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Post by Ilana Logan on Nov 27, 2020 4:23:41 GMT -5
May 17th, 2518
<Immediately following Young and Hungry>
Ilana headed to the cargo bay, mind racing as to what they might find in the cargo with Rina's scan tool. There was no telling to be honest, but the kid was sure as hell convinced they'd kill us all if we found out what was in it. "Son of a bitch," she muttered under her breath. "Why can't things ever be smooth?"
She stopped on the way to get her pistols. She wasn't sure whether she'd need them, but she wanted the comfort of them anyway. She hadn't thought she'd need them in the galley either, but the kid being there proved her wrong. She'd assumed that she was safe in the black on her own ship. With everything she'd been through, she should have known better than to assume she was safe anywhere.
She deposited Reggie in his cage for his own safety and continued on. She shook herself as she arrived in the cargo bay, sans Reggie. His weight in her pocket was often calming, but she didn't want to put him in any more danger than she had to.
She stood in front of the cargo staring while she waited for the others to arrive. Despite her racing thoughts, she couldn't fathom what could be in the crate that was so damned important. What're these men willing to kill for? She thought to herself.
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Post by Marina Kseniya Sebastien on Dec 17, 2020 14:54:48 GMT -5
Rina took Tyler by the hand and detoured aft for the machine shop. "Machine shop" was a glorified name for the portion of the cargo bay mezzanine where a lathe, a work bench, and some tool lockers sat. Rina pulled her scanner from a lockbox and retraced her route to the stairs down. She talked to Tyler as they went.
"See this? This scanner will let us look inside the cargo without opening it. Watch your step, the stairs are a little steep."
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Post by Helios Hamilton on Dec 21, 2020 21:37:05 GMT -5
Helios walked to his room, grabbed his rifle and slung it over his shoulder. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey and took a large swig, and slumped on the bed for a moment, he didn't want to find what was in the box, he just wanted to get paid, but the others are nosy. He took a final swig before putting it into his inner pocket, Helios stood up and walked to the cargo bay, Ilana, Rina, and the little shit were already in here, so he waited for everybody else to get in there.
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Post by Marina Kseniya Sebastien on Dec 21, 2020 22:13:50 GMT -5
Rina looked askance at the rifle on Helios's shoulder but berating him for it was NOT the hill she wanted to die on. Instead, she fiddled with the controls on her scanner, setting the depth of field to get the clearest scan of the cargo contents.
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Post by Jay Fuller on Dec 23, 2020 22:16:22 GMT -5
Jay silently followed the group downstairs. Everyone split off to their own bunks for a moment, while Jay waited in the hall. He didn't want to be the first downstairs, that was a job for the captain not the medic. He leaned up against the doorjamb of his own bunk, idly pulling out his pistol to make sure it was loaded. It was, he didn't expect it not to be, but doing something with his hands helped quell the anxiety. Or, at the very least, helped him pretend.
Finally, people emerged and wandered down to the cargo. As everyone sans Rina and Tyler gathered around the boxes, Jay clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "So what do we think is inside?" he asked, feigning amusement, "Something incriminating? Something illegal, like drugs? Or maybe it's another person? Or an alien!" Maybe he was a little amused with himself.
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Post by Marina Kseniya Sebastien on Dec 23, 2020 22:28:34 GMT -5
On overhearing Jay's speculations, Rina's lips pressed into a thin silent line, but her raised eyebrow spoke volumes. A moment later, it knit into a frown.
"Captain," she said very quietly, looking up from her scanner display and moving to Ilana's side. "Tell me you're seeing this."
Rina tilted the device so that only her captain could see the display. On the screen lay something that looked--looked--like a person, with knees pulled up and lying on his or her side.
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Post by Ilana Logan on Dec 24, 2020 17:03:49 GMT -5
Rina came into the cargo bay, followed not far by Helios. Rina cast a somewhat judgmental look at Helios openly carrying his rifle. Ilana shrugged. She'd asked everyone to grab their weapons. There was no telling yet what was in the box, and she didn't much like the idea of being surprised by gunfire while unarmed. Rina fiddled with her scanner, while Ilana shifted beside her, feeling somewhat awkward being the one just standing here.
Jay entered quietly and Ilana cast a glance at him. "So what do we think is inside?" he asked, feigning amusement, "Something incriminating? Something illegal, like drugs? Or maybe it's another person? Or an alien!" Ilana grinned at him, glad he could lighten the mood a little. Rina's frown clearly said she didn't share Ilana's sentiment regarding Jay's levity.
"Captain," she said very quietly, looking up from her scanner display and moving to Ilana. "Tell me you're seeing this."
Rina tilted the device so that only Ilana could see the display. On the screen lay something that looked--looked--like a person, with knees pulled up and lying on his or her side.
Ilana's stomach dropped. She used one hand to move the tool around somewhat while Rina held it, to view a little more of the area. It wasn't just one. There were many, and they were small. Real small. "Tzao Gao. There's at least 20 of them.," Ilana whispered. Louder, she said, "It's kids. We're carrying a crate full of kids."
tzao gao - "messy cake" often used to express surprise or upset
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Post by Ivy Evans on Dec 24, 2020 18:59:07 GMT -5
Ivy wandered the ship, peeking into rooms in search of the others. She wasn't exactly lonely, but she was pretty bored. Riding on a ship with a bunch of strangers was nothing like the road trips she had taken in her early teens, she had decided. She paused right before entering the cargo bay, hearing voices from inside. Ivy put her ear against the door and strained her ears for what they were saying.
"It's kids. We're carrying a crate full of kids," she heard Ilana say. Ivy froze, resting her back against the wall and bringing a hand up to cover her mouth while her stomach twisted uncomfortably at the information. She debated on going back to her room and pretending she never heard anything, but her curiosity overtook her. She walked through the door and quietly took her place alongside the crew, shooting Helios a wary glance.
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Post by Jace Cisco on Jan 6, 2021 21:09:28 GMT -5
Jace had moved through the upper deck slowly trudging through to the cargo hold. He hated the feeling of anxiety. He had to remember to ask Helios if he had anything good to take the edge off once they were done with this gorram nightmare. Jace had decided to go a little faster than the rest of the crew as he couldn't stand the sniveling of the kid anymore. He rarely tolerated outburst of emotions let alone from a child that seemed to be racked with fear. He nervously fiddled with his knives he carried on him as the weight of his pistol seem to grow more. Shaking his head, he knew it would be almost foolish to fire inside a ship in the black.
He stopped his internal monologue as the crew began to fall into the cargo bay. He settled in the corner so he could observe the action and hopefully avoid any questions. Rina fiddled a bit, but he waited to see what was occurring. The crate was being scanned when Rina spoke up followed by Ilana exclaiming about kids.
"Gorram!" Jace screamed abruptly.
"We are smuggling children," Jace said seethingly, "Do you realize how many purple bellies we will have all over us if we are discovered."
Jace gripping the hilt of his knife knuckles turning white from his grip. His eyes scanning the crew to gauge their reaction.
"Captain, we can't sit on this. What do we do?"
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Post by Marina Kseniya Sebastien on Jan 6, 2021 23:09:37 GMT -5
At Jace's scream, Rina quickly put herself in front of Tyler, shielding the kid from seeing the knife. There was no telling how Tyler would interpret Jace's actions but she figured right now, he looked damned scary and ready to kill someone with that knife.
"Put it away, Jace," she said in a voice pitched to carry, yet icy calm. "The cargo isn't going to jump you. Put it away."
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Post by Helios Hamilton on Jan 16, 2021 22:36:30 GMT -5
Helios stood against the against the wall as Rina scanned it, then they started shouting about kids in the crate, they all started freaking with Ivy shooting me a look. Helios felt sick what kind of sickos put kids in a crate, Helios punched the wall in a rage, "What the actual fuck!" Helios screamed as he walked back over to the rest of them.
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Post by Marina Kseniya Sebastien on Jan 17, 2021 0:56:43 GMT -5
"Everyone," Rina said loud enough for all to hear. "Get a grip and shut up. Captain needs quiet to think."
Rina put her arm around Tyler and hugged him reassuringly.
"The grownup are a little upset, Tyler, but none of this is your fault. C'mon. Let's sit over here for a bit while everyone else cools down." She led them both to a crate--one of their own, canned goods they couldn't fit in the galley--and sat. She smoothed the boy's hair back from his face and asked, "How old are you, Tyler? Do you have family? Brothers or sisters? I've got four brothers but I'm the only one out in space. My brothers were too scared to go. I think you're very brave, especially now."
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Post by Jay Fuller on Feb 4, 2021 23:58:06 GMT -5
Jay’s smile quickly faded when he saw Ilana’s expression grow grim. He immediately felt his blood run cold – whatever had her looking like that was definitely going to be a problem.
"Tzao Gao. There's at least 20 of them.," Ilana whispered. Louder, she said, "It's kids. We're carrying a crate full of kids."
At that, the rest of him went cold too. He stared in horror at the crates in front of them. His mind began racing with the possibilities, from slave orphans to sex trafficking, and right around into potentially criminal children? No, that wouldn’t make sense.
He nearly jumped out of his shoes when Jace started screaming. “Shéng shî, gāisî de!” Jay muttered, instinctively shooting Jace dirty look. Then Helios started to yell and punch the wall, prompting Jay to jump yet again and snap, “Jesus Christ, people!”
Rina snapped at everyone and ushered Tyler away to comfort him. Jay had to resist the urge roll his eyes, finding her coddling useless. He understood the notion, though, he just hated being coddled when he was a child – he could always tell when his parents tried to comfort him to skirt around the issue of having to explain bad things to a child, he hoped that Tyler wasn’t as perceptive. He folded his arms and refocused his attention back to Ilana once everyone had quieted down for a few moments.
“So…” he sighed, “Our cargo is over a dozen unconscious children that we didn’t know about.” His eyes scanned from container to container, mind racing and wondering how many were in each, if they knew why they were being transported or even they even were all alive. “Should we wake them up? See if they know what’s going on, take them somewhere safe?”
His suspicions told him that there were some on his crew that wouldn’t be keen to help the kids out – all Jace seemed to care about was skirting the authorities, who knew what was going on in Helios’ head. At least he didn’t have the same suspicions of his captain, though he reminded himself not to focus on what might happen.
---
Shéng shî, gāisî de! = Holy shit, god damnit!
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Post by Ilana Logan on Apr 5, 2021 1:31:34 GMT -5
"Gorram!" Jace shouted, startling Ilana slightly.
"We are smuggling children," Jace said seethingly, "Do you realize how many purple bellies we will have all over us if we are discovered.. Captain, we can't sit on this. What do we do?"
"Excellent observation. I hadn't thought of that," Ilana said dryly. "Yes, I'm well aware of the implications."
"Put it away, Jace," Rina said. "The cargo isn't going to jump you. Put it away."
"What the actual fuck!" Helios screamed, Ilana raising a brow at him.
“Jesus Christ, people!” Jay shouted.
Ilana was growing increasingly anxious between the cargo hold full of probably kidnapped children and the crew losing their gorram minds. She took in a breath to shout, but Rina cut her off before she got started. "Everyone," Rina said loud enough for all to hear. "Get a grip and shut up. Captain needs quiet to think."
Ilana shot her a grateful look and she put her arm around Tyler and hugged him close "The grownup are a little upset, Tyler, but none of this is your fault. C'mon. Let's sit over here for a bit while everyone else cools down." She led them both to a crate--one of their own, canned goods they couldn't fit in the galley--and sat. She smoothed the boy's hair back from his face and asked, "How old are you, Tyler? Do you have family? Brothers or sisters? I've got four brothers but I'm the only one out in space. My brothers were too scared to go. I think you're very brave, especially now."
“So…” Jay sighed, “Our cargo is over a dozen unconscious children that we didn’t know about. Should we wake them up? See if they know what’s going on, take them somewhere safe?”
"First thing, we need to check the crates for traps and explosives, triggers, tracking devices, anything really before we do anything else. If they're clean, we're gonna open them and get the kids out. After we get them out, we will find out what we can to figure out what to do. There are a lot of reasons someone might wanna smuggle kids. Only one comes to mind that isn't a bad thing," Ilana said. "Either way, we're about a week from nowhere. They're gonna need somewhere to sleep. It'd be a good idea to turn the other cargo bay into a makeshift bunkhouse."
"Rina!" Ilana called to her. "Need you to scan this thing again so we can figure out how to get these kids out."
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Post by Helios Hamilton on Apr 5, 2021 5:52:04 GMT -5
Rina told everyone to get a grip and shut up, Jay was wondering whether or not to wake, and the captain wanted to check the crate for traps and open it.
"Wait a goddamn minute you want to open the damn crate, there are kids in that crate, if we get busted with all these damn kids we're fucked." Helios said pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one up and taking a drag to try to ease his nerve. His other hand had moved closer to one if his revolvers in all the tension, the decision to open the crate seemed like a really stupid idea.
"I think we should really think this through, we don't know why those kids are in their, because normally this shit doesn't happen so we should really think this through, and you," He snapped staring at Ivy as he took another drag, "would you quite looking at me like that." He didn't fully mean to snap at her but with what just happened he really didn't want her looking at him like he stuffed them in there his damn self.
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Post by Marina Kseniya Sebastien on Apr 6, 2021 23:48:04 GMT -5
Rina looked up at Ilana's call.
Here we go.
"Sit tight, Tyler. I have to scan the crates to see how we can help the others." She gave the boy a hug and smoothed his hair back; the way it kept falling into his eyes reminded her of her youngest brother, someone she hadn't seen in over a decade now.
Woolgather later. Work now. Those crates are waiting.
Rina calibrated her scanner a hair and ran it over the crates. She kept a keen eye out for anything that looked like a booby trap, a self-destruct, or any otehr means of causing harm--the last thing she wanted was to kill anyone while trying to save them. She spoke softly as she worked, trusting Ilana would hear her.
"They'll need to be fed. We'll need to check them over in med bay, make sure they're healthy and if they're not, recitify any medical issues if we can. As for any mental or emotional issues ... Do we have anyone capable of helping these kids deal with what might be traumatic experience? We don't have enough information on who they are and where they're going or how they've been treated, what they've gone through, so we'll have to ask them. Also, we'll need to figure out where we can take these kids. Somewhere safe, someone trustworthy. Who do we know? Does anyone have what they'll need? I know it's a lot of details to juggle but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention them. I just don't want to make a bad situation worse by missing anything important."
[TAG: ILANA]
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Post by Jace Cisco on Apr 11, 2021 19:31:36 GMT -5
Jace growled lightly at Rina's command to put it away.
"I haven't pulled it, yet." Jace muttered
Hearing Helious objecting to checking the boxes, and even releasing whatever hell is inside the crates. Jace couldn't help but nod in agreement.
"Can we stop for a minute and getting ourselves into so many gorram wei xan situations!" Jace spoke directly to Ilana. "Captain, we can't be sticking our nose into anyone's business that is why we have our fine purple bellies, for them to meddle in everyone's illegal activities. To hell for the unfortunate expansion of footpads, cannon fodder, or the doxy enterprise we shipping this off. Either drop it in the black before the feds find us, or we need to hard burn our pigu there to get paid and fly again."
Jace's argument was losing traction going quiet and closing his eyes in solemn defeat knowing he didn't even believe fully in what he said leaning against the wall his hand fidgeting with the pommel of his knife to calm him, he didn't fancy kids being left to the hands of whatever syndicate was behind this, but it was also not in his nature to put himself in danger for someone or a group that didn't benefit or help him survive further. This crew was the one thing he had held onto the longest since his time as a browncoat, and even then he went in and out of squads due to his previous injuries in service. Even this crew had lost people since he came aboard. Only Jay and Ilana remained from the original be it death or breaking free from the life of crime, or the local hero depending which role they played.
Shrugging and coming to his decision.
"Whatever the crew decides I will back, but I strongly agree with Helios and I never expected to say those words." Jace said calmly his façade trying to hide the actual fear that gripped him. The Alliance despised smugglers, and private sector for travel, but those were small time crimes or tickets depending on the case. Human trafficking was much more penalized and could end anyone's life. Not to mention the supplies that would be sacrificed in this trip could potentially put us in debt further than we could recover for months.
pigu - ass
wei xan - dangerous
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Post by Jay Fuller on Jun 21, 2021 15:21:31 GMT -5
Barely before Ilana had issued instructions, Helios began to argue. He immediately pulled out a cigarette and began smoking.
“I don’t think their state of consciousness is going to determine how fucked we are – we get caught with kidnapped kids, it’s not gonna matter.” Jay said, eyeing Helios.
Rina hugged Tyler again, and Jay turned his focus away from her. Again with the coddling. He folded his arms, and leaned on one leg, staring down at the crates contemplatively. She began speaking, mostly to Ilana, and asked who would deal with the kids if they woke.
Jay raised his hand, “I did a couple stints of psychology in my degree, and had to provide some counseling. I haven’t worked with kids directly, but I could talk to them.” He wasn’t sure if the therapy training he had almost ten years ago would still be applicable, but quite frankly he wouldn’t trust anyone else on the crew with being sensitive to traumatized children, except maybe Rina.
Jace spoke up, causing Jay to immediately tense and turn to him, but once he saw Jace clearly not believing his own words, Jay calmed and decided against speaking up. He looked towards Ilana for a response.
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