Sam had to choke back an incendiary retort, which she cleverly concealed with the guise of having swallowed wrong. This lady was out of her mind if she thought Sam would be so quick to risk life and limb for a group of perfect strangers. Her addled mind had been given enough time to at least put together the components of a rational argument against such a foolish use of her time and talents; after all, she had ended up here as a result of pursuit by enemies unknown, and there was absolutely no guarantee they did not already have forces on the planet searching for her. She needed to rest and heal, and repair her craft so that she could continue her escape.

[i]"Yeah, about that..."[/i] She reminded herself that, without the necessary materials and equipment, it was likely that fighter would never lift off again. As it was, she couldn't guarantee it would return to 100% capacity, even [i]with[/i] their assistance. Her memory replayed Nora's comment about the several [i]crates[/i] worth of materials and machine tools purchased by the previous owner of the property, and a surge of adrenaline distributed its prickly warmth through her chest.

[i]"Goddammit..."[/i] she sighed. She put down her fork and lifted her eyes surreptitiously to study Nora's expression. Was she serious about those supplies, or just lying to coerce the cooperation of her new team? What about the others? She scanned them all in turn as she finished off her glass of water. None of them seemed too worried about their situation, and she could not detect any signs that any one of them had existing knowledge of the subject before Nora mentioned it.

This was the part where Sam was meant to feign interest in the expedition, then leverage her participation against Nora's willingness to part with some of that priceless scrap. But...they did not know her yet. Reluctant acceptance wouldn't have the desired impact on their trust. She had to give them something to lose before she threatened to take it away.

"Can't do anything today," she ventured, rubbing the back of her head gingerly. "I feel a little better, but I still can't concentrate. I better stay here."

[i]"Perfect,"[/i] she smirked internally. [i]"No promises, no guarantees, no liability."[/i]