Cakewalk

[tachyon]

S.S. Deacon Brodie, Civil Registration #SOL-JPT-1760-009
Libelle Class Modular Freighter
Omega Serpentis System

"I spy with my little eye," said the human pilot to his robot copilot in a Scottish accent, "something beggining with... 'S'."
The robot looked at him.
"Inside or outside the c0ckpit?" he asked, his accent also showing a twinge of Scotish.
"Outside."
The robot looked out the segmented sheets of transparent metal that formed the viewports of the freighters bridge. This close to the parent star of the system, he could see no other stars without augmenting the settings of the canopy sensors.
"Star?"
"No."
"Sun?"
"No."
"...Space?"
"Nope."
Now the robot was getting frustrated.
"Give up?" asked the human.
"Whatever mate."
The human leaned over the center console.
"Solar Wind."
"Oh come off it Lawry! You can't see solar wind!"
"Can to see it Dougie! On the scanners."
Dougie pointed a metal finger at his human friend,
"That doesn't count then! Scanners are inside-"
"Solar wind's outside!"
"Anything on the scanners counts as being inside you-"
"Enough."
The pair stopped bickering and froze. They heard the heavy foot falls and soft creak of leather clothing as the speaker moved behind them.
"Sorry skipper." said Lawry.
"Yeah, sorry." Dougie said also, as the pair went back to flying the ship.
"We're about an hour away now," said Lawry, desperate to break the uncomfortable silence, "we've done the customs pre-clearances and all the other paperwork. They've just got to be authorised by you."
"Already done, Lawrence." said the captain, "Douglas, anything else to report."
"No skip, lights are all green. Looks like it's going to be a clear run in." said the robot. The silence resumed.
"Alright then, I'll be conducting checks of the hold. Call me when we're about to enter... the planet's gravity well."
"Aye aye skipper." repiled the pair. When they heard the door close behind them they both let out a sigh of relief- in Dougie's case, the sound of a sigh of relief.
"Lord Allmighty, she's tense." said Dougie.
"You think mate? She couldnae even say the name of the planet."
"Aye, I know... can you blame her but?"
They both looked at the distant dot that was the gas giant Hsskuneh, around which orbited the moon that was their destination: Hsskenah.
"It can't be easy going home after all this time..."

*****************************************************************

Novaya Nadezhda
Former Soviet Research Station, Current Residence of Keiralena Latienfa
Palmer Land, Antarctic Penninsula, Earth

Kei selected a title from a long list of articles from 'Bullseye', a galactic website for mercenaries and casual adventurers.
"Huh, this one looks easy enough." she said mainly to herself, although Gordon still responded.
"Found one for the new guys then?"
"Yeah. Simple escort mission." Kei said as she got up and switched off the computer, "Just gotta ride with a cargo ship carrying museum peices from Hssketh space to another museum in their space. Quick, easy, and importantly it pays good."
"You really think that?" asked Gordon worriedly as Kei picked him up and walked towards the main elevator, "'cause in my experience these mission 'ave a bad tendency to head south on us."
"Trust me Gordy, this one's a cakewalk."

((Ok, open RP for the new guys. Kei's heading to Trem to pick up anyone waiting. First to post gets the duty of selecting the place.))

[Jakob]

Jakob sat on an old chair, in front of an old desk, with an old computer on top. The computer itself hadn't been used for years. Jakob started to wonder if it still worked.

There was no dust in the basement of his home. There existed no life, apart from Jakob. He was not human, so his skin never shed.

It took him a while to clean up the entire basement of dust. He even went so far as to make some "airlock" mechanism to keep dust out of the basement.

The reason he built that was because he was bored, and wanted something to do. KPG had been dead for years.

Jakob spinned in the chair. Then he got off again and left the basement. He checked the news on the Television quickly. Nothing had been going on. Nothing ever goes on. Anything that does results in the police taking care of it. It seemed that ever since the XJ-9 disappeared, the villains had no reason to attack.

It didn't make sense to Jakob, however. Did they want the challenge to fight XJ-9 and want to try to beat her for the glory? It was the reason that made the most sense.

Jakob shrugged to himself and turned off the television again. He walked outside to the peaceful town. The only way to find something to do is to actually go looking for something to do.

[tachyon]

"Hey, you're Jakob right?" asked a tall, furry alien (though technically she was an Argentinian citizen).
"Of course you are, I remeber you from the recruitment drive. Still feel like a bit of an adventure?"
A small object hanging from her belt, shaped like a TV remote with a webcamera on top, said, "Don't encorage her, please. Taking on trainee pilots on a daily basis is bad enough."
Kei promptly shoved Gordon into the inner pocket of her jacket.

[Jakob]

Jakob nodded. He didn't need to waste words.