Who: Serenity crew; anyone moderating the Wave channels Where: Serenity's Bridge When: May 9th, early morning before 6AM. Why: Because the message wasn't coded or locked. Rating?: PG Status: Incomplete
burnthelandmods Serenity would be in the Burnham Quadrant about nine that evening to carry out the job Badger had been so concerned with. Considering being so close, anyone keeping an eye on the cortex channels would see many passing messages but one that may look to some interest would be the following one. What makes it interesting, besides the mention of the Burnham Quadrant is the coordinates the man gives, are only off slightly from those Serenity was heading to.
A message went out. An rough-looking old man with ice blue eyes and a white moustache was sitting in what looked like a captain's chair. He had a bloody nose and dry, coagulated blood hardened on his face that came from his mouth. Sitting behind him was a man with white hair, wearing all black and covered from the chest down with a black trenchcoat covered in blood. The man was fading in and out of consciousness, but even in that grim condition, he looked inhumanly cold-hearted. In the adjacent seat was another man who was bloody as well. He was covered in a blanket from the neck down. He was fading in and out of consciousness. The old man began to speak.
"If this message reaches Captain Emerald Storm of the good ship Lorrayna Phoenix while in the Burnham Quadrant, please reply."
"I am Vladmir Sentinus of the Remington-6 Mining Company. The man on the right is a man by the name of Joey Wheeler and the man on the left is Gregorio Sentinus. I am speaking with communications systems of the "Steel Hydra", aboard the salvage ship Silver Shadow. We are the only survivors of a raid on the cargo vessel we were traveling on. I am the best heavy weapon specialist anywhere across the rim and one of the best pilots anywhere in the 'Verse. My son is a supremely-skilled pilot and a good medic among his other skills. Mr. Wheeler never told me his skills, but to me his life is worth a thousand platinum. I will pay your captain three thousand platinum for our safe retrieval and another thousand for the storage of my ship. It is relatively small and should easily fit on a Firefly even if you have a lot of cargo. In addition, I offer my own cargo of morphine and pain medicine as well as Gregorio's last 5 bottles of rum and my last 8 bottles of whiskey. Captain Storm, our lives are in your hands...
The old man then gave the coordinates needed to find him and the two men he was trying desperately to keep alive. He then said "By the unwritten code of maritime impressment, if you help us I will offer my services to you and your crew"
autumnflower Zoe had spent almost her whole life drifting somewhere in the black and normal hours of consciousness (and only ever semi-unconsciousness in her case) never quite seemed to apply. This morning was little different, slightly sleepy-eyed as she had just gotten out of bed and headed straight up to the cockpit rather than back down in the direction of the kitchen.
It'd be a gorram cold day in hell, if it actually existed, before anyone was going to catch her cooking again.
She smiled a bit fondly at the dinosaurs sitting on the console, wondering a bit why he hadn't tried to secure one of the wobbly-headed geisha dolls to put up there as well. Her silent thinking was interrupted by the message coming through. It wasn't requesting Serenity specifically, but the coordinates caught Zoe's attention. The coin and supplies they were offering as well was making the whole thing sound rather shiny. They could likely still make it to the ship and grab the artifact before anyone was any the wiser. Quarters were getting tight as it was with passengers, but she was one to still follow "leave no man behind".
Zoe pushed the button for the intercom to Mal's room, planning on at least bouncing it down to him. First things first though: making sure sure he was actually awake. "Sir?"