Human Edge

Jan, a but unfresh and hazy, was looking for someone. An Echo someone. He hadn't heard from anyone since the crash landing and wondered if they died or fled or something.

After a while, he found Lucretzia, chatting in a very quiet voice with Alexei Herald.

They were standing outside the bridge, and Alexei looked very unhappy about something.

There was no point in approaching unhappy people in a private conversation over nothing in particular, so Jan just leaned against the metal wall and drew out a cig to smoke, waiting for the situation to change.

After a few moments, the conversation grew more heated, and he could clearly make out a few words. "Sensors... broken... poor... review."

Alexei threw up his hands moments later, and just stated, simply, perhaps louder than intended, "Well, you'd better hope it's nothing. Or things could get a lot worse."

Turning, he strode away, clearly angry.

Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Lucretzia remained, clearly trying to orient her thoughts.

"Hmmm." Jan onomatopoeised between puffs of smoke, not rising to the level of a more meaningful verbal commitment to the eavesdropped gloom.

After a moment, Lucretzia seemed to compose herself, and then turned to leave the upper deck, pausing when she saw Jan.

"Mr. Novak. What can I do for you?"

"Nothing much, I am a man of few needs. Since yesterday, however, I've been wondering if I can do something for you. It's generally good to know whether one is redundant or just poorly managed." He said slowly. "Well, unless you have a whiskey stash. I wouldn't turn that down. That was on the question."

"I see."

Lucretzia frowned, and then stated, simply, "Mr. Novak, we have crash landed off target and are possibly under threat from outside attack. I've been forced to make concessions to the captain and Major in order to ensure the safety of this expedition."

She sounded frustrated, but carried on, "I will be blunt - I'm not sure I have any theoretical physics that needs doing at the moment - the captain has informed me that someone has been messing with the ship sensors so they give false readings, our sensor expert is gone, either dead or missing, and the Major hasn't cleared any major expeditions to set out."

Crossing her arms, she added, bluntly, "So unless you feel like you can do something about some sort of sensor problem, a scrambled and possibly encrypted signal, or convince some of these mercenaries to escort you to start investigating Tartarus... you may have to go into town and try out that bar and see if it's any good. I wish I had better leads for you, but right now... no. Those are what I've got, Mr. Novak."

"I'll give them all a shot. Guess the sensors have priority. Do I need any clearance?" He seemed unphased be her frustration, but appreciated the bluntness. Strange how people need to be angry to communicate right.

SHe bit her lip, thinking, and then said, "You'd have to convince the captain to let you look. You can say I sent you, but he's acting weird."

With a shrug, she added, "You need anything else, or is that all?"