Chapter 1: Carnath

Mullis jumps at the sound of the passenger’s voice, clutching his chest. He closes his eyes for a few seconds, taking a deep breath.

A new start. A new start. A new start.

After an extended exhale, he turns toward the passenger. "I appreciate the concern." He tilts his head towards the cage. "I’m afraid I’m not accustomed to traveling with our present company." With some effort, he smiles. "It seems the sizable one is becoming quite fond of me. Though truth be told, it’s his rather small friend that gives me the jitters." He wipes his hands on his shirt before extending a hand.

"James Mullis, I mean, Dr. James Mullis, though a bit redundant considering our destination. Please, just call me James."

His shoulders slump as the tension releases. Though his body relaxes, he can’t quell some instinctual alarm still ringing in his consciousness.

She looks to Elias and replies, "Oh, I meant James here how did you know my name Miss?"

She looks to James and says, "I am Doctor Annelise Wolf or if we’re being less formal just Annelise. I’m supposed to be looking after prisoner health or at least that’s what my contract says with cleaning as secondary when not seeing to prisoner health."

In responding to these two she forgets to try and explain to Bud why she cares.

"Call me Elios, please, Doctor Annelise Wolf. I know who everyone is. I am the corp android," Elios -11 replies in an even tone.

"Yes of course, doctor and cleaner." The android's head tics again as she turns to Dr. James Mullis.

"You will acclimate to the prisoners and their ways with a little time to adjust." To Bud she says, "Bud Paddington, I am confident that you are correct. Nerves are common when setting out on a new journey in a new place, especially one as challenging as a prison. I am here to help make everyone feel comfortable as well as stay within protocol guidelines."

Bud is a little startled Elios knows his name.

He blinks in surprise and then says, Uh, yeah. Thanks."

Then, he addresses the others pointing at his chest. "Bud", he says and adds, "This is Mr. Man.". The cat opens an eye at the mention of his name.

"It's comforting to know a medical doctor is on board. Though I imagine treating inmates can be quite taxing, especially at a station such as this."

Mullis swallows another lump in his throat before turning back towards Elios. "Yes nerves, you’re probably right. I swear I’ve spent so much time planetside that being boxed in like this, especially on a ship bound for a prison, really has it out for my digestion."

"It’s a pleasure to meet all of you." He gives Mr. Man a long stare before bringing his attention to Bud. "It appears we have quite a diverse crew. I can’t say janitorial services are part of my resume but it could stand to be more well rounded."

Civilians sure talk a lot.

Riggs sits quietly, seeing all but saying nothing. Still, he makes a mental note of the cleaning crew he'll be working with. And if he has to prioritize, well, an actual Doc takes the top spot. But hey... maybe it'll be uneventful and they can all just finish out their contracts, pocket the creds, and move on to greener pastures.

He almost laughs out loud at the thought.

Ellios-11 sits quietly and decides to recheck the prisoner's data. The man's behavior was odd. Thinking it prudent to review his data again with the view to finding an explanation, Ellios-11 calls up the file, except it has become unreadable.

The android's head tics twice to the side, eyelids blinking rapidly, then goes still.

Someone has corrupted the data. It was intact after the file download.

Looking around the bus, it was logical that someone on board had accessed the file and rendered it useless. But who? She could get up and walk over to see what he was doing. Perhaps if his odd behavior continued, she would.

Dodger leans forward in his seat and licks his lips while he is surrounded by other orange jumpsuits. The dry sterile air of these utility passenger shuttles always left him a little thirsty, and it sure didn't seem like the inflight service was going to be any good here. He subtly glanced around at the other prisoners. None were making the mistake of intruding on his personal space. "That's a smart move on their part", he thought to himself.

The real entertainment was these nervous, talkative workers on the other side of the steel mesh cage separating the animals on this side from the nice people on the other. They seemed to jump and stammer at the least bit of flexing from the big guy up front. Dodger had seen him during the transfer. Not someone you want to mess with, but seemed easy enough to divert if the need arose.

The company had brought in a bot on this boat, and that always took Dodger back a bit. He knew what to do with people. Felt he understood their base motives, but bots were programmed and impossible to read. Dodger didn't like that.

And then there was the Marine. Tough, professional, disciplined. Dodger respected that. He hoped he wouldn't have to kill him.

She tries to smile at James, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. "Yeah, comforting. This will be my first time treating inmates so I hope it’s not too difficult. I mean they ought to understand I just want to help them…" She tried not to imagine herself as a hostage and utterly failed. It probably wouldn’t help to tell anyone that she killed her last patient.

She looks over at Ellios, "Ellios, how long do you think it will be until we arrive?"

"It's against company policy to answer such questions. Feel free to ask the captain of the shuttle for an ETA."

If an android could be in a bad mood, Ellio-11 was in one as she still tried to calculate who had corrupted her data. This was an ominous beginning to an assignment. In the meantime, she studied the long-haired prisoner but not in an obvious way. She had learned that humans don't like being glared at by either man or bot.

Thirty six hours. Doesn't matter how long we have left, asking won't speed it up any.

There was a trick Riggs had learned with his armor... if you sat (or stood) just right, the joints would catch just a bit. It doesn't seem like much, but the pay off was that you could sleep without falling over. Hell, it didn't even look like you were asleep.

The first day at the new duty station was likely to be busy and chaotic, so getting some sleep beforehand wasn't a bad idea.

Bud grunts. "36 hours is nothing.", he thinks and glances towards the hired gun. The man was sitting...oddly. The posture was both slumped and at same time.

"Well, 36 hours is 36 hours, so, best get some shuteye.", he says and closes his eyes.

Of course, Elios-11 needed no such shuteye and simply continued a subtle visual scan of the occupants of the shuttle while running scenarios in her head as she tried to figure out who had messed with the prisoner data. Perhaps one of the occupants would have a tell that gave them away.

She decided to scan the other prisoners to see if any other data had been corrupted.

Elios-1 starts with the closest prisoner and runs the scan.

Dodger's brow furrowed and eyes narrowed. The wiry, wild haired one on the floor was working on something for sure, and now Dodger was sure the big man was in on it. This could mean the fun was starting sooner rather than later.

Dodger weighed in his mind the potential of a shuttle hijacked by the prisoners, and didn't like the odds of making it out alive in a tug run by anyone dumb enough to get caught by the corporate cops, but then again wasn't he here too? Not a fair comparison.

Dodger, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and the balls of his feet pushed against the deck so that his balance was forward and ready for movement.

She does her best to try and rest her eyes. Sadly she fails and ends up going over her first aid kit. Then she re-reads old emails and finally she taps her leg. She’s bored now so she finally asks, "Are you allowed to play Chess Ellios? Anyone else capable of envisioning the board in your head?