looked dented and well travelled, and opened it for all to see. It was a holographic play table. "The latest model by Makhidkarun, made in Glisten. I was told it fell off the hatch of a far trader along the Aslan Route. Boot it up anytime you like. It has old Imperial combat sims too. Good for tactical tests. And Dagudashaag Arena. And Zero G Olympics. Nice huh? Where shall we put it? Anyone want to help set it up after?"

Jeet's eyebrows go up. "I could help? I'm not any good at tactics, but the concept is awesome for helping me program the robots for defending the ship. If some-one aboard has the skills, that would go a long way to testing out scenarios."

"Great! I've never played on one before. Two minds, huh?" Kalidaren looked a very different person today, as he had slipped into his comfortable shipboard clothes; well worn dark grey coveralls tied at the waist over a t-shirt. Today's colour was dark purple. His hair lacked product and was tousled and curly. "I have no experience with tactics or strategy... apart from negotiations..." the sly wink and grin attempted to shine past the dark rings, "but... I like to dabble in Everything."

"I'm not one for gambling, but I think the Captain wouldn't like his table obscured. My interest would be to see if the robots could manage an interface with this set. If they could, I might be able to tweak their programing to better defend the ship. To date, the robots have been through some 'laser tag' sessions, using canned Tactics programming. And I have no experience, nor skill, of any measure to lend to the endeavour."

1104-360 - 09:00 - Captain's Quarters

Cal gestures him to follow as he heads towards the bridge, but then pauses, and pivots towards his cabin. "Let's talk here," leading Cerabu in. Once the door closes, he continues, "You've been visibly concerned about privacy and security. I can guarantee this room is secure."

As if given a cue, Cerabu reaches into his trenchcoat vest pocket and produces his scanner and gives the room a quick scan. Once the green light appears, he nods with a slight raise of the left corner of his mouth and puts the device away. “There hasn’t been much privacy over the past fifteen years. And this exploration is somewhat sensitive. Any complications could make us miss our deadline.”

The ape sets his coffee down and reaches into his outer waist coat pocket to produce his datapad. As he waves it in front of him in an almost here it is fashion, he looks across at Cal. “I wanted to fill you in on what you don’t know. But until we leave Marduk jump-space, maybe not until we reach Thebus, this is for your eyes only.”

(Ancient 007 theme song starts playing from out of nowhere.)

Cerabu lays the datapad on the table between the two and pulls up the tourist’s picture of the ship's bridge on Thebus, the one Director Zyerski showed him at their meeting just two days prior. He paused to let Cal take in what he was looking at. “This is what we are after.”

“The photo was taken by a tourist on Thebus. It is a couple of months old, maybe more. It was at least a month before it came to Director’s attention. Director's people think they scrubbed it from social feeds before too many people could see it, but I question how a tourist could happen upon something this old when no one else had over the past four hundred years. While I don’t expect any trouble, I can’t rule it out.”

“If that is what Director thinks it is, the bridge of a Sindalian warship, this is a monumental find, bigger than anything you and I ever dealt with. Director wants the relic,” Cerabu pauses to emphasize the word, “found, if it even exists, it could turn out to be just a random derelict, and brought back by the 50th. Earlier if possible. That’s why I need your entire cargo space. A bridge is what? Ten tons?”

“We may need to hire extra hands to excavate and extra equipment. I have funds for that. But we definitely have to keep it quiet. Any word to anyone and we may have competition, if we don’t already. Even if we don’t, there are the Thebun lions to contend with. Once the relic’s on board, I don’t want anyone but crew in the cargo bay, or even on the ship, so no cargo we don’t load ourselves. No passengers. If you want to take passengers from Marduk to Thebus, that’s fine, but we’re doing quick refuelling and only a quick load of any cargo already on the docks. And no one on the ship on the return.”

"Sindalian? I'd count on it being at least 20 tons - they tended to overdo everything. If it's intact. And what if there's more than the bridge? Is your Director just looking for a trophy, or does he have . . . larger aspirations?"

“Mmm,” Cerabu nods. “Had that thought.”

"Regardless, you're paying the fare. I'm fine with no passengers - they just add more complications, and I'm glad for the chance for this crew to shake things out without that. As for cargo, apparently I lucked out with my new cargomaster. He's got an eye for profit, and apparently a fair number of contacts out this way. I'll make certain he understands that we're prioritizing speed on this run.

Cerabu nods again. It seems to be his predominant mode of communication.

"My concern is Thebus. By your deadline, we're only going to have a couple of days there before we need to flip back. That's not much time to even locate this find, much less get it out from whatever physical or legal quagmire it's in, and loaded onto the ship. I'm guessing part your plan is taking advantage of our rough field landing capabilities?"

“Mmm, exactly.” Cerabu reaches into his pocket to produce his missing cigar, “ Do you mind?”

Cal nods consent

“If it wasn’t found in the last four hundred years, it's salvage. That’s the argument. Land in the wild and we can load with cranes and wenches. From what I can tell, entire population, outside hunters, is the starport. No real government. No real population. Few thousand other than tourist hunting excursions. Wilderness is just wilderness. Starport’s just waypoint on the Florian. And . . .,” he leans forward and moves the image of the bridge aside to pull up another image, a map of Thebus. Using simian fingers, he zooms in once, twice, three times to an area of a few hundred square kilometers and points to a red outline. “Think I got it narrowed down--couple hundred square kilometers.”

"So what are you going to need from me and mine? Do you have your own local contacts for workers?"

Cerabu shakes his head.

"How about clearance for off-port landing? And you're going to want to make certain that getting that clearance makes as few waves as possible. If you need help with that, I'm going to suggest we bring Kalidaren in on this early."

“Maybe. Figure we register a hunting party. Thebun lions. Normal. Long as no one's in area, shouldn’t be a problem. No need for anyone to inspect cargo. Fast talk and payday to keep them out.”

"That sounds good. Especially if you're hiring local workers - pay a little extra for them to keep their mouths shut, at least until we get out."

Cal clears his throat. "This seems a chancy enterprise. I'll back you 100% on this deal, but just to be clear - if it's already gone, or doesn't exist, or if things go south for whatever reason beyond my control, payment was in advance, and there are no refunds. You made it clear this was work-for-hire, and that cuts both ways. If I don't profit from the pot, I take no risk with the buy-in."

“Of course,” he smiles, “what I told Director.”

“Real problem comes in,” pauses to inhale through the cigar brightening the tip, then lets the smoke seep out as he speaks, “as you suggest . . . if it ain’t just a bridge?”

Cal looks at Cerabu sharply. "Problem? Or . . . opportunity?"

“Can Pointy-ears fly this thing? Or would you rather they fly a warship?” He pauses again for a drag. "Probably won't come to that. Red herring might not come to anything. Just an easy two-mil."

Ashe? Depends. Probably not; I've gotten the impression they view this as more of a waypoint, but circumstances can change. Regardless, expanding to a 2nd ship is going to require more crew than just a pilot. If it comes to that, I can shake the tree some more, recruit a couple of shipmates from the old days. I put out a lot of feelers when I got this baby, I'm guessing I'll get word back on some of those over the next few months. Could easily be a few others would be open to a new venture.

His smile widens. Definitely an opportunity.

He takes the cigar between his first two fingers and waves it slowly to emphasize each word, “Limited opportunity.”

And then more normally, “Even if intact, belongs to Director. We’re just bringing it back.”

Cerabu replaces the cigar back in his mouth. “Hire transport crew for Free & Clear. Get it back to Torpol. Purser and Pointy-ears can manage it and do the cargo things all the way. Full hold.”

He leans back in the seat and puts both hands behind his head. “Won’t come to that. It’s just a bridge.”

1104-360 - 11:00 - Main Cargo Bay

Jeet opens his storage container, and looks over his, for the lack of a better term, pets. Until the Captain gives some type of permission, they will stay in the box. But, Jeet wants to check interfacing the brains in the box with that new toy of Kalidaren's. What might being able to play through scenarios do for their tactical abilities? Why hadn't he even thought of this? There are battle sims all over the place, and there are spectator modes for a lot of them. Any Imperial Marine would have an account, and they almost all play when they have a chance. It hones skills, and the participants gain experience that can translate into battlefield advantages, without killing your own troops. Damn. Wasted opportunities...

Battle Tables are mentioned in this Connection Story for Mikhel Dromah and Lt Sir Sultana: 1091-077 (Towards the end)