[ic] Tales of the Smoking Blaster's Ships Lounge

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Anyway," Louw said, wanting to change the topic from the cargo they had to the cargo they didn't, "While several crates of PlayBeing are nice enough, I'm looking at our cargo hold and it's looking kind of empty."

"I've been on a range of ships, from bulk haulers to YT-1760s. We've got a good size hold here - big enough that we might even turn a profit if were were hauling food on the Outer Rim - and I'm not talking the Seswenna Sector kind of Outer Rim. I mean the Outer Rim - Outer Rim! Think: places like the Rseik or Sarnix Sector; places that are so backwards the Gundarks bark with their butts."

"What I'm meaning to say is: we've got capacity, we should use it! I know we won't be able to buy much in the way of low-value-added in Eriadu, but Bortras is pretty close. I'm sure we can pick up foodstuffs there at a reasonable price, and haul 'em someplace where they'll have a hard time growing it themselves. We could ship it to Bespin, for example."

[Jedi Skyler]

"Good point," Jeaubert added. "We might also simply pick up a contract or two if someone is in a bind and needs another ship to make their schedule work. Also...we could possibly discreetly advertise available slicing services. This ship is a perfect mobile base. If we spend time at port, I can do some jobs that will bring in extra creds. Plus I have been working on my abilities at creating top grade personal IDs. If things are tight enough, there is always someone needing that kind of work.

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Yeah, we may have to do that," Louw agreed, "'cuz I don't know if we'll get enough for that flippin' porn to fill that hold with a real cargo."

"Now, if we can maybe pick up some passengers on Eriadu to take to Bortras. It's a ten-hour haul, but I imagine we can tap into some people-traffic, if we can undercut the starliners."

[Jedi Skyler]

"Oh, I'm sure we can," Jeauert says enthusiastically. "Even if we can't beat 'em in pricing, we can beat 'em in duration. Since we are no passenger liner, we won't have to make all the stops they would. The extra creds will be worth the time saved."

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"And, actually, the hyperdrive on this bucket ain't half bad," Louw added.

"Though let's not get it into our heads to start doing that on a regular basis. Passengers are a pain in the rump. I'd rather become a slaver at that rate - better profits and you can slap your cargo if it gives you grief."

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert chuckles. "Wellllllll..." he says thoughtfully, "I suppose we could rig their cabins with knockout gas, or serve them a nice chilled, drugged drink. Knock 'em out, no muss, no fuss, and no griping for the duration of the trip. They'll just think they fell asleep, and we won't have to put up with any unnecessary yammering from our fares..." He watches Louw to get his reaction.

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Sure," Louw said, shrugging unperturbed, "as long as I'm not in charge of customer relations after the fact."

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert laughs out loud. "Isn't that why we have a silver-tongued captain?"

[Mikael Hasselstein]

During the several days of lightspeed travel, the other crew and passengers could find Louw at times messing with one of the autochef units, as he hoped to 'fix' it, in order to serve more palatable food.  [Space Transports Repair ? ] There was probably little to be done with the device, as it was probably not actually malfunctioning, but simply the lowest-cost unit on the market of a decade (or more) prior to the present date. Nevertheless, it gave Louw a chance to spend his copious time, while also an occasion to grumble about the Blaster's inadequate features. The grumbling would increase in volume whenever Gen was observed to be within earshot.

When he was not fiddling with the autochef, Louw would casually observe Jeaubert's training exercises. While doing so, there was generally a bit of disdain in the Duro's large red eyes, except when the young Anomid did something correctly that was observable to the layman's eyes.

Eira would be treated as courteously as the Duro was wont to do (which was not particularly courteous by most other beings' standards), and he remained wholly oblivious of her sense of betrayal.

Gen would be subjected to Louw's standard set of complaints, which had probably become akin to the background noise of the ship's engines for the Sullustan, given that it was constant and unceasing.

Louw took no interest in the cargo.

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert, in between training sessions with Jax, slips into the galley to help Louw try and improve the autochef. Jeaubert concentrates on the system's computerized components, looking for ways to make them work more efficiently, and seeing if he can program the machine to provide a wider array of food. He looks on the HoloNet for programs and recipes he can upload to accomplish this.

((Concentration, then Computer Programming/Repair))

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Don't  you have some mumbo-jumbo Force-worship what-not to go study?" Louw objects, when Jeaubert started to interfere with his project.

"Can't an old spacer have a moment alone with an autochef when he's trying to pass the time peacefully at lightspeed?" he asked rhetorically.

"Look, kid, I don't need you to hold my hand like I'm some oxygenarian who can't step into a mag-tube pod unassisted. Why don't you go... play computer games, or wax off in the ventral gun turret pod. I think Gen still has an extra PlayBeing or two stashed someplace."

[Lady Shatterstone]

Eira was wondering the ship when she heard voices coming from the lounge.  Peeking around the corner she saw Louw and Jeaubert fiddling with the autochef.  "You two remind me of siblings"  She commented with a cheeky smile as she leaned against the opening to the lounge.

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Please," Louw scoffed, "I'm three times this welp's age."

"Yours too, probably."

He tried to ignore the young'uns as he grasped around for the hydrospanner to take off the nutrient receptacle from the combination manifold... *Or is that the flavoring alternator?* he wondered to himself.

[Lady Shatterstone]

Eira chuckled openly, "Would you prefer I got with a comment about you being a grumpy Uncle?"  she commented playful, fully expecting the Duro to turn and give her a dirty look or the alien equivalent of 'flipping her the bird'

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Louw muttered a bit as he was reaching into the autochef unit to get the hydrospanner in the right place. He realized that Eira had made a comeback, but he wanted to make her wait.

"I certainly would have," he finally replied, "though my sister ain't so ugly as to spawn something like him."

Louw got the spanner in the right place and engaged its motivator.

"That's not to say he don't behave like my grandnephews, though. When I visit homeworld, they do nothing but go on about the latest playdroid or HoloVid...."

He removed the combination manifold/flavoring alternator and set it on the deck beside where he was working. A clinical hygenist would have had an aneurism to watch his careless treatment of the parts that handled the crew's food.

He looked up at Jeaubert, but continued speaking to Eira.

"Take this one, for example. He's all happy and giddy to get this whole ship operating from the things he wears on his wrist. He slave-circuits the entire ship to work off of something that anyone who captures him or them can use to steal our whole livelihood."

"'Why in the far reaches of The Roil would he do that?' you ask - well, because it's neato and might be convenient."

"That's just like my grandnephews. One time when I was home for a visit, one of them got hold of my charts datapad. Yeah, my astrogation charts datapad! Now I've been storing the data compiled from all the trips I ever did plot on this datapad, so as to look for the stuff the Space Ministry don't tell you about - you know, so as to find faster ways to get from aurek to thesh. So what does this prepubescent pipsqueak do?"

Louw then addressed Jeaubert - "I mean the grandnephew."

"He loads his TIE-Fighter simulator game onto my datapad. 'Oh, what's all this?' he thinks, looking at my data. 'I don't know. I think I'll wipe it!'"

"So there I am, left holding the pad with no data and a program that an Imperial Customs agent is going to have a field day with."

Louw yanked the nutrient receptacle out of the autochef.

"Yeah, 'grumpy uncle' is a better description. I'll stick with that."