Job 2 - Chapter 1: Just a few questions...

The flight back to the station is uneventful. The ship, while old, battered and recently stitched together does its job well.
Dani's repairs weren't able to fix the problem with the non-airtight rooms but you all comfortably fit on the ship nevertheless. After all it is not that small.
Before you departed you loaded the gun turret from the pirate ship into the cargo port of your ship.
As you exit the hyperspace to make the final approach to West V you are being hailed. It's Eddie, your "employer", again
Heyheyhey. saw that ya're on t' way to the station. Great you made it back. As soon as you dock meet me at my apartment. It's No 1522 in habitation area E. Hurry up!

ChiHiRu naturally ended up as part of the ship's crew. He had proven himself both against the pirate and alien menace and the kind of security he offered was a welcome addition the the crew's skillset. His presence would open possibilities of handling rougher missions and he seemed quite satisfied of waiting for his share of food and bounty. The only inconvenience was that his smoking habit might had an extra stress on the ship's air filtering system.

His traveling time was spend walking around quietly observing random things on the ship and reading on his tablet.

Scott stretches his body while sitting on one of the chair.

When the connection with Eddy ends "So this Eddy. Ye boss. Is he ok?"

Scott probably spent travel time looking into some data about this unknown alien species that kidnaped his fellow scientist

Dotty smiled sadly as she layed out the three fancy dresses she'd brought for the trip in the common room. She let out a sigh and nodded at Scott.

"Eddy is a fixer, a government spook or something," she shrugs looking more like a little girl now than a grown woman, "I ain't rightly sure ducks but he's the guy what paid us for this job." The mechanics in her optical implants make a subtle noise as she refocuses her attention on the dresses.

Dotty runs a gloves hand over the red velvet dress wishing she could touch the fabric again.

"I gotta return these to Astrid so she don't skin me alive." She smiles and lets out a sigh, "I kinda hope she's home, she's got a nice home, lets me sleep over from time to time." Dotty thinks for a moment more about the bag of trinkets she needs to give to Astrid as well as the information she gathered.

"Well I hope he has some more jobs as easy" Says Scott and makes quotation mark in the air with his mechanic hand

"Lovely dresses. I remember when my daughter was choosing one for her prom" He gasps sadly and goes for short walk pack his things in case they will have to move

You approach West V, make contact with the flight control and get an assigned landing slot.
Adonis (your pilot from the previous job) docks the ship without any issues
Everything is completely normal until you exit the ship.
A man and a robot approach you immediatly after exiting the ship.
You are the crew of the Sycorax II..yes? Without giving you any time to respond he points at a transport vehicle nearby and continues Mr. Eddie is already awaiting you. Please don't let him wait.
The unlikely pair ushers you into the vehicle and they drive off. There is just enough room for you all and the ride is quite uncomfortable

After a short time they arrive at Eddie's apartment and your driver directs you towards the door, once again making clear that they are not taking a 'no' for an answer.
As you enter the apartment the door is shut behind you.

In front of you is quite a comfortable living room. The room alone is as big as a whole flat on West V. Posters of jazz and rock bands line the walls.
In the middle of the room are eight upholstered chairs positioned around a round, low table. They all look quite comfortable.
In one of them, facing the door is Eddie. He gives you a wide smile and stands up a glass of brown liquid (presumably whiskey) in his robotic right hand.

Hey there! Good t' see y'all again! Ya left a few of your friends behind but made some new ones! Great! he says in a coarse but cordial voice
He makes a few steps towards you
For all of'ya who don' know me: I'm Eddie. A kind of liaison man for the local government 'ere. To call your mission a success would be an understatement. Read on yar report. Ya know the one Dr. Salmberg sent me. Please take a seat! Let's chat a bit!

He points at the chairs
I hope the driver wasn't too rude but I wanted to talk to ya'll right after you've landed.

"I am ChiHiRu" states the Vendendrian's tablet.

Two of his tentacles surround one of the chair and lift it up, bringing it closer to him. He stand there, holding the chair and await the next part of the conversation.

"Eddie," Dotty looked at him irritably, her mechanical eyes whirring and clicking softly in her head as she drank in his flat, "why you send that mook and his mechanical friend to collect us the second we docked?" Her eyes look at the Jazz posters and she walks towards them. "I gots a life I gots to gets back to Eddie, I gots a job and I sent Astrid a text telling her I was on my way and now, now I ain't on my way and she ain't patient when it comes to me." Astrid hadn't actually replied to the text and she'd sent another one letting her know about Eddie kidnapping all of them.

She looks about some more, Astrid had a huge house on West V but this room was insane and must have cost Eddie a fortune, "You know my flat could fit in this room like," She proceeded to mentally divide the place up into smaller and smaller portions, "five times over right?" Her home was small, but it was hers. Well actually it belonged to Astrid but it was her space and no one could tell her what to do with it.

Dotty studies all of the Jazz posters carefully before taking a seat in one of the highbacked chairs.

Just as Eddie wants to talk again the door opens and the mysterious male enters the room.
At the same time that the door opened Eddie's cordial smile froze and he drew a pistol with his left hand with a speed that you'd not expect from an aged government liason men like Eddie.
But quickly he relaxes the grip on his gun.
Oh for fuck's sake, Garret. Ever heard of knocking?! Nearly blasted ya!
As Garret strides across the room and helps himself to some water Eddie drops his shoulders in seeming resignation
Well guys this is Garret and he's... he begins explaining but Dotty interrupts him.
Yeah I'm sorry that they caused you some inconvenience but I wanted to talk to you as soon as you arrived. You know... hmm you witnessed some things that may be of interest to some off'a people around here and I jus' wanted you to know that ya' may play a greater roll in all of this than expected. Which is probably good as ya' may expect an even greater paycheck than you...
Eddie explains but is interupted again. The apartment door opens again and two people in suits, a black, skinny man and a white blonde woman with cybernetic implants in her face, enter the flat through the entrance door.
Eddie seems to have expected them as he doesn't point his gun at them this time.

The woman positions herself in the middle of the room, produces an identification badge from her pocket, shows it to you and says:
Ingrid Sterndotir is my name and this here is Igumeda Assaniwara. We are agents from the security council of the human federation. As we see it you have seen and experienced some incredible happenings. We read the report from Ms. Salmberg and we want to ask you a few questions about what happened:
She fishes a PDA out of her pocket, ready to note down anything that you say to her

So who do we have here?
Let's see:
Adonis Clemment: Human,No known occupation
Dorothea Astankova: Human, No known occupation
ChiHiRu: Verdendrain, security advisor at the colony on DS-Beta-3641 One
Jefferson Fabeck: Human, engineer at the colony on DS-Beta-3641 One
Scott Pirx: Human, scientific advisor at the colony on DS-Beta-3641 One
and you, you are?
she finally asks and points at Garret. Before he can answer Eddie makes a dismissive gesture with his hand and she continues


Well then...
We have some specifics things we want to ask:
First off: Do you know anything about the ship that attacked the colony?
Secondly: Have you found out anything about the pirates that attacked the colony?
Thirdly: You met an alien. Do you know anything about it? We haven't seen one like this before?
Fourthly: Did you make any other discoveries worth noting?

Please answer as truthful as possible. The answer to these question could prove to be pivotal to mankind as a whole, and other species too

Scott stays a little back and observes the exchange silently. Nods when his name is read

ChiHiRu's main body was swaying left and right, trying to follow the coming and going and reactions of the now crowded room. Many human interaction were still confusing to him and he sometime struggle to figure out what was addressed to him or not.

With the mention of his name and questions about pirates and aliens, the Vendendrian took an educated guess he was expected. While he did not know how to be more truthful than stating the facts or how his answers could turn mankind, he was happy to answer.

Still holding his chair next to him in the air, ChiHiRu moved his tablet toward the officials and answered.
"First, yes. Secondly, yes. Thirdly, I did. Yes. I do not know. Fourthly, I did."

Humans do have strange questions ChiHiRu thought to himself.

Dotty lets out a sigh, "I just want to go home, I want to sleep in my bed. Ugh."

She looks at the female suit with an exasperated look, the gangster mol accent in her voice disappears. "Yes, maybe, no, and I discovered that friendship is the real end game."

Dotty pulls out her tablet and shoots all the information she pulled from the pirates computers to the woman. "I got their logs and some audio files. Someone hired them, don't know who, outfitted them in a fresh off the line, new ship smell starship with new guns. They had a source in the dig and it sounds like they were after artifacts, probably to sell them to the highest bidder for some rich bitch with a hunger for alien kitsch."

Ingrid wants to says something to ChiHiRu as he presents his tablet but Igumeda raises his hand.
That's a Verdendrian. They communicate differently.
Igumeda fishes a device from his pocket and pushes some buttons on it.
Suddenly lights begin to flash and it begins to emit strange scents. ChiHiRu reacts and puts some of his tentacles on the device.
After a few minutes Igumeda bows his head, mutters Thank you for your cooperation and repockets the device.Ingrid meanwhile looks through the data that Dotty provided.

Ingrid and Igumeda then transfer some of the data between their PDAs and after a lot of furrowing their brows and shaking their head they turn towards you again.

Look, we have reason to think that someone is building their own private army. We don't know exactly who they are but we do know that they are building some highly sophisticated ships and weapons and that they use it to attack traders, bases and planets.
And that's not just pirates, they are attacked too.
As you proved yourself to be highly resourceful we would like to offer you a deal.
The sector governement will pay for a complete overhaul of the Sycorax II and you can use the ship as long as you want and for what you want.
In return we may approach you with a mission now and then. You will get paid for these missions. Meanwhile we'd like you to keep your eyes peeled for any traces of this mysterious person or organization who is building their own private army. Ingrid says and crosses her arms in front of her chest.
So... what do you say?

ChiHiRu respond to his exchange with Igumeda :"Thank you, very informative."

The alien then put the chair down and let his main body hover in it, not quite ready to let something else than his tentacle holding his weight, but making a civil effort of it.
ChiHiRu blinks a moment at the mention of peeling one's eye but then he remembers he did learn the meaning of that particular expression in the past. The deal appeared quite good to him and, in his experience, private army were often put to bad uses.

"This deal his going down river for ChiHiRu. I will be watchful for mysterious aliens or armies as cycles flows."

The Vendendrian watches his companion for their reactions, they certainly knows more than him about human deals to make a educated decision that he could follow.

Dotty looks at Garret with her mechanical eyes a faint blue light flickers within them, "What they wants is someone who knows how to keep their head down, their trap shut and listen to a conversation. Someone who doesn't break shit that don't need to be broke." She pushes her blonde hair back behind her ears and looks back at the agents. "Now some times things need to get busted but when you're trying to figure things out, breakin' shit attracts attention. Unwanted attention and if these guys is as bad as Ingrid says you don't want them to know you're looking into them or they ain't never gonna find your body."

ChiHiRu follows the exchange between humans. He believes he is witnessing what other had described as "small talk". In this case, he was told the polite thing to do was to also give an opinion on the randomly selected subjects.

"ChiHiRu learned the same as Dotty. Humans breaks easily and it leads to unexpected trouble. So, ChiHiRu trust Dotty,

Vendendrian also learned the importance of fertiliser, but we find that fertiliser specialist are more useful on planet and less on ships."

Dotty raises an eyebrow, "That wasn't a subtle veiled threat, I was merely pointing out the truth, you don't want guys like this to know you're looking at them." She lets out a breath, "I hate violence, I dislike guns, being shot at or stabbed or anything like that. It makes me disagreeable."

The young woman looks at the female agent, "I'm gonna needs to talk to Astrid before I commits to anything."

Ingrid and her partner take a step back and place their hand at their hip as Garret approaches them.
Ingrid acknowledges Garret's ID card and answers to the discussion:
Well I think there will be situations where subterfuge is more important than violence but also you should prepared to be able to dish out some damage should the need arise. I will write down a number of shops where you can buy some ordnance

And of course you will get your promised pay along with a hazard pay. Let's say.... ermmmm... 9000 credits? I think that's fair!
Eddie says and uses his PDA to transfer the funds to your accounts
Well I think our business here is concluded here for the time being he adds
I guess there are some places you want to check out here. Maybe you'll find something else to do there.

Anyways Ingrid interjects The Sycorax II is still technicaly sector government property so if you want to use her you have to agree to help us. We won't be constricting on your business:If you agree to work with us you can do so freely but you have to repair the ship. Mr. Eddie gave the ship to you in a blatant display of disregard for your safety. You can overhaul it on the government's cost in the "FJ shipyard" just a short jump from here. Minor repairs could be done here but a whole section of the armor is missing and we can't repair this here on West V. You'll need a shipyard for this

The other agent, Igumeda, adds in a dark voice If you are interested in taking up our offer, please feel free to contact us. As said: Our focus is on catching the ones who build their private army in the shadows. Whatever you do to achieve this goal is none of our business.

With these final words the agents leave.

ChiHiRu was happy. In his short time working with the Sycorax crew, he had not only learned many new things and protected a colony ; he also was given more credits than his last contract was worth AND be hired to protect a whole sector. He definitely was growing up in the world.

Since the others had some things to do before leaving again, ChiHiRu decided to take some time and visit the city. He wandered around for a while, looking at people interacting and shops offering various wares.

He will be drawn to a shop where he will be delighted to find various options of tobacos to try for his electronic cigaret. He refill is stocks both in quantity and variety.

He will also spend some some time at Randy's Military equipment where he will inquire at the cost to adapt a plasteel vest to go under his Woven metal fabric vest for added protection. There was a distinct possibility of being shot at repeatedly in the future and ChiHiRu preferred to have a long summer ahead of him. There was just so many things to learn and so many people to meet.

Dotty picks up her bags and walks anxiously out of Eddie's place, Ingrid and Igumeda, she repeats the names over and over in her mind as she walks back towards L'Aura. Ingrid and Igumeda. Her cred stick feels heavier in her pocket even though she knows it can't possibly be. 9000 creds! She's never had that much money in her hands at one time before, Well no that's not true. As she remembers her eyes and skin begins to ache.

She squeezes through the last few passages and down the delivery corridor towards the back entrance to L'Aura. Moses, an oversized man in a tailored black suit with a bald head, tan skin and blue eyes looks towards her and grins. "Dot! You been gone a long time sweet pea, I was getting worried about you."

Dorothea grins extending a gloved fist which he happily bumps, "Astrid sent me away to do a job, but something else came up, something important, is she in?" The tone in her voice becomes more serious.

Moses nods, "She's in her office."

"Thanks Moses." Dotty says with a smile before heading inside. "Be safe."

"You too Dot, you too." Moses closes the door behind her and locks it so that no one else can get in.

Dotty heads through the back stage area returning the dresses she borrowed and the jewelry with a sigh, she'd really wanted to have a fancy dress night but that never panned out. When she's done putting all the things she borrowed away she makes her way upstairs to Astrid's office. She can hear voices inside, Astrid's on a call with someone, someone unimportant or she'd have shielded the office. Dotty waits patiently in the hall until the conversation comes to an end and the door slides open on it's own.

Astrid looks over at her from behind her desk and smiles. "Dorothea," there's a hint of disappointment in Astrid's voice, "I was expecting you an hour ago."

"Eddie kidnapped me." Dorothea replies, "I was coming straight here ma'am but his men picked us up as we, as we ..." Oh crud, there was a long word she wanted to use that just wasn't coming into her brain. "... as we got off the ship."

Astrid nods, "Not unexpected." She gets up and pours herself a tumbler of translucent brown liqueur from a glass decanter. "Sit!" Astrid commands pointing to a chair, "Tell me what you learned Dorothea."

Dotty sits and begins to spin the tale of their trip to the purple planet, of the crashed pirate ship and the launch they had to destroy. The information she recovered from the ship and the pirates themselves, the alien and the scientist it took with it and the offer delivered to her by Eddie and the two government agents Ingrid and Igumeda. Astrid listens patiently asking questions when things require clarification and subtly nudging Dot's retelling of the adventure in directions she feels are important until she finally ends at the point where they want her help looking for a secret private army.

When she's done Dotty picks up her bag and puts it in her lap opening it up and beginning to carefully unwrap the handful of artifacts she lifted from the dig site for Astrid. "I thought these were pretty ma'am and they looked intact and valuable."