Nathan "Cable" Grey's page

At some point (soon) should we speak for our niches?
Hey everyone!

With love, I think the answer lays in the very very very few posts in Gameplay, and all of us trying to understand them. I am still at a loss. Edits need to be clear. Based on the current (final?) gameplay post, I am guessing what the pirate said to Nav was retconned ... which is for sure your right as GM, but with additional love, for me, at that time (meta-me not Nathan-me), the pirate was escaping, because she was in a cockpit of something, and she spoke to Nav, and the station was going to blow up according to her, in what sounded like a lot lot less time than the time for him to return and reboot a cryotube with Cable.

WOW - generally I am the one who is behind, and generally it is in Gameplay. There are only 6 posts between my 2 posts in gameplay, one of which was at noon yesterday. Today alone there have basically been TWENTY posts here in Discussion. I do not think anyone is on the same page at this point ...

Orion "He That Seeks" wrote:

Orion was moving with Navarre to clear a route, per my last post.

Sweet, that's what I thought, no one moved on the map so i was just making sure :)

As Navarre moved towards the Docking area doors, he realizes Cable has started interacting with the cryotube. Chuckling at Boom's comment about 'rigging the doors' Navarre smiles a wolfish smile, "Don't worry we'll stop her."

Nodding to Orion, he opens he docking area doors, moving into the docking bay, shotgun leveled at the would be escaping pirate, "Hold right there, I'd rather not kill you."

Basically just moving into the room, so he has a closer shot if he needs one.

"Nav, I could really use your help! This thing isn't go-ready, and it's all I've got."

Yes the same as the one you encountered before, heavy robot meat for lifting and hard work. Built like a tank for space work.

Remember the low berth pods need checking and powering up.
Thats an engineering job...

https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Low_Berth_Rack

Nathan is clearly worried: he has never seemed worried, ever, before.
As they move, he gets on comms.

"Aya, I need you. I need to create a cryo-effect, as close to a low berth as possible. I know that we have not created one yet, but I want to know what we can convert, absolutely as soon as possible. Whatever it takes. If that means we place this man in a Vacc Suit and you chill & regulate its internal temperature and atmoshpere, then that's what we do. I need him cold. I need to save his life."

"Gentlemen ... we are saving this man. It could be that means me dragging him back to the ship by myself, but we are saving him."

Cable looks around to see who's with him on this

"I can't remember seeing a cryo-tube where we came in, but there was a lot of medical gear. Can someone race over there and let me know? If that doesn't pan out, we need to get him to our Low Berths in Engineering, asap. Get on comms, we need to be FAST."

Letting the captain worry about the officer, Navarre quickly relieves the corpse of its shotgun, bandolier, and comms unit. Looping the bandolier over his shoulder and attaching the comms unit to his ear, he slides the shotgun into the scabbard on his pack usually reserved for his own weapon. Sliding two shells into his shotgun's receiver, he moves into the hall, telling Cable and the others, "I'll keep an eye out while you check on the officer."

Cable holsters his pistol, and goes over to the downed officer.

"Give me just a sec to take a look ..."
EDU+MED: 2d6 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (3, 4) + 2 + 2 = 11 Triage & Assessment

Moving into the room just slightly to get a line of sight to the soon dying pirate, Nathan fires

LaserPistol: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (3, 4) + 1 = 83d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 1) = 6

"You get that doctors bluff better than gamblers, right? We learn how to bluff before we learn triage; that was a feint my friend, and it totally worked."

GrenadeTime: 1d10 ⇒ 7 Seconds

Nathan steps forward to grab the dog, and then races out the door into the hallway

Boom says rather loudly "When have you known me to be without explosives. Give me a second." He then fires at the remaining enemy he can see in order to clear a path to the room.

[dice=Gun (Energy Pistol) Dex] 2d6 + 1 + 1 [dice=Damage]3d6+3

"Boomer wait ..."

and then, also rather loudly

"No one should have to die with their limbs blastred off, bleeding out on a rock no one knows about with no one to even tell their family. Today doesn't have to be a good day to die. It isn't like we're cops, it's all indies here now. Maybe we could work this out ..."

Yeah, we should probably be a little more patient. We haven't heard from our Captain either.

I'm catching up now.

I'm guessing this must have been clarified in Gameplay.
Just for the record though, I have been looking at Discussion all weekend for an update.

LMK stands for Let Me Know in case that was the problem ...

LMK - I will check for updates later tonight before reviewing Gameplay

Nathan frowns, only slightly. There was a lot of risk here.

"Let me run to Medical for a few supplies, and my pistols. I want everyone focused on surviving please. We have a medical bay, not an autodoc."


Space had been good to them so far and he was grateful for that.
No sense pushing their luck though.

"Aya ... could you and your holobot please escort the recovered crewperson to Medical? At the risk of sounding, oh, concerned or pragmatic or even maternal, many lifeforms who go through space combat benefit from medical treatment afterwards, some even have accute needs. I guess the rest of the crew really has their eye on the prize ... Cable out."

Now that panic smur$ed I am going to go check Gameplay ;)
That really made me laugh

Evindyl wrote:

Then perhaps a sea s***f ...

LOL sorry, I still love that

Really?

Makes me laugh every time ;)

For my buddy Cor "He who now seeks" - the name of the campaign is mostly likely meant to be Aslan Coccyx. It is less likely meant to be an ethnically charged advertisement for a gentlemen's club ...

EDU+NAV: 2d6 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (6, 1) + 2 + 2 = 11

I just just just told RH on Discord that I needed to watch Serenity again
Now I really do

Orion "He That Seeks" wrote:

As far as an intro, does the idea of finding Orion on a drifting shuttle sound okay? Maybe he was part of a company of bounty hunters hired because he knew how to fly a ship? Orion was one of a handful of shuttles sent to this rock to see if maybe the pirate queen was hiding here, and sure enough it turned out she was! But the shuttle took heavy damage from an enemy ship and now I'm drifting in the black, hoping to be found before life support fails entirely.

Ok Buck. Sounds good. Just no singing.

Personally I liked the idea (mine) of there being a secret secondary compartment of the life pod. Like no one knew, including Angie, but somehow its mass dispalcement seemed off and Cable scanned it for life signs. Then he found Orion in an experiemental cryo-suspension and revived him.

j/k

The officer gets pinned on his comms.

He then talks to you all v the PA system from the flight desk.

"Seems the other ship that layed clame was in fact sent to take out the subject of our hunt. They got her too late, she did not wait but sook the ship. The plan they said was to take capture her and get the pay out. So we know someone in her camp dose not want her back. Thats good for us. Also we have a very good idea now of where their base is. So change of plan, you want that Cr200,000 and hazaed pay. We get to the area and we set off the device, that should tell us which rock the base is on. Then we go in. There will be other ships close so we will not be alone. But more than anything we need to get there and take her alive. Do that and the full Cr2mil is yours."

"On behalf of STF, her crew, and myself, we are in agreement. I would ask that you return to the commons though; while I do not want a blood-shake on this because I am disinclined to heal it, I think it would be best for this crew if we were to spit-shake on this deal. It is the way of our people and the sincerity of a bargain matters. We are a people of integrity."

Ok I am worried now we have a game play problem.

As it stands

So lets stop for now and work this out.

1: Your started on the rock, a harsh world where life is a grind.
You found a ship and it asked you to take it home.

My idea was simple
Every time you jump into a system the players would have an Adventure.

The rock and the ship finding was the 1st one
The System wide pirate hunt is the one we are no know.

Same game clarity.

You jumped into system and where spotted, inspected and then asked to help hunt down a pirate Queen.

But she was double crossed, her pick up was no who she expected and someone who know her plan to get back to her base, double crossed her and sent a ship to 'find her' and clame the reward.

But she did the duff ship to get hers crew in and took the ship running for it.

Then is YOU showed you and messed things up even more. Getting there 1st and telling system secruity you had find something, one of the taken ships crew.

And now you have a officer on the ship, asking you to tricker a tracking device to fine the taken ship.

One shot thing but done right and with a some idea of where she is close to here. You have a chance of getting a pay out.

That is where we are.

So dose that help everyone, you going to get to the pirest base soon, there you can meet other crews helping to take it as well OR catives being held by the Pirats

:)

Dose this help everyone.

I think I have falling into that 'Its too complicated root. And also rushing thing. So I am
1: going to keep things simpler form here on out and make things more clear to you. That is on me not you.
2: Also slow things down so that players have time to think and respond.

I am really sorry to see Monger leave and that is on my as well.

So trying to be better guys.

tbh, yes, I think that does help

For me, it was just becoming incredibly cumbersome to log in and then try to figure out what was misunderstood, and then fight the fight of Adebe fighting to control everything and then correct what was correctable AND then attempt/pretend to have a good time. The "good time" was not winning.

Traveller is Traveller
Flavor is flavor
Homebrew is homebrew
Fun is fun

Sorry, I don't care if artificial gravity is an artificial concept, Han Solo looked cool floating into Boba Fett's ship. Sorry, not sorry. It looks cool. I don't care how it is powered, I don't care why it works, I do NOT care if Boba had to pay extra to afford to have a grav gurney instead of some p.o.s. that looks like it came from a second hand ambulance. Yesp, sorry, don't care. I want "the cool"

And we HAD the cool. The ship is hella cool. The updates were hella cooler imo; i have magnified that pic SO much. So I just want cool, well, and fun. I don't want to talk about aerodynamics, weight distribution or cosmology, I just want lightsabers to be thrown and seem cool, even if they hit Nathan in the face. That's really all.

I feel that I understood the premise from the beginning, and I think now, the only thing missing for me is whether the "kids" will go through a "normal" traveller career path, take a break on the Aslan world for 4 years, or what. Mostly I just want to be excited when I log in.

Orion "He That Seeks" and Corellon "Cor" Anders are both Alias of Stiehle. I think he thought Corellon wouldn't fit the game well so he created Orion. Interestingly Corellon (nerfed down a little) could easily be one of the 'soldiers' we meet.

Are we continuing moving forwards in game until we add someone, or should we wait?

If I could please ask that we do NOT continue moving forward, reiterate my request to press PAUSE, and add a request for a Session Zero-point-Five, I would appreciate it.

I am sorry to see Adebe go also, because I felt like we were on the edge of a breakthrough there. That said, I have also gotten to that lost-focus shark-jumping place where I am NOT psyched to log in to this campaign anymore. Can we please try to fix that together?

"No" or "No thank you" are totally okay answers, but I needed to at least ask.

Cor was from another Traveller PbP, extremely fun actually, but sadly ill-fated. Was sorry to see it end. The "Nathan" of that story was somewhat more brash than this one, but no less fun.

I feel like I was here Sunday, with absolutely no clue what any of the dialog meant or what the cross talk was intended to produce ... and now 36 hours later we have a new player? Not entirely sure that 2 minutes was a fair window of response, but at least it attracted a solid player.

Boom laughs "If we need to use our personal weapons we are in a lot of trouble. But I'm in provided the crew's medical is covered too. Does this get us the 200k as well for information leading to the capture of the pirate?"

Cable smiles ...

PLEASE NOTE: before the "I want" and "gimme" posts start ...

Cable did not negotiate for an increase in pay, Cable did not ask for additional expenses to be covered, Cable has not forgotten that the officials already owe us 200Kcr --- Cable asked for a super significant addition to the contract, like access to an AutoDoc or Cybernetic Limb Replacement or Death Benefits. This isn't an attempt to nickel and dime, it is to make sure that anything gigantic that happens (like ship damage) is covered.

The officer looks a little worried at the comment about EMP missiles.

"Can I have a long range comms link please."

He asks, when you supply one he goes into the master badroom and has a convention with his ship. He then comes back out.

"I would like you all here for this."

He waits until your all there and then says.

"The one shot tracking device gives us a chance. The ship out there we think was a clean up crew sent to remove evidence. Tracking where it came from helps us set a position of where our target may have run too with her stolen ship. I want to you take me to..."

He arm com lights up and sends out the location, close to a small mining astride patch.

"Should be about 4 hours from here at the speed you can move at. We tracked you so know this ship has legs. Other ships will be joining us. Once there I want to activate the devie. You will be offered hazard pay for this. Even if it dose not work. Cr20k per day, and you get access to the local navel ship yards for any damage you may take. We will cover costs. Will you agree to help us?"

"STF Crew, sound off. I have said this before: I am the Captain of Registry because all vessels need one; I am no one's commander. I would hear everyone's opinion on the offer, while also sharing that I think it is solid and I am inclined to accept. That said, we are also from a culture which values the art of haggling, so I must at least ask for more than is on the table, pun intended as a physician: you have offered to cover the "medical" expenses of the vessel, could you also agree to cover damages to her crew? I can patch up pretty much anyone, but I would like to ensure that any harm this crew comes to will be remedied as well. This mission goes way beyond rescue and salvage."

Turning as Boom enters with the officers, Navarre nods, "Greetings, I'm Navarre," He smiles slightly, "I have a little skill in engineering." He gestures towards the device, "It seems its a one hit thing, it hacks the local becon net, triangulating between them and PINGS the other reserver. You then get feed back that tells you an area where it is." He frowns slightly "Once you ping them they will know they have been pinged and will likely kill the receiver. So we will probably only get one shot at it."

Hearing Abebe's report, Navarre smiles, Cables assesment of the 'freighter' had been right. Looking towards the officer in charge he adds, "It sounds like your boys are in a fight with the 'freighter.'"

"Yeah, medicine is straight forward in a lot of ways. If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it is still probably a tumor and you should take a biopsy." Cable smiles at his nonsense humor that reminds him of his mother

"They were acting like pirates, because, well, pirates do that. Kinda like tumors."

"Brilliant assessment by the way 2F, way to think outside the pack ... so clearly, your job here with your new found system-native assistants, is to create the piggy-back signal that you can send along WITH the ping-payload so that you can gather as much possible data as quickly as conceivable to get us ongoing tracking capability to find the ship that was previously thought to have been missing/hijacked which the leader here has now referred to as "ours" & "stolen"

AFTER the status update:

"Excellent work Mister Adebe, would you report to Engineering please? There is a a tricky project getting underway and I would like your input alongside Navarre's. You are relieved, Aya you have the conn until I report to the bridge; relative postion to continue at station keeping please."

"I need to check on my patient, and then I will head to the bridge. Please report status or call a meeting in the commons when ready."

"We aren't taking anyone to Terra guys, they just need a place to unwind a little and that's what we have. I wanted to make sure there wasn't anyone's dirty laundry in there, that is all."

There's a pause, but they can all tell the channel is still open ...

"For clarity; our "visitors" were stranded with us and I am being choosing on behalf of all of us to be polite. They are soldiers. They will do as their commander orders. They could all sit in the commons and be fine with that ... and the one guest we have will remain in the Med Bay for quite some time. Happy to instruct our visitors to wear vacc suits if you need it 2F, just let me know how your calculations turn out."

"Caleb out."

VERY hard to argue with life being too short though, #AMEN

I have said this before, I am happy to repeat it; I am available to my games, especially if they are good. I have email, I have Discord, I have texts, I have google voice, and I have Whatsapp: all of those arrive at my phone. If the pace seems slow, reach out and I'll help if I can, because even if I don't hate retconning, I probably DO hate unneeded retcons.

Nav TF offers some good advice in his post:
Concerned that the life pod could be considered a crime scene by the local authorities, Adebe worried how much they should disturb the evidnce and called the Captain to the bridge, "Captain when your patient is stable enough, could you please report to the bridge?"
We could have had an amazing discussion about salvage rights versus crime scenes, engaged everyone else, etc. Would not have been a convo that I objected to in any way, myself or on behalf of Cable.

Let me go back to Life really is Way Too Short. When I am in a game, I am pretty dedicated to it being awesome for people. My expectation, correct in almost every case, is that all of the other players are looking for a good time as an 'exit' to some of the less good times in their lives. I want that. For all of us.

@Navarre - Angie hold your arm as you go to leave, She is hurt bad and weak. She focuses,

"Thank you but I can't ask that. The security forces will know what to do, but what chance to they have to find the my ship"

You work and set the transponder.

The officers gets to the sick bay, and stops a moment taking in the sceen then he is just about to ask some thing when his comes goes off.

"Sir the other ship has rabbited, accelerating hard. Captain says stay put we will be giving chase."

He responds

"Copy"

He looks at the sick bed and asks

"Well it seems we will be with you for a while. Can I ask is the patient above to anwser some questions."

"A few, yes, but all things considered, it appears we have a great deal more time for questions than we planned. Let's limit this interaction; 3 to 4 minutes. I will not risk giving additional stims to the patient in this condition."

Cable smiles curtly

"I am Nathan Grey, Chief Medical Officer of STF ... and Captain also for what that's worth."

Going to a comm panel, "Mister Adebe: you're all the steward we have, and it seems our visitors have become guests. Would you please prepare the main cabin for their use? I will make coffee shortly."

Yeah, we seriously need to actually press pause here, and then I guess also learn to let that be okay, since it clearly isn't

There was absolutely zero awkward pause here: the team has been waiting for information and Panic will give it when he is ready. We will wait for it. What IS awkward is now needing to retcon or use chronomancy to edit a post that it wasn't time for

A - we need to know if Angie would like to assist in the search & recovery of her vessel

B - we need to know if Navarre (possibly with Boomer) removed the nav beacon from the pod

C - after those results, all of which were initiated prior, our "not in any way honored" non-guests can be greeted. I am not sure what that is or what it is about to be honest. There is no need for our team to kowtow to these people, but Navarre is right; asking what's up would have worked, "Captain to the bridge" would have worked too, but what we have really does not work.

Every character cannot be in every scene, all the time, nor can the "spotlight" always rotate to shine equally on every character, and for some reason, Adebe is on the bridge. That is okay. Okay with the rest of us I guess, but not with the character/player for some reason. It also seems the Captain jokes weren't enough: if the team needs a leader, it can designate one, but for the time being, it doesn't have one. Courses of action and positions of the team are formed by consensus and for the record: there is no "Platinum Purity" consensus, there is no "don't tick off the Authorities" consensus (there is no Sherrif I am aware of), and there was nothing illegal discussed. All told, this is making for a really untenable flow of gameplay. I will repeat my request that we press pause for a moment.

Copy - I am just getting to my laptop today
Someone please Discord me if we need something

So before we get too much further, I'd like to wait to see if Boom helps Navarre remove the device. Also did our patient say if she would like to stay with us and help hunt down the pirate?

No, we still meed an answer to that, but at least the dude who arrived did not say anything about taking her

Digger Boom wrote:

Boom is not a mechanic nor engineer. I can stand and hold things or pound what you ask me to. I think he said you got it out though.

My bad, for some reason I thought it was Engineering or Comms once I looked at it I realized my mistake.

Cable could help actually, kinda like the Dr. McCoy operating on a photon torpedo scene

Abebe sees the sensors pinging a possible collision course on the incoming ship. At the same time he hears something possibly illegal being discussed. Abebe prioritizes the ship's safety and checks the ship's execution of the course plotted.

[dice=Pilot(Dex)]d26+1 What's up?

He then sends a reminder to all on board, "Abebe here, may have to make a quick maneuver, the Star-Barker maybe coming in a bit close, be ready. Also all conversations are being recorded to show our 100 percent Platinum purity and good intentions so we don't tick off the Sheriffs before we can even refuel." Abebe hopes that helps.

Abebe inexperience shows, consequence to be determined in the next thrilling episode.

"Aye aye, Captain."

"In medicine, we normally ask for consent prior to anything that violates freedoms or privacy, guess there must have been a course I missed in starship operations. Weren't many courses my mom let me miss though ..."

"Aya - delete any recording of any party from whom you do not have direct consent to being recorded, and let me know when that is complete? You have Adebe's implicit consent it seems ... but we will discuss your privacy protocols at another time."

So we used 3.05 hours rescuing the pod and getting angie into the sick bay and conscious.

Having had similar thoughts as to what Abebe had voiced Navarre wonders if the local officials will release Angie back into their company. Or if the pod will be impounded as well. Furrowing his brow, he asks her, "Angie, would you mind if I removed that link beacon so we can track your ship?"

Either way she answers the question, I'm assuming the radio's have ear buds so our communication isn't heard by everyone. If that's not the case he will stay in the room.
Stepping out of the med bay so the wounded human wouldn't hear him, he presses the button on his radio, "Hey Cable, what do you think of the idea of inviting Angie to go with us? Maybe help her recover her ship?"

"To be honest, I think Angie is the best lead we have to closing in on the Witch. She also needs protection and to find her ship. The best course of action is to log all of this information with Star-Barker, ensure that their crew is not compromised, ask that the questioning take place her on STF, and also request that Angie be remanded to our custody so that we can find her ship, and the bounty."

Cable smiles ...

"All of that AFTER they have transferred the 200Kcr to us, naturally"

"Aya, is there any indication or data which would suggest that Star-Barker is or is not an actual sytem patrol vessel? We may need to leave ... prepare to scan the vessel as thoroughly as possible, if for no other reason to rattle them."

Nathan "Cable" Grey wrote:

Digger Boom wrote:

Digger hears the sad story and says "We might want to offer to meet that ship half way so they can take over. I don't know I would advertise she is alive though. Never know who is listening."

Well I did say 'beam to the Lieutenant' which I want to believe is the same team as the current System Boat coming to dock but you never know. Did NOT say broadcast though ;)

Its not the same ship coming in, and you dont know where he and his ship is to tight beam too.

Also can we keep all blue posts out of game thread and post them here in Discussion please, thanks gays

LOL @ gays

Will do!

Digger hears the sad story and says "We might want to offer to meet that ship half way so they can take over. I don't know I would advertise she is alive though. Never know who is listening."

Well I did say 'beam to the Lieutenant' which I want to believe is the same team as the current System Boat coming to dock but you never know. Did NOT say broadcast though ;)

"Aya, if you would please, scan our guest for biometrics and see if you can pull any data from the relays as to who this might be. Then if you would begin to compile that information with any identifying information about the pod itself, we can assemble a file to beam to the Lieutenant."

Cable thinks for a moment ...

"I need to wake her up."

EDU+MED: 2d6 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (1, 3) + 2 + 2 = 8 Assess readiness for stims
INT+MED: 2d6 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (4, 2) + 1 + 2 = 9 Gently administer IV stims to wake the patient

Nathan's player apologises for incorrectly modifying his INT ont eh Med roll to examine the life pod occupant - he's not quite that smart :(

are you going to radio thow what you have found.

[ooc]I had thought to maybe see what we had found first[/b]

"Aya, please display images of the pirate queen, white witch, object of the bounty for us? I want to see who we have here."

Cable had a feeling the occupent of the life pod might not be in the best shape ...

INT+MED: 2d6 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (2, 5) + 2 + 2 = 11


It would be a long process to fully heal whatever the blast wound she received came from. Nathan needed to get her upstairs stat, and keep her in the med bay for a while. Def would not give her stims until then.

The ship is now matching the distance form the pod and Navarre, jumps out the hold and jets to the pod, attaching a link the trigger the winch.

To pull him and the pod back up the ramp and into the hold.
The air lock closes and air once more fills then hold.

Ok you have access to the pod.

On another not the tight beam you sent to the system station sends back a message.

"'To the 'She that flys' and 'Happy new sunrise' Hold fast system defence frigate 'Star-barker' will be with you in 4.45 hours. DO NOT LEAVE THE LOCATION, respond"

The 'Happy new sunrise' slows to a stop.

Nathan, still in the Med/Comms Bay, smiles and goes to the comm terminal to respond.

"Acknowledged Star-barker, this vessel to hold station. Thankfully we took the 187.87 seconds it took to register our incident response & rescue operation. Interesting that Happy Little Sunset took the bait about claim jumping though: THERE IS NO CLAIM. Interesting also that at no time, before or after they activated their transponder, did the other vessel move to assist. We are currently responding to an emergency, as any LEGITIMATE vessel would. STF out."

Cable takes his med gear and heads down to the cargo hold to assess the situation, hopeful that whether they have a visitor or a captive, the person remains in fair condition. Life pods used in deeper space had less to do with 'life' than the name suggested.

Abebe advises Captain Cable, "Yep, going bad as expected, damned either way. Okay three major possibilities, real but dumb free trader, pirate allied ship with clean I.D., a lying pirate ship trying to snow everyone. Captain Cable, pop a update message to every relay available and hope at least one is not compromised. Might talk to these guys they may be okay, but I doubt it. What was that story we read where everyone was a crook? Feels like this. And yeah what do we do?"

"Ah ... so then we're going to overlook the option of 'pirate allied ship with orders from the Crown Prince of Pirates to make sure that he inherits'? and I guess we will use relays because ... the speed of light isn't fast enough and STF couldn't pulse repeated data bursts directly at the core planets which would arrive there almost as fast as the relayed messages and with the same integrity once the pulses were compared? Huh, okay then."

"Correct you are Digger, we have a life to save. If that life happens to be worth two million credits, all the better."

"STF, please prepare to send repeated pulsed transmissions directly to the core worlds on my mark, but do direct the first pulse at Happy Little Sunshine ... mark."

"Attention pirate trader bearing false transponder ID Happy Frakin' Sunsrise or whatever the hE*l it is: where we are from, claim jumping is VERY serious. You did NOT report the retrieval of this pod, nor can you lay any possible claim to bounty based on its contents. False reporting of system emergencies is probably the only thing more serious than claim jumping. You know the relays logged the activation of your transponder which was dark until moments ago, and you know that your ship never came close to the pod which this vessel is about to recover. You know that you have no idea what is in the pod, and if you do know, that would mean that you already knew as you came nowhere near it. Thankfully, the whole system now knows that the ship which is pirate affiliated is in fact YOUR ship, and this pathetic ruse is most likely to get you boarded and destroyed. Thankfully, She That Flys & our crew reported our rescue operations well over 4 light minutes ago, so the idiocy of your report will bear out rather quickly. Best speed to the outskirts and maybe re-falsify that transponder, cheers."

"Captain Adebe, you have the conn, steady as she goes. I need to prepare the med bay and then get to the cargo hold in case our guest's health appears to be compromised."

You going to have to make you mind up about getting to the pod, drop stealth and go fast to keep stealth.

We are making all haste to the pod, bringing it into the cargo hold, and then fast stealthing away from there in a manner which is less predictible than racing towards the core worlds

Upon hearing all this Boom shakes his head "I don't like this but this is an opportunity. We can't just leave someone in a non functioning pod, but there is a good chance this is the pirate. Does that other ship have a transponder going? If not it may be her ride. I can go out and get the pod if that is what we want. If we break stealth we need to send a message quickly to the authorities of what we found and where and the other ship in case this goes badly. I don't think we have a good way to lock her up so we are just going to have to tie her up unless there are handcuffs somewhere. I'll suit up. Cable and Two-Fingers meet me armed in the hold once it repressurizes. Abebe will need to get us going quickly once I am on board. Sound good?" Half under his breath he says "I really need to learn to operate those sensors so Abebe can pilot, Cable navigate and Two-Fingers work the systems."

"The cargo hold will be secure enough and we certainly do not need to open the life pod until WE are ready. It's a life pod for a reason. Our focus should be on retrieval & escape. People, this is no different than mining: absolutely no one should be informed of our find until we have staked our claim. The time to open the pod and greet its occupant will be many miles away from here."

"Let's alter course to look at that echo, AYA could you please engage all of your stealth systems? Nice work making sure that wasn't detected by the way."

"I wouldn't put money on it either ... but I would surely like to."

"Let's see what's out there!"