It wasn't long until the ships doctor finished loading his cargo up and decided to talk to Sera, he was a kind man, cared more about others than most folk out on the border planets, the rim was filled with even worse. If truth be told, Sera avoided getting off on New Melbourne. All there was were fish. If she'd wanted to sample some sturgeons and their caviar then she would have gone planet side straight away. Besides, the local colour 'round here didn't want a preacher like Sera anywhere near them. They aim to keep to the usual gods of Christianity and the like. Admittedly, people out this far from the Alliance planets are more lenient to the newer religions but still, nothing that she'd spend my time with after her last sermon. As far as she concerned the sooner they got this ship airborne the better. At least out in the black there isn't the stench of fish in the air. Sera stood, stretching due to the fact that she hadn't moved a whole lot since they landed planet side, putting her veil back on she started to make her way around the cargo bay, maybe someone would make conversation on her way to her quarters.

MCGarretty had left the door to his berth open so as he was sat on his bunk he could at least see what was going on as the ship prepared to leave. The people he had identified as crew seem competent enough. He had noticed the suit talking to the Captain and instantly thought "Alliance" but his radar had been off a lot recently which he put down to too much time on the Rim. He'd just put his harp down when he noticed the priestess walking around the cargo bay. Whilst he wasn't big on religiosity he liked to keep his options open, he certainly wasn't loathe to a little prayer now and again, especially when people were waving sharp pointy things at him. "Afternoon Sister" he nodded as she passed close to his berth.

"Shiny" said Kai with a smile on his face. He liked Persephone. But he liked any place more than New Melbourne. As Victoria headed off to check the cargo, Kai made his way back to the cockpit and began the preflight check. He had done this so many times he didn't even think about it now. It was almost entirely instinctual by this point in his life. His mind was already wandering to Persephone and what he could get up to there. He remembered the advice Shen had given Sera about getting off the ship for a while. If they had the time, he'd love to do just that himself. He knew the captain would probably want to get the passengers off the ship as quickly as possibly though, so that probably wasn't an option. With a flick of the comms switch, he said over the tannoy "Hold on tight boys and girls. We are out of here". As he began to take off, finally lifting the Herald away from the stench of New Melbourne, he heard the captain enter the cockpit from behind him and he half turned his head to ask "So...we pick up anyone interestin' this time 'round?"

"Ya could say that." Victoria sighed. "Two suits, well a suit and his servant, they're going to Bellerphone." Victoria frowned. She hated how hard it was to get cargo on this ship. "Then a couple other guys who don't look like they share our way of thought much either." Those two Victoria wanted off her boat quick. "What was wrong with her? Figure it out?" She asked looking over the consul a bit. Having grown up on ships, Victoria had a pretty good understanding of not just her ship, but most out in the 'verse. She could easily keep up with jargon. Even if her attention kept drifting to that stupid crate.

As the ship began lift off, Sera was walking past one of the passengers bunks. She wast paying much attention but she did hear its inhabitant greet her, "Afternoon Sister," he said. Sera turned to him and nodded, "Afternoon sir," she greeted him with a smile, was that a harp he just holding? "How can I help you? Looking to repent some sins?" She rarely did confessions or anything all that private, that was handled by the lower priests, even then it was more of a thing for the 'verses Christians, nevertheless she continued, "Or was that just a formality?". It wouldn't have surprised her, people think that forgiveness was like waiting for a train on an asteroid, it would be a miracle if one turned up. While people did follow religion, Sera often feared it was them keeping their options open incase the idea of someone watching over everything you did turned out to be more than just that - an idea.

"There was a segmentation fault. It overloaded the sensors" explained Kai "I had to rewire and reboot it. It should be fine now but I'd like to get Higgins up here to check it out anyway" Where was that guy anyway? Kai hadn't seen him for a while...He really hoped they didn't leave him behind on New Melbourne. "Of course the main problem is that it's yī dà tuó dà biàn!" he proclaimed, emphasising his annoyance with the faulty tech with a half hearted smack at the console. "I've told you before, we need to get the whole gorram thing replaced". Kai knew that a new nav computer wasn't cheap and that Victoria would be reluctant to shell out for a new one but maybe they could at least get a second hand one that worked better than the one they had now. Already resigned to the fact that he would have to make do, he sighed and changed the subject. "You think these passengers are gonna be trouble?"

Victoria frowned at the insult tossed at her baby. Then she sighed. Kai was right. She knew he was. Maybe she'd be able to get a bit more of the suits, not that she hadn't already overcharged them. "Hopefully not. As long as the suits aren't transporting anything illegal we should be fine." She thought for a moment. "The other two, I can't say. We just should keep our leanin's to ourselves. Should anyway with the suit on-board. On that note I'm gonna make sure Higgins don't start anythin' with 'em. Give me a wave if ya need me." Victoria stood, her feet finally felt right since the artificial grav had kicked in. She stretched, gave Kai a grin, and looked more in place then she ever did with her feet planet side.

Sol sat on his bunk; he'd managed to search out a reasonable price for a new scope on his rifle, and was itching to get it on. The old one was cracked when some wong ba duhn snuck up on him while he was covering. Idiot assumed that tunnel vision would negate his complete lack of stealth. Reaching to unscrew the old scope, the screwdriver slipped on the worn screwhead, scratching his other hand. "Go shi," he muttered, wiping the blood off his hand. He'd better get a new screw, unless he wanted it to do that next time he had to take the scope off to clean it. He wouldn't bother the captain about it though, so he'd do it later. Maybe next time they made port he'd find some. "Right then, let's get you right off then."

Kai gave Victoria a dutiful nod as she left. She seemed on edge. Understandable really. Letting strangers aboard your boat was never easy. They had no idea who these passengers were. They had no idea what kind of business they were bringing into the Herald's world. Kai hoped there wasn't any trouble. But he'd be ready to crack some heads if he had to. His hand instinctively went to the knife attached to his belt. He hoped he wouldn't need to use it. Shaking the thoughts of what could go wrong out of his mind, he shifted his attention back to the console in front of him, flipping a few switches and finally hitting top speed. He loved this part. The moment the ship burst through the black. It was a thrill that would never get old.

"Sin repentin', well we would still be doing that when we made the next planetfall Sister, I've done enough things to last two lifetimes." McGarretty smiled. "Still not adverse to talking some about life as long as you don't start sermoning to much at me"

Victoria, carrying the weight of the ships trouble, wandered down toward where she most expected Higgens - The engine room. Checking on him was 90% warning him of the current passengers, and 10% checking the engines. "Higgens." She shouted as she got closer to the engine room. "Ya awake?" Victoria had fallen asleep her own fair share of times in the engine room growing up. Her father, a mechanic, had rocked her to sleep to the sound of the engine purring.

"I'll have to take a pass on that," Sera said "Preachin' and talking about life are one in the same and I'm sure you didn't aim to come out into the black in to hear the views of a high priestess from a religiosity you don't have no ties to." With that she gave a small bow and turned to walk away, "If you ever change your mind about repenting you can always come to find me," she added before she had strayed to far. All there was to do now was go back to her quarters before the ship was called to eat.

McGarretty laughed under his breath "That's always been the problem with these religious types, make it difficult to be polite like sometimes" He reached under his bunk to pull out his duffel, unzipped it and started sorting through for a change of clothes as all he could smell was fish and if he wern't careful he would be sullied by it. "Not sure what I'm gonna do with these" he said as he started to get undressed, "Probably have to throw 'em out of an airlock or somethin'" but decided to make do with shoving them under his bunk and hoping that the smell wouldn't stink the cabin out. He quickly threw on some new clothes and decided to have a wander to stretch his legs. He never had been able to cope with being cooped up in quarters for to long. And he still remember Lawrence Tonga completely loosing his cool and ending up in the loony bin after to long in a pod. "Not a good thing to happen" he thought. He had a brief debate over pistol or no pistol but in the end decided that the Captain and her crew might get a bit nervous if he started wondering around tooled up. With a quick backward glance to check that he hadn't left anything valuable on show he slowly wandered towards the cargo deck.

Craig followed the Captain through the ship, admiring the woman’s fit figure and the sway in her hips. If not for her no-bullshit attitude and a coldness he knew too well from lesbians and frigid females, he would have cracked onto her with one of his tried-and-true lies - lines that had opened up many-a-woman who had helped to warm his bed. He didn’t think a tragic backstory involving a young dead son or his current bag of gems would ease his way into Victoria though. His bunk was a simple container and a bed. He stuffed the satchel under the middle of the mattress and rearranged the sheets to serve as an alert for him if anyone searched around and tried to steal the bag. The Captain had mentioned dinner to be served soon; in the meantime, he wandered in the shabby-looking ship, mapping the interiors in his mind, and tried out doors both locked and unlocked and peeked inside. He met a woman in one of the corridors and smiled at his luck. She was dressed in the habit of the Divines, a religion he was familiar with during the war and as a citizen of the outer rim planets. “Good evening,” he said with small bow, suitably deferent to a high priestess. “The Divines must have blessed you most out of all their children. I am Ben, son of Richard and Maria Wiliamson, ex-Catholics who left the Core.” Craig lowered his voice for a touch of sympathy, to say, “My parents read to me the Scriptures when I was a boy.” He approached, continuing, “It is the Divines’ Will that we meet here today,” and took her hand for a kiss.

"A cargo bay in one ship looks like one in any other" McGarrety said to himself as he wandered around. He was never sure why he bothered with a wander, there was never anything to see but he hated sitting still for to long, partly as he was easily bored and also because his knees had started seizing up on him. It had become a problem when he had turned 40 and had not got any better since then. Just not enough action since he stopped serving he guessed was the main problem. "Guess I better see whats for fixins today" he said as he walked to what he assumed was the kitchen. As long as its not gorram fish again..... If it was fish he was going back to his bunk and would eat the blanket instead, it would probably taste better. He had found that the food on most ships was intermittently bad to indifferent, although it was better than the slop that he have had to normally have to put up with. His unit's resident cook could make finest steak taste like the grey, nutritionally healthy porridge they normally ate and with that same texture of wet paper. It was certainly a real talent.

A clang followed immediately after the Captain's shout, perhaps from something heavy hitting the ground, followed by several smaller clangs- likely footsteps, before being followed by a loud snap! and a short yelp. Before the captain had any time to wonder or rush in, Higgins stumbled into the hallway, half out of balance and stumbling, before shakily righting himself. Frazzled, scattered, all-of-the-place hair sat on top of a short bearded face, eyes wide open with some amount of shock- likely literally. He waved his hand, a handle topped with a small cylinder, dotted with various plugs, wires, and other mechanical-looking bits, being held. He glanced at it, and with the practiced ease of a frequent cover-upper, he tossed the item behind the wall, likely into a box, out of sight. He gave a sloppy mock-salute, eyes wide open, presumably from a shock from whatever item he had. "Reportin' for duty! Everythin's shiny, cap'n. Ship tol' me that we got a full docket, though..." He raised an eyebrow at that, with a mischievous half-smile plastered on his face. "Oh, cap, I know I'm not supposed ta mess with 'em, but it's so fun!" He pleaded more similar to a child than a grown man, who has been working from ship to ship for years, prior to this one.

Victoria seemed unfazed by Higgens' rather rumpled appearance, she was much more worried he'd cause a scene with the alliance friendlies out there. "Dinner is at the usual time Higgens, and please for the love of all that is keepin' this ship in the black do not cause a scene. We're goin' to Bellerphone and I'd like to make it there and off planet leavin' behind all the alliance friendlies, and not have them callin' up feds and tellin' 'em weird tales of a ship full of independents galavantin' about breakin' laws." She took a deep breath. "Also when ya get a chance Kai wants ya to look at somethin' in the cockpit." Victoria shook her head and started back toward the mess. If Shen was already cooking, which she assumed he was, it wouldn't be long till the smells attracted everyone to eat. "And clean up before joinin' us for dinner! You've got grease on your face again." Victoria shouted over her shoulder back at Higgens. Honestly how did her ship keep in the air with the nut jobs she hired.