Episode2Act1Part2

CAST

• Michi Nom
• Karl
• Dorota Kowal
• Sarah Lee
• Carina Yuzu
• Shin Ma Chou

WHEELING AND DEALING

In the upstairs room, Michi, Karl, and Carina are surrounded by 5 goons and a man who appears to be the one in charge. After the older gentleman lets the shocked silence permeate the air, the man says. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Shin Ma Chou and your a Michi Nom. However I don't know either your companion's names," Chou nods to Carina and Karl acknowledging their presence.

Internally, Michi can feel herself swearing. Externally, she stares for only a moment before she finds her tongue. "This is Ms. Yuzu. She pays me to shuttle her around to her appointments. And Karl, her man-servant." A little white lie. Or a big one. All depends on how you look at it. To hopefully keep the others away from the trouble.

Carina was about to say something, but bites it off as Michi instead steps in with her own story; best not to contradict, so she stays quiet, while trying to surreptitiously activate an alert signal on her comm unit to warn the others that something not so good is going on. After all ... the chances of those people not being armed is miniscule at best. This is bad.

Well it isn't all that far from the truth, it could fall under the other duties as assigned bit of Karl's job description. Though he probably would have preferred personal assistant or valet over man-servant, but he knows better than to say anything..or bat an eye at the white lie.

"Curious you take your clients with you on business trips," Chou says. "Perhaps they did not know what they were doing when they came and would like to leave now? As a gentleman I would allow this so as not to distress Ms. Yuzu and her man-servant before we get down to business."

"She thinks if she doesn't keep an eye on me she won't get her money's worth." Michi says before turning to Carina. "Ms. Yuzu, I can meet you back at the ship. This man and I have business to talk about, I think. A misunderstanding over a customer I once had."

Carina glances around the room, taking in all of the people, including the dangerous businessman and his goons, but also checking in visually with Karl and with Michi. She doesn't want to leave her partner and co-captain, but the alternative is to break the fiction Michi has established.

"And how do I know that you will not proceed to accept this man's business over my own, making it impossible for me to reach my destinations on time? We have a deal, Captain Nom."

"... ummm...." Michi glances over to, of all people, Chou. As if asking for help.

Seeing as he is supposed to be Carina's man servant, Karl focuses his attention on Michi, playing the part of somewhat disgruntled employee upset that the ride of his employer has been put into jeapordy for unknown to him reasons.

Chou holds his hands out, palms up. His words are polite and gentle. "Ms. Yuzu, I have no intention of usurping Captain Nom from you. I merely wish to discuss terms of repayment. Sometimes such things can get somewhat heated and I would hate to put you in any distress. Rest assured though, you will have your captain back to shuttle you around all you need once we come to an agreement."

"See? I'll be back." Michi turns to Carina. "Go. I'll be back. No need to bore yourself with these details." Or be here if things go wrong. Michi playing the hero for his co-captain and the others.

Playing up the petulant Companion, Carina purses her lips momentarily, but then nods. "Very well, Mister Chou. I will accept your word, as a reputable businessman." Then she turns to Michi. "Captain Nom, I trust you will return to the ship promptly, as we have a schedule to keep." It's delivered in a tone that says she accompanies Michi everywhere because the reprobate hapless and hopeless Captain cannot be counted upon not to drink himself into a stupor and miss appointments if she takes her eyes off him for a moment.

"Karl? Let us be going, then. We have shopping to finish."

Looking around at Michi, Chou and the goons that are in the room, Karl gives a pained wince as he nods at Carina. He isn't sure its the smart thing, but neither is causing a scene so he moves to open the door for her as a good servant would.

Carina is no more sure than Karl is, but she follows him as he heads to the door and they make their exit. "Do not take too long, Captain." she offers ... and prays.

"Yes, ma'am." Michi says. At least she got Carina and Karl out of the way if things go wrong. Or if she needs rescuing. She turns to Chou. "We're both probably busy. You're going to say I took your money. I'm going to point out I had no idea whose money it was when I found it. You're going to say it doesn't matter. I'm going to say it does. You're going to point out you have men here who outnumber me and are armed. I'll point out you don't want to cause a fuss with the Alliance in town. Eventually we'll get to the point where you tell me how I can repay you by doing some insane job. So, why don't we skip to that part?"

"Captain Nom. I would like to think that I would first offer you the chance to repay that money including the additional interest of holding onto it for me before offering an as you say /insane job/ to pay for the unintended loan. I am not one who is entirely unreasonable." Chou responds to Michi.

"Which is nice. But the only thing I have worth a damn is my ship and I'm not giving it up. But..." Michi considers and then smiles. "You heard about this race coming up, right? The one being run by the Cortex station? I'm a gorram amazing racer so I'm willing to make you a deal. You sponsor me for the race. I win, you get the prize and we're square. I lose, you get my ship and my service to pay the rest of the contract off."

Chou holds out a hand and the goon by his side hands him a datapad. He tappity taps. "Ah yes, the race. I hear you have to be more than fast and resourceful to get in." He places the datapad on the table, the flyer photo showing. "There are two problems with this. First, how do I know you're really that fast. And second, I am not an authorized sponsor. However, if you can prove to me how fast you are and manage to qualify for the race, we can come to an agreement."

"And I prove it by...?" Michi asks, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Chou leans forward getting down to business. "I have come into posession by no intention of my own of a certain cargo that needs to leave and quickly. Of course, as you can see, the Alliance are breathing all over this town and in the sky. Get the cargo to your ship and get your ship out of here and you can consider that your down payment to avoid additional interest."

"And the cargo I already owe Felix Gary on Kuan Lo?" Michi says, trying to make sure all the jobs get done.

Chou smiles. "Ah yes, Mr. Gary's cargo. You did originally come here for that. We have his cargo but we cannot deliver until the Alliance vacate the skies. Unless of course you wish to take that with you when you leave as well."

Michi frowns. "That seems to be the best idea. Not like I'll be executed twice for carrying extra illegal cargo."

Chou stands and holds out his hand. "Hao. We have ourselves a deal then?"

Michi shakes hands. "Deal."

Chao's handshake is firm and business like. "Once you figure out how you will get the cargo to your ship, you let Jin Dong know."

"Got to talk to my crew. I'll need details on how much cargo and how big it is." Michi breathes an internal sigh of relief.

"Go talk to your crew. We will be waiting." Chou's demeanor makes it clear that unless Michi has some sort of question that he can leave now.

"Fine." Michi says. She knows when not to push her luck. Best to leave now, while she's still breathing. On the way down the stairs she pulls her comm and speaks into it. "I'm alive. We need to talk everyone."

LAY OF THE LAND

Meanwhile, downstairs, Dorota and Sarah are listening to the music and looking around on the club floor. They can see four stairs. Each stair is on a corner of the room. The two on the right (which includes the one Michi and crew went up) are guarded by bouncers, the other two seem to lead up to a balcony that might have tables and chairs set up. Waitstaff and patrons can be seen going up and down those stairs.

Oblivious as yet to the trouble, Dorota frowns, glancing around. Two doors guarded by bouncers, so two private rooms. The balcony is probably just a quieter place to sit. She's been in these clubs before, albeit not often.

Sarah frowns and looks over towards Dorota, keeping her voice low, "I don't like this." If she only really knew.

"How long should we give them before we interfere?" Dorota responds, equally quietly.

As noted earlier, Sarah noticed and pointed out that on one of the Octagonal sides of the cockpit bar, two obviously alliance off duty soldiers are lounging on either side of a third who is nursing a drink, elbows on the bar and chin in his hand. His buddies nudge him as if trying to cheer him up. There are also seemingly other areas upstairs with other patrons milling about and the music is blaring from speakers that look like they are attached to an engine or an engine room.

Sarah wrinkles her nose a bit, "Wonder if we can get a better view of what's going on up there from the balcony." She glances around, keeping a sideways eye on the Alliance soldiers, just in case.

"Assuming..." Dorota shrugs, then, very quietly, "Don't want to get too close to those soldiers."

On the balcony, there is enough space to move around to the tables. As from the other side, this high up shows the model ships up close. The detail is gorgeous. Up here, there is one table free and the music is a little less loud. Dorota, a little nervous about the alliance soldiers down on the club floor manages to notice the door opening on the other balcony where Carina and Karl are exiting.

Sarah notices a young woman in a short skirt, midriff long sleeve shirt sitting along at one of the smaller tables for two. She catches Sarah's eye and smiles as she sips her drink.

Sarah glances over towards Dorota, "Looks like Carina and Karl are exiti..." She frowns darkly, "No Michi. This is bad." She looks about ready to say something else, but catches the look from the young woman at the other table, their eyes meeting for just a moment. Then she shakes her head a bit, a rueful smile crossing her lips as she looks at Dorota, "Things just got fairly complicated, I think."

"Just means we may have to be ready for a rescue," Dorota says quietly and calmly. She hasn't noticed the woman who might or might not be flirting with Sarah, her eyes carefully scanning the gathered Alliance personnel. So far, so good.

On her way down the stairs with Karl, Carina keys her comms. "Bad news. The businessmen who own this establishment feel Michi owes them ... from before. They made a point about it. She played it cool and got us out. But this could go badly."

A nightclub is not the best place to have headache from hell but Karl isn't one to leave his comrades behind. He is loathe to go to far from the room where Michi is meeting with Chou, but not doing so could be suspicious so he follows along with Carina looking about for the doctor hoping she may have something for the sudden pain in his head.

Sarah whispers into her comm, taking the time to pass a friendly smile to the woman at the other table, though her tone is serious, "Carina, do we need to organize a breakout? It's going to be tricky with the Alliance soldiers here." She keeps her voice very low, as she goes over various plans in her head.

The young woman at the table winks at Sarah her eyes flicking over to Dorota questioningly but quickly looking back to Sarah again.

Dorota has still not noticed said young woman. She's frowning a little bit, but ready for action. Trying not to make it too obvious.

"We are not going in right now. Michi needs time to talk. But I want everyone to stay loose and be ready." Carina answers. "It might be a good idea to make sure those Alliance types are a lot more busy and preoccupied."

Dorota frowns. "Making them busy..." If there wasn't a real risk of being recognized...Dorota would actually have some ideas. She runs them through her mind. Hrm.

Sarah gives the girl eyeing her a slight headshake when she looks at Dorota, returning a more sincere smile towards her. Then Sarah says into the com, "Distracting Alliance soldiers... any thoughts on that if it's necessary?"