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[Harry Baldman]

Sender: Beau McIntyre

I see. Let's be straight with each other - how illegal is what you're proposing? Not asking for details, mind you, just an estimate. My guess is: very.

Send message after putting link back in ear.

Beau knew that accepting this would be, to be perfectly frank, the worst feckin' idea ever. Nobody would pay him that much for an easy job. Even if it was an easy job, it would be very feckin' likely to kill him somewhere down the line. Lousy criminal feckers, always feckin' up the delivery industry from the ground up.

Then again, there's nothing really stopping the feckers from shooting him in the face several times and making off with the cargo anyway. Or worse, paying his copilot to shoot him in the face and get all the money to himself.

He glanced at his partner. He didn't really know the fecker very well. Who knows what could be going on in that mind of his. He isn't one of the faithful as far as he knows. And he doesn't look very smart from what he's seen. A wildcard, then. Better make sure he knows the score before somebody else approaches him.

Beau takes another sip of milk. The bloody fecker and his bloody feckin' shadiness had put him on edge. It just isn't the same anymore. Feck it all.

[mesor]

(( That a good question actually. Jason Argo. ))

Try to make peace with the internet.

I'm all for it, anything to get rid of thise damned boredom and maybe make enough money to find a more interesting job or start out on our own.[/b]

[Fenrir]

Send message after putting link back in ear.

Again, the reply is speedy.


Very illegal. Asking questions will just make it more illegal. In?

Try to make peace with the internet.

[3] Despite your most earnest pleas in your sweetest tones, she remains unwilling to give you anything more than the kind of vulgar, nauseating, and downright impenetrable pejoratives one would expect the Internet herself to know.

[Harry Baldman]

I'm all for it, anything to get rid of thise damned boredom and maybe make enough money to find a more interesting job or start out on our own.

"Alright, so the fecker sent me a reply and said that we'd make a feckin' bundle on this, enough to buy a freighter. I think we'll get shot in the face an unhealthy number of times. You think we should accept, I think it's a bloody stupid idea. Then again, maybe the feckers'll bloody shoot us in the face no matter what we do. Or maybe they'll let us go with the money, unlikely as that is. It's a dilemma, to be sure."

So his feckin' copilot wants to feckin' take the job. Marvelous. Bloody marvelous. It's hardly his choice, then. Wasn't there this one fecker who said something about praying for the strength to change the things he can change and the patience to accept the things he cannot?

He looks at the received message and sighs resignedly. He sends a reply.

Sender: Beau McIntyre

Me refusing or accepting won't actually change your plans, whatever they may be, will it?

Send message and wait for reply.

[mesor]

Keep trying to make peace

"Well considering the size of the pay off if we get the job done I'd say it's worth the risk, or do you enjoy sitting on your ass all day waiting for idiots to finish denting the side of this rust bucket while they try to work out how the hell to get everything in through the doors?"

[Fenrir]

Send message and wait for reply.

The reply comes slower this time.

You have 5 minutes to answer.

Keep trying to make peace

[6] Something you have said seems to have worked, as she isn’t fuming at you anymore. It isn’t clear whether you are actually forgiven, as she is being rather cold and quiet now, but you have access to the network. She answers your questions and retrieves websites without contest or complaint.

[mesor]

Wait for Beau to decide.

[Harry Baldman]

"And you honestly think that they're gonna do their feckin' devil's work, mess with the ship and the cargo or something, then just let us go wherever with all that money, no feckin' strings attached? When you associate with scum, you associate for feckin' life. Once you start workin' for 'em, you're not a normal person, yer a feckin' asset, and criminals ain't known for lettin' go of their assets easily. If we get the feckin' money and buy a feckin' freighter, it's their money and it's their feckin' freighter! We work for them, we belong to them. Simple as that. Now tell me, are you willing to accept that? Belongin' to somebody else for the rest of your probably short life? Bein' at their beck and call? 'Cause you bet your arse that that's exactly what's going to feckin' happen!"

Beau sits down and desperately looks up at the ceiling almost as though he is expecting divine aid.

"Then again, if the fecker, hell, probably multiple feckers have got their eyes on us, we're probably fecked no matter what we do. Ah, feck it all."

He notices he has a message. He listens to it.

"Knew it. I feckin' knew it. Feckers are probably gonna screw us over in ways we can't even feckin' imagine if we refuse."

He closes his eyes with great sadness and narrates the message back.

Sender: Beau McIntyre

I take that as a yes. We are in.

Send message, await reply.

He sits back and silently mumbles to himself.

"May the Lord understand our sinful actions and assign appropriate and just penance when we leave this world."

[mesor]

"Well we hardly have a choice given that you've already answered the initial message now do we?"

[Fenrir]

Wait for Beau to decide.

[2] You get the strange feeling that this was a wise choice, as you would have broken something if you had tried to do anything.

Send message, await reply.

Proceed to INC-5317.


It isn’t surprising that the number isn’t familiar, as a computer is always at hand to tell you what it is, where it is, and how long it will take to get there. There is never any need to remember these kinds of things.

[mesor]

Look up INC-5317 on the internet and gather any possible information.

[Harry Baldman]

"We probably didn't have a choice in the first place, J. We can merely decide whether we're ahead of the feckin' loop by a bit or remain victims the whole way through."

Finish my glass of warm milk, then see what findings Jason has obtained. Head on over to INC-5317.

[Fenrir]

((I don’t roll for trivial tasks, as you noticed with Harry’s messages.))

Turn 3: Plans Change

Look up INC-5317 on the internet and gather any possible information.

The Interplanetary Numbers Commission database and Wikipedia predictably supply plenty of information about INC-5317. It is a smaller planet to the extremity of its system, and, as a result, very cold. There is only one pair of k-tubes leading in and out of the system, so it rather clearly doesn’t sit along any major trade routes.

A few colonists live in habitats on the surface, but it seems that there is no space elevator. This freighter can make planetfall, but that is for emergencies or decommissioning. It was not designed to make deliveries this way, so your freighter won’t get back into orbit without assistance.

A gas giant and a dwarf planet both orbit the star, but neither of these are inhabited.

The journey to INC-5317 is two k-tube connections from here. The first leg will take around two hours, and the second will take one. Going back out of the system will take an hour, of course, and the connection to you original destination will take about three hours.

Finish my glass of warm milk, then see what findings Jason has obtained. Head on over to INC-5317.

The computer accepts your retina scan and password. It warns you about the cargo left to be loaded, but it doesn’t give another thought to it after you insist. Back in the cargo bay, the loading machines place their loads and wheel back into the loading dock. The airlocks seal.

The new course is set.

“INC-10675 Loading Dock to Orion Shipping Freighter 1425078, wait for Krasnikov Tube connection five.”

Ten minutes later, the dock computer gives you clearance.

“INC-10675 Loading Dock to Orion Shipping Freighter 1425078, cleared for Krasnikov Tube connection five.”

There isn’t any need to do anything, as the ship engages its engine and turns toward its departure tube. Your screen marks the k-tube with a green ring, as it would otherwise be a nearly imperceptible distortion. Large metal flaps close over the windows.

The ship stops turning. “On approach to k-tube. Accelerating to minimum speed,” the computer says.

((Your actions can take as long as you like, so you have the power to skip through long spans of time if there isn’t anything you care to do.))

[mesor]

Use the internet to look into the chances of buying a better ship once we get paid.

[Harry Baldman]

((Aw, crap. Didn't know that would happen. Thought INC-5317 was within walking distance or something.))

"Aw, feck. What in the feck am I doing?"

Fly back to the bay we were in and resume loading in all the cargo.

"Can't get sloppy on the job."