"Ah, if it isn't the discobot, get tired of reenacting music videos?" Murphy was obviously less than thrilled, not that he looked pissed or anything, but any enthusiasm suddenly and visibly left his form when the flexbot entered and the fury gave him a cursory once over.

The room fell into a briefly stunned silence as the flexbot and the assembly stared eachother down. Listening to one wry quip and bearing out 30 more seconds of puzzlement, Jonah decided to speak,

"Speak of the devil."

Other than the outburst, Jonah seemed somewhat non-plussed by the flexbot's arrival. He could stomach coincidence much better than intimidation. Squirming with equal discomfort about the silence and about disclosing his abilities, Jonah elected to speak next.

"Jonah Pequod. I guess I'm usually hired to build stuff -- really all kinds of stuff. I sort of, just know how to build it, I guess. Also in space, that is. I build stuff in space, mostly. So if you need me in space, or especially stuff, in space, then I'm your man ... in space."

Somehow he doubted that he'd conveyed the same furious conviction as Murphy.

"Doctor Mathew Esterly," Dr. Esterly began, after an appropriate pause. "My research is primarily in the fields of mathematics and xenolinguistics, but also includes exoplanet exploration, xenoarcheology, and astrobiology. If anyone is particularly interested in the details, the majority of my research, as well as my full CV, is available to the public through various scientific networks. In the interest of full-disclosure, however, one particular detail deserves to be made salient - my exposure to the Watts-MacLeod strain of the Exsurgent nanovirus." There was a slight pause, where Dr. Esterly looked for any signs of recognition in his new companions, before adding, "... the effects of which enable me to bring a unique, and often valuable, perspective to any situation."

Murphy chewed on his lip and then shook his head, sighing softly. "Gotta say doc, not really sure how to take it, on th'one hand it makes us a bit more flexible and you do seem pleasant enough comp'ny, on th'other this may make me sound like a paranoid ass but I did bring a jammer with me as part of my... severance package. He frowned, then forced a smile to his face and looked back at Jonah. Not to downplay your skills, I'm sure you's be of use more often than my guns, but it occurs to me you could probably build a fairly smart personal brewery, maybe something portable? I do keep a bit've cash at hand. Murphy let the smile bloom into a full fledged grin then, showing what could only be called boyish humor then. [Good job boss, this makes you seem like a little bit less of an arrogant jerk. Now they think their team sniper is an alcoholic. Not too far from the truth but I was thinking you "wanted this team thing to work.] [Shutup, Fixit.]

Dr. Esterly smiled at Murphy and tapped one of the tools in his lab-suit's pocket. "I carry a jamming device, as well, though I suspect it will do me more good than you. Studies have shown that only gammawave activity can affect other egos, and, even then, the majority of gammawave activity requires a bioelectric field to interact with another non-asynchronous ego." He waved his hand, dismissively. "Still, I applaud the unusual level of preparation. Although I have maintained control of my mental processes, our line of work is likely to bring us in contact with others who have not."

"S'all latin to me doc, and I only speak English, German an' Mand'rin. All I know is it is supposed to help keep the odds in my favor if we encounter something that tries to make with the brain-rape. I'm a firm believer in the only fair fight being the one I win." He was doing his damnedest to ignorethe flexbot, and smiling to the rest, he had decided he liked the doctor, and the fraulein was cool, he was unsure of the scraggly guy but hell, it was nice having someone else around who didn't have the whole alphabet appending their name. [Keep talking like that boss and people might begin to suspect you are a cynic.] [Cram it, Fixit, or I won't get you any "fun" patches.]

A smirk crossed Dr. Esterly's face at the mention of 'brain-rape'. "Dann werde ich auf gut Englisch, Herr Murphy. Your typical async isn't going to be able to do much to your ego without touching you, whether you have that device on, or not." He made a slight shrug, and waved one hand aside. "Although if one manages to get past your defenses, you'll probably appreciate having backup protection. Of course, if you're unfortunate enough to encounter a true Exsurgent threat with abilities well beyond our understanding... I wouldn't expect anything transhumanity can engineer to be particularly effective in disarming it."

"I suppose it would have another effect, which would be to prevent any chance of me detecting either of those threats..."

Dr. Esterly smiled, apologetically. "That said, if it makes you more comfortable in my presence, by all means, activate your jammer. Like I said, I suspect it will do me more good than it will do you."

Murphy frowned, taking out the device and examining it before taking a look at the doc and nodding, pocketing it. "It isn't you I'm worried about, Firewall vets it's people pretty damn thorough in the virt. But apparently the spook officer who trained us on this stuff was selling a false bill of goods or wasn't as expert as he seemed. Still usefull, just differant tactical profile." He bowed his head, he was trying to be basically gracious about the whole thing. The doc seemed a good enough sort, not that he was looking too close. If he trusted anything it was the loyalty filtering Firewall did as part of it's virtuality based profiling.

Jonah had grinned wryly at Murphy's comment about the brewery, but any though of a witty retort was precluded as voices ripped through his head: It would be a marvelous contraption with seven chambers each circling the last on an ionic drive in space and the hull-ripping blades would modify the balance to change the ....

He cupped his head in his hands and shook violently, only remembering to feign a sneeze at the end of the motion. Jonah then listened, shuffling his feet unconsciously, to Doctor Esterly and Murphy's banter about a disease that he found all too familiar.

At the comment about the whole thing simply requiring a different tactical profile, Dr. Esterly nodded in agreement, but otherwise dropped the subject. He had a lot more to say on the subject of the teams tactical options when faced with async threats, but this wasn't necessarily the time or place. He also wanted to give Agents Mudlark and Three an opportunity to do their own introductions, so that everyone could get down to business.

At Esterly's remark about contact required for affecting other egos, Three responded, "Sez you. What about me? I don't think I HAVE a bioelectric field. Has anyone seen one lying about? But while we're on confessions, I've got something to tell you as well. I don't know how to tell you this, but, but," he appears to be holding back tears somehow "I'm a robot. I know you probably find that hard to believe, but it's just who I am." At this point Three looks down and gestures at his shell, noticing the smart material phallus he had forgotten to withdraw since his encounter with the pleasure pod. Moving his hands to protect his modesty, he says embarassedly, "I'd prefer if you'd all pretend you didn't see that." He now seems muted, for once, until his muse, Business nudges him, [Don't you think you should provide a more substantial introduction? They can see you're sleeved in a synthmorph.] Fine. Then, below the transduction threshold, Bitch. [Say something?] No, dear.

"My name's Jack Three, Three for short, but I'm Four in a few months. If you're looking for more info, you're talking to the wrong guy. I just don't know. I got guns. I can shoot them. I can provide long-range fire support and sniping duties. I can fix things up, most notably myself and I can make some cool stuff with fabbers. Other than that, I'm just comic relief."

Doctor Esterly nodded at Jack Three's comment, "Yes, by not having a bio-electric field, your ego should be functionally immune from asynchronous brainwave interference - with the usual caveat that our understanding of the Exsurgent virus is incomplete. Electing to sleeve into a synthmorph is a fairly common defense, but it is not an option for everyone." Doctor Esterly glanced, slightly, towards Murphy. Even if the mercenary wasn't a biocon extremist, it didn't surprise Doctor Esterly at all, that his Jovian military officer hadn't suggested that option.

"I'm not robo to avoid brainsucking, besides, a good hacker could skronk me over just fine without needing some psychomojo virus. I'm robo so I can do cool stuff like this." Three then pushes off from the surface he was inclined on, rapidly changes shape into a rotorcraft form and emits a sound effect from an old Earth cartoon featuring transforming robots. "Okay, I'll stop that now." He returns to his humanoid shape, along with the transforming sound effect. "Mind you, you should see some of the stuff I can do in a reaper. Feel like coughing up for one of those, Doc?" he asks Dr. Cornelius.

Rebel watched the byplay between the members of the team with interest. The revelation that she was in the presence of an asynch was exciting. She didn't know why she had decided to be fascinated with asynchs but she had to know how they worked. Perhaps the Doc would lease her an Alpha Fork to study.

When the hyperactive flexbot mentioned desiring a Reaper she could not remain silent anymore.

Would you be interested in signing on as an Alpha Tester? I'm considering starting an Open Source Reaper 2.0 project. The aim would be to take all the best qualities of the Reaper and use them as the basis for a humanoid Morph that might fill a similar role to a Fury but tougher, stronger, faster and more disposable. An Ego familiar with the base Morph would be a great help in the testing phase.

"Depends. How do you intend to fit all of the inherent awesomeness of the reaper into a humanoid shell? And also, will there be a model in blue?"

"Call me crazy but... choosin' to spend any serious stretch of time in a form that... purpose built.... is limiting. Our self image helps us define ourselves, right? it is the way we interact with th'verse around us. I've always suspected that enough time in what's 'ssentially a weapons platform hurts the psyche. Saw this person once, lived their whole life in a pleasure pod, couldn't even identify it's own gender anymore and wasn't happy unless it was getting it both ways all th'time. Hey, Doc Cornelius? The offer of drinks still good? Feelin' a might parched." Murphy smiled and looked about, he was no psychology expert but he had done enough reading on philosophy to be familiar with thought exercises about how you relate to your environment.

With a smile, "It certainly is." Dr. Cornelius swings gingerly from branch to branch up to the kitchen room and quickly comes back some more of the xeno-fruit drink.

"Rebel, will you kindly please introduce yourself to the team, and then we will get down to business."

Uh, sure.

We're Rebel. We're a Wizard programmer of both bytes and sentient wetware. We've not been in the 'Middle' system long. We fired ourselves in from the Fringe for some sort of cunning nefarious purpose. No idea what as we've extensively redacted our own mind and don't remember. I'm pretty sure it's Fall related as it didn't take us long to get involved with these Firewall types.

Anyway, if you need a piece of custom software or blueprints for a humanised Reaper Morph that one could live in without becoming sociopathic cyborg killer we're your girls. Similarly if you find that you are already a sociopathic cyborg killer and need your Ego straightened out we are also your girls.

We also do a nice little sideline in handmade custom blobjects.

Murphy took the drink, smiling a bit at the surprising sweetness as he had Fixit begin pulling information off of the various hubs he subscribed too, it would take a few moments to coalate it with his knowledge of rumored conspiracies, usually bunk but there was always a kernel of truth in them... "Well, if it is a sitrep you want doc, I have my own ears to the grapevine, though likely not the same ones as ya'll. I try to keep up on the really d'stressing stuff. Mostly a bunch of nuttery but... when it's not that is even more d'stressing." Once the information was organized he had it sent to each of them.

After Rebel introduced herselves, Is that the right pronoun? Themself? Herself? And I thought my ego was skronked up, Three realised a psychosurgeon like that could probably help him out.

He sent, [Now that you mention it, I could use a checkup from the neck up, if you're offering. You see, technically.... I'm a vapour. I egocasted off Earth during the Fall and not everything got through. TITAN jamming, I reckon. Some bright spark on this end glued an AI template to me, so I'm probably more delta than gamma, but there's so much missing... I was wondering if you could do some padding or something with my ego, maybe help me start again. Although, if we found an old alpha on Earth, if that's what we're here for, could you help me merge with it? I just want to know who I am.

He also asked Dr. Cornelius, "Hey Doc, got any of that yezmin stuff as an algo?"

Lexi interjected her thoughts into the forefront of Dr. Esterly's mind, drawing his attention away from the final collation of data he was preparing for Murphy. [Injudicious. Circumspection...] Dr. Esterly cut off what he was sure would be a torrent of similarly cryptic warnings. Acknowledged, Lexi - although we both know I am in no position to critique. [Germane observation.], she conceded. Dr. Esterly smirked, returning his attention to the task at hand. Certainly, if any one of them were to observe me in one of my... episodes, they may arrive at a similar conclusion: that my mind is dysfunctional, and that any idea that emerges from such... unconventional thought patterns, would naturally be incongruous, and should be treated with suspicion. However, I believe that their ability, or inability, to follow my course of thought, has no bearing on its objective truth, or the subsequent applicability of my discoveries to fields which they may find just as incomprehensible. Lexi added, with a note of amusement, [Commensurately progressive scientific perspicacity being tantamount to aberrant speculation.] Quite.

With a nod towards Murphy he instructed Lexi to deliver the data file he had accumulated over the course of desert, and included a short message. [These notes should give you some initial direction. I hope you find them useful, and I would be interested in discussing the topic further, if our mission allows.] The attached document included a preliminary curriculum of independent study for a student of approximately Murphy's experience. The topics covered were mainly military history, philosophy, and ethics, with a few publications dealing with topics related to the application of mathematics, simulated models, or ballistic physics as used my various para-military factions. Each suggestion included a mesh link to digital distribution channels where the item could be obtained. Dr. Esterly was rather pleased with how the data all came together, and how his mind put the pieces into place, according to processes even he didn't quite grasp consciously, and he was confident that Murphy would find the information useful.

"Thanks Dr Esterly, now, the file I just sent ya'll is mostly rumor with little bits of truth and half truth strewn throughout but knowing what people think has to have use in what we do, right? Atleast if we know what the rumor mills are spinning and the word of mouth it is one more piece of some puzzles." He wasn't trying to make his information look better, he knew it had limited applications but so long as the applications where there he would make a note of them. With a very slight twinge he recalled all the times as a kid some little bit of info had saved his sleeve.

“Sorry Three, I do not. Well, now that you have all introduced it is time to get on with the potential problem at hand.” Dr. Cornelius takes a seat on one of the branches across from the five Firewall Sentinels. “Thank you all for coming. If you are curious why I don’t seem too rushed, it is because we have an unknown problem at this time. It is more of a precautionary step at this point. Five hours ago we were alerted of two missing people aboard the habitat Renewal. They are Raymond Coley and Samuel Combs, both 9 years of age. Normally missing kids on habitats does not involve Firewall, but here is why were are concerned”

A message shows up in your AR. Upon opening it, you now understand the concern. Renewal was once a mining asteroid called KL-7925. During the fall, the asteroid full under attack by the TITANs and many of their workers, and family members living in the domes on the surface, were harvested or killed. Few escaped the attacks. Much like the rest of the system, the TITANs have all but vanished. Sometime after the fall a mission was sent to KL-7925 to see if all was safe, and if not, clear out any threat. During the mission, the teams only encountered TITAN machines a handful of times. Any threat has been deemed neutralized. Since much of the mining equipment was damaged, it was believed the asteroid would now be better used as a variant Cole Bubble Habitat, and has now changed names to Renewal. The has undergone a process similar to Nguyen’s Compact in which the asteroid was heated and large amounts of steam were blown through it to produce a series of interconnected bubbles between five and three hundred meters in diameter.

Giving you some time to go through the information, Dr. Cornelius begins talking again.

“Currently there are over 2,500 people living in the domed surface. Many of them are the workers, and their families, constructing new homes and businesses in the newly formed bubbles. As you can see we have two missing boys and more than 2,500 other individuals, in or on a habitat with a rather dangerous past. And, since it has been 5 hours since they were reported missing, Firewall has deemed it necessary to have this matter looked into further.”

Dr. Esterly eagerly combed through the new data with the same odd style of semi-conscious pattern recognition and ambient filtering he had been using, earlier. The obvious facts were noted, but he found himself fixating on other information. The fact that both boys were 9 years old, for example, seemed particularly interesting. Less so was the fact that both of their surnames began with a 'C', and were 5 characters long - but it would not go overlooked. He began a mental list of additional information that he would like to gather to fill out his mental picture, but that he suspected was not in Dr. Cornelius's report - their exact birthdays, for example, or the proximity of their residences. He found the doctor's explanation for the casual attitude of the meeting a little hard to reconcile with the facts, as presented. If the events described were suspected of being dangerous enough to warrant Firewall intervention, Dr. Esterly believed that time would still be important. Firewall acted after an hour, which was a reasonable amount of time, but the trail was already 5 hours cold, and Dr. Esterly felt as though he could have been making much better use of his evening if he had been informed of the facts, immediately.

He began to open up several entopic search-terminals, as he suspected most of the other agents were doing, as well, and said, "Do you have transportation or -casting to Renewal already arranged, or should we make our own preparations?" He paused for a moment, as his eyes flicked wildly around at iconography only he could see. "Speaking of preparation, I would be best put to use in a research role. There is a lot of incomplete information, here, that I would like to investigate, immediately - but before I get absorbed in that, we should delegate tasks, and insure we are not covering the same ground, when avoidable."

"Investigation? well, not really my thing but I can ask around, we know anything about these kiddies though? I mean most of my closest are cartel or gangs so if they where pint sized rebels.... oh and if we have biometrics from the missing child alert that'd be a big help. Probably addresses as well... in missing persons cases the first thing to do is establish a per'meter and pattern outwards paying attention to known hangouts and associates. Any of us actually have experience with kids, by th'by? I'm good with folks when I wanna be but my only experience with'em is being one and that's far 'nough back." Murphy finished off his little juice glass and tipped his hat to Dr. Cornelius before relaxing, it couldn't be ruled out of course but he suspected he wouldn't need heavy ordnance on this job. "Suspect I won't even have to use Mojo as an ammo carrier this time around, 'course the furry little bastard will still demand payment."

Dr. Esterly nodded, "All important details we should look into, but I trust that the local authorities have already done a lot of the 'usual' legwork for us - which is not to say they could not have overlooked something, but we may save some time if we can contact someone in law enforcement on Renewal. That reminds me, how off-the-record should we keep Firewall's interest in these events, Doctor?"

As he began initiating connections to Renewal's mesh network, Dr. Esterly joined the others in a round of questions for Dr. Cornelius. Their handler was not able to answer all of them, however (particularly some of the more unusual lines of thinking that Dr. Esterly began), so Dr. Esterly took note of the information he would have to look into himself, as time allowed. He was generally pleased with the information Dr. Cornelius was able to provide, and was eager to get elbows-deep in the mystery, as soon as transhumanly possible. The revelation that Firewall would reimburse them for expenses made the idea of quickly 'casting to Renewal all the more viable. He made a few more notes regarding contacts he might have that would be willing to pull some strings to arrange transportation, morph brokerage, and resleeving services.

"Y'know, I'm not particularly fond of admitting it but my biggest use in investigatin' might be as a bloodhound. If we can get anythin' with the kids scent on it I can atleast start trackin' from their last known location, which means we stand a better chance of findin' th'place they were grabbed which is goin to have alot more evidence. I'ld suggest we get a security AI to mine the data from on site surveillance while we actually head over ourselves. S'impossible to habe every area monitored on even something the size of a Cole buble without bein' pretty obvious, and even most military networks have blind spots but it will give us another set of data t'work from." Murphy actually looked a bit... bemused as he thought for a moment, raking his eyes across the room and shaking his head slighty. "Not saying time doesn't matter, but there is a differance between acting with haste and not lookin' before ya' leap."

Dr. C eagerly answer the teams questions as the rattle them off. Feeling confident in them, the questions he did not know the answers to he knew they would find the answers. The conversation and questions continue for sometime.

"To help you guys out a bit, I have done some reseach of my own. I was able to put together a list of possible morphs avaiable at Renewal if you were thinking of egocasting."

Each of recieve a message containing the following list of morphs from Dr. C.


"There is a small chance other morph types may be on Renewal, but I will leave that reseach up to you. I was also able to arrage physical travel to Renewal if needed. A local supplier ship will be heading to Renewal in approximently 1 hour and 38 minutes. The ship is named the Hood and owned by my good friend Attar."

Dr. Esterly quickly scanned through the included list of morphs, filtering by his own criteria, and quickly selected a couple of acceptable morphs, which sported modifications he felt would be useful for their mission. He forwarded the selection to Dr. Cornelius, in case that would speed up the process of Firewall covering the costs, but he was prepared to leverage some favors to acquire them, himself, if necessary. He then said, to the others, "I am, personally, in favor of egocasting, but I am open to being convinced, otherwise. None of my lab equipment is likely to be particularly critical, so the primary asset I will be bringing is my ego. I am willing to put my personal equipment, including this morph, on the line to defend transhumanity, as I am sure we all are, but if doing so would cause an unnecessary delay in action, I must advocate for the alternative." He paused for a moment, "... my only reservation being a predisposition to minor complications during morph acclimatization, but this is nothing I have not worked through in the past."

"Like a'said, I'm no private eye. If'ts all th'same ta ya'll I'll get there conventional and se what we can get ahold of to shore up what we don' have in terms'a electronic tampering. Think I might know a guy can get ahold of the right sort of AI... by the by Dr Cornelius, could I get a bit more o'that juice?" In his head the operative started going over his options and began throwing lines out to his network buddies in the red market and Quanxi in particular for a security AI, He also bgan checking to see if there where any people willing to do a bit of on the ground digging along the Autonomist line.

"The current travel time to Renewal is roughly 6 hours. So you would be arriving on Renewal around 8 hours from now."

Dr. C turns to Murphy while a smile of his face.

"So you really like the stuff. Of course you can have some more." Dr C. swings from branch to branch as he heads off to the kitchen.

Jonah said: "I'd much prefer the shuttle. If I have to do my thing then I'll do it much better and cheaper if I have my gear on hand. Also, tend to get a bad bout of new morph sickness. Not sure how much a few hours lead will help us anyway -- if the kids are off Phelan's then we'd do better by trying to activate resources to keep an eye on shutles arriving in the right time window. 5 hours still wouldn't get them here."

Jonah regretted the sickness deeply and was jealous of his cohort who could switch bodies on a whim. His disease, beyond it's occasional attempts to invent things that had no reason for being, spoiled a number of freewheeling, body-swapping parties as well.

He shrugged.

"If we're stuck with morphs though, this one looks pretty identical to what I've got." The space repair bouncer was a mercifully plentiful morph.

After both Murphy and Jonah express a preference for physical space-travel, Dr. Esterly adds, "The, arguably small, productivity boost of saving a few hours by egocasting diminishes proportionately as more of us express a preference for taking the shuttle. If that trend continues, I am not opposed to taking the shuttle as well, and investigating what I can during the downtime. This would reduce the arrangements that Dr. Cornelius would need to put in place, as well as the resource-drain on Firewall - it would also reduce the minimal risk of morph reacclimatization to zero. However, my cost-benefit analysis of the situation is strongly tied to the likelihood that anyone else will be requesting egocast-services. If the majority of those resources will be expended, regardless of my own decision, I would still prefer to be part of the advance team." He looked at the remaining members of the team who had not spoken up. Jack Three indicated that he would be taking the shuttle with Murphy and [/b]Jonah[/b] so Esterly turned his attention to Rebel for an indication of her own plans - although with 60% of the team committed to an 8-hour delay, he thought it was unlikely that the two of them would be able to make efficient use of their head-start, in any event.

Rebel indicated her preference, and Dr. Esterly nodded, "It is settled then, we will be taking the shuttle in approximately an hour and fifteen minutes. I suggest we make our way to the nearest backup service and take care of that, and then gather our things." He turned to Dr. Cornelius, "Is there a particular backup service you've made arrangements with, or should we simply use our usual insurance agencies, and forward the bill to Firewall?" As soon as the question left his lips, Dr. Esterly's attention was back on his entopic displays, making arrangements for his lab, and starting the "paperwork" for scheduling an emergency backup ego-scan at a nearby clinic.

Dr. C turns to the team. "I am glad to hear the team has come to a decision. I will alert Attar that he will be having passengers with him. As to not startle him too much, can you please provide me an equipment list? He is aware that some weapons will be aboard. As for you backup, there is a facility here that goes by the name of SafeLife. I have scheduled the appropriate appointments for each of you. I will provide you the needed credits to have your ego's backed up. If there is nothing else, I wish you all very safe travels and the best of luck in your task at hand. Please, alert me to any complications and unexpected problems that may emerge."

With that, you each receive a message showing the appropriate funds needed for the backup. Dr. C escorts your team to his door and gives a hand wave and a smile.

"Not to be too suspicious, if there is such a thing, but how well ya know thiss Attar? ot like I'm 'spectin' anythin' but if he's just a business relationship I'ld like ta take a look around, make sure everythin's nice and secure. Maybe one of our tech people could come with, make sure the ship is in good shape..." Murphy finished his drink and had his muse catalog and send a list of gear in his pack over to Doctor Cornelius.

"I've known Attar for several years and he has helped Firewall a few times in the past. He runs a tight ship. He is the type that might be insulted if you didn't trust his ship being secure and structurally sound. If you do plan on taken a peak, do it without him noticing. I do understand your concern though Murphy. Can never be too cautious."

"Thank you for your list Murhphy. I'll provide it to Attar."

As Jonah left the meeting as Cornelius' assignment wore down he found it hard to suppress a bubbling happiness associated with cataloguing the equipment he planned to take, idly letting his mind spin in its good humor:

handheld DC/AC analyzer, field sensor, thermite for breaching hulls, notwater, EVA sled would be good ...

In freefall down from Attar's living quarters it struck him as potent enough to say aloud: "I'm gonna need a cart." This elicited views from some of the more reserved morphs in the gravity well, but Jonah had never troubled himself overmuch with that.

Some haggling with a scum-run, triad-affiliated dimsum restaurant allowed Jonah to commandeer a handyman's cart which had been turned into a food cart in its retirement -- there was pretty minimal value in the cart itself and no one seemed too upset that Jonah planned to use it. He looked forward to restoring it to its rightful purpose as he waltzed around his flat, dodging the surprisingly affectionate insect he now shared it with, gathering tools and forwarding them in list form to Attar's non-public profile.

Time ticked away as Jonah had a backup made and settled, alone, into the same watering hole as earlier.

Ready for anything.

[I certainly hope so]

Haven't let you down yet, have I? But me too, I guess.

The time has arrived to meet up with Attar. After going through you belongings and cataloging what you may need, you pack up and start making your way to the docking port for Attar's ship. As each of you make your way through the maze of Phelan’s Recourse, some of you get curious glances as you navigate your carts through the crowds and sometime narrow passages. As the team comes together outside of port TX-412, peering out a window, one can see the hull of a courier spacecraft. The ship is a somewhat of an egg shape, with what appears to be the bridge new the smaller end. After waiting for a couple minutes the door leading from to the Hood opens. Floating in the floatway between Phelan’s Recourse and the Hood is massive gorilla, with two bouncer morph's next to him. Based on the info provided by Dr. C, you believe the gorrilla to be Attar.

In a gruff, deep voice you are greeted.

"Welcome to the Hood. Don't touch a f^@king thing and we'll have a nice fun, safe trip. Ulysses and Bob here will show you to your temporary quarters. If you need anything, you deal with them, and they come to me. Got it? Any questions?"

He glares over the team expecting no one to talk, but always preparing for at least one smart ass.

"No sir!" Jonah said suppressing a cringe.

Jonah was uncharacteristically early as excitement about the space voyage and a new ship swept him up. Though he lived in terror of the abilities the virus conferred on him, the infowar strain had opened new worlds of appreciation for all things interstellar and technical. He grudginly admitted to himself that he was insufferably happy when exploring a new piece of technology or corner of the solar system and, as both were happening now, he couldn't contain his ebullience. Even being yelled at wasn't enough to damp his spirits; he gave the cart a few deft shoves and watched it glide into the Hood.

He was even feeling bold enough to try to strike up conversation, virus be damned, "I don't suppose that's a class II fusion drive. I thought a lot of them had been decomissioned ..."

"Good. Glad we got that out of the way. Now please follow..." Attar stops midsentence and looks towards Jonah. "Ahh, so we got a smarty pants here. Well, you are correct, a lot of them have been decommissioned, and my engines do appear to be the class II's, but they are actual a modified Class II's mark 2. If you look near the cylinder core and thermal exhaust ports, you will see some of my own modifications."

It seems to Jonah that he struck a good note with Attar. Ulysses and Bob begin to roll their eyes as Attar begins to start talking more about his ship, which seems he takes quite a bit a pride in. "Bah!!! You to have no idea the fun you are missing. Alright, alright, I know we got a schedule to keep. Gentleman, follow these two unappreciative, nincompoops to your quarters and we'll get this beauty going." Turning to Jonah. "If you want to talk more about my modifications, just let Ulysses or Bob know, and they'll contact me."

As you guys begin to float your way into the ship, Bob stops Three, and quietly, yet forcefully says, "Listen here! I want no trouble from you. Not sure why you kept starring at me, but you are freaking me out. If you keep it up, I'll have Attar shove you out a skronking airlock!"

The five of you are all escorted to very small quarters consisting of a small cot and a desk, each modified to be used in zero-g environment. A short while later, the Hood shoves off for the trip to Renewal.

The trip is very mildly entertaining as you gaze at Saturn's rings, or listen to Attar and Jonah chat about space life and spacecrafts, as well as participating in the conversation. About 5 hours and 3 minutes into the trip, an encrypted message marked URGENT pops up.

[Incoming Message. Source: Dr. Cornelius]
[Public Key Decryption Complete]
We have another 5 individuals gone missing. They appear to be part of the work crew that is terraforming some of the tunnels in Renewal for new habitation. Their names are Pete Patroclus, Sepi Stig, Blaise Abimbola, Anton Glauco and Herleifr Demetrius. Sorry, I do not have any more information beyond that at this time. - Dr. Cornelius

Dr. Esterly filed the urgent report from Dr. Cornelious away, exchanging a nervous look with the other Firewall agents, but otherwise remaining silent. He found himself wishing he had gone with his original instinct and egocast to Renewal - firewall budget, or not - but he and his team were now committed to their choice of travel. There was little they could do for the people of renewal until they arrived, in approximately an hour. His mind seemed to leap, unbidden, at the statistical implications of the new data. The number of missing transhumans had risen 250% in the 23,529 seconds (give or take) since they were informed of the two missing boys. Their estimated arrival time remained in the 3600-range. He arrived at some quick numbers for the number of transhumans he would expect to go missing between now and then, but his calculations were based on many uncertain constants. On one hand, he wished Dr. Cornelius had been more precise in his report - there were significant unknown factors preventing him from modeling the curve of abductions accurately. On the other, the gaps in information made the problem interesting, and gave him enough uncertainty to keep his mind busy. As the seconds remaining in their trip ticked by, he continued to toy with the complex probabilistic calculations the way a nervous child might manipulate a familiar transitional object.

Stress was not something that anyone in his condition handled very well, but the comforting mathematical exercises seemed to help him settle into place before the launch.

As Three checked out the bouncers and the one named Bob threatens him, Three is distracted and leans on the emergency decouple control for the airlock... with Murphy still in it. Bulkheads slam shut on either end of the umbilical accessway which begins to detach from it's docking port, rapidly venting it's contents.

Three stares out a window in disbelief as the fury morph tumbles end over end into the void. Murphy, desperately assuming the vacuum survival position, hopelessly floats back towards Phelan's Recourse.

Stay on target, stay on target...

He also transmitted, Have fun in a galaxy far, far away!

Three then turns back to the others on board to find only the other sentinels seem to have noticed his... accident.

"I guess he had to be somewhere else," he says nonchalantly and strides past them to his quarters.

Now how about someone hurries things up a bit here? We've been on this boat for a month now.
What are you talking about? We've only just boarded.

Three accesses the Hood's mesh and looks out the rear camera as Murphy collides with a distant hab module with a solid CLANG that Three could practically feel, even with several hundred meters of vacuum between them.
I could make a sport out of this...

At this point, Three is disturbed from his reverie as [SOMEONE] enters the room. [OOC: That means one of the other sentinels, you lot.]

Dr. Esterly stared in stunned silence as Agent Three casually walked off after spacing a fellow another, and then making light of the situation. He regained his composure and exchanged worried looks with the rest of the team.

[... supposition that your sanity is no longer suspect?] Lexi mused in his head.

[I'm sure it isn't anyone's primary concern, anymore.]

Despite being upset by the loss of Jackson Murphy, Esterly was not particularly worried about his fate. Even if the void got him, Murphy had just had a backup made and would lose - at most - an hour or two. What concerned him was that if Murphy didn't proceed to egocast to Renewal (and Doctor Esterly wouldn't blame him in the least for opting out, and filing a negative report on the Eye), the team would be down a member for the remainder of the mission. His displeasure with the situation was entirely tactical. What happened was probably an accident, but it weakened the team and their odds of success if things got violent, and Three didn't seem to mind or even to recognize that what he had done could be considered sabotage.

That blatant disregard for reputation was dangerous and Doctor Esterly made a mental note to keep his distance from Three in the future.

Three glances to the doorway as Attar comes floating towards his. He unleashed a tirade laced with profanity about Three’s accident and the sudden departure of Murphy. “…For the rest of the trip, stay in you room and don’t touch another skronking thing!”

During the flight, Jack receives a message from Dr.C.

[Incoming Message. Source: Dr. Cornelius]
[Public Key Decryption Complete]
I understand you had a slight accident while departing from Phalen’s Recourse. I hope I did not choose wrong in my team members. Accidents like this could have harsh consequences for you, and other teams you may work with. Please, do not let something like this happen again. - Dr. Cornelius

….


The trip is very mildly entertaining as you gaze at Saturn's rings, or listen to Attar and Jonah chat about space life and spacecrafts, as well as participating in the conversation. About 5 hours and 3 minutes into the trip, an encrypted message marked URGENT pops up.

[Incoming Message. Source: Dr. Cornelius]
[Public Key Decryption Complete]
We have another 5 individuals gone missing. They appear to be part of the work crew that is terraforming some of the tunnels in Renewal for new habitation. Their names are Pete Patroclus, Sepi Stig, Blaise Abimbola, Anton Glauco and Herleifr Demetrius. Sorry, I do not have any more information beyond that at this time. - Dr. Cornelius

….

Over the internal com system, Attar alerts the crew that they are approaching Renewal.

Five hours in, the shock of earlier events had abated, somewhat, and it was Dr. Cornelius's message that brought Dr. Esterly's attention back to that subject. He would have expected to hear something from Agent Murphy's resleeved backup, by now. No news probably meant that Murphy had no intention of completing the mission. Not unexpected, but unappreciated, nonetheless. Dr. Esterly accidentally interrupted one of Attar's stories when he stood to leave, unexpectedly. He smiled and inclined his head toward their quarters. "I'm gonna go see how Three is holding up." He glanced at Agent Mudlark, expecting her to volunteer her expertise in the area of mental instability, but when she made no such offer, he took a few steps towards the door, which opened automatically at his presence. After a slight pause, he turned back towards the room and added. "If I don't come back before we land... somebody inform Doctor Cornelius, and have him cast my backup over for damage control."

Your approach is safe and smooth. From a window, the team sees an asteroid approximately 12 x 5 x 5 (in kilometers). Amongst the peaks and valleys of the asteroids’ surface, a beautiful dome city stands out as a beacon. The dome appears to be 3 kilometers at its peak, and 5 kilometers diameter. Out of the peak of the dome a tall spire rises (2 kilometers from the peak of the dome).

The Hood coast in near the top half of the dome’s spire where various landing platforms or docking hookups are located. Once landed, a docking tube is connected to the Hood’s hatch.

Attar gets on the intercom and speaks to those in the room, and those of who are in their rooms. “We are here. Get you stuff together and head on out. Three…stay in your skronking, we will escort you out.” The intercom clicks off. Attar speaks with Jonah before heading out. “If s#!t hits the fan here, I’ll be here for a couple hours.”

Upon getting your stuff together each of you make your way to the hatch. A minute later the team sees Attar, Ulysses, and Bob escorting Three to the airlock.

“Alright, don’t touch a damn thing Three.”

Once you float through the airlock, you come into a with an elevator door.

Double post.

As Dr. Esterly enters Three's assigned quarters, he pre-empts any comment he intends to make with a nonsense sentence, making references to events from the other side of the fourth wall.

"Now, I know what you're thinking, I made a booboo. But it's not my fault he decided to go play Star Wars instead! And that roll was awful. You have to admit it was pretty funny though. I thought we'd end up with this cool rivalry thing that ended up with us being enemies before reconciling and becoming best friends or lovers or something."


[OOC: The implication here is that I (Jon) am posting in this thread describing Three's actions while he posts as me in the OOC Thread. That wall is coming down]