Who: Emm, Vladmir Where: Lorrayna Phoenix Bridge When: May 9th, during the very early morning Why: The pilot is resting Rating?: PG Status: Complete
emm Emerald had been on bridge duty all night, ever since after dinner. It wasn't that the auto-pilot or advance radar system couldn't handle things, but she was old school wanting a flight attendant keeping an eye out on the horizon at all possible moments, just in case. She had realized that she needed a new co-pilot for a while now. But it had been simply that the ship had been operating with a small crew for a long while that it honestly slipped her mind. She missed having so many people, but then again she enjoyed the small bunch more than anything. It'd be about a day until the ship reached its destination, and it felt like it had been a life time since she had the crew briefing. She finally talked business with her Security officer. Whom seemed to have everything out of her system, well at least for the moment. She was grown enough to come talk the captain about the approaching job. vladmir 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"
Vladmir said this knowing Emerald would know he was offering to help her crew as a pirate and an ally. He mentioned "Steel Hydra" so she would know him as the legendary "Steel Hydra", a pirate that was like Robin Hood from old-Earth-that-was. She would know that he was extremely powerful and was a highly accurate marksman. The name Gregorio would identify the man in black as "Black Wing" or simply "Hell Gun", a man who supposedly has assassinated eighty Alliance soldiers without ever being seen, although the Alliance has always called it a "vicious rumor that has no truth to it". Gregorio has also always said the same thing. Regardless, a lot of people across the 'Verse were terrified of him. He was said to be capable of unnatural feats of agility and was known as a supreme-grade marksman and was a truly deadly closed-quarters knife fighter. She would also know he was actually a good and kind man who used his terrifying persona as a cover so people didn't want to force his hand or hurt his children. Gregorio was a man of honor and a sap when it came to kids, and was actually working for an orphanage on Silverhold that Vladmir got started some seventy-five years ago. He was a seemingly cold and uncaring man, but Captain Storm would know that was a load of crap and that he was only deadly if provoked.
emm Emerald was nearly bored to tears; she was hoping that Gwen would be waking soon to bring her some food. The lady was a bit of a grouch when she was hungry; could get damn right whinny about it too. So to pass the time the Captain was scanning the Cortex just for random waves; she was often a bad sort of nosy person. Quit frequently she looked for encoded waves, and purposely broke them just to see what sort of secrets people were keeping. She was really sorta brilliant in the knowing how to do that. Not that many of her crew realized how truly intellectual she was. Ever once in a while she'd rewire something that would hint at it to the engineer Akira.
When she crossed the drifting wave sent by Vladmir Sentinus, she stared at the screen oddly for a moment. It was addressed to her; and the mention of the Burnham Quadrant made her fidget in her seat slightly. Emerald listened to the wave intently, with slight confession to the mans reasoning of it finding her. If he was abandoned and on the drift, especially in the Burnham Quadrant, why hadn't he let out a distress beckon? Maybe she hadn't picked it up so far, Lorrayna Phoenix was still a day away. Although her ship had top of the line scanners and Emerald could easily pick something up at her present location. Maybe he didn't want just anybody finding him, although sending the wave out meant anybody could find him anyway, especially since it wasn't coded or anything.
Emerald knew she had plentiful rumors about herself, but she wasn't sure why he was seeking her out and provoking the unwritten code of maritime impressment. She knew very few used it, or even knew of it, but still why her in the vastness of the Verse; she was rumored as a heartless bitch... Especially to those that knew for certain that she was a pirate. She had many uncertainties about the Wave, but that wouldn't change her deciding to help him; especially in provoking the code.
Emerald opened a new wave; the lag time would be at leased a few hours but maybe between herself and Akira they'd be able to find a way of it getting to the Steel Hydra sooner. "Ni How; this is Captain Storm of Lorrayna Phoenix. I came across your Wave and I am now headed in the vicinity of your drifting ship. I do request that you don't share any further information on your stats or the events leading up to your stats; for security reasons. Waves often drift to the most unlikely of people. I am still some way away from your location. But I do hope to the Burnham Quadrant sooner than I had anticipated. I have many questions prepared for you, and your fellow survivors. Your coin is plenty fair, and upon finding you I do believe we can make arrangements of the storing of your ship."
With that Emerald sent the Wave directing it to the coordinates given, and programming it with the specific coding embedded in the Steel Hydra's communication system. Each system has a code that identifies the origin, which can be hidden with the correct protocols. Emerald then proceeded to save the Wave to the computer core memory system. And then went about deleting it out of the cortex's memory. None of which would be possible if she hadn't had an extremely illegal black-box, and the appropriate skills in hacking into the system. But she easily done it, her reasoning is so that nobody else comes across the message. And since it was addressed to her she didn't see the harm in it.
vladmir The old man sent a reply. And said only "I understand."
emm Between the time it took to for her message to reach Vladmir and for her to receive his very short reply, Emerald made adjustments to the set course placing in the new coordinates which oddly weren't very far off from the original set. The captain wanted to get to him as soon as possible. She notified Dori that her services will be needed, and that the conditions of the three men are unknown for the most part. She personally went into the engine room to set Lorrayna to a full burn; it would use more fuel, but the ship had extra reserves of fuel and it would get the ship to the location it needed to be within ten hours instead of the 27 hours it still was going to take the Doranin. Wasn't any hurry before; was a certain time she needed to be at the Doranin but now she was needed sooner in the area. Emerald had this gut wrenching feeling it had something to do with the job. It was just something she couldn't shake and so she also went to meet with Monica. Emerald didn't send any return message, but he knew she was on her way.