Wanderers of the Void IC [Closed]

[Eisenhorn]

Saveli shrugged, not going into how the vast majority of organizations and folks could be aptly described in the same way, responding simply. "Well, I ain't aiming to send a message that I shoot first, without provocation. That doesn't..." Then several shots pinged off their shields, cutting the Captain off, and the monitor beeped, another message coming through. "Consider those warning shots, power down now or you will be terminated." Tam stood up, laughing rather than showing anger or fear, responding in kind. "Consider that a provocation. Gunnery deck, give them a warning shot." Not ten seconds later, the lights flickered and the ship shuttered, Tam standing steady despite the sudden shuttering as the main gun fired. The shields flared, and failed, on the other ship, and a chunk of the hull plating was sheared off as well. He gestured to the communications officer, and she promptly reopened the channel. "Hey, you sorry lot, consider that a warning shot. Next time, I won't glance you. Lose this channel, and load High Explosive, line a shot for where their reactor plant should be."

Tam deliberately let them hear that last bit about the reactor plant being the next target, their shields overloaded currently, and if he really wanted to, he would simply blast the ship into oblivion. But just as it seemed that it would be necessary that he would have to scrap the NEF ship, a terse message arrived, all red text on white background. "We are withdrawing, but realize that this will not be the end of the issue at hand." Tam sighed, as the NEF ship turned and limped away, jumping to warp to lick its wounds after reporting their failure. Crossing his arms, he waited until they jumped, and snapped off a series of orders. "Alright folks, stay at stations until we hit the jump, then back to business as usual. Let's leg it before the Syndicate folks come asking questions about the weapons fire, yea?" The timing was well done, the ship lurching forward all ahead full, just as he saw the comm console start to blink, and he shook his head at the comm officer, they would report when they had something of note, and they hit the jump point and were gone like that, and Tam stretched, looking at Seraph and crossing his arms.

"Right, shall we go get you set up in the med bay? Doc's going to be busy with all that work that Twitch just dumped on him, and he'll need all the help he can get. Yea, that should be a good place for you to hang out during battle stations. Any objections?" If there were none, he would promptly hop on the elevator and, once she was aboard, he would shoot them both down to the main deck, not a word said as the doors opened and he strode off directly for the medbay, prattling off once they were moving. "That was the pride and joy of this ship, the main reason its classed as a Battleship in the Order's books. A ship sized rail cannon, with more ammunition types than your average candy store has brands. Shield busters, high explosive, scatter shot, ground ordinance, shot for most any occasion can be loaded up and lobbed at some poor soul. Its gotten me out of some tight binds, certainly, but the simple presence of it has solved plenty of problems without a shot fired. I prefer it that way, no one gets hurt, and everything is sorted out. Much cleaner and nicer than having to trade shots and kill off some poor sods just doing their jobs, eh?" He posed the last bit to gauge how Seraph treated violence, both as a tool and concept in general. The more he knew, the less he could be surprised with.

Tam didn't like resorting to deathly violence to solve his problems, much to the chagrin of his XO, the Master at Arms, and a lot of the gunners mates that ran the ships primary and secondary weapons, as was probably obvious during that incident with the NEF ship that he chose to give them a warning shot, rather than blast them clear out of space right off the bat, which he could have managed with the round loaded. Violence was a crude way to see things done, but far too necessary in this day and age. Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he punched the open button on the medbay's keypad, the doors sliding open and admitting the two. Doc was already typing away, fiddling with a helmet looking machine. Sera might quickly recognize it as a brain wave scanner, a field model for doing quick checks for head trauma in a triage tent while under fire. He looked up and nodded to the two, looking down again. "Captain, Ms. Tymas. You got here just in time, Twitch wants me to get brain scans of folks so she can implement that psicomm model she jury rigged. Or at least experiment further. Who's first then?"

Tam raised both hands and stepped back, angling for the door, which was promptly blocked by Twitch, who spoke into everyone's minds, bringing a flinch out of Tam. "Tam's first! Get his before he runs for wherever he put his hiding hole this time." The Doc shrugged, and Tam promptly shook his head. "I would much rather not right now, I need to get the financials filed away and what not after all, but this will be your workplace Ms. Tymas, including battle stations. No problems with that arrangement?" Tam was looking to get clear anyways, which Twitch seemed to realize, planting her hands on her hips and borderline glaring at the Captain, blocking his escape path currently. Doc spoke up, smirking. "How about we have our new medical staff help with that, assuming she is familiar with a field brain scan unit?" It wasn't mocking, just an honest question. Tam was still looking for a way out, never having been a fan of medical facilities, and did his level best to keep himself and his own out of them when possible. He respected those that worked in the field, without a doubt, he just avoided medical situations on a business level, when possible. But, worse came to worse, he would play cooperative and go through the motions, making smart ass comments along the way.

[Celedia]

Seraph remained in her position, watching the entire situation play out before her and on occasion her lips would twitch in amusement. Her countenance remained neutral but that hint of a smile lingered until the NEF ship crawled back from whatever location they had appeared from.

I prefer it that way, no one gets hurt, and everything is sorted out. Much cleaner and nicer than having to trade shots and kill off some poor sods just doing their jobs, eh?

“You handled that impressively well, Captain. The less people I have to patch up on our side, the better. Sometimes all out violence isn’t truly the answer and with a bit of wit or tact, you can save lives while not losing your position.” Her answer was vaguely cryptic but that’s simply how she responded when people inquired about her stance or reaction on things. She was used to dealing with the Syndicate who dealt more harshly with subordinates who didn’t strictly follow their moral guidelines and Sera had learned to answer truthfully yet convoluted enough so that people generally accepted her response and moved on.

And move on, they did. They ended up in the Med Bay and both Doc and Twitch were present, causing the tension that had somehow seeped into Sera’s muscles to release. She looked considerably more relaxed, even allowing a grin now and then as the three crew members interacted and when Doc held the BSU aloft for her to use upon Tam, she tried desperately not to laugh.

Amusement flared as she took the BSU and looked it over as if familiarizing herself with that particular unit. ”This unit isn’t intrusive…” She cast a wink at Doc to let him know that she was merely teasing the Captain with what came next. ”If you want, I can go grab the BSU prototype from my pack. Only three holes need to be drilled but it has more conclusive results and….”

She let the words trail off slightly, casting a look at Tam for his reaction before she couldn’t hold a serious look anymore and laughter bubbled forth from her lips. ”No, honestly… It doesn’t hurt and may make it so that you no longer get that headache when Twitch talks to you. It’s a win-win situation.”

Reaching out, she looped her fingers around the Captain’s wrist so she could urge him to sit down while they took his brain scan.

[Eisenhorn]

Tam chuckled at the way Seraph phrased her response, showcasing a glib, silver tongue of sorts in that regard. He wouldn't press through it, wasn't rightly his business to press in that regard, but he could not help but make a comment towards it. "Quite the way with words there, Ms. Tymas. Seeing you gamble should be a riot, you'll talk rings around the most common gamblers on this boat, they tend to be chatty at worst."

Of course everyone was in favor of scanning his brain, which was hardly something Tam was interested in, not in the slightest. The jests about more intrusive measures got a chuckle out of the Doc, who replied in kind. "Oh that sounds like a wonderful idea, I got some spare bits laying around to plug the holes with, I am sure of it." Tam, to his credit, didn't panic or flip his lid like a lot of folks that avoided medical treatments like the plague did, but he did respond, arms crossed and still looking for a way past Twitch, which wasn't happening. "Yea, yea, make fun of my aversion to all things medical. At least I ain't actively avoiding coming down here, could have sent her down with Laira showing the way." Twitch rolled her eyes, still blocking the door and not having any intent of allowing the man to pass, which he noted and resigned himself to his current fate, as it were. He let Seraph guide him over to the chair, but he spoke in an offhand tone, almost like there was some information he wasn't sharing yet.

"I have this feeling that the PsiComm system won't be quite effective for me, couldn't say why though." Once he was seated and the device was set up, Doc typed away at his computer, with Seraph at the helm of the device itself while Twitch watched, eager to get the system set up for the Captain. The Doc, and most likely Seraph, would quickly notice an oddity with the scan's readings. The BSU that Doc operated didn't read off the brain, but a series of factors and overall information on the brain in question, which would be compared to records kept normally for the sake of quick assessment. The problem that came from Tam was a series of missing values, impossible contradictions, and an overall mess. Doc frowned, checking the device, trusting Seraph's talent as a medic. "That's odd, I just tested the thing to make sure it was still working. I might take you up on that prototype offer after all, Ms. Tymas. The output is impossible." Tam chimed in from his seat, a smirk growing on his face. "Sure it ain't the input, Doc?"

Twitch ran over and looked at the output, chiming into everyone's minds, still using the PsiComm. "Looks like when an AI undergoes self inflicted recoding, changing its own code for a variety of reasons, both its own or outside." Tam shrugged in his seat, and Doc looked at both of them before shaking his head. "Captain, if your brain really had that kind of readings, you would make getting lobotomized look like a positive alternative." Tam chuckled, relaxing and offering a counter point. "You yourself explained mutation to me at some point, explaining why that jungle world was trying to devour us all from the start. Look at my family history, spacers as far as we can figure, born, raised, and generally buried out here. Mother died to an over exposure to space borne radiation, tells you how much exposure we got. Any ideas in that regard Doc?" The old man looked at the monitor and had the scans reran, and the results were equally impossible, but different. He looked at the Captain and leaned against the desk his computer was at. "A radiological mutation?"

Tam started laughing, hard, and the Doc glared at him, starting to dawn on him what happened. "I'm just jerking your chain, Doc. I tampered with the scanner, figured that you lot would force me to go first. Had you going for awhile though, didn't I?" The old man muttered something rather rude about the Captain under his breath, grabbing the scanner and opening it up, starting to get everything fixed again, checking in earnest and knowing where to look now. "Your a piece of work, Captain. Ms. Tymas, I apologize for that, he likes to do that from time to time. Thankfully not when it could cause a real problem." Tam shrugged in a good natured manner, having gotten back at the man. "Out of curiosity, Seraph, did you actually snag a prototype BSU, or were you jerking my chain there?" Doc was almost done with the device, but there was a few minute interval while he got all its defaults set up for the idle chatter and plans. "Any last minute shopping you folks need? We'll be stopping at the pirate station, and they trade most anything on a regular basis. Might as well compile a shopping list now."