Christopher Briggs stepped off of the shuttle and into the airlock of Trade Station Alpha. Its name came from the fact that it was the first space station built by humans for trade purposes. My new home. he thought, Too bad it's a piece felgrum.

True, the station was massive, with a volume of almost a cubic kilometer, but with ships docking and undocking almost once a minute, the shear number of people kept most of it from being the pristine jewel of the solar system that the tourist adverts showed. The sunward top of the station, dubbed white sector, had a massive arboretum and flower garden, shopping centers, and all manor of goods and services. The next several layers, dubbed green sector, provided the foundation for the facade of perfection, recycling everything that was used, growing all of the food for the station, and providing most of the goods and services that the thousands of crew demanded. It was also home to the power systems, storing or utilizing the energy produce by the more a square kilometer of high-efficiency solar panels that surrounded the station. The layers below that were the Bazaar, a place where trade happened between the various worlds in the solar system and with other races.

Below that, however, was the gray sector. Gray sector was where the salvage and refining took place. Chunks of asteroids and pieces of space debris would be hauled in and bid on. The winner would rent a smelter, if they didn't have one already, and would melt down the rock, hoping that it was worth what they had paid for it. The refined materials would usually work its way up to the bazaar, where it would be shipped to whoever was willing to pay the best rate for it. The rest would be put into storage, or would be sold to various businesses on the station to be made into any number of over-priced goods that the tourists just had to have. Gray sector was the lowest of the levels, in both the station's artificially created gravity well and in terms of its splendor. It was also where Christopher Briggs arrived, having booked passage on a salvage ship which brought fragments of a pirate ship in from a battle site near Earth. “Hey, you forgot something!” said one of the freighter's crew, then tossed a bag to him.

Don't want to forget that, thought Chris, It's pretty much all I have and I doubt I'll be able to replace it any time soon. “Thanks” he called, but the man was already going back to help unload the salvage. Now, to find Julius and join his crew.

He made his way up to the Bazzaar and started looking for docking bay 324, where his cousin's ship was supposed to be. While counting his way down the bays, he heard shouts coming from a local club. Well, you might as well call it that, as “drug den” didn't quite fit when virtually everything you could want could be legally purchased down here. A clearly intoxicated man came out of “Bacchus' Delight” and immediately started cursing at the passers-by. “Hey you, you spuz-sucking piece of felgrum, why are you looking at me? You wanna fight?”

It took Christopher a few seconds to recognize the man that shouted at him. “Julius?”

“Yeah, that's me, got a problemth with my name do you?”

“It's me!” replied Christopher.

“Yeah, of course you're you. Who else would you be?”

“I'm Christopher.” Julius gave him a strange look, like he didn't understand. “Your cousin?”

“Chris!” he said, when finally realized who he was talking to. “You came! Let me introduce someone to you!” he screamed something in a likely-slurred alien language, and a female Hibros walked out of the bar. Her species was mammalian, something that appeared to be between a cat and a dog, with a long nose, retractable claws, and whiskers. In fact, most carbon based sentient life (non-carbon based lifeforms rarely interacted with humans) fell into one of the classifications of life on earth, sometimes several.

“Nice to meet you,” she said in heavily accented English, “My name is Griszma.” Her body language in a human could be interpreted as a romantic overture, but with an alien, you never knew until you had dealt with them for a while.

“She's my first officer.” He wrapped his arm around her waste, pulling her closer.

“And more." She purred.

“So you two...?” Christopher left the question open, hoping that things didn't just get as weird as he thought they had.

“First rule of being a Spacer little cuz, you're not really one of us until you've bedded an alien.” He patted Christoper on the arm. “Don't worry, I've been with a member of most of the species on this station. If you want, I'll introduce you to a few of my favorites.”

Christopher reflexively took a step back. What's gotten into him? He didn't used to be like this. “No, I think I'll stick with human women for now.”

“Your loss.” Julius turned and walked towards his ship. “Come on, I'll introduce you to the rest of the crew.”

The station was the size of a small city. That was why, when it came time to leave, the three found themselves at a trolley stop. Yasha sat on the bench, sprawled out with his duffle bag sitting next to him. Isam and Omar stood by the 'trolley stop' sign, talking amongst themselves. Isam's old army bag was slung over his shoulder, and Omar's brown suitcase sat on the floor behind them. Yasha pretended not to be interested in their conversation, but he was mildly curious. Even so, it didn't matter. The two were speaking in French, and he barely knew two words of the language.

"<You didn't have to do this,>" Isam said, looking over at his partner. Omar looked back at him and smiled.
"<No, I didn't. But I wanted to. If I let you go play space cowboy by yourself, you might come back acting like Yasha.>" He chuckled. Yasha lifted his head.
"Hey! I know my name when I hear it, assholes," He grumbled aloud, his voice lightly accented. Isam and Omar looked back at him for a second before Isam began speaking again.
"<Well, I'm glad that you're coming. I know the kitchen won't be as extravagant as the one here, but I'll be able to visit you more often.>"
"<A kitchen is a kitchen,>" Omar said, "<How nice it is depends on the chef. I'll working alone, which may be a nice change. It means I can arrange it however I like. I've actually been looking forward to this, to a little adventure.>"
"<Hopefully not too much adventure.>"

"When you two are done playing Jules et Jim, the trolley's here." Yasha stood and grabbed his bag off the bench. The trolley looked like an elongated golf cart. The driver smiled at them as they climbed on.
"Where to?"
"Docking bay 324," Isam said. "Thank you."

The drive was fairly quick. There weren't many people out this time of morning, so the trolley's tracks were clear. Omar watched as the scenery drifted by: the shops, the eateries, the gardens. He wasn't going to lie, he would miss this place. Hopefully, their assignment wouldn't last too terribly long. Isam was quiet the whole way, thinking about what the future might hold for them. Yasha, about halfway through the drive, broke the silence with "Do you think they'll have any krasotka?"
Isam sighed deeply and rolled his eyes.

When they arrived, the three got off and took their bags. They got there just in time to see the captain, Yasha and Isam could recognize him from previous encounters, leading a man onto the ship.
"Hey Kirk," Yasha called out to him. "Your A team has arrived." He grinned widely. It took him about two seconds to spot the female Hibros and waggle his eyebrows at her. Isam pretended not to know him. He went up to Julius and offered him his hand. "I look forward to serving with you," He said formally. His voice held a stronger accent, Arabic, than Yasha's, but it was still comprehensible. He then motioned to Omar. "This is my partner, Omar. He was recruited as your chef."
"Nice to meet you, Captain Briggs." Omar smiled and offered his hand as well. Omar had lived in France long enough to actually develop a bit of their accent, but it wasn't quite as strong as Isam's. He couldn't help but notice the distinct smell of alcohol. Had their captain been drinking?

Deep within the bowels of Trade Station Alpha, Lug was hard at work getting piss faced drunk. Staring down his opponent, Lug lifted his tankard and chugged the swill down far faster than the thing in front of him could ever hope to do. Raising his mug high, Lug exploded in hearty laughter when he saw that his opponent chocked and spilled most of his drink onto himself. As lug continued to laugh, the alien in front of him grew angry and hostile. It was only after he stopped laughing that Lug noticed the runt was threatening him. Giving a scowl, Lug was about to teach this runt a lesson before his watch went off and signaled his time to return.

Giving a sigh, Lug said "Oi, runty fing. Zog off before I gotta go 'ard on ya." before moving towards the exit. However before he could leave a bar stool found itself connect and explode onto his back.

Turning dangerously slowly, Lug looked directly at the alien and growled "You jus' made a mistake runt."

---

It was a half an hour later and Lug was far way from the bar. Apparently the alien could dish it out but couldn't take it, sadly the bar had a new shade of color plastered on the floor... and some teeth. Unfortunately for Lug, the fight burned away most of his buzz and that put him in a foul mood. Picking some paint off his chair, Lug briefly mourned the loss of the fighting juice back on Gromm.

"Now that is a drink!" he thought to himself as the trolley or whatever stopped at his destination. Standing up, Lug left the tram behind and began to head towards the ship. As he got closer to the ship, Lug noticed that a small group had formed in front of the airlock. Upon getting closer, Lug found out that it was the crew. Stepping up to them, Lug said "Toothy grins all 'round! Lug is 'ere ha ha!" with a clap on Yasha's back before turning to the captain and saying "'Ey boss, I gotta go work on that cargo mech. Been pushin dat zoggin fing back fer days now."

Stomping onto the ship, Lug made a passive wave at the new guys and said "Welcome aboard meat!" before laughing and disappearing into the ship.

Trade Station Alpha. Humongous human trading sation, basically. He worked here on the crew's ship, and was heading back to the ship. He was out brandishing his sword, as it was getting dull, lately. He sat in the trolley as it took him back to the ship, and he saw Lug say something to what looked to be three new arrivals, and then walk into the ship. "New arrivals, eh? B'ter introduce me'self..." he thought to himself before the trolley stopped completely outside the ship. he got off and walked over to the ship, and over to the three. "Ay, an'who might ye three lades (la - dees, 'dees' being like 'bees' but with a d) be?" he asked, but then shrugged and shook his head. "Don' mater, b't all ye lades need t' know 's th't I be Tensai Murasakiiro, three years 'n countin'." his parrot squawked, and he smiled. "'S Lug said, Welcome aboard, lades!" he chuckled, and then walked past them and into the ship. He'd call them lades until they successfully survived a year at the ship, that's what he did for every new arrival.

He walked into the ship and over to his cabin, then sitting at his deck where he studied and learned. He opened up a notebook that he used to write down events and important things, and three new members definately qualified.

Kyne crawled out from the back of the cargo mech, the back casing was removed and she had several of the parts laying around her on oily rags. She had found a crack in one of the hydraulic pipes which was causing the powg the crystal housiner failures while running the machine but she was having trouble removing the crystal housing that powered the thing, it was in the way of the leaking hydraulic. Grabbing a hold of it with both hands she planted a foot on the framing and pulled with all her weight, grunting in process but she could not get the damn thing to budge.
"In'loil d'shu!" (Piece of shit!)
She growled, letting go of the part and kicking one of the mech's legs with her boot,
"Damn hume tech, stuff is so fickle."
Kyne grabbed a clean rag and wiped the grease off of her hands. She was done with this thing for now, probably just wait for Lug to come back and get him to pull it out for her, she was still mad at the ork for running off to go drinking without her, leaving the drow with all the repairs on the ship. It was a good thing she already got one of the mining lasers fixed up, what she thought was a cracked lense turned out to just be a stray rock from one of the meteorites stuck in the casing. Tossing her rag aside she walked over to the other cargobay where there was some commotion outside of the airlock, it looked like some of the crew was just getting back and Kyne heard the tell tail stomping of a certain ork as he walked up the loading ramp.
"Lug you ass, ya left me here all on my own to do all the work you shee'lot" (drunk)
She gave him a punch on the arm, not afraid of the ork since she was just as tall as him.
"I am more mad that you did not wait for me when you wandered off to the bar, I thought you were one of the smart ones."
Crossing her arms Kyne stared down the greenskin before cracking a smile,
"Glad your back though, I wanted to ask if you can finish up the mech while I run to the market quick to pick up some stuff, I found out what was wrong with it."

A small woman made her way through the ship, having just left the cockpit. Everything was looking good and they should be able to depart on schedule. "Not that anyone pays attention to it in the first place..." Izzy muttered to no one in particular. From what she could see from the monitors, the captain and a few new members had just arrived. Julius was an okay guy. Sure, he was full of himself and thought that every woman he spoke to loved him, but he wasn't hard to work for. There were others onboard that were a little less to- Someone slammed into her side, wrapping their arm around her. Speak of the devil... She looked up to see the glasses that hid the unsettling robotic eyes of their very own computer whiz.

"Izzy, my girl! You ready to meet all the newbies?" Zip gave her that cheesy grin that could only belong to him. He continued, "I personally don't think we need anyone else. We have a pretty tight knit group."

"Well maybe," Izzy spoke over him, forcing him to stop speaking for a moment, "Julius just thinks it's time we change things up a little bit... have some better company around here." She stared at him, trying to make him understand her point as she finally shook his cold metal arm off.

"Ouch. You're breaking my heart." He held his chest and stuck out his lip for a moment before giving her that same stupid grin that made her want to punch his teeth out. She opened her mouth to speak, but was soon listening to his voice once more. "Wanna see what I did to the triplets?" He extended his left arm, the small patch of metal on his forearm opening open. The three small drones exited the hatch, and hovered beside his head.

"I'll never get used to that." Izzy said in an exasperated and slightly disgusted tone. She watched as he held out his hand and his bright green drone zipped over to it and landed.

"Gekky, if you will," He spoke to his robots as a parent would speak to their child, "Show Izzy the new additions I added to you guys. The walls fine." The last statement left Izzy puzzled for a moment until the small robot, no larger than a ring box, fired a small laser and began to cut a hole in the wall.

"Woah, woah, WOAH!" She reached over and slapped the drone which sputtered and quickly turned, aiming a small arm at her. She could see electric sparks flying off the end. She turned towards Zip. "You're cutting a hole in our wall, dumbass!"
"Oh calm down, it's only a few pipes behind it. I had Gills check it out beforehand." The cyan drone beep a few times, wiggling back and forth as if it was talking. Zip looked at it, nodded and turned to Izzy. "Told you."

"But still, someone's going to have to repair that and I know it's not gonna be you! Don't make more work for us."

"Fine, wouldn't want to ruin the beautiful image of our ship, cause nothing is wrong with it already." That got a smirk from Izzy, who slapped his shoulder.

"Come on, asshole, we're almost there." She pulled him around the corner, towards the airlock where the others were meeting.

As lug rounded a corner, he heard the tall tale sound of the Kyne cursing in her native tongue. To no surprise, Lug was belted with a complaint and a punch when he entered the work space. Giving a laugh, Lug said "Oh me bleedin 'eart, don worry nun luv. I'll buy ya the next round the next time we're over 'ere." Giving her a cheeky, tooth filled smile. Moving over to the mech, Lug did a scan over it and saw what Kyne was doing. When she told him what she needed, it just confirmed what he already knew.

Giving her a wave, Lug said "Da boss brought over some new meat on board. A little stringy lookin, but they'll do." Having said that, Lug pulled out a stogie from his case and got to work. Wrapping his big mitt over the crystal casing, Lug pulled and took the thing right out, bumping his finger on something in the process. Giving a curse or two, Lug set it down and peered inside. Giving a hum, Lug knew that Kyne would have to fix the leak as his hands were far too big but he could check on the rest of it.

Tightening this, oiling that, and a little tug here then he was done with what he could do without making it a little orky. Which was a strong urge but the boss told him not to do that anymore. Wiping off the oil on his coveralls, an idle though went through his head as to why he never wore them above his waist. The top was always down with the sleeves acting as a kind of belt. Giving a shrug, Lug just pushed it off with a "It looks cool."

With little else to do, Lug started to pull out the tools that Kyne would need for the repair and set them out neatly besides the crystal casing. Taking a hold of the welder, Lug lit his stogie and took a satisfying drag before releasing it in a billow of smoke. With that little piece of business done, Lug began to tinker with some heavy looking gun that they had found on a previous job. As a mek it was Lug's duty to make stuff more killy, more dakka, and just plain orky. With this gun, Lug was going to do just that.

"Miss Holden-"

"Don't 'Miss Holden' me. We've been through this shit before, Marco. I don't owe you for your so called 'services' when we were on the Dead Flower, you got it?" Amanda snapped. It had been three months, and this guy was still trying to get her in bed for round two. She appreciated his business ethic, but sex was not a business. Not for Amanda. Besides, Marco got her drunk and in bed, and he called those 'services.' Amazing.

"Amanda, please." The poor guy was pleading. Was he serious? Was she that good? She spun around, walking backwards to face Marco. "Look, darling, you're sweet. But you were a terrible lay and I don't owe you for letting you take advantage of me. Now please," Amanda checked over her shoulder. Docking Bay 324 was coming up, and she did not want to be spotted with this loser. If nothing else, Amanda had her dignity to uphold. "Piss off. I do have somewhere to go, and you are, unfortunately, not invited." Amanda smiled bitterly at Marco. Amanda lit a cigarette and sucked on it slowly. If she was lucky, he'd go off on some smuggling trip and get arrested. Or thrown out of an airlock, if there was a god.

Amanda left Marco standing helplessly just outside of the docking bay door. She could barely hear him call after her, “Fine! Get your little prim and proper ass off this station! If I so much as think I’ve heard of you again…” then his voice faded off into nothing. Whatever, Marco. Amanda puffed on her cigarette and blew out over her shoulder, tossing Marco a friendly finger his way. Really, though? He was gonna insult her accent? It wasn’t exactly her fault her London accent stuck with her.

As she moved into the docking bay, she immediately began assessing the new faces. Julius had sent her a list of the new guys on board so she could start ‘getting shit organized, or whatever the hell it is you do when you aren’t holding a gun.’

“Julius, you prick, are you drunk again? You love to leave me and Grizzy to clean up after you,” Amanda half-shouted playfully, nodding at Griszma. She approached the ship, putting names to the faces. Christopher Briggs, Julius’ cousin. Young, new to space, and exactly what she was when she first ventured out into space. She wasn’t exactly sure what he was good at. Oh well, he’d figure out what he was supposed to do at some point. Omar Bada, who was apparently the best damn chef around. She’d see about that.

Then there was Isam Hajjar and Yasha Belov, the self-proclaimed A Team. To be fair, Amanda had dug up some dirt on them and they deserved that name. They were at least thrice the soldier she was apiece, and she looked forward to having someone else with serious combat training for when shit hit the fan. She briefly gave herself a once over. A gray tanktop and some black jeans. Combat boots. Her hair was a mess. Great, this was the first impression she was about to give as the one that was supposed to know how to make money for everyone. Fuck it, they probably wouldn’t give a shit.

“Hello, gentlemen. I’m Amanda. Technically I’m the business administrator of sorts on this piece of shit, but everything I come up with goes through Julius.” She took a drag of her cigarette. “I’m usually responsible with finding work for us on the long term and making sure our shit runs smoothly on a day to day when Julius is too lazy to do his job as captain.” She threw him a teasing smirk. “I also spent two years in military and I’ve been a merc, on occasion.

“I think you’ll fit in fine, here, gentlemen. Most of the crew are decent enough people. Now, are there any questions?” Amanda finished, looking over each of the four men one more time, taking one more drag of her cigarette and blowing it back over her shoulder.

Trade Station Alpha, the first time Eliza had been there it was on a class field trip. That was the first of many though, in the last five years she had flown in and out of this station more times than she could possibly think to count. At this point Eliza was walking through the market, a smile rested on her face as her mind wandered. Minutes ago she was talking to a Hibros girl who she had seen a couple times before while she was here about the cultural differences between the Hibros' culture and Eliza's own. This was always something that sort of fascinated her, to be a good navigator you just needed to know where different planets and systems are in relation to yourself, but to be a great navigator you have to know at least a bit about those who live in these places and call them home. However, their conversation had to end as Eliza knew she would be needed back on the ship soon, she knew there would be some new recruits today and as much as she would like to just hang out it would probably be a bad example. So Eliza bid farewell to her new friend but said that the moment she got a chance they would continue their conversation. Eliza flagged down transport. "324 man." She said, without waiting for the driver to ask the question. She relaxed in the seat, knowing it would only be a short ride over to the ship.

Eliza arrived at the ship and got out, thanking the driver before walking over to where some of the crowd seemed to be forming. She knew one of them was the captain's cousin, but she knew very little about the others. Judging from the way they looked though, a couple of them seemed to be military guys of some kind, most likely mercs because who else would Julian end up hiring. She wasn't exactly sure why they would need them but she guessed it was better safe than sorry. She gave Julius a small wave and a smile to signify her arrival. As she got close after Amanda had finished speaking she introduced herself to the new ones, "I'm Eliza Marko, I'm navigating this ship so if any of you need anything in that regard I'm the girl you should be looking for. And don't hesitate to ask or whatever, I don't mind helping out." She smiled at the rookies, hoping that all would be well on this run.

Yasha's eye contact with the Hibros woman was broken when he was jerked forward. A massive, meaty hand landed on his back, followed by a loud voice. Yasha straightened up to see an Ork lumber past them and onto the ship.
"Who's the Jolly Green Giant?" He remarked as he rubbed his shoulder.
"Someone you probably shouldn't piss off. Play nice," Isam hissed at him. He was about to pick up his bag and head inside when a skeletal guy appeared to greet them. Their reactions were about the same: raised eyebrows. Isam quickly got over it and introduced himself, and Yasha, for good measure.
"It's nice to meet you Tensai. I am Isam Hajjar, and this is Yasha Belov."
"I'm Omar, I'll be cooking for you," Omar said, hesitantly offering a hand. He wondered, briefly, if the creature ate; he looked rather skinny. After introductions, the skeletal man headed back inside, and the three were about to follow him when more crew members showed up. Everyone wanted to meet the new guys.

A dark haired woman came up and introduced herself as Amanda, the business administrator. She then asked if they had any questions. Isam held his breath and braced for the inevitable, idiotic comment that Yasha was sure to make. Yasha didn't disappoint.
"I got a question," He said with a grin. "How does a pretty little limey like you end up in this tin can?" His usual, slightly offensive demeanor was in tact. Isam gave him an elbow to the ribs before picking up his bag.
"It's very nice to meet you all. We both look forward to serving with you," He said to the general audience that had gathered by the ship's threshold.
"I especially look forward to it," Yasha said as another woman, one with very colorful hair, approached them. He could already tell that he was going to like this crew.

Julius started leading Chris back to the ship, but Chris could tell his cousin was struggling to stay on his feet. "Here, Julius." he said reaching into his bag and handing Julius a pill he found there. "Detox tablet. One of the few things that aren't overpriced on Earth, mostly because the government and the companies keep the cost artificially low so that their employees don't come to work stoned or drunk. It'll clear your head."
"Sho you do know how to have a good time." said Julius. "I was shtartin' ta think you had got boring."
"Actually, I sold them. People are willing to pay more when the boss is nearby."
Julius shook his head and swallowed them, and by the time they had reached the ship his speech had cleared up and he could walk well enough on his own. When they got to the airlock he noticed the crates sitting there and asked his cousin about them. "Crystal power cells." said Julius, with a bit of disappointment in his voice. "They were supposed to be low grade when I bought them, but when I try to sell them myself the test cell overheated and almost exploded. I figured out that the man who sold them to me had bought factory defects on Venus and recrated them. Now I'm out five hundred thousand credits, and the most I can hope to get for scrapping them is one hundred thousand."
"Have you tested them?"
"No, why would I test them?" asked Julius. "They're sub-quality cells. The factory already tested them."
"Yeah," responded Chris, "but they kicked out any that couldn't meet output requirements and storage requirements. Not everyone's standards are that high."
"And who'd want a bunch of half-bad cells?"
Chris reached into one of his bags and pulled out half a dozen power cells. "I got these on Earth. There, practically everyone carries cells on them, because they need a way to store what the government gives them. Now some of these were rejected by the factories, who I assume uses the manufacturers standards, but fully charged they are still worth seven or eight credits."
"So people on Earth use any cell that will work because the cells are in such high demand?"
"Yeah, pretty much." responded Chris, and Julian nodded.
"I'll have to check into that."
Just then three men walked up and introduced themselves, and the Captain shook their hands when offered. "Welcome to the ship." he said. "I still haven't gotten around to naming her, and it's been almost 5 years."
Chris stood there and analyzed the others. Two mercs and a cook? Well, from what Julius had told him about their more colorful missions the mercs would come in handy, and with a crew this size, it made sense to get someone who knew their way around a kitchen. Then things started to get weird. First came a giant green alien who looked like he could rip you in half without much trouble, then, when he left, a cyborg-pirate. if that's what aliens are like, it's going to take a bit of getting used to.
Luckily, that seemed to be the last of the unusual species for now, as a rather attractive human woman walked up and started teasing the captain. Griszma nodded at something she said, and the woman, Amanda, introduced herself. Shortly after that another atractive human woman walked up, though this one looked a bit more "punk" than the others. Chris smiled. Leave it to Julius to fill his crew roster up with good looking women. He also suspected that the Russian mercenary would take notice of that as well. When Eliza had finished introducing herself, and the Russian had finished hitting on her, Chris got her attention. "You're the navigator. So, does that mean you get stuck showing us around the ship?"

"thanks Lug"
Kyne called back to the ork as he left to go work on the mech for her while she made her way to the airlock, nodding to Tensai as she walked by and he headed up the lift to the upper level of the ship. Just as Lug said there was a group gathering at the airlocks, mostly familiar faces but a few new ones were there too and that was what caught the Drow's interest. Walking over she had to tell the captain where she was going.
"Eh Julian I need to head to the scrap shops really quick and look for a new hydraulic pipe."
The dark skinned female towered over all the humans just like Lug and Tensai did when they walked by,
"Hey who are the new kids, ya going to introduce me?"
She added looking over everyone, the young one was kinda cute.

Amanda shot a friendly smile at Yasha. She’d dealt with his type before and worse. Hell, there were guys on the crew worse than him. “This ‘pretty little limey’ quite likes this tin can, and I’ve served on many tin cans before this one.” She gave him a piercing stare before turning to Isam. “I’m sure we’ll all get along nicely. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should go settle in. I do have things to do, boys. Come find me if you have any questions,” Amanda glanced at each of the newcomers one at a time, “or if you just need a friendly face to talk to. I’m always available.” She nodded, excusing herself from the group. She tossed her cigarette butt behind her as she walked away.

Amanda headed towards her cabin. To her surprise, she didn’t run into any of the other crew members on the way. When she arrived, she opened the small cabinet in her room, making sure her belongings were still there. There had been... incidents in the past. She rummaged through her things, going through a short checklist in her head. Everything was accounted for.

She left her room and moved up to the rec room. Amanda lit a cigarette and sat down on the couch, throwing her legs up on the couch. She pulled out a datapad, filtering through her messages. Amanda sorted through them; most of her messages were business offers for her to run through Julius, but there was still a fair amount of spam and sales advertisements. Amanda sighed; you’d think that after so many years of electronic messaging, there’d be a more efficient way of filtering through the bullshit.

"Meow," Yash jeered with a wide grin, "Feisty little gerla." At that point, Isam grabbed the man by the arm and hauled him away into the ship. Yasha was a sexual harassment suit just begging to happen. Omar smiled at Amanda apologetically and grabbed his suitcase to follow the other two inside. From the looks of the map they had been given, Isam's assigned room was right across the hall from Omar's. More than likely, it would be used as storage space rather than somewhere for Isam to sleep. Yasha was futher down the hall.

The three went their respective rooms to dump their stuff. Isam's unpacking process was just about that: dump it all on the floor and pick through it. Across the hall, Omar put his suitcase on the bed and began to unpack his clothes. Yasha, who had his copious amounts of weaponry delivered to the ship the night before, made a beeline for the crate that sat in the middle of his room. He pried it open to find that his pride and joy, his TR-32, sitting on top.
"Ah, I missed you too, ol' girl," He said affectionately as he picked the gun up and went to hang it on the display rack on the wall. He didn't even bother unpacking his dufflebag.

Isam didn't have a lot to unpack, so he found himself finished about the same time Yasha had gotten done staring at his new weapons display. Isam went across the hall to talk to Omar for a bit, before the cook headed to the kitchen to get started on the crew's lunch. He had to make a good first impression, after all. Yasha came up behind Isam and clapped him on the back.
"They haven't given us our grand tour yet," He said.
"Because the map obviously isn't enough," Isam snarked.
"Not the same. Paper doesn't replace people, my friend."
"If by people, you mean the woman you were harassing this morning-"
"I'd do a tour with her, alright," He said with a smirk. "Don't think you would be interested in that one."
"Can you at least try to not get another complaint filed against you?"
"Can't make any promises, Falafel."

About that time, Yasha noticed a brunette woman pass by at the end of the hall. He broke off from the conversation follow after her, completely ignoring the little blue haired guy with her. He walked up to her, standing almost a foot taller and reveling in the fact.
"Privet malenkaya devotshka," He said smoothly. "It looks like they forgot to give my friend and I our complimentary tour. Maybe you would be so kind?" Isam came over, figuring he might as well come.

Eliza heard Chris speak about her giving the tour. She hadn't really been asked to do this but she wasn't particularly adverse to the idea of doing it, seeing as she thought she knew the ship well enough to be able to explain it and give a better experience than if one were to just walk around aimlessly. Another rule about navigation is to know the ship, if a navigator doesn't know the ins and outs of what they're flying in they may never be able to truly understand how to get the ship where they need it to be at any one time.

Eliza was about to speak up when the mercs went inside. This was a bit of a relief to her because, even though one of the mercs seemed fine and she had never met a chef she didn't like, the Russian seemed a bit meat headed, which was not something she was unfamiliar with having been near Julius for the last two years. She ran her fingers through her hair and turned to the captain's cousin. "Well I'd be happy to show you around if cap wants me too." She turned to look at the captain who nodded in approval. She smiled and turned back to the new guy. "Well if you want the 'grand tour' you can follow me around for a bit and I'll show you the ship, I don't know all the working parts but I know enough so you won't be confused. If not I think I'll just go to my cabin and smoke for a bit, but you can join me for that too if you really want to." She walked into the ship and looked behind her to see if she was being followed.

Izzy stopped, turning towards the voice, but instead found herself staring at someone's chest. She looked up at a man who was easily a foot taller than herself. The newcomer was fully clothed in a uniform, which seemed to compliment his solid build. "Complimentary tour?" She smirked, "I think I've got time. I'm Isabella, but you can call me Izzy!" She glanced towards Zip, who was grinning as the last drone flew over to Isam, hovering near to his head. A small camera on the yellow drone zoomed in and out, as if it was examining the man. "Follow me, if you'd like." Izzy smiled leading the group.

Zip chuckled and turned, motioning with his hand. "Come on, Canary." The drone responded and quickly returned to its blue-haired owner. Walking backwards, Zip turned to Isam and spoke, "He likes you." He then glanced at Yash, "You, not so much."

"This is Zip. You can tell he's.. cherished by the crew." She smirked. As Zip went to respond she quickly spoke up, "So you obviously know these are the crew quarters." As she entered the next room, medical beds and supplies could be seen. The room has a cold, sterile feeling to it. "This is our medical bay. Pretty typical. You can come in here for whatever you need, be it the cold or amputation." She chuckled at her own remark. "So wanna follow me to the Observation deck?"

As Isam walked down the hall, he became aware of a quiet whirring noise near his head. He turned, looking all around him before he spotted a small, robotic looking device buzzing around, looking at him. He made an almost offended grunt as he fruitlessly swatted at the device. The blue haired man said something about it 'liking him'.
"Terrific," Isam said dryly. He followed the group down the hall as they went into the medical ward. "Do we have a doctor on board?" It seemed like a good idea. If the crew needed trained soldiers on their mission, something told him there was a chance of getting injured.

Yasha wasn't so much interested in the tour as he was the woman giving it. "Observation deck, huh? What do we get to observe?" He gave a devilish smile, the one he often made after delivering a crude joke. Isam gave a quiet groan and a roll of the eyes. He knew that the man was literally incapable of self restraint, but he was still somehow surprised by how much effort Yasha put into making an ass out of himself.

"So about this mission we are going on, what exactly is it that we're doing?" Isam asked as the group made their way to the deck.

A man approached the ship from a cargo tram, with a large container behind him being carried by a cargo mech. He seemed to have an allergic reaction to whatever he was bringing, his eyes seemed to be watering up with his nose a bright red. The man groaned slightly as he saw what was left of the crew for the vessel board before he could hand off this delivery. He wanted this over and done with, he was having a negative reaction to whatever was ordered. What also annoyed his was that he didn't know what exactly was in the container, only that it contained 'animals for a wildlife preserve'. He approached a panel on the side of the ship, it seemed to be an intercom. He pressed a red button as he spoke, "Hello?... Hello? Anyone receiving this? I've got an special delivery for a... Dr. Quib John Johnson?... Hello?"

There was a pause but then a voice came through the speaker on the panel, "Ah, yess. You've brought the... Wildlife preserve specimens yess?" The person on the other end seemed to have a kind of lisp.

The man sneezed as he spoke, "Ye-" he gave a quick snort, "Yes. Shall we wait for you to come check on the container as and sign-"

The voice on the other line interrupted him, "No! No, that's fine. I trust you've kept the animalss safe and in one condition. Just take them up to the cargo bay and one of my associates will take it off your hands. Tkk."

The man paused as the person on the other end of the line finished speaking, wondering slightly at what the noise at the end was about. He shrugged, probably an issue with the intercom of some kind. "I appreciate your trust in us but we will still need a signature."

The voice quickly responded, "One of my associates can sign it for me. I'm... um... very busy right now."

With that the man shrugged yet again, only to sneeze just as quickly, and ordered the cargo mech to move onto the platform that would lead to the cargo bay. Upon going reaching the cargo bay via the lift, the man approached who ever was there, "Hello. This is a delivery for Dr. Johnson. Can you please sign for me here? Then we'll leave him his order and be on our way." He didn't care who it was, he simply wanted to get away from this container before it affected him anymore.

Meanwhile, Quib's hairs relaxed in relief as the man didn't press for more. He had already paid for the order online and had to make a bunch of stories up about a non-existent wildlife preserve. He didn't like to lie but it usually seemed to turn out well for him in the end, however there were occasions that lying made them worse. Shrugging that off. Quib made his way into the medical room, to retrive his notes and papers for the new crew that was boarding. Sensing vibrations in the floor that indicated people have now walked past the medical room, Quib was sure he'd be meeting the new crew sooner, rather than later. He picked up the legal papers about various 'I understand that...' and 'I will not hold to...' that keep the crew safe from a Health & Safety crackdown... If the H&S enforcers actually ever checked the ship. Even if they did, Quib was sure they'd consider him a H&S issue...

Quib quickly scanned the medical histories that the newer crew had sent in. While he didn't have the captain's cousin's medical history, Quib figured it wouldn't be too hard to ask the young human himself. After checking the medical histories, Quib decided to put on his 'doctor's' coat, which he kept in the medical closet. After, with great difficulty, getting his two forlegs through the sleeves of the coat and letting the rest of it drape over him, Quib now had to decied what kind of hat he would wear to meet the new crew. He had his 'party hat', an obnoxously large hat he were's to the crew's various celebrations, something not fit for an introduction, his 'medical hat', something he's told human nurses wear when on duty, his 'Red Ox' hat, a normal 'ball cap' that had a head of an angry human ox that was bright red on the front of it, with the rest of the hat being a slightly darker red. Quib desided that the 'Red Ox' hat would work, it was a 'casual' hat to humans and it may give off a sense of ease. Ignoring the rest of the hats in the closet, he picked up the ball cap and closed the closet door.

The araneae then quickly scanned the room and noticed a few things that seemed to be gathering dust. He sighed as he opened the closet again to gather his cleaning supplies. Quib had a good habit of keeping the medical room clean, probably the cleanest in the ship. Yet, if one were to see his crew cabin, they'd see nothing but webbing and the remains of various foods he had the night before. He kept his room in such a state for one reason, it kept people out. Even if they went in, they may get stuck on the webs and have to wait for him to return to his room. Also, it apparently smelt horrible in there, not that Quib could ever tell. The araneae decided to finish his cleaning before meeting the newer crew members.

"Do we have a doctor on board?"

Isabelle nodded, "Yes we do. His name is Quib, he's great at what he does. " She bit her tongue. She didn't want to say anything mean but he personally gave her the creeps. His resemblance to Earth spiders was too close for her comfort, a fear that had most likely sprouted from some childhood trauma. Zip, on the other hand, thought the medic was the "literally the coolest guy [he's] ever met." It really didn't surprise her that he was fascinated with Quib. She almost felt bad for the Aranea. Zips interest was not something you wanted. Her thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the man who had asked for the tour.

"Observation deck, huh? What do we get to observe?"

She glanced back towards him, looking him up and down. Smirking she spoke, "That's cute." She glanced at Isam, who was visibly exasperated by his friend. She came to a door and opened it, leading the group into the observation deck. As they entered, Zip let his fly around the room freely. Izzy spoke up once more, "So.. Yup. This is the observation deck. You can actually get some pretty nice views in here." Zip lowers his glasses a bit, staring at her with an eyebrow raised as if he was saying "Seriously?" She simply turned away with a roll of her eyes, looking around the room slowly.

"So about this mission we are going on, what exactly is it that we're doing?"

"Uh, in simple terms? We're looking for places where we may find valuable ores and materials."

As Chris followed Eliza on a tour of the ship, Julius left to check out what his cousin had told him. His first stop was the rec room. "Hey Amanda." he said, addressing his business administrator, "what do you know about the power cell market on Earth? Chris told me that they were so desperate for cells there they'd even buy sub-quality cells for a few credits. Is there any legal reason we can't just take an elevator down to the surface and sell these off to anyone that wants to buy them? Although we've got a million of these things. Even if half of them are too bad to get any use out of, 500 thousand's too much to sell a few at a time to the locals."

---

Chris followed Eliza, and when they got to the machine shop looked around for a minute, checking out the equipment. "He's got some good equipment here. I'll probably be spending my time in here, but with this equipment, I won't mind that much." After they finished the tour he nodded to her and put out his hand in an offered to shake her hand. Thanks for the tour. I'm going to go put my stuff in my room and then go see if I can get something to eat. I haven't had anything since leaving Earth, since apparently hyperspace makes me dizzy."

--
Griszma went back to her quarters and grabbed a box, filling it with all of the parts she thought would be useful in building a new bow. Once she was sure she had everything, she carried it down to the machine shop, seeing Chris and Eliza walk away from it as she got there. She ignored them, not liking to interrupt people who she thought might be pursuing a romantic interest, and went inside. There she set the parts box on the table and pulled up a chair. Hopefully she could get everything set up and calibrated before Julius needed her on the bridge.