Chapter Nine: Year 300, 6th Day

[BackworldTraveller]

Ngora
Why, Mr O'Hare - you have written 12 shares there - Surely at 700K per share, 4.2 million is just 6? You think to take 50% for yourself?

[Stirling]

Tiberius O'Hare

"I am instructed to offer you $4.2Mcr as an immediate resolution."

"Would you recommend the offer?"

"My advice is to take up this offer. Draw a line under it. It makes you a very, very wealthy young woman. Potentially I could eek out the settlement a little further but I feel my diplomacy skills have already reached their zenith."

"$4.2 Million. And as things stand, Why, Mr O'Hare - you have written 12 shares there - Surely at 700K per share, 4.2 million is just 6? You think to take 50% for yourself?"

"Admiralty are willing to meet you half way to the value of QotB offer in order to drop the dispute and settle this matter out of court."

Tibbs listens to her expressed concerns and then repeats the above points.

"I want to reassure you that I am acting solely upon yours and Mr Maputo's behalves in settling this matter by discreet negotiations not through underhand deals.

The Admiralty have offered to end the dispute out of court by meeting you halfway to compensate you for your perceived losses. Should you decline and attempt to advance you claim the court have already valued the shares based upon Cloud Bank's shareholding offer and the value the insurers have assessed the Queen in it's decrepit and current unfit for flight condition. Until the ship is refitted, it's value, and the value of each share is established by these rigourous stock market protocols.

Any claims against negligence and storage damage are a separate claim and conducted as agreed under the auspicious of Rigsby & Sood. I am not involved in securing those claims.

The Admiralty share acquisition is only to secure a majority holding for QotB Holdings. I would sell up my share certainly for $8.4Mcr but sadly no offer to me is forthcoming. They have now obtained enough shares to fulfill their majority stake, notwithstanding current offers to yourself and the Cull estate.

Like I inferred, the Admiralty will not allow themselves to be exposed in the court. Officers involved in the seizure risk demotion or worse to incriminate senior commanders in piracy. Other officers are now civilians and unless you personally subpoena them from flying away from Sparks for the next 90 days, sequestered to a hotel at your expense and force them to testify against former comrades in arms, ... well you can see your dispute unravelling at the first hurdles.

The navy may well be involved in the murder of your father. If that is so, then who is to say other members of the Celisse family tree will not also be pruned before their time. The Admiralty have offered you $4.2Mcr to settle out of court amicably and they hope, frankly just go away. They offered me $1Mcr to just settle the dispute in another 'out of court' way and make you just go away .... only more definitively.

Now while you think again on their recommended offer.

Tiberius tries to Persuade [2d6+1]=6+1=7

If that is still not acceptable I can try to up the ante a little if my advocacy is still persuasive enough for them.

Would you excuse me a moment."


Due to the nature of any of the personal calls and the need to keep the bureau end also in discreet negotiations, Tibbs will use the bathroom.

[Stirling]

Tiberius O'Hare

While in the bathroom he will ping 'Kitsune'.

"Thank you for heads up display. Film
events if you can. If not secure evidence of unlawful search from hotel staff.

Have nothing to hide except my poor taste in clothes."

[SpinwardMarch]

Maggie

"Thank you Reven, let me know if you need help. Anyone one feels like a quartermaster, we need a full resupply of life support and general supplies for the ship, can someone make a list for the captains and my review and purchase? Also I need a final on the bridge being combat, sorry, ... flight ready, someone, a pilot? Anyone know where Nālani is?"

Pranit

Hearing the request,

I can make a list, I am familiar with life support systems and provisioning.

[The Bindoner]

Tiberius O'Hare

While in the bathroom he will ping 'Kitsune'.

"Thank you for heads up display. Film
events if you can. If not secure evidence of unlawful search from hotel staff.

Have nothing to hide except my poor taste in clothes."

Hotel manager with police, door closed, am on move. Cavalry hit teams looking for me. Evading to Queen. Sorry, not stopping to talk w. staff.

[Bluetongue]

Arnwulf

"Didn't Nalani say that Reven and her were both on some gangster group's hit list. So that seems why she needs help getting back in case the armed thugs are waiting to potshot at her.

So do we man up and arm up and patrol these bays if the Belt's bay team are so lax in security that they can't do it themselves?

Or maybe tell Nalani to arrive with the police dude who is supposed to view the ship."

He asks the question to the officers of the ship. He is not really in a position to pick and choose where he goes gallivanting about.

"Are we all in this together? One team, one crew, leave no man behind? Or do we leave Nalani to her own devices? There are guns and rifles for each of us, boarding axes for any up close and personals.

What we do here now sets a precedent for a month down the line when it's you stranded out there."

[BackworldTraveller]

Tiberius O'Hare

"I am instructed to offer you $4.2Mcr as an immediate resolution."

"Would you recommend the offer?"

"My advice is to take up this offer. Draw a line under it. It makes you a very, very wealthy young woman. Potentially I could eek out the settlement a little further but I feel my diplomacy skills have already reached their zenith."

"$4.2 Million. And as things stand, Why, Mr O'Hare - you have written 12 shares there - Surely at 700K per share, 4.2 million is just 6? You think to take 50% for yourself?"

"Admiralty are willing to meet you half way to the value of QotB offer in order to drop the dispute and settle this matter out of court."

Tibbs listens to her expressed concerns and then repeats the above points.

"I want to reassure you that I am acting solely upon yours and Mr Maputo's behalves in settling this matter by discreet negotiations not through underhand deals.

The Admiralty have offered to end the dispute out of court by meeting you halfway to compensate you for your perceived losses. Should you decline and attempt to advance you claim the court have already valued the shares based upon Cloud Bank's shareholding offer and the value the insurers have assessed the Queen in it's decrepit and current unfit for flight condition. Until the ship is refitted, it's value, and the value of each share is established by these rigourous stock market protocols.

Any claims against negligence and storage damage are a separate claim and conducted as agreed under the auspicious of Rigsby & Sood. I am not involved in securing those claims.

The Admiralty share acquisition is only to secure a majority holding for QotB Holdings. I would sell up my share certainly for $8.4Mcr but sadly no offer to me is forthcoming. They have now obtained enough shares to fulfill their majority stake, notwithstanding current offers to yourself and the Cull estate.

Like I inferred, the Admiralty will not allow themselves to be exposed in the court. Officers involved in the seizure risk demotion or worse to incriminate senior commanders in piracy. Other officers are now civilians and unless you personally subpoena them from flying away from Sparks for the next 90 days, sequestered to a hotel at your expense and force them to testify against former comrades in arms, ... well you can see your dispute unravelling at the first hurdles.

The navy may well be involved in the murder of your father. If that is so, then who is to say other members of the Celisse family tree will not also be pruned before their time. The Admiralty have offered you $4.2Mcr to settle out of court amicably and they hope, frankly just go away. They offered me $1Mcr to just settle the dispute in another 'out of court' way and make you just go away .... only more definitively.

Now while you think again on their recommended offer.

Tiberius tries to Persuade [2d6+1]=6+1=7

If that is still not acceptable I can try to up the ante a little if my advocacy is still persuasive enough for them.

Would you excuse me a moment."


Due to the nature of any of the personal calls and the need to keep the bureau end also in discreet negotiations, Tibbs will use the bathroom.

Ngora
Mr O'Hare, this is a serious decision that I must make and one that I feel you are pressuring me to make now - and as this will influence my family's future, I wish to discuss this with my Husband before I commit to anything. So I shall take what you have said, discuss it with my Husband and get back to you. Please leave the papers for us to consider.
At least the Deception roll worked well!
If this were my hairdressers I'd understand all the implications. As it is, this just appears to be confusing and...well confusing! Please give me time to sort out what I think and we can go from there. After all, It is the Navy who are trying to work to a deadline and avoid publicity, not me!

[BackworldTraveller]

Nālani
You receive a text message from Bhekumbuso: Hoshiko arrived in style with baggage with a picture

---

At the ship
A person presses the air-lock buzzer. Arnwulf answers and finds that it is a large man who claims to have a Cat and some other luggage for Nālani.

[Bluetongue]

Arnwulf

When he gets the ok, he opens the airlock to receive the goods.

Arnwulf Recon check [2d6+1]=8+1=9

He looks the guy over with a grunt and beyond him to the corners of the bay. He takes the cat by the scruff of it's neck, lifting it high to study. He shouts over his shoulder.

"Hey, tell the chef dinner has arrived. Baggsy I get to keep the tail. Now do we prefer skin on or skin off?"

He tips the courier a couple of loose change credit coins.

[BackworldTraveller]

Arnwulf
Attempted grappling attack on cat...[2d6]+0(Melee,Unarmed)+0(DEXDM)=?!

[BackworldTraveller]

Arnwulf
Attempted grappling attack on cat...[2d6]+0(Melee,Unarmed)+0(DEXDM)=?!

[Bluetongue]

Arnwulf

As far as tasks go, he will commit as much time as necessary to weld and repair the hull breach.

[BackworldTraveller]

What was the roll for the cat attack?

[Bluetongue]

you really need me to attack a cat? It wasn't transported in a pet carrier and I can pick it up?


Arnwulf combat: unarmed melee [2d6]=2

[BackworldTraveller]

It really is in its sealed carrier with life-support! and a 2 is definitely an out-and-out miss on getting it out, accompanied by hissing, claws and teeth. Fortunately, Hoshiko has taken the warning as adequate and you have avoided...

...with the attendant need for anti-biotics, bandages, etc!

[BackworldTraveller]

As Arnwulf is collecting Nālani's luggage (about 10 times the amount normally allowed under the crew allowance) he notices that the port security that were visible on the lip of the landing pit yesterday are not there today.

But he continues loading her gear, moving it down to the cargo hold.

[joertexas]

you really need me to attack a cat? It wasn't transported in a pet carrier and I can pick it up?


Arnwulf combat: unarmed melee [2d6]=2

With that roll, the cat would have hit an artery

[The Bindoner]

you really need me to attack a cat? It wasn't transported in a pet carrier and I can pick it up?


Arnwulf combat: unarmed melee [2d6]=2

With that roll, the cat would have hit an artery

Hoshiko has moments of forbearance and mercy. One per person.

[Stirling]

Tiberius O'Hare

Frustrated at some of the procrastination (and Mr Kole not being present), Tibbs collects his papers and pockets his phone.

"Mrs Kole, thank you for your time. I have told you everything you need to know. You have an offer of $4.2Mcr in the table for you to accept and end all disputes and claims. If you
would like me to rebuff the first offer and play the poker face with the deals, raising the bids against their check plays, then I will return to the bureau and counter for a more favourable deal.

But the court has a deadline and that needs to be met by you. You are the litigant. Not the Admiralty and not Maputo. Decline the offer and your legal team must prove beyond a shadow of doubt the the Admiralty are culpable for your father's death in a prison riot. Can you also demonstrate that Celisse did not obtain those shares in the Queen from the profits of smuggling? If not, then you cannot prove they were unlawfully rendered to the Admiralty as a penalty proceeds of crime award.

Consider also. If you are spectacularly successful and get all the shares given to you, what are you going to do in 90 days time when you arrive at Bay 13 as the major shareholder only to find the bird had flown the best with no intention of returning here?

I will expect your call tomorrow as to what decision you have made."


If there is nothing else to discuss he leaves for the ship.

[BackworldTraveller]

Pranit & Maggie
Pranit's trawling of sites selling equipment for starships does result in an order for hull-plate strips with delivery from the scrapyard and white paint from the chandler at Cr8000 (Bang on estimate!). The choices for internal fittings, etc. for the passenger deck are harder to source. Colour, pattern, material, price, delivery period - so many choices! With the list still growing. Pranit orders a basic life-support refresh and tags various options for the new stateroom decor.

Art roll from Maggie for his choice of Interior Design. Quick-2+Art(Visual Media)+1+EDU+0+Assistance from Pranit+1=+0 is better than some! They fear a 50:50 chance that they may face criticism for the unsophisticated style of the initial design

---

Indrani and Arnwulf
Preparation for the re-plating requires clambering outside in Vacc Suits and stripping off the paint from the areas to be replaced. A start is made but with the police arriving at 10:00 the job is only part completed. It is as the pair return to the vessel that the delivery for Nālani arrived. It is all unpacked by 10:00.

---

Noor
As the ship's crew bustle about trying to get the physical environment up and running, Noor rechecks her workings from her overnight stint. They appear to be correct and her conclusions valid.

---

Reven
Reven look quite pleased with himself. The number one bus is back up! Admittedly, his toolkit's spares are now severely depleted (list to Pranit to replace? Cr130 or parts at a guess) but it works. The 3-D printer has been a god-send. Time for Coffee?

---

Nālani and Tiberius
There is quite a procession heading for the Queen - a police cruiser from the Sparks Police, an electric bike with Miya and Nālani, a taxi with Tiberius and a delivery cart from the Scrapyard all heading along the long corridor towards the ship - one behind the other.