Episode2Act1Part3

CAST

• Michi Nom
• Karl
• Dorota Kowal
• Sarah Lee
• Carina Yuzu
• Jean - Flirtatious Club Goer
• Paul - Alliance Soldier
• Chuck - Alliance Soldier
• Quiet Alliance Soldier

STARTING POSITIONS

The Chuan is starting to really get going this evening. The dance floor is filling up as men and women express themselves with arms and legs that flail to the music or the more sensual twining of appendages between two adults, moving to a different beat.

Michi has just exited from his meeting with Shin Ma Chou, making her way down the stairs. Carina and Karl are not too far away at the edge of the dance floor. A fair few Alliance soldiers are milling amongst the civilians, the drink flowing thickly between all.

Up on the balcony, Sarah and Dorota watch their companions. At a nearby table, a woman sitting at a two person table flirts from afar with Sarah.

Michi catches up with Carina and her bodyguard. "We have a job. On top of the other job." She says. "And if we do the job, we'll be given a chance to pay off the debt by doing something we were going to do anyway. Its not bad. You would have been proud of my negotiating skills."

Dorota is relaxing a little more now. "Fortunately," she murmurs, "None of the Alliance here seem to know me." Doesn't go for the ones on the ship...

Sarah murmurs across to Dorota, "Hey, I'm going to do some investigating. I'll keep the comlink on." She grins, and rises to her feet, taking her drink with her as she moves over towards the table where the other woman was sitting alone, asking her a straightforward, "Waiting for anyone?"

Focused intently on Michi, Carina cannot help that some of the details of her surroundings are sliding past her, as if she's in a sort of fugue state. She's trying to stay aware and play her part, but it is not easy. "Well, we need to leave here. At least, Karl and I need to leave promptly. But we still do not know what is going on with the Alliance, and it sounds as if we now need that information doubly badly." And although Carina herself would be the best suited to that effort in most circumstances, she's not exactly feeling up to it just now.

Quietly, into the com, "If none of them know me, I can play the old soldier and see what I can get out of them," Dorota muses. After all, a lot of people did their time during the war and mustered out.

Karl's head is still throbbing after the mental assualt he was made to suffer in the upstairs room, worse it is throbbing to the beat of the music. It's not enough though to prevent three strong emotions from getting through. Rubbing his head he moves toward the bar, about now a drink will help, though he has an ulterior motive, to find which three the strong emotions are coming from.

"There are millions of Alliance out there." Michi says into her own comlink. "Do your job. We need to know as much as possible if we're going to not die here. We have to go. Find out what you ca...." She looks up and frowns. "Looks like only some of us are going. Find out what you can. We need to know who is here, why, and how we can deal with it." And that's all Michi is going to say over a comlink in a public space. "Carina, you can probably stay. I'm only your employee. You're free to do whatever the hell you want. I need to go back to the ship. Maybe do a little investigation on the port procedures when I do."

SARAH

A slow smile crosses the woman's lips as she leans back in her chair waving a hand to the empty one in a be my guest fashion saying teasingly. "I might be. Depends on if you're lookin' for someone?"

Sarah smiles back towards the woman, taking the unspoken invitation, "Well, I might just be, depending... ship just landed, after all." She arches a brow, head tilting a bit.

The woman raises an eyebrow in interest, eyeing Sarah up and down. "You're new in town? Which company has got their hooks in you."

Sarah grins back at the woman, "Free trader, actually. Not exactly the corporate type." She shrugs a bit, "Always tried to avoid that when I can."

"A Free trader?" The woman says to Sarah in disbelief. "I never would've guessed. Such a pretty innocent face." She leans forward. "Looks like you might be staying here for awhile so you might as well sit and enjoy yourself."

Sarah grins, "That's my plan, really... but how many pretty, innocent corporate types do you see?" She raises a brow at her table-partner, then takes another sip from her drink.

"You'd be surprised how many there really are. You can call me Jean." Jean answers Sarah.

Sarah hmms, and gives Jean a sly look, "Sarah. And would they be innocent, or ignorant? There's a bit of a difference." Her lips quirk just a bit at that.

Jean chuckles, "I'd say a bit o' both. See over there?" She points two two young women, one of them rather conservatively dressed. They are talking at another table. "That's ignorance and innocence wrapped in a tidy bundle."

Sarah glances over at the pair across the way, then back towards Jean, "Well, that's true, it isn't necessarily exclusive." She hmms, "And what does that make you?"

Jean places a hand on Sarah's arm, stroking gently. "I am your dream come true if you want me to be."

Sarah grins slightly at Jean, "Well, now that sounds like there's some strings attached. Not that I'm not flattered..."

Jean blinks at Sarah, a tad confused at the comment. Then she laughs, putting a hand to her mouth to stifle the giggles. "You are too funny. Can't two people have a good time without any strings attached?"

Sarah grins at Jean, "You know, I can't remember the last time I didn't have /any/ strings attached." She winks a bit, "Honestly, my experience has been there's always strings hidden somewhere, no offense meant."

CARINA AND MICHI

Carina departs the club wth Michi, and without her bodyman. If that makes a gap in her cover, so be it. He clearly feels there's something he needs to do here, and she isn't going to be discussing things further over comms either, not given the eyes on them and the problems they're already facing.

Once they are free of the club, Michi leads the way to the shuttle. "They can walk back. Its not that big a town." She says as she straps in. Comfortably inside, she explains. "Here's the deal. We get his cargo AND the cargo we were sent for past the Alliance AND qualify for the Gao Fei Cortex Station race we can make a deal to get me off the hook here."

"Great. So, more pressure, and guns, plus the Alliance thick as ticks on a hound, and we still don't know what either shipment //is//, so we can't begin to guess what has them stirred up or how to avoid them. //And// we have to help you win a race." Carina is not thrilled. It's better than 'we're dead, make your peace'. But not by a huge stretch. This, however, is the life they're stuck with.

"And we have to figure out how to get the cargo to our ship." Michi says as she flips switches above her head. "We could take off. Leave. No cargo. Just ditch the jobs entirely. Run somewhere else. But then we're going to ruin our ability to work here and possibly put a price on my head. Carrie, if you want to sell the ship, split the money, and part ways.... I'll understand."

"Absolutely not." Carina answers. "That does not mean I'm thrilled by the threats. But it took us three years to find one another after the war, Michi. I'm not breaking up the partnership and disapearing just because things got dicey. I can't help if it makes me afraid for you. And for the rest of us. I'd be as dumb as my hair color if I wasn't afraid."

"We both know you're the smartest person on the ship." Michi says. She draws the throttle to lift the shuttle up off the ground. "But thank you. Okay. So. The town's not big. Its a giant box, really. You've got housing on the outer edge of the box and important bit inside. On the south end is the port with berths surrounding the control tower. We need to have questions answered. Is the Alliance inspecting cargo as its brought into the port? Or are they boarding ships in orbit? Can that tower or the ship in orbit track us if we land outside of town and pick up the cargo there?"

"Exactly. And I don't know how to get us that information without tipping our hands." Carina comments.

"We set up a test run. Small cargo. Nothing major. Cheap." Michi says, brain working. "We bring it in, see what happens."

"Cheap and legal." Michi notes.

"But how does that tell us about cargo //leaving//?" Carina queries.

"We know they're inspecting. We just don't know where." Michi admits the truth. "We need to break it down. Just like a race. You can't do the straight away if you don't get off the line and you can't round the turn if you don't go down the straight away. First, we find out if cargo is inspected on the way to the ship. Hopefully the others will find out if its being inspected in orbit."

Carina nods. "Alright. That's reasonable enough. That's not something I'm terribly good at, but I get it." Her worry is probably making it harder for her mind to think through the permutations. "What can I do to help?"

"You find the cargo. Check the Cortex. Something small going close to where we're going. Cloth, maybe. Seeds. Something. Something most ships wouldn't even care about. We don't have much money so your gorgeous face will help us stretch it further. I'm going to watch the port. Watch what happens. People come in. People go out. See if Alliance soldiers interfere." Michi flies towards the ship.

Michi adds, "Hell. If you like them and it feels like a charity case, offer to do it for free or something. It doesn't matter."

As Michi naviates through the town, he comes to the entrance to the shipyard. Alliance soldiers stop you on the way in, flagging you to step out of the shuttle.

"Well, that answers that..." Michi says. She lands the shuttle and steps out, turning to offer Carina a hand out.

Carina accepts the hand and steps out, standing up to face the Alliance soldiers curiously. "Yes, gentlemen? Is there a problem?"

An female alliance officer approaches Michi and Carina, a clipboard in hand. "Ma'am. We need to see your Identification and inspect your shuttle."

And there's identification. Michi provides it. Her own, her captain's license, the shuttle papers. All in a nice, fake leather portfolio. The shuttle itself is empty.

KARL AND DOROTA

As Karl moves towards the bar, he comes up next to a trio of alliance soldiers. One of them nudges the companion in the middle who slouches over a half empty drink, chin in hand.

"You just need a little bit o' drink. Will make you feel better." The man waves towards one of the bartenders to refill the drink of his seemingly moping companion.

Oh great, and they are Alliance. There is a serious mental debate that goes quickly in Karl's head. Does he say something? Does he just get a drink and leave them to thier drinks. He waves to the bartender and orders a drink, overhearing what is said "Until morning at least. But a few more and even that care goes away."

"You got that right," the man says in reply to Karl's random interjection. The moping one sighs. "Don't you have something better to do, Paul?"

"I will when I see it," he scans the crowded room, his eyes resting on all the pretty women in the room.

"What's better than helping a friend drown thier sorrows with copius amounts of booze?" Karl queries as he is served his whiskey. Lifting the glass he raises it to the three Alliance officers "Here is to what ails ya."

At the bar, the man named Paul raises his glass. "Hear Hear!" and then downs it, waving to the bartender for another one.

The third Alliance officer drinks quietly next to his friends, seemingly thoughtful.

Dorota, for her part, is looking for a...target. Specifically, she's looking for an Alliance soldier who is sitting on his or her own. If there is such an "animal."

Dorota comes down the stairs, continuing her scouting - albeit sadly obvious. Maybe she's not the best at doing this kind of thing...

So many alliance are all over the place but none are really by themselves. Once downstairs, Dorota can see Karl interacting with some alliance soldiers drinking by the bar.

Seeing no suitable target, Dorota instead wanders over to Karl, although she studies him for a moment before approaching. Does the reader need help? Would he rather she disappeared?

Karl slams his own drink back, glancing around the bar for his shipmates but only seeing Dorota as she pauses on her way over. "Was it a broad?" he asks signalling the bartender for two drinks instead of one as he gives a subtle head nod to Dorota to go ahead and come over.

Paul mimics. "It's his big /anniversary/ and he's all sad he can't spend it with his girl. Man up Chuckie. You don't see me boohooing, do you?"

"Bi Zui (shut up) Paul." Chuck glares at Paul.

"All right girls, let's not get into it here." The third finally speaks up, seemingly the referee between Chuck and Paul.

A nod in return, and Dorota moves up to the bar next to the quiet one, where there's room, with a glance at Heartsick. Oh, she knows that facial expression.

The quiet alliance soldier doesn't seem to take notice of Dorota more than a nod in her direction. He seems reserved as he keeps to himself.

Karl huhs at the explanation "Well it's better than the alternative." he points out as he takes his drink and slides the other one in the direction of Dorota "She stationed someplace else?" he can only assume that his girl is Alliance as well.

Dorota claims the drink, then gives Quiet a glance. "So, you don't look too thrilled to be here, soldier." They are probably hating this assignment...

Paul places his last drink down, his eye catching someone on the dance floor. "I know what my alternative is." He swaggers away a bit wobbly to start chatting up some giggling girl.

As Paul leaves, Chuck reveals a trinket that he's been holding. He fiddles with it as he talks. It has a picture of a pretty young girl in it. "She ain't enlisted. Met her while we were stationed in her town. Been married a year today. Unfortunately, some ben dan (stupid) criminal decides to pull a fast one and now we're stuck busting heads."

The quiet one looks to Dorota curiously. "What makes you say that?"

Dorota shrugs one shoulder, "Stuck here examining freighters. Not the most fun assignment, although the local entertainment seems reasonable."

The quiet one gives Dorota a quiet smile. "No it's not the most exciting of jobs. I don't mind though.

"I suppose..." Dorota sips at her drink. "You can't tell a poor veteran what you're looking for." She's sure he won't be allowed to, but...sometimes the simple things work.

The quiet one says "Yin Manufacturing, the Sha Gua (fools) that they are lost some prototype. We're here to find it."

"Prototype engine," Chuck Pipes in rambling specifications like a truly drunk engineer would. "Ultra sleek top of the line new generation. Lighter, faster, uses less fuel..." mumble mumble.