Chapter 1: Five pair of fists and a pair of clamps

You don't want to do that. Right now you are looking at a drunk and disorderly charge. With everyone leaving the police will be here soon. You swing that knife and hit someone things will get much worse. If you seriously hurt someone or kill them, well let's say being on a prison asteroid mining for the rest of your life won't be fun.

Is that all worth a drink? Let's put away the weapon and the booze and walk away.

The tattooed thug's eyes narrow. He first looks at his friends, then at the tray in his hands and then at all the blasters pointed at him.
Let's just piss off, Boris.The thug with the plaid skirt finally says and nods at the exit.

Boris drops the tray onto the bar and hops over the counter again Pah! Probably would've tasted like the other stuff here anyways.
He spits on the floor and briskly walks toward the exit.
We will meet again. And next time your blasters won't be of any use he remarks before walking out of the bar, followed by his friends.

For a moment the only sound is the rock music coming from the speakers. Then the door to the toilets swing open.
A skinny man with an ill fitting suit stands in the doorway. He's probably around fifity years old with dark hair that has several grey streaks. His right arm is a skeletal robotic prothesis.
Bravo! Bravo! Decisive action but with a cool enough head to not riddle those guys with blaster fire, even though they would've probably deserved it. I'd applaud you if I could.
the man says with a hoarse voice.
He casually walks over to the sound control and turns down the music.
I just wanted to visit the good ol' loo and when I came back hell broke loose. I stayed in there an' watched. Hehehe. When those scumbags drew knives I really thought that there'll be a bloodbath.
He bows down to Jerry and feels his pulse.
Eh. 'tis just a scratch for Jerry. He's been through worse. Maybe someone can check the others lying around?
The man stands up again and stretches
Station police'll be coming soon. If you want we could have a chat after you've given your testimony to the cops. I may have some work for folks who can keep a cool head. Nothing fancy. Just a small delivery for the section government.

Dani nods at the gentleman, indicating interest, but also returns to complete the work before the officials get here to get in her way. Jerry needs a working ice machine. Once everything is over, she will be talking to the gentleman. You don't turn down work on West V.

Dotty groans and rolls her eyes like a typical teenager, the patterns in her irises shift the universal symbol for, Nope, a crimson circle with a line through the middle.

"Ugh," she sticks the rest of her fries in her mouth and quickly eats them before wiping her hands on a napkin, "I really should go. Astrid gets seriously vexed when people mention the Polis, or when I have to talk to the Polis, especially when I have to talk to the Polis. I would really just rather not, it's way more trouble than it's worth."

She pulls out a handful of rumpled bills from her pocket and puts them on the bar near Jerry.

"Paid in full, plus tip." Dotty looks at Raven and grins, the images in her eyes flip back from Nope to Rainbow Unicorns. "Jerry makes the best greasy fries on V and he has got like that dark malt vinegar and real mayonnaise, at least he says it is real, so good."

Dorothea pauses a moment, leans way over the bar and looks at Dani down in her work space. Her feet come up off the deck as she leans forward, they kick back and forth as she balances on her stomach, "Hey doll face, can you fix coolant pumps? My quarters get crazy hot half way through the cycle, super uncomfortable. Call me at L'Aura, I'm usually there."

She hops off the bar and makes her way towards the exit waving at Adonis and Stitches, "Nice job fellas, any day I don't have to clean Gearhead brains off my jacket is a good day."

Dotty spins walking backwards out the door and making finger guns at the older fellow, "You know where to find me robot arm dood if you need me. Talk to Astrid, she owns me."

"Now, that's the way to start an evening," says the man who had just entered the tavern and pulled a pistol. "By the way, names Adonis. Interesting way to meet you all." Adonis stows his weapon and walks toward the bar. "As far as I'm concerned nothing happened here tonight. Did anything get damaged? Did anyone get hurt other than maybe a bruised jaw," he says with a grin and placed a credit chip on the bar. "As soon as you've recovered I could use a drink. Don't suppose you have tequila here."

Derek puts away his stunner and listens to the offer. I maybe interested. he says as he checks on any wounded including Jerry.

Anyone watching can tell he has had medical training as he puts people through a series of test checking for concussions and seeing to their injuries.

Raven let out a tense breath as the men leave. She finishes her connection to security then begins to record what she saw and heard, her fingers moving swiftly across her comm unit's screen. Everyone who needed medical assistance were receiving it, and once she gave her statement she could be on her way.

"Not that you need to hear it from me, but I agree. Thank you for defusing the situation. I hope if you accept this gentleman's job it provides worthy compensation."

After a few minutes the station police along with some paramedics arrive.The policemen assess the damage and ask each of you what happened.
While most of the formerly unconscious patrons are brought to the hospital for a checkup Jerry flat out refuses to participate in anything other than the most basic medical check-ups and begins to clean up the mess that the thugs made.
Half an hour passes and the Spacefarer's Bar nearly looks like before. The police is gone, the music is blasting as loud as ever from the speakers. Dani even manages to make the ice machine work again.
Ey big thanks to you all for driving those assholes away. Whatever you eat or drink today is on me Jerry says and pats Adonis on the back
The man with the prosthetic arm invites you all to a table.
Let's sit down and let me give ya'll a description of the job I have in mind. He pulls one chair from under the table, beckons Raven and says to her You can of course join us too. The job I have for you is quite easily earned money. Easy work with a dash of adventure
Jerry brings you all a glass of "the good stuff" which turns out to be whiskey. Tequila is out of stock currently but I'll order you a bottle. Will come with the next supply ship he tells Adonis as he serves the drinks

First things first. M' name's Eddie, nice to meet ya'll. I'm sort of'a contact person for the sector government here. Yesterday I got an urgent request from a government official to assemble a team and send them to a dwarf star system about a month's travel time from here called DS-Beta-3641.
Last year some impressive archeological discoveries where made on the first planet of the system. Impressive enough to construct a camp for about 10000 people there. And last week the camp ceased to communicate.
Now all the higher-ups in the government panic and want to send a mission there as quickly as possible.
Eddie takes a big sip from his whiskey
I'll tell ya what happen'd. Ya can't communicate directly from the surface of the planet. It's too near to the star for that. You need a hyperroom relay satellite. That relay satellite probably was damaged and *boom* Eddie hits the table with his fist no communications possible
He takes another sip from his whiskey
So I need someone to fly there with a ship and either repair the old relay satellite or deploy a new one that you'll bring along.
Eddie sighs and pulls a tablet pc from a pocket in his jacket.
I'm reading this directly from the request I received so please excuse the bureacratic mumblejumble
The party also has to contact the leader of the archeological team Dr. Petra Salmberg and get feedback on the status of the archeological team.
If there are any factors that hinder the archeological team from doing their work the accepting party has to provide all the assistance necessary to return the archeological team to an unhindered workflow. Only the leader of the archeological team has the authority to sign the attached mission accomplishment report.
The mission is only considered completely done when a signed mission accomplishment report is provided
Eddie repockets his tablet pc
So you're gonna contact them, they'll give you a pat on the back, sign your mission report and you're on your way back. If everything goes well you don't even have to land on the planet.
Payment is 5000 credits per person. If... IF you encounter any extraordinary dangers I can give you an additional danger compensation of 1000 to 5000 credits, depending on the danger.
I have a spaceship for this mission that you can use. Food, accommodation and all other supplies are already on the ship.

Eddie finishes his whiskey and slams the glass on the table
So what do'ya say? 5000 credits for a two month joyride ain't bad.

Dorothea finishes her finger guns at Eddie and steps back into one of the stations law enforcement officers.

*Ah crap,* Dotty's face drops as she turns around, "Jimmy!"

"Dorothea," he says with a stern faced rumble, "and it's officer Barnes. Dorothea."

"Astrid's gonna be super mad Jimmy and you know you can't interview me without a consenting adult present."

"You're 18 Dotty," officer Barnes says grimly, "you just look like you're 10, take a seat and Phillips will get to you when he gets here."

"Aww, Phillips hates me Jimmy, can't you just let it slide this once."

"Not gonna happen," he points to a chair in the corner, "over there, keep your gloves on and don't touch no one."

"Oh fudge." Dotty mumbles heading towards the table indicated.

---

Dotty listens to Eddie's speech after being interviews by Officer Phillips who quiet clearly does not like Dotty.

She grins around the lollipop in her mouth after Eddie finishes talking, "That sounds swell mister and that's a lot of cash I just don't know if Astrid would sign off on letting me go, she's kind of funny that way. Got to be a somethin' somethin' in it for her you understand." Dotty sips her whiskey and makes a face before putting the glass down.

"I'm Dotty by the way," she says to the rest of the table with a grin, the unicorns and rainbow hearts in her eyes have vanished replaced by a simple mechanical aperture, and faint blue glow, "pleased to meet ya." She offers a gloved hand to anyone interested in shaking it.

Adonis simply smiles at the officers as they begin to question him. He eventually gives a very general description of how he saw the commotion take place. He admitted only his part in verbally convincing the thugs to leave the bar. When Eddie invites them to sit with him and have a drink after the officers had left, Adonis does so with elan.

"Ya know, I'm a pretty good pilot. I assume what you're offering is something less than a capital ship. A freighter perhaps so it should be fairly easy to handle. There are any number of things that could cause the station to go silent, some of them pretty dangerous. Does the ship have any weapons just in case?

Dani has fixed as much around the station's security areas as anywhere else, and served most of the officers food even before that. Her interview is brief and to the point.

Although the legal age is lower here on West, Dani knows Jerry will bring her the Good Stuff.. A genuine, ice cold bottle of Ginga-Pop. She smiles in something like bliss at the usually out of her reach imported bubbly soft drink.

"What model relay? There was an important firmware upgrade last month for the series 17s."

When the police arrive, Derek waits his turn to be interviewed. When asked what has happened and who he is he responds, I am Derek Holloway, lieutenant retired. What happened was the men who caused the problem demanded a higher quality drink and when they were refused they decided to jump the bar and take what they wanted. in doing so they attacked the barkkeep. He tried to stop them with a stunstick but wa unsuccessful. Those of us who stayed worked together to deescalate the situation and they men backed down without further violence.

Now that he was done with the police he goes to listen to Eddie. After listening to the situation he says, I am willing to take on this job. Though my skillset is not in electronics though I did work on keeping my ship's personal equipment up and running. I am trained as a combat medic though on a patrolboat we had to be somewhat of a jack of all trades at times.

Dorothea smiles and leans across the table, "So you’re a doctor mister?" There’s something vaguely gangster mol about the cadence of her speech but there’s something else, something slavic. "My mat' always said to find me a doctor, can’t go wrong with a professional she said."

She winks at Adonis, "And you’re a pilot. Mat' warned about pilots, different gal in every port. I like your hat though, rakish and sexy."

Then she looks at Dani bats her eyes and bits her lower lip, "And you’re an engineer, I love a smart gal who’s good with her hands. Mat' said a gal in the trades is worth her weight in gold and I like gold."

"How about you doll face?" She says looking at Raven with a grin, "What’s your occupation?"

Raven sits down out of politeness rather than interest. She has a job and she's not desperate for cash. Plus, she did nothing in the last few minutes that would have warranted such an offer. But maybe she could help whoever was accepting the job with their preparations.

She looks at the young girl with the strange eyes. "I'm an interpreter and translator." She changes her focus to the man offering work. "Which I think explains why I'm not someone you should be giving this kind of job. But I'd be happy to help before you leave."

Raven pulls out her computer then nods at the pilot. "He's right; there could be a lot of reasons why you've lost contact. If you'd like I could review any transmissions in that sector, listen for unidentified communication, see if I could give you a rough translation. I'd also be glad to take a look at the last broadcasts you received, see if anything stands out."

Eddie eyes everyone as they tell about their profession.
Alright the ship'd be the Sycorax II. It's an T200-Series freight ship. A bit old but still in good shape. Of course I wouldn't expect ya'll to take on such mission with your pants down. It has a gun turret that packs quite a punch. Should be enough to show a potential pirate kiddy not to mess with ya

As for your question about the model of the relay he turns to Dani and fishes the tablet out of his pocket Let me have a look.... Ah really! It's a series 17. So maybe it's just a software thing. That'd make it easy for you. The archeological colony has no means to get into space on their own. They are pretty self sustainable and usually only get fresh supplies once per year.

He turns to Derek Heh. Been in the army myself... he raises his prostethic hand ...that's where I got this beauty. A medic is always useful. Ya never know what happens.

You're quite a curious gal aren't you he says to Dotty in a joking way Asking about the professions of other but what are ya doing yourself? Let me guess: You should be in school now but you ditched it today aren't ya? Hahaha Eddie laughs so hard that he has to cough

Ya want to see that last broadcast? There it is Eddie says to Raven
Eddie tilts his tablet against his glass of whiskey so that everyone can see it, presses a few buttons on the touchscreen and a video begins to play.

A woman with a sunburnt face and curly red hairs gives a report on the current state of the colony. Everything seems to be fine and the archeological excavations are going on normally. A remote camp has been established near some kind of temple about 70 kilometres from the main camp.
Finally she presents some of the more remarkable pieces with writings on them that the team managed to recover and are trying to decipher. One of them looks like some kind of treaty on a stone tablet. Carved in it is a strange kind of writing consisting of wavey lines that mesh together that is finished by various other kinds of writings that look like signatures.
The woman shows no signs of distress and nothing hints to any kind of serious problem.
The video ends.
Eddie repockets the tablet.

So there ya have it. Nothing hints to any kind of problem. Told ya that it's pro'lly a problem with the communications relay.
He fishes a small brown leather case from the inside of his jacket.
In here is everythin ya need to get the ship started. The command keys, the registration and a tablet containing the mission report that's to be signed by Dr. Salmberg.
I just need ya'll to sign that you take on the mission and then you can head off to docking bay 21C.
Oh and one more thing: If ya think of just flying away with my precious little Sycorax II: I've a homing beacon placed inside it. If you try to disappear with the ship you won't even be able to get a burger in federation space. You know the saying: To trust is good but to have a bit of control is better.

With a broad grin the Pilot says, "Where do I sign?" He reaches for the leather case. "I sure hope ya'll don't mind if I carry the case since I'll be flying the boat."

"Ah don't sell yourself short doll face," Dotty says to Raven, "everyone's got hidden talents and besides I'm just a singer and this fella is offering us 5 grand just to go on a space flight. How often you get a chance to get off this rock?"

Jerry snorts bringing a tray of drinks and snacks to the table, "Don't pay any attention to her, that one is a liar and a thief."

"That is some baseless accusations there Jerry, accusations that ain't never been proven in a court of law." Dotty huffs and folds her arms across her chest. "Besides, lets say I is what you says I is, and I ain't. I wouldn't never steal from no one who didn't deserve to be stole from."

"Be careful with your watches and wallets around her." Jerry says.

Dotty sticks her tongue out at Jerry, "I is an entertainer Jerry, nothin' more, nothin' less." Her phone buzzes and she looks at it.

"Oh! How about that. Looks like my schedule just got freed up for a bit," Dotty starts to reply to the message she just received.
"Oh she's cute," Dotty says with a grin watching the video. "What? I am a girl of discerning tastes and I has a thing for red hair and curls, sue me." She looks at Dani and wiggles her eyebrows.