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

"I have pills I can shut it off with," Dotty pulls her jacket back on and produces a small blister pack of meds, "it doesn't last long, a hand full of hours tops, and if I take more than one of them every few days the neurotoxin starts to bleeds back into my system and makes me," she shrugs, "Astrid said it would be bad."

Adonis looked at Dotty with his eyes partially hooded. "Had no idea what kind of weird stuff people are getting into these days just to control other people. Usually it's just threats and maybe a good beating. What you got is really big league. I've got no problem with a med check-up. So far as I know I've got nothing weird going on in me. I like the idea of sealing off the questionable [/b] Adonis glances off into space for a moment before continuing. "If we find a cargo, let's make sure it's something we can move quickly both on and off the ship. And let's try to keep it legal. We'll have enough problems on our hands without having to avoid a search and seizure."

Seems like everyone approves a basic medical inspection by Dr. Stitches.

Derek makes a medical examination of each of you and notes some basic facts about your body like your blood type, allergies and so on...
He stores these informations in the ship's medical database and can therefore treat the crew more efficiently in case of an emergency.

If the group wants to find someone who might be in need of a quick cargo haul give me a Knowledge/Streetwise roll about how good you are at acquiring a possible trading partner

Dotty looks at Adonis, "When you got to send a message, sometimes leaving someone alive is a better form of communication than just having them disappear. Taking my eyes and leaving me with a nano plague was the message."

Dorothea finds out their route from Adonis (System A to B to C etch) and pulls out her phone while she waits her turn with Dr. Stitches. She reaches out to the hand full of legitimate and semi-legitimate business owners she knows in search of a cargo to haul. Either A to B or A to C or something like that.

Do you know if the stuff inside that satellite is military grade or is it exclusive to the military. It would make a big difference about its legality.

"If Eddie is who Astrid says he is and I ain’t got reason to doubt her. It’s probably high end mil-tech, not available on the open market." Dotty says.

After a lot of phoning around Dotty is able to find two transportation jobs that seem to be doable by the group.

-A local trader has some wares that he'd like to bring off the station. They are in three big crates and he'd be able to smuggle them through the controls onboard the station but he has no way of transporting them. He says that the crates emit detectable but harmless radiation. This means that you'd have to be extremely careful in order to avoid detection by a patrol vehicle in the West system. Apparently the radiation emitted by the crates would point to your illegal activities and law enforcement wouldn't like what's in those crates.
As soon as you are able to leave the system you are to head for a specific star system, activate an electronic beacon on each of those crates and then release them into space while in a standard orbit around the green gas giant there. Then you just leave the system and cash in your payment as soon as you are back on the station. Payment would be 1000 credits

-The second option is more bland but also more secure. A mining station has run out of all the things that make life more enjoyable like cigarettes, beer, games,...
All you have to do is to deliver a few crates full of those things to the mining station. The cargo is completely legal and you shouldn't expect any trouble with law enforcement. The payment is 300 credits.

Dotty lets the rest of the crew know about the two freight options.

"If we’s tryin’ to keep a low profile and turn a buck I’d go with option two, I mean who wants a cargo hold full of radioactives?"

"Yeah we could get into enough trouble just as we are. Don't wanna think about hauling around something that dangerous and that illegal. Dotty, why don't you go check that hold one more time to see that everything's secure then you can make arrangements for the cargo." Adonis rises and heads back toward the bridge.

Dotty grins, "Sure thing boss."

As she gets up and heads aft into the cargo hold she calls the second merchant on her phone and sets up the delivery.

Wandering about in the lower cargo deck Dotty thumbs a panel on the wall causing a part of the deck to drop down a few centimeters and slide open revealing cramped airlock with an iris valve in the lower hull. Laying dormant on the valve Dotty spots a what she assumes is an unconscious human. Shining her light on the inert form she realizes it's an android of some kind, either powered down or destroyed. Hard to tell without taking a closer look.

Dotty clicks the coms on the panel she used to access the lock, "Uhh, Boss, Dani?" She says uncertainly her voice echoing through the empty cargo hold, "Does this ship come with an android? Cuz I just found one shoved in an airlock in the lower cargo hold."

Adonis responds immediately. "Hang on. I'll be right down. Disconnecting he jumps from his seat on the bridge and rushes toward the hold.

Activating boot sequence.

Loading. Loading. Loading.

Error: Critcal firmware missing. Downloading Firmware.

"I'd rather not." K3V1N forces the download to cancel and looks out the air lock. "Oh look. A human. I am saved."

Robots can't sigh, which is really a missed opportunity.

"Hi! I'm K3V1N. Tell me how I can be you're best MiBot!"

Disregard that! That is a crippling compulsion. I have no desire to be your MiBot. Much lest your best. Maybe your worst.

Dani coms in. "What kind of android? If there's a cargo hauler, maybe we can use its chassis plating to reinforce those holes."

"No," Dotty says to the coms panel, "it's a MiBot, I think it might have been hiding down here."

The platinum haired girl with mechanical eyes looks down at K3V1N and smiles, "Good afternoon Kevin, do you need a hand to get out of there or are you alright? Power levels all right? You seem a little off Kevin, did you bonk your CPU?"

Derek goes to his room and grabs his vest and head to the location of the android. When he gets there he has his Kevlar vest on just in case there is trouble. Seeing others handling it he stays back in case he is needed.

Raven hears the exchanges about an android being on board, and while she's curious she feels others are better equipped to handle it. She doesn't know much about computers, especially those on board a ship, but she heads back to the bridge hoping she can find some kind of log that documents the last trip this vessel took.

Acquiring Location. Error. Unable to find location.

Turns out vague error messages are just as annoying to entity producing them as they are to anyone else.

"Uh, excuse me small human. Where am I?"

"Wow, small human, rude much?" Dotty replies with a frown, as her mechanical eyes focus on Kevin.

"Well physically you were hidden in the well behind the access cover of the forward belly airlock of a Beowulf trader named Sycorax II, more generally you're in berth 21 of docking ring C of the West V station."

She tilts her head to one side continuing to look at K3V1N, "Mentally, I'm not entirely sure where you are at. Personally, I'm experiencing a certain amount of trepidation. I mean I've never really been on a starship before, much less one that's shot full of holes and to perfectly honest, the rest of the crew, well I don't know most of them from Adam. I mean they seem like a nice enough bunch but lets face it there's definitely a non-zero possibility that at least one of them could be an axe murder, so that kind of cranks up my anxiety just a little. On the other hand some of them are kind of cute so that's always a plus."

"How about you K3V1N? How you doing?" Dotty smiles. "I'm Dotty by the way, or Dorothea if you prefer."