The Clockwork Mansion

Following assembly and launch, the DSEV 1 arrives on the borders of the Amta system, some several million kilometers out from the 5th world. From here, sensors indicate the star is a fairly average reddish orange one, much like Sol's star. There are five planets, and two asteroid belts according to sensors.

As the ship arrives in system, the crew are assembled on the bridge. Accompanying the main crew are several Athure Corp. employees to assist you - a total of around 10, in fact. A Science Officer, three Security Officers, two Mechanics, an Engineer and three Ensigns of nondescript occupation (aka Redshirts). All are human.

Amta I
Amta I is a large backwater planet that's surface is roughly 70% water. The atmosphere appears to be oxygen/nitrogen based, much like Terra's. Sensors cannot detect anything more accurate from this distance, however.

Amta II, III, IV & V
Amta II through V are all generic gas giants, mostly with hydrogen atmospheres.

Asteroid Belts
An asteroid belt rests between Amta I and Amta II. Scans seem promising, but not too good. The second asteroid belt is sparsely split between Amta IV and Amta V. Interference from the gas giants is causing scanning difficulties.

Shortly after arrival and the initial scans are completed, your ship receives a hail from the Monitoring Station - BZ-5X9. Actions?

((OOC: First Post! Nyehehehehehe!))

Rickardo... Stays at his station. Messages aren't his job. He's making sure not to do much else other than his job lately; his fellow crewmates are mostly organics, and he'd heard somewhere that they're volitile. So he's been keeping his head down and doing his job, keeping an audio receptor open to whatever happens.

Always a bit of a recluse, Stygian returned to his cramped quarters near the engineering section. He went through his things and cleaned up what wasn't in order, then sat down on his small bunk bed and lit up a smoke while thinking to himself, and keeping a small pilfered comm pad online.

Angel sighed and tapped the screen displaying sensor data, the station's hail was totally irrelevant to her.

"I'm a fighter, not an engineer." she murmured to herself and tried to figure out how to get the sensors to make another scan of the outer belt. If it contained large asteroids it was more likely that she would have to go out to drill for samples.

Miles sighed, and keyed the PA input at his terminal.


"Wow, this sounds like a job for say, a communications officer. Do we have a mister, uh... Thivirith in the house?"

(ooc) Possibly not, as he hasn't posted since early October.

"Officer Thivirith is off shift at the moment.  since I am the watch officer at the moment I will take that position for now." 

Locklear made the appropriate notations on the communication console's log book to record his use of the system when the shift change went into affect.  He maneuvered his tail into the appropriate spot in the universal seat and began keying into the console with it before taking over with his hands. 

He activated the proper channel and with a cheerful smile began the dialogue, "This is DSEV 1 acknowledging hail from BZ-5X9.  Good Morning/day/afternoon or night sir, ma'am or other." 

The main screen turns on (*meanwhile, DM purges Wing Zero from memory*) to reveal one of BZ-5X9's scientist staff. He is human, and his voice is very similar to that of Dr. Kleiner from Half-Life 2.

"Ah, good. I see you made it one piece. Now as I'm sure you know you have orders to survey the asteroid belts in this system. I suggest extreme caution when dealing with the outermost belt, as our scans indicate that it is mostly made of useless rock. The expenditures of scanning would probably outweigh the benefits of the data."

He looks to the side and picks up a clipboard, reading it.

"Hmmmm... yes... good... ah, here we are. Now according to our scans the surface of the primary planet is breathable to human species. Due to the low value of the outer belt, Athure has requested a change in mission parameters. They want you to take a shuttle down to explore some anomalous terrain. Old records indicate that an old Corporate Freighter landed on the planet several hundred years ago, and contact was lost since then. Naturally the Freighter is not one of Athure's, but nevertheless they are interested in what it may hold, or may have held."

The scientist smiles.

"Of course the planetary operations are entirely optional, but Athure are offering a small sum of credits on top of the standard mission completion payment. Oh, and, er, one more thing - the planet's atmosphere is mildly toxic and could cause minor illness from prolonged exposure without a filter pack. However they're standard equipment for a DSEV, so there should be a crate of them in the cargo hold. Right, I think that's everything... is there anything you need to ask? I have some critical tests to perform."

At the last statement, Sebastian smiled lightly, teeth clenching around his cigarette. Toxic atmosphere and a search and excavation job. Great. He guessed that he would be one "volunteer" for this one then. But, he wasn't about to complain. It was solid ground under you anyhow, no matter what kind of rock it proved to be. He was curious as to what of importance a hundred-year old freighter might have hauled though.

Angel turned around and leaned against the sensor console. No use trying to figure out all the acronyms and strange symbols she couldn't understand. The new side mission was of more relevance.

Convenient that most of us have weapon experience. She thought to herself. The loss of contact could have been caused by a bad landing/takeoff or... a hostile environment.

Admittedly, she was curious about this lost ship but unknown enemies and ground combat was pretty much the opposite of her usual situation.

Locklear considered the information and continued his dialogue, "Thank you, very interesting opportunity.  If I might inquire, what was the freighter carrying?  What is the nature of the toxic substance found in the atmosphere?" 

Locklear paused and tapped his nose with the stylus, then with what appears to be sudden recognition in his eyes, his ears perk up and his tail bats about as he swivels around to face the screen fully, "What is the possibility of intelligent life on this planet... more so, if it is present, what is the likelyhood their culture has been influenced, developed or come about because of this freighter?  We could be facing a serious case of a cargo cult... hopefully one that developed the hairdryer before the wheel..."

"We are unsure of the Freighter's cargo, hence why we are offering a reward for recovery of the manifest logs. The toxicity situation with the atmosphere is... hard to pinpoint. It contains a higher level of some gases than a Earth-like atmosphere, as well as trace elements not usually found in such atmospheres."

The scientist thinks for a minute. "The possibility is low, but it is not impossible that some crew survived the impact and had an influence on any natives there might have been - despite the toxicity, it is low enough to have allowed them significant time to adapt. Unlikely, but still possible. Or the alternative that any intelligent life may be direct descendants of the crew... in which case you're probaby looking at a bunch of rednecks, to use the old Terran stereotype."

Rickardo continued to listen in. Possible primitave sentients? Dangerous yes, but the man had mentioned filter packs may be used, which could in turn give Rickardo access to parts that could be used to make that air filter he'd always wanted. He immediatly discarded this idea. The risks outweighed the benefits, and there would probably be plenty of safer times that would warrent his using a filter pack.
He noticed Angel looking around. Fighter class human. She's probably hoping for risks. With that little reminder that he was on a ship full of organics, Rickardo focused on his screen again, checking to see if the computer had any other information about the planet that they would doubtlessly end up examining. Just keep your head down and do your job...

Ian walked in with the sort of self confidance that the lizard men always showed. "If there are infact some monkies runin round down there that are stupid nuff to try 'n' take us on, leave em to me!" With that  statement Ian held up two blaster type rifles, similar to the ones the storm troopers used in starwars. He did always have a sadistic glee when talking about riddleing things with his blasters. He then plopped into a chair and started singing "the blood song" from the new My Chemical Romance CD

Miles chimed in. "Yeah, uh, folks, I'd just like to make it clear, that we did have some similar events happen back with SPC. There was a massive government insurrection while we were scouting, and it took some doing to get out, even with twelve armed guards with us. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that, however unlikely resistance is, I'd, well, overdress, if you get what I mean."

Since he was probably not going to have much more idle time, and since he had gotten his things together, Sebastian sat up and slid off his bed, hitting the metal floor with a distinct thunk from his boots. He pawed the comm pad off his table and placed it in his pocket, put on his glasses and straightened his coat and then smoothly walked off toward the bridge, humming quietly. On the way he snuffed out his cigarette with his fingers. Last time he had been smoking outside quarters he'd almost thought Angel would kick him in the face for it.

"Well Miles, if there are only some primitive races running around on the surface we may have no need to shoot anything. I mean even if this is some kind of cargo worship, experence has taught me that primitive cultures are more prone to a bewildered fear of outsiders reather than an agressive fear. But i still say we take one or two rifles just in case." Ian said waveing around a bowe knife as he talked.

Angel glanced at Ian and raised an eyebrow. Some people are too quick to resort to violence. She though. Most enemies are quite easy to convince to put down their weapons... after you have detailed how you would crush them if they tried anything stupid. Angel smiled to herself. Maybe it was because of that way of thinking everyone else in her squad had higher kill counts than her.

"'Tis a shameful thing, to think o' fightin' as a firs' option, Ian," Sebastian said in his characteristically deep voice while he practically glided in on the bridge, the Nithalan accent in his speech thick as ever. "An' put tha' cursed thing down, 'efore you skin tha' snout of yours worse than 'e already is." His face was slightly bitter, as usual, when he turned to Miles.
   "Far as 'e seems, I'd be surprised if we need worryin' more about the sentients than some bugs an' beasts tha' migh' be there, an' if we manage ourselves surely no' even tha'. I's no risk for police or military bein' there, an' we should be clear 'less some people" - his eyes went to Ian for just a fraction of a second - "do som'n... rash. How close to the ship can we set down?" he said, and leaned back against a wall with his arms folded across his chest.

"First option my TUKUS! You know that i negotiate first threaten second and bust caps (more or less) last! An' you should lighten up!"
Ian threw his bowe knife in a high slow arch at Sebastian, giveing him ample time to catch it.

Sebastian easily felt the knife zooming against him. He slid up his left hand at the last moment and snatched the knife in the air in between his index finger and thumb, the rest of him perfectly still. Quickly spinning the knife around in a simple loop he then placed it balanced between his both ring fingers, one at the base of the hilt and the other at the tip of the blade. The rest of him remained perfectly still.
   "Ligh'nin up has nothin' to do with it," he stated coolly. "You mentioned survivors. Wha' then would be the state of the riggin' and ship's integrated systems? Ev'n a century ago 'e was customary to har'wire cert'n cargo with... security devices."

"I so hope for some type of culture!  For with a people comes... FOOD!  I so love to try local cuisine!"  Locklear's expression darkened, "However, my last experience in first contact situations was similar to what Miles mentioned.  Not a fun time, managed to get hurt in that one.  Got a nice bonus and lifetime stipend for the ordeal."

The Valallain smiled weakly after his comment, "I do hope they are not hostile.  Oh and stop throwing dangerous objects around the bridge or the captain will surely confiscate them and fine you for the faux pas."

"I was just wondering if we could get a translateor for sebastion." said Ian. "I thought my race was hard to understand! guess i took five years of Standard Galactic all for nought." Ian shot a quick seedy grin to Sebastian.

"Hmph. An' still it di'n improve your appearances," Sebastian said grinning to Ian, the sharp, light-reflecting green pupils of his eyes just visible as he tilted his head and looked over the rim of his dark glasses. He straightened, and then spun the knife yet again, throwing it hilt-first like a spear against Ian's crotch. "So 'ntschuldig'n S'e b'ette meine Sprach, Tyer." The last statement was delivered with more of a chill.
   "They're primitives, an' likely harmless such. An' we want to keep it tha' way. But if they don' stay off us, I'm guessing I'll have to have some 'o the locals for cuisine," Sebastian said, as plainly as if he had been talking about the weather, facing Locklear. "'S why I think we shoul' have tha' wisdom to try an' leave them alone."

Miki pokes his head in the door- he must have been passing and overheard. He is carrying a tool box, and walking on four limbs. He smiles at the others and says, "Speaking o' cuisine, Oi don't suppose we could pick up some eatables on th' planet? Some actual meat'd do me well. Protein suppl'ments are no substitute, no matter how well they're prepared. Jus' a thought, if we've got any toime left over."

Rickardo's intense focus on his work (The other members of the crew are throwing Chk'takking weapons at each other on the Chk'takking DECK!?) is broken my Miki's interjection.
"Kkkt. If I may second that?" He adds nervously, raising a hand,  "Taste is not too great an issue, but I require rations with a few more mineral componants. That, and I believe I speak for many when I say that I am quite sick of living off of tofu blocks, noodles, and whatever else the higher ups thought would be the cheapest food to transport."

"Well, if you want food down there, I'm guessing you shoot it yourself," Jeg said, "That probably is against company regulations, but, you know, what the hell. It's not as if anyone reads those anyway."

When did things move from potentially dangerous situations to food? Angel was not intrested in food. You eat it and your body use it, that's it.

"Have we decided to accept the mission?" She asked, trying to get the discussion back to things that intrested her. "In which case we could say goodbye to the station and be on our way."

Sebastian smiled bitterly. "I have no objections. After sittin' on this here hulk for mon's on end, I'm quie' keen on gettin' to move about a bit. 'Sides I only have two more jobs this size left for a bonus."

The communications officer, mr Thivirith as Miles had correctly pointed out, was off-duty and had been enjoying a bit of restfull sleep earlier on. As the message and the talks around it began Verain was just finished suiting up and on the way up to the majority of the crew. Shi arrived in time to catch the last few lines and decides to add something.

"If they didn't expect us to be able to supplement our rations they shouldn't have packed what they did. As long as whatever we might kill isn't going to throw the natives, if there are any, into a furious rage it should be fine, if it's edible. As for the mission I'll leave the decision to you. But a decision would be good as the good sir pointed out."

Whether the gender slip up was intentional or not, or even realised by the one who made it wasn't apparent. But given the monogender society shi came from it could easily be utterly unintentional.

The knife hit Ian square in the groinic region. "EEEEEYEAHHHHHH HOO HOO HOOIE!......Had ya goin didn't I?" He picked up the knife and gave a good knock on something hard where the knife had hit. "When ya have such s*** luck with the ladies these babies become part of the standard uniform." He was obviously refering to his cup. Then he stood up and started out of the room. "I've business too attend to." and started for the restroom.

Despite himself, Sebastian gave a slight smile when the lizardman left the bridge. He was a brute, but an amusing one. He guessed that was more than redeeming enough.

   As usual, Sebastian felt Thirvith long before the Deverai actually entered the bridge, even before he smelt hir and almost before he heard hir steps. The comm officer's strong psi signature made his senses tingle and lit him up before his "vision" like a christmas tree.
   "In tha' case I retract my form'r statemen', an' demand on behalf of all tha' people present, it woul' seem, tha' we be on our way now. Anythin' to git off o' here. 'Sides, I think tha' at least Ricko here will agree wi' me tha' i's better to ge' this done with as fas' an' efficiently as possible. E' doesn' seem tha' much of a bother."

"Kkkt, yes," Rickardo nodded shakily, quickly turning away from his screen, "Many here have hypothisized that there may be hostile conditions on the planet, so speed would be a good idea. Go in, recover this cargo, leave." He turned back to his workstation and began querying the computer for more info on this planet. Again.

There's not much information to be pulled up about the planet, other than what you already know, as the system is still quite unexplored, being one of the 'borderworlds' in this particular sector.

Amta 1 Datareport
Atmosphere: Oxygen/Nitrogen Based, Trace Toxic Elements.
Surface: 70% Water, Varying Terrain.
Overall: Light forest, hilly regions. Limited polar caps and few mountains.

Ian strolled down the hall singing to "The Saga Begins" by Weird Al himself in his native tongue. Just before he hit the second chorus he made a quick right into the men's room. After finishing his business he serveyed the room. "Dirty mamals....i clean and clean and clean and they leave it in this condition?!? mayhapse i just dont clean it for a month? Heheh they'll come whinin'." He then washed his hands and exited, but not before missing a free throw from the first stall door.

Locklear examined the information currently known about the planet and his tail twitched about, "That is certainly very revealing.  It does sound rather quaint, I would think that this little mission will be at least interesting.  This ship is so very confining, I would ever so much like to walk upon cool grass and trees."

The Valallian's ears twitched, "do we have any data on what is causing the 'trace toxic elements'?  Are we seeing large amounts of particulate carbon and pyroclastic glass?  Is it carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides along with amounts of sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide?  What are the constituents of the toxins?"

"Kkkt. I have been trying to find out more from this idiot savant machine for a while, but what you see is what you get," Rickardo said as he typed in the query again in the eternal computer users hope that repeating yourself slowly works on computers, "It may very be caused by whatever cargo this ship was carrying. Kkt. It breaks open in the atmosphere and the cargo is vaporised by atmospheric friction, thus spreading it all over the planet. Or it's completely unrelated," he shrugged.

Ian appeared in the door way. "Well let's not sit her gabbin' away like like grannies in a knitting circle. Let's get down there accomplish out main objectives and get.....PAIED." With the last word he made the universal signlanguage for money. "Quite frankly i need some clothes without hole in them and my quarters could use some referbishing as well." He walked across the room. "Besides this infernal machine is getting....well a little too cozy." He put special emphasis on the word "cozy" wich implied "prison". "Well?" He asked "Shall we get started?"

[Take in mind your primary objective here is to survey the asteroids, not have a field trip. :P]

Angel stretched out. She could feel the marks from the console she had been leaning against.

"So... How long till we land?" She asked. If she was lucky she would have time to exercise some before she had to get ready.

((Well, since no one else has posted to take the job I guess I'll take the reigns.))

"Long enough for everyone to check their personal hazmat suits and gear, Miss Angel." A subtle, yet authoritive voice answered from the bridge's entrance. Joshua crossed the short distance to the captain's chair without even looking up from his dataplate. The anthro-cat looks up from the plate as he takes his seat and addresses the human scientist directly. "We appreciate your offer. We'll be happy to investigate the crash if possible. If you would be so kind as to transmit any data you have about the ship's port calls prior to the crash and its intended destination." He asked politely with a courteous smile.
"Was there anything else you wanted to discuss? If not, then we will let you return to more pressing matters. We can notify Athure directly if we find anything involving the lost freighter." He added, watching the scientist's reactions carefully.

"The freighter is too old, and we don't have it's name or L.D.C* so I'm afraid what you see is... well, what you get." The scientist checks a clipboard and jots something down. "Nope, that's all I have to cover. Should I inform Athure that you have decided to investigate the freighter?"

"Just remember, the asteroid belts should take priority over the freighter. The outer belt doesn't look too promising from our remote scans, but the inner belt may contain some useful minerals and ores."

((*A ship's LDC is somewhere between a serial code, barcode, license plate and registration code. Each ship's LDC is unique to it.))

Angel smiled. ''Miss Angel.'' It sounded so ... civilian and feminine. She never thought of herself as a civilian. Maybe... Nah, focus on the mission.

''Maybe we could split up?'' Angel said. ''One team takes the shuttle to check the lost ship. The other scans the inner belt.''

"I do not believe it is a good idea to split into two groups, asteroid scanning will require full-time rotating shifts of on-call personnel and will not be as efficient if we have half-crew.  Besides, a simple salvage mission should not take long."  Locklear commented as he absentmindedly tapped a claw on the communications console, he looked up and noticed Verain.  "I suppose you need your seat back Thivirith."

Relinquishing the communications console, he took up station at an auxiliary console and added one last bit to the discussion, "Whatever is chosen, I can pilot the shuttle as I am very good at it!"

Locklear operates the console and begins a number of busywork relate tasks to occupy his time.

"Ehh... what he said. Sides, if we split up, I wouldn't be able to enjoy y'all's sparkling personalities." Miles turned to the captain. "If you need me, I'll be doing a check-up on the shuttle, just in case."

"Can we just get the mission going already....." He looked antsy."I know it will take some time but...i have to have this money soon or...." He trailed off. Bills were pileing up for his family on his home world, and the landlord was threatening eviction......But ofcorse he would never let them know that.

"Kkkt. Splitting up may be wise, as those who don't have skills that would be useful on this mission should probably remain and watch the ship. Of course, that is only my impression of the matter." There are Dangerous Things down there, and I am in the company of those who may very well seek them out of sheer boredom. Not good.

"H'lo, Captain," Miki says with a mild smile as Joshua takes his seat. "Oi don't suppose you 'eard moi request? Oi was jus' considering us getting some fresh food while on-planet. Oi for one would 'ppreciate it, and Oi volunteer to hunt it down if we get the 'Okay.'"

"I'm one fer' agreein' with Fluffy here," Sebastian said, walking over to stand beside Joshua and eyeing the navigation chart. "But I don' see the purpouse of spli'in' up when we could jus' go slower on the run-in an' do a cuttin' maneuver."
   He moved over, and indicated his suggested route with a finger. He pointed beside a rather large asteroid cluster, the kind that sticks together probably from sheer gravity or else some magnetic or nuclear effect.
   "Tha' way we could use the gravity of e' to sling us into smooth orbit. If we maneuver well, tha' is. An' I trust Locklear's abilities." He did, in fact. But it was also a bit of the scientist's recommendation that played in, and even more of his own reluctance to leave anyone behind where he could not keep check of them. That way, someone might try and ditch and leave him behind.
   "How's the debris in tha' area?" he asked.

Joshua nodded to the human. "I'm well aware of our primary objective. We can notify Athure ourselves if we find ourselves able to investigate. Thank you for your time, DSEV 1 out." Joshua motioned to Coms to cut the transmission.
Leaning back in his chair Joshua looked over the system chart on the screen. "Agreed Mister Kodayn, splitting up is not an option right now. Besides, a global scanning in search for a single vessel that crashed a good hundred years ago could take just as long, if not longer, then the survey." He rubbed his chin for a moment as the others conversed and offered suggestions. Joshua raised an eyebrow at Miki and smirked. "Need I remind you Mister Ree about my rules on eating anything as yet unidentified."

"As for earning our pay, I think it best to complete the surveying mission as quickly as possible. After at, we know we'll get paid for that. We won't get paid for the ship if we can't locate it, or if there's nothing let to recover." He spoke eyeing the path Sebastian had indicated and gave a short nod as he thought. "Mister Miles." He called after the human engineer. "The message probe they loaded onto us, do we have the supplies to refit it? If possible, than I want you to pull its current memory-bank and install a sensor and broadcast array. After that, you can check the shuttle; I want to use it to speed up the belt survey."

"Helm." He said turning his attention forward. "Plot a course through the asteroid belt, that way we can get a feel for conditions in the actual belt. We'll take up orbit around Amta I for bit, get a first hand look at it as well, then we'll return to the belt and our primary mission."

"Long enough for everyone to check their personal hazmat suits"? That doesn't sound long. Better get going.

"I'll be in my cabin." Angel said and left the bridge. She could check her 0-G suit, it would protect her from any toxic. On the other hand it's so slow on the ground, even with servos. Better check on the filter packs first, see if they are any good.

"Right, sir, will go do just that". Miles left the bridge, and headed for the shuttle for his inspection.

Ian didn't need to check any thing his spicies had gained a cirtin resiliance to toxins during their industryal revolution. Even so he wasn't totaly immune, so he went to go get his gas mask. He liked to collect trinkets of the great war like the reptilian gas mask and the mamalian military uniform he never seemed to take off.

Minutes later he entered the bridge with his gas mask on, it resembled a WWII american gas mask but it was elongated to fit the reptilians.
"So think it'll catch on as the new trend?" he asked jokeingly.

Sebastian had just slid away from the bridge in his usual manner, fetching what hazmat gear he had. It was a military piece and consisted basically of a mesh underlay, reinforced and padded vest with studs and a powerpack and filter mounted over his shoulder, a characteristically smooth-faced helmet with only some chin-mounted breathing slits and no visible eyes, and gloves and boots and some pads all made from the same dark metal and mesh as the rest of the suit. Over this he put his other clothes and black coat, and made sure that he could loosen gloves and boots quickly. There probably wasn't anything on that planet toxic enough to even bother him, but he wanted to keep up pretenses.
   Returning to the bridge, he stood against the wall again, holding his helmet in his hand and waiting for Miles to return and for the go signal.

Miki grins broadly. "You make it sound loik Oi've been beggin' to eat Xenos all over th' place. Oh well, t'was just a thought."
With a cheery, "Protein supplements, ahoi!" and a cheeky eye roll, he gathers the tool box he put down earlier and exits the bridge to continue the errand he postponed. About half a second later, he pokes his head back in for a final parting comment. "Oh, roight! If we do end up goin' planet-soide, Oi'm willing to go down."
He vanishes from soight sight, his toolbox clanking as he goes.

"I just hope this does not turn out to be just another bug hunt."  Locklear batted his tail out of the way as it appeared to take on a life of its own as he checked out the shuttle's flight systems from his remote terminal on the bridge.  He began feeding it data and attempting to prep its systems as much as possible to aid in scanning.  A real flight check would need to wait for Miles to arrive and give it the expert checkup.

Locklear swung around and handed a datapad to the captain, "This is the basic shift roster for asteroid scanning that was drafted by the computer.  We could probably run longer shifts and rely on mass sensors to detect valuable inclusions instead of deep core scanning each and every chunk of rock as corporate wants."

After Miles had finally found the black binder containing the procedure checklist, he proceeded to board the shuttle to run pre-flight tests. The messenger probe task had already been properly delegated to a subordinate. Miles went through the checklist, and ran a diagnostic test on the main flight computer.

After checking the filter packs Angel decided to go with her own suit so she went back to her cabin. After managing to get the heavy suit out of the locker she did a quick check to see that the power supply was fully charged and that the air filters were clean. After putting the suit on she turned her attention to her weapons.

Hammer rifle or or handgun? She thought to herself as she tried to figure out what the chances where of meeting something with good body armor? It didn't see too likely so she attached her sidearm to her hip and put the rifle back in the locker. As she did that she saw her explosives. Thinking that they could be usefull if they had to force their way into the lost ship she put some in her pockets before leaving the room.

Lets see if the others are properly equipped. She thought to herself, hoping that she wasn't in the company of amateurs.

Rickardo sighed, getting up from his seat after plotting aforementioned course through aforementioned astroids. The captain had said that the crew couldn't split up, which meant he was to be brought along for this.
"Kkkt. Ten minutes, please. To prepare." With that, he went back to his quarters. One didn't change parts in the presence of others.
Now then, there's the breathing collar. Too bad that couldn't be used for that rebreather. Things could be dangerous, so I'll put on the arm with the built in sonic stunner. Different legs, for running away... He finished screwing the last limb into place, felt the pressure locks release to allow circulatory fluid to the new parts, and examined himself in the mirror. He now had a thick collar around his neck, an extra knee joint facing the opposite direction of the first, and the fingers of his left arm were looking a lot stiffer than he used to. He grabed a box of new coverings for the stunner and placed them into one of his exoskeletons "pockets."
Well, I look suitibly ridiculous, but at least not completely helpless in the event of unforseen peril. Perfect.

Joshua accepted the data pad from Locklear and nodded as he scanned over it. "This looks good, though I'm hoping we won't have to resort to extended shifts. We should be able to actually cut the scanning time by using the shuttle." He handed the pad back to Locklear. "As for the scanning itself, make sure to account for mass/density ratios; and we should scan the occasional small rock every so often. I would like to collect actual physical samples if we could, but we're just not equipped for it."
Joshua glanced up after a few moments and smirked at Ian. "It's very becoming of you." He chuckled as Sebastian silently returned to the bridge. Clearing his throat the panther sat back in his chair and regarded the image of the planet.
"If the probe works I want you program it to survey the planet's surface for anything that could be a crash site." He addressed Locklear. "I know everyone's looking forward to going planet-side but I want as much info on what's down there as we can gather before landing." Joshua smiled slightly. "Who knows, we could get another bonus for any reliable information we can bring back about the planet itself."

They couln't quit make out exactly what Ian was saying after he attached the actual breathing apperatus but the got it for the most part. "Offin yew. yew smarf aff baftard!"

"One can not blame me for wanting to go planet side.  The primitive design of these freighters does not allow for a high amount of comfort or features.  For the past several months, I have had a very needed desire to climb a tree.  I miss the gardens and arboretums found in my people's starcruisers."  Locklear spoke wistfully allowing his eyes to drift off to some point in space not in this reality as his tail, once again with a mind of its own, wrapped itself around Joshua's leg.

He snapped back into reality as his console beeped, "The shuttle will not be comfortable for extended missions and besides myself I am not sure who is a qualified pilot for this type of mission.  As for physical sample collection, I can coax a few fragments that check out into the shuttle's cargo bay or airlock."

Sebastian chuckled and stepped up behind Joshua and Locklear, looking at the computer over the shoulders of the panther anthromorph and the canid-mustelid-looking Vallalai, whom he had always found quite interesting, and not just because of his race.
   "Yeah, 's all fun an' games 'til someone contracts a virulent space-plague. So please check through any samples with me, if you'd be so kind. Jus' 'cause it looks like a cute an' cuddly li'l koala doesn' mean it's harmless," he said, giving Locklear a meaning look. "Since I'm the resident physician, I'm the one who ge's to scrape the storage rooms clean when it's someone else who di'n check their pockets."

Angel entered the shuttle and took off her helmet. This made her hair fall out of it's place and into her eyes. Irritated she put down her helmet and tried to gather her hair in a braid.

"I'm bored." She stated, more as an explanation to why she was there than a complaint. Though, it was partially a complaint too since she hated to just wait.  She always had to wait. Wait for a mission, wait for "go", wait for clearance... but it was usually worth the wait. Now she didn't really know what she was waiting for. Hunting wildlife? Didn't sound very rewarding...

Thinking that the shuttle must be about readied by now, Sebastian wasted no more time with idle chit-chat, but simply made a smile and chuckle to the offed lizardman, and then turned on his heel, stalking back to the entrance lock to it. He got his equipment outside, then boarded and as he sadly had no duties that had anything to do with piloting the craft, proceeded to humorously heckle and exchange the worse kind of jokes with Angel.

Joshua cocked an eyebrow at Ian but turned and nodded at Locklear's mention of the shuttle's uncomfortable nature. "I wasn't planning on using it for longer then eight hours at a time. I figured eight hours of operation then dock it for eight for maintenance, crew change and such. It would follow our course, only from outside the belt to better scan the outer rocks." The captain rubbed his chin. "Have one of the techs double check the beacon markers. With the shifting nature of the belt just mapping the worthwhile ones won't do. We'll have to tag a few."
"Of course." He said glancing back at Sebastian with a nod before the lizard-man left the bridge. Joshua turned his attention back to the main screen, watching as several larger asteroids floated passed the ship. Following its plotted course automatically the captain still watched the monitors carefully for any deviation that would require correcting input.

Ian removed his mask "I agree let's get planet side get that job done so we can combine man power for the asteroid mapping." He didn't know how well that would work but it sounded good to him.

Angel tapped with a finger on one of the pockets where she kept her explosives. Sebastian was annoying her but blowing him up probably wasn't worth the hassle. Perhaps she should just tell him that he was annoying and that he should go away... but, she had to admit, he was kind of amusing and at least she wasn't bored any more. Maybe she could find some way to annoy him.

While listening to another bad joke she examined Sebastian. He seemed odd in many ways but there was nothing specific she could use. Her eyes stopped when they met Sebastian's eyes... or where his eyes where supposed to be. In fact, she had never seen his eyes because there were always a pair of sunglasses in the way.

This could be intresting. Angel thought to herself. Without warning she snatched for the glasses, even if she knew she would be quite slow in her armor.

Rickardo, seeing Angel go for Sebastian's glasses, immediatly took a step back from them.
Pure organics. This is only going to get more complicated.

Locklear acknowledged Joshua's request, he noticed his tail's odd behavior and slowly withdrew it before anyone noticed.  Opening a comm channel he called down to the duty tech, "We need to have the beacon markers checked out and certified for operation.  Please load as many spares as needed for eight hour survey and tagging operations, utilize this formula for your calculations.  Locklear out."

The foxish creature stretched and sighed, the prospect with attunement with a new and wild Nature would have to wait.  He did so hope they had large trees.

"Shall I prep for shuttle operations or will we be sending someone else out there?"

Stygian might have expected a grenade to roll into the cockpit, or for Angel to pull a pistol on him, or even a horrid creature to crawl in through the air vents over him (something he had experienced, and done himself), but propped forward on his hands and with one of those jagged grins on his face that he was one of the few fortunate people able to pull off, he did not have the time or the mind for the moment to react fast enough, and when he pulled back Angel already had his glasses in a steady grip. He quickly stepped backward into the shadows at the back of the room, but the damage was already done. Though he had immediately started to morph his eyes' appearance, something that would leave his vision blurred in this form when done that fast, she had more than ample time to see his eyes as they were; dark-rimmed and made of some green-tinted black metallic substance, that encapsuled a sickly green glow that reflected the few lights in the cockpit. Knowing from her look and her silence that she had already seen, he stopped changing his eyes and simply gave up.
   The fact that he just stood, keeping to the darkness, made Sebastian's appearance even more inhumane as he now loomed over the shorter, and much, much smaller Angel. The poison green points of his eyes were fixed at her out of a face in shadows whose hard edges, like the rest of him, now appeared inhumane and monstrous, as if some gruesome alien predator had snuck in and masked itself as human, but was now determining how best to eat her.
   "I'm not going to ask you why since I know very well. So instead, my question to you is; what are you going to do?" he said, seriousness and a dangerous chill having entered his voice.

((OOC: When I think of the ships and the environment of this place, I think of the Alien movies.))

Rickardo saw this strange turn of events... but had no clue what to think of them.
His eyes are not that of the average human. Did he purchace different optical parts? No, that wouldn't be any reason for this behaviour. Besides, most purely organic life forms don't modify their original design in any noticable fashion. Meaning that there is something Complicated going on here. Trying to be as silent as possible, he hid behind a nearby chair and hoped nobody had noticed him observing.

OOC: Frig, forgot to mention that he'd actually gone to the shuttle in my last post. :rolleyes Funny what details you forget. He was just hanging around waiting immediatly outside the cockpit.

Miles happened to walk in on this series of issues after they unfolded. What he saw was Stygian standing over Angel with a bizarre looking expression on his face, blocking the aisle.

"Right, uh, you's gonna get outta the fucking way anytime soon?" Miles asked rather casually, tossing a screwdriver between his hands. "Diagnostic threw me a fucking wrench on the comms test, gotta see what's wrong."

Angel shrugged and handed the sunglasses back to Sebastian. What is there to do? She thought and sat down in her chair so that Miles could pass.

Her actions should be consequences of her reactions so what did she feel about this? Scared? Not really, she had been face to face with odd and more hostile creatures before. Disgusted? Maybe a little, those eyes weren't really beautiful. Disappointed? Yeah, probably that. She had expected more of a fight and had not planned what to do if she succeeded so quickly.

Angel also had a lot of questions but she felt that this might not be that best time to push Sebastian. Maybe a less personal question...

"What specie are you anyway?" She asked.

Sebastian put on the glasses carefully and slid into the seat beside Angel, his face now serious in a way that was not customary for him.
   "None, really" he said, "a'though I used to be human. I guess you coul' call us a synth'. But it's really a bit more complicated than that... In either case, it's noth'n to mind." His words were low and careful. He, or they, knew very well that the others were in the cabin, as well as most of their feelings and their vitals from what their senses told them. The most imminent threat was Angel and her explosives, and the others were just third-rate as far as direct violence went. But they had voices to scream with and comms to scream in. Not to mention they could blow the safety fuse for the airlock if they knew they were dead anyway. They hated having to think about fellow crewmembers that way, but one did what was neccessary...

Rickardo stayed stock still where he was, doing his best to be absolutely quiet. He then, slowly, went over to one of the chairs into the shuttle and buckled himself in as quietly as he could. Just don't attract attention, just sit down and do your job.

Locklear switched off the video monitor to the shuttle and frowned, Now that is odd.  He finished transfering the mission data and programming the beacon system for the upcoming survey.

Turning towards Joshua, he carefully made his request, "I would like to request a personnel reassignment for the shuttle mission, Angel and Sebastian are to be taken off the current shuttle assignment and removed form its shift rotation as well.  Sebastian is better suited to astrometrics on the ship rather then crewing the shuttle and I am not planning on boarding anyone so there is not a need for Angel."

Locklear now had no desire to be trapped in a small ship with either of them, and especially not with both of them.

"Hmm?" Joshua turned his attention from the main screen. He furrowed his brow and regarded his personal console. With a frown he nodded at the screen he looked back at Locklear. "That should be fine for now, but I don't want anyone out there alone though." He regarded his personal screens. "Rickardo seems to be down there already, he can go out with you."
Pressing a button Joshua called over the shuttle's intercom. "Angel, Sebastian; please report to the bridge." Joshua leaned back again and rubbed the bridge of his muzzle after closing the line. He noticed the ship was already passing into the belt and made sure the sensors were working properly.
"It seems some of us may be more ready to leave the ship then others. I think, after this, we'll give the crew a short break." He glanced at Locklear. "What do you think? Maybe someplace warm, with long stretches of beach."

They could all tell from his tone Ian had heard enough, but was makeing a joke as well. "listen ya big bucket 'o emo, you aint any uglier 'n me so if we could all get back ta feeling happy again we'd all be the better for it."

Miki re-entered the bridge, apparently finding himself devoid of any immediate task and looking for something to entertain himself for a time. He hears the captain's last few lines as the door opens and he begins to enter, saying as he walks on four legs, "A break, capt'n?  Did Oi miss something whoile Oi was out?"
Without waiting for an answer, he continues, "Oi was jus' wondering if Oi could come along on the shuttle. Oi know that oi'm inexperoinced," he seems to stumble over the word, "but Oi think it moight be something to know, if you understand. And Oi'm sure Oi can help out somehow!"

Sebastian took in the responses of their surroundings, and the ones in it. They grinned. Had his - their - teeth been that sharp before?
   "Ah well... looks like it's a no-go for us then, Angie. Peh. And I was looking forward to it...", he said, and stood up, climbing out of the shuttle and patting Rickardo on his brass-coloured shoulder. "But no matter. We'll get down there anyhow."
   He didn't look back as he made his way to the bridge, and slowly shifted his eyes so that he would pass for human, even if examined close. It would leave his vision horribly blurred for hours, but what was one to do? Was Angel following? He would have trouble enough as it were.

Rickardo shuddered at the contact. Noticed. Unfortunate. His usual jitteryness seemed a bit more so than usual now. Debating what to do, stay in the shuttle alone or go back to the bridge, he opted for the latter, but by a different route than Sebastion. Now seemed like a bad time to be alone.
So, Sebastion has strange eyes for his species. Altering of initial design is uncommon amongst other species, so assume uncommon circumstances. It would probably have been wiser to listen closer to what was said rather than hiding my face in my jacket. Plural pronouns. Strange. We are on the same crew, and must work together, but this issue seems to be a Complication. "Kkkt."

Angel was still sitting in her chair when Sebastian left. She had heard about these things during her short time in the military and her mother had mentioned it a few times. From what Angel could tell, Sebastian was either some sort of secret super soldier or a runaway. A security threat anyway. She thought.

Angel got up and headed for the bridge. If they were taken off the shuttle mission she would have plenty of time to investigate it. She could try confronting Sebastian again, if she could find a time when they wouldn't be disturbed like they were in the shuttle. If that failed, she knew some people she could contact.

Angel entered the bridge and sat down in a chair. She was still in heavy armor and did not want to tire her self out by standing up all the time. "You called, captain?"

Rickardo arrived at the bridge and went over to wait at his usual console. He'd reached the conclusion that this probably wasn't his business, and should be left well enough alone for the time being. Still, he would act with greater caution around Sebastion now. Unknowns were dangerous.

Demonstratively, Sebastian carefully removed his glasses and tucked them into the breastpocket of his coat, revealing a pair of now normal, grey-green human eyes. His vision was blurred and the light pained his eyes, but he forced himself not to squint and look directly at Locklear.
   "Your orders?"

Before Sebastian, Angel and it appears Rickardo's arrival on the bridge, Locklear turned to Joshua with starry eyes at the mention of a short break, "I was thinking of someplace with tttrrreeeessss [trees].  Nice hearty evergreen forest, perhaps a bit of that human activity called skiing!  Beaches are nice, but sand gets in fur and then there are those crabs... always talking about how they like to pinch and stuff.  Then everyone goes surfing and there is always the beach food stands.  I always end up helping my firends with the food stand, cooking, waiting tables, sword fighting with Kylaran assassins and then large sea monsters always attack." 

Locklear stopped and smiled nervously, "Uh, sorry about that... yes, where ever you might like would be good Josh old boy... skipper... Captain... sir!"  The vulpine type creature gave a mock salute and straightened up just in time for the crewmembers the Captain summoned to arrive.

Quote"Your orders?"

"Ah!  Mr. Tycho I would like to shift you into the crew rotation for the asteroid scan from sensors and *ahem* astrometrics.  Ms. Angel I would like on weapons rotation with the other defense officers at the ship board weapon systems.  Rickardo shall be with me and one other, hmmm... any suggestions Captain?"

[Feel free to toss a red shirt in the shuttle with me, the scanning from the shuttle doesn't need to lock up too many players.  Yay, I'm a Riker!]

Rickardo merely stayed in his chair. Rouligus mentality; when on duty, do your job and if you aren't sure what to do someone will eventually tell you. From the sounds of things, most of the crew were to go down to the planets surface soon, but now it appeared that would come later. He was slightly confused as to the plan, but was fairly certain that those making said plan knew what they were doing and merely awaited his orders.

((I hope everyone enjoyed there holidays. Now back to business.))

Joshua chuckled at Locklear's starry-eyed response. He raised a hand at his apology as Angel, Sebastian, and Rickardo all filed on to the bridge. "That's alright." His smile faded into a neutral expression as he turned to face the two he had called for.
It had been Locklear's suggestion to pull the two from the shuttle rotation so he had no problem letting him answer Sebastian's inquiry. He listened as Locklear addressed and reassigned them both to separate duties without bringing up the reason in front of others. It was, after all, a matter best discussed in a more private forum. At the First Officer's question Joshua nodded his head. "Mister Haynes has mentioned that he would like to be kept involved with the mission. I think we may as well let one of his men go. It'll lessen any chance of his thinking we're going to try to cheat the Athure Corporation." He thought for a moment and nodded. "We can add them to the shuttle rotations, two of ours and one of theirs at a time." He regarded Locklear contact Mr. Hayes and let him know the shuttle scheduling and if he wants to be in on it have him prepare a rotation roster for his men and give it to you."
"Rickardo." He addressed the navigator. "You'll be in the shuttle with Mr. Kodayn for the first trip. Until then you can stay at helm, Miss Foster can take over when you go. Mind you, the shuttle isn't going out until after we launch the probe around the planet. Then we'll head back into the field to start our scanning and begin the new shift rotations."
Joshua looked back at Angel and Sebastian, his tone serious. "Mr. Kodayn and I will speak with you both later in private." He said evenly. "Until then, Miss Angel, you can relieve Mr. Korchev for the remainder of the shift. Mr. Sebastian, you can report to Dr. Glace and aid him for the remainder of the shift." Joshua leaned back in his chair and seemed to relax a bit. "I know this has been a long trip, and it isn't ending soon unfortunately, but we must try to maintain some level of professionalism. Angel, take your position. Sebastian, report to the infirmary. Ian, you're dismissed."
The anthro-panther watched the screen for a moment as the others went about their various tasks. Reaching down to his console he opened a line to the ship's shuttle bay. "Mr Joachim, we'll be clearing the asteroids shortly and we should be in orbit soon, is the probe ready for launch?"

((Boy, when I get started I can be long winded. :p)

Sebastian made a short bow in the Nithalan fashion, with a simple leg forward, a minimal nod forward and his right hand on his heart.
   "Affirmative", was all he said, and then he slid off in the usual fashion, once again putting his glasses in place. He made a little frown as he strode down the hall toward the infirmary. Glace wasn't his favourite in the crew - too much of a prude, he thought. But at least she could keep her mind in one place. And her fingers too, he added to himself.
   He strode into the infirmary with practiced silence and placed himself just behind the good doctor before making his customary greeting, the just-from-behind one that made people jump.
   "Reporting in, doctor", he said in a low, rumbling tone, making sure to get the vicious edge in. "Inventory? Or are we finally 'examining' something new?"
   As expected, the canine woman jumped, and had to straighten her oval glasses on her muzzle as she turned against him. A german shepherd-like specimen, she was almost as tall as he was and somehow made sure that she didn't have to peer up at him like much of the rest of the crew seemed to do, as she shot him one of her practiced dissaproving looks. He just smiled at this. He thought she looked like an older sister at a messy younger brother, something that amused him highly somehow. She never seemed to notice though.

"Yes, sir." Angel said and changed chair to the one at the security station.

Guard duty. Angel thought. The fine art of waiting for nothing to happen... or was that meditating? She could never tell those two apart. Good thing she had other things to do while medi... err... guarding. If Joshua wanted to have a private talk with her and Sebastian it was probably about what happened in the shuttle earlier. Angel began to type a mail to her mother, Commander Sandra Ellen Angel. Hopefully she would be able to shed some light over this before the meeting.

Miles replied on the comm line.

"Probe's in fine form. Zil n' I did a prelim check, and everything went perfectly fine, and all that. Now the shuttle. I'm going to say the shuttle is fine, because the alternate would be for me to go on another rant on how big a pile of shit the KS is. Anyone who has to fly that thing deserves a medal. But, ya know, I digress, and all that."

"Aye," Rickardo replied, returning to his screen. Searching memory... Locklear Kodayn; friendly, mildly hyper, does not have a habit of strange confrontations with other crewmembers. Excellent.

After a short and fairly indeterminate time period~[/i]

The DSEV1 pulls into orbit around the planet. Noticeable from here is a faint greenish twinge to the clouds. Scanners are already busy looking for the crash site, and it may take a while despite the ship's heavy-duty sensor grid.

It is dark. You may be eaten by a gr--... wait, wrong setting.

Proceed.

[OOC: LIVE!]

"Mister Haynes eh... well, no need to pack the underwear for our little shuttle mission then."

As the ship entered orbit, the foxish creature deftly appeared in an unusual location.

From a perch on the back of the captain's chair Locklear dangled a bell adorned meerkey, or better known as a space mouse, in front of the Joshua's nose with his tail.  In a sing song voice Locklear reported their status, "We appear to have reached orbit around the planet sir." Locklear purred slightly at the prospect of the planet.   

With a wicked little impish smile and a jingle of the 'nip infested toy he continued his sing song voice and risked a bit of playful deception, "Sir, it would be a good idea to take the probe into a proper orbit via a little trip on the shuttle, might be a good idea to get some ground samples tooooo!"

[edit: he was dangling it with his tail... forgot to put that in.]

The planet with air pollution visible from space, with unknown dangers on the surface... Rickardo's shoulders slumped and he hunched yet further over his keyboard, the body language equivolent of a cry of "Nuuuuuuu!"
"Kkkkt"

Some time later, the scans finally return. The wreck has been found in what appears to be a floodplains-like area - mostly sand, with odd patches of grassy terrain here and there. The computers have also managed to get a basic scan of what the area should look like.

(http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/1103/crashsiteuy9.png) (http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/1103/crashsiteuy9.png)

It appears as if four larger heavy containers survived the impact somehow, although they do not seem to be in a very good state.

Scans have also picked up what appears to be some kind of old compound that may have been part of a pre-warpdrive communications network, similar to the Hyperpulse Generators (HPG) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BattleTech_technology#Hyperpulse_generators) of the BattleTech universe, but have been unable to get a proper scan of the location.

Rickardo didn't like the look of the wreck. All those parts gone to waste, and lives probably cut unneccisarily short, their minds never to be returned to their Engineers.
Now I'm being silly. There were probably few Rouligi on that ship, if any. Others wouldn't have Engineers. He gave another series of clicks under his breath, a nervous habit. That thought had served as another reminder that he was among Others. The horror stories about the insanity of species that worked at extremes of organic or mechanical life had been with him since his youth, and now he was working with them. The thought always had been a bit worrying for him, but he endevored not to show it. He instead double checked the new parts he had equipped. He didn't want anything going wonky when he was out in the shuttle or, if Locklear got his way, down on the planet.

Locklear leaned over to examine the monitor and made a short whistle sound, "That is certainly some significant damage.  Those four containers certainly were very sturdy indeed.  With that much damage, I am not sure what we can expect to salvage, but it is worth a look."

The ring-tailed creature's tail continued to dangle the mousy in front of the captain, Locklear was already running iff speedy calculations in regards to fuel consumption, approximate mass of salvage (with a healthy margin for overage), and mission duration.

"I can quite likely have a good away mission ready to go in a few minutes, with all the necessary supplies, personnel and firepower needed for unknown territory.  There is some type of structure detected, communications likely, so we may have some locals to deal with.  It is nothing that our capable crew can not handle sir!"

((I think perhaps I worded that poorly. The crash site and compound are in different areas, several hundred miles away from each other, if not a few thousand.))

After the mandatory jokes about "physicals" and the first shakes of reentry had subsided Sebastian turned and left the infirmary, Dr. Glace remaining within to do a last preparation round before returning to her quarters.
   "And remind Locklear; no meerkeys in the lockers. It might make for a nice joke to find them in someone's underpants, but the little critters breed like hell and get in everywhere," she said as he stepped out. Sebastian smiled a bit and paced off against the bridge, still wearing his combat suit. Upon entering, he made a clack with his heel that contrasted his regular silence.
   "Reportin' for duty, sir. The doctor is ready for whatever preparation routines might prove neccessary. She doesn' seem to think we migh' need an inoculation, 's long as we don' expose ourselves to the atmosphere."

The console beeped furiously at Locklear, he smacked his forehead and spoke some rather unkind sounding word in a language not known by the crew, "My calculations were not precise, they did not take into account distance.  The unknown outpost is at least a 100 units, possibly 200, from the crash site.  We probably won't have too much to worry about from locals of an organized and minor technological type.  Still might have some aboriginal types, but I will not know that until I bump into them.  Our scanners do not locate 'unusual alien species with pointy sticks, sharp claws or pyramid scheme based sales and marketing structures'.  That is too bad too, that incident over the R'quain Colony might have been avoided if I had known that was a holomarketer and not an advance scout from an alien race bent on assimilating all!"

"Could the crashed ship and the compound be related in anyway?" Angel asked without leaving her seat. Funny how a scan that gives answers also creates a lot of questions.

Sebastian walked in. And some questions can't be answered with a simple scan. Angel checked her datapad to see if her mother had replyed yet.

"Marketers arn't evil, they're jus' selfish li'l swine, 's what I say..." Sebastian said, while he stepped up and looked at the console over Locklear's shoulder. "S'pose we're headed for the wreckage then. Touchdown on half-mile perimeter, an' then keep our sensors up?" That wasn't so much a question as it could have been, but he was anxious to get down and out and get to move around.

Locklear thought about the planet for a few moments, but a stray thought welled up and he snapped out of his concentration, "Wait, inoculations?  I hate those, I do not like shots, not at all."

Shaking the thoughts of a certain cackling canine doctor wielding her huge needle instrument menacingly.  He rubbed his arm absentmindely, meerkeys do not carry space rabies, I think she overreacted when that one bit me.  He thought to himself.

He stopped dangling the meerkey plushy in front of the captain and transfered it to his hand, the bells jingled and the nipmint was delightfully aromatic.  He considered batting the thing around, but that would look silly in front of the crew.  He did make a mental note to feed his little meerkeys Zip and Cirey when he got back to his quarters.

Acknowledging Sebastian's comment, he nodded, "standard operating procedure, as soon as the captain gives the okay, I will take the shuttle down."