[@Doc Doctor] Pycin accepted the cigarette and pulled back harder than need be when provided the light. He eased back in his chair again, taking another swallow of his rum before exhaling through his nose. He was listening to Donny carefully, noted by the occasional small twitch of his sunken eyes. It wasn’t until Donny had finished saying his piece that he responded; gently twirling the cigarette in his finger and thumb he analysed the smoke drifting off for a moment. “It’s been a while….” Drawing back a second toke, another swallow of rum, he tilted his head with a crack of his neck, and said: “I never thought of myself as the political type. All those faggits….” He gave a short, dismissive snort of one nostril and used his pinkie finger to tap on the desk, saying; “Ash.” The top of the desk opened and a small silver tray popped out before the desk sealed up again beneath it. “Truth be told, I was more of a cigar man.” Tapping off a head of ash, he grit his teeth as though conjuring a memory better left forgotten. His eyes narrowed at Donny. “Hany’s Ribbon. Fuck that bitch.” He cleared his throat. “My scientists will tell you it’s a mindless spatial phenomenon. Ask me, there is nothing completely without mind in this God forsaken universe. In any case, her name suits her description. A ribbon of pure light and destructive energy. Over a lightyear in length. All we know with any guarantee is that she’s stable within herself. She appeared at random locations and destroys everything in her path. We can’t damage her, we can’t slow her down. She destroyed our home world. Our solar system. Wiped out the sun. Seven billion citizens. Couldn’t save them all.” Pycin polishes off yet another glass of rum, pours another and draws back another toke of his cigarette. “This is my office on the flagship, Donny. My own little sanctuary. From here I have all the control I need to have.” He looks to his right at one of the eight view screens that make up the walls of his office. That one view screen showed an empty Shuttle bay somewhere on the ship. “Dino Gavon isn’t on board at present. That’s his personal bay. In fact he’s left the solar system in search of some …alien girl recently abducted from the planet below. But you see that empty docking bay?” He looks back at Donny. “I hope to be giving that to you, along with the ship that goes with it.” He takes one last heavy drag of his cigarette and stamps it out in the tray. He takes another swig of his drink before rising slowly from his seat. He shuffles to the far side of the office and stands to stare off into a view of the main mess hall on the ship. The Mess hall is big, no smaller in size than that of a football field with hundreds of Quatis citizens busy eating, preparing food, chatting, going about their everyday lives. “I find you a man of deeper understanding than most, Donny. It’s a refreshing thing in this life. So I believe you’d understand the need for taking measures to ensure a job is done right. Just business, you see….” Pycin shifts, turning enough to look Donny dead in the eyes to confess: “While you were being operated on by my physicians, I had them attach an MIIT (Macro Ignition Interface Transponder) to the wall of the right Atrium chambers within your heart. Think of it as an interactive explosive tracking device. It relays information of your activities directly to my station and responds to my command, specifically. In the case of my death, MIIT will ignite. Your heart will explode. If I die, you die. If you fail me, you die. But honestly… I have no desire for that to happen, Donny. Not in the least. [i]That’s[/i] my security. Nothing personal. Just peace of mind, you understand.” Pycin begins his shuffled walk back to his seat. “I’ve hereby rescinded all warrants of activity against you. You are now free to roam my fleet, with the exception of restricted ranking activity. You’re a citizen now. Consider this a…” He takes a seat and consumes a hard swallow of his rum. “…display of good faith between one mortal and another.” He then reaches into the lining of his robe, producing a fat cigar, and places it on the desk for Donny. “Make yourself at home here. No one is after you anymore. You will hereby be treated like any other outstanding citizen of my people. Once the job is done, I’ll give you Dino’s ship, elevate your status to whatever rank or status you desire.” He takes a deep breath and finally places the the last drop of glassed rum on the desk in front of him, saying; “Until Admiral Gavon arrives back within easy access, settle in. You Quarters are located on the 5th floor of the Egress. Room 10252. Two doors down from Dino’s personal chambers.” He reaches into a drawer on his left and produces a new wrist device. With it, Donny can access all floors of all vessels within the fleet outside that of military personnel activity. He places the device on the desk next to the cigar and pushes both in Donny’s direction. “Get to know your surroundings, Donny. Have a sleep in your chambers. Fuck a whore. Have a bite to eat in the mess hall. Have some fun while you wait.” He glances at the cigar. “Do yourself a favor and light this up when you’ve finished the job.” Easing back in his seat, Pycin picks up his rum once more, taking a sip before finishing; “I’ll let you know when he’s back. Be alert. And don’t underestimate that son of a cunt.” [hr] [@Metatrooper] The officer regards Meta with a stare that notes his intrigue and sliver of optimism. He then grins and takes a seat in the chair on the opposite side of the desk. He places his hand on the empty desk and a holographic terminal projects from the surface of the desk. Typing out a few commands, the display of the alien ship, as well as the display of the data screen go black. In line with given commands, a beverage of brown liquid in a glass and a frosted pastry appears on a silver plate in front of Meta. It is obvious that both are his to consume if he wishes. “Bounty hunter huh….” He said, raising one brow. This look is one of interest but concern. “Funny how things just fall into place.” He then regards both empty view screens. Glances down at the four stripes on his chest, and tells; “I’m First Gamma Rank of the Quatis Military, Naval issue, next in line under Admiral Dino Gavon.” He nods as if any of this would make sense. “My name is Eshten Palin.” Regarding the view screen that previously displayed the image of the alien ship, he adds; “We’ve been unable to establish any reading from that vessel, any aside from a temporal distortion, that is. By our own scanners, that ship isn’t even a sold object. There is no substantial reading. All we get is a temporal displacement. Nothing more. And that’s all we’ve been able to obtain from the individual that’s boarded your own vessel, The Tempest. He doesn’t register as a life form. He doesn’t register as anything aside from a distortion in time. A temporal anomaly. So you can imagine our concern. But I believe what you say…." He pauses to add; "But here’s the thing, bounty hunter, us Quatis don’t believe it prudent to delve into temporal technology. You should be able to understand the danger it presents to life in the universe. Changing the course of history is all fucked up. We did take a shot at the vessel, feeling the need to destroy it. Nothing happened. It was like our Quantum canons were passing through thin air. No effect whatsoever. It didn't even fire back.” First Gamma Eshten, sighs then tries without success to relax in his chair. “Thing is, Meta, I didn’t really bring you here to discuss the perils of time technology and just how dangerous it is. I’ve brought you here for another matter at hand. I mentioned Dino Gavon, foremost Admiral of the Quatis, but also the son of a cunt that’s been fucking my wife for the last two years. I fucking hate him. He’s also the one standing in the way of my promotion. I can’t get one of our soldiers to kill him, no one would dream of killing him. They won’t do it. And this is why you’re here. I’m offering you the job to kill him. Take him out.” Eshten smirks, gives his nose a little scratch and continues. “This is our own little secret. You and i will be the only ones who know. If you can manage to pull this off, you’ll be made a friend to the Quatis. You’ll be regarded an ally and compensated with whatever other form payment your heart desires. If you fail, I’ll assemble a legion of troops to hunt you down and kill you. Simple as that. And believe me, you will not escape my wrath. If you accept this mission, however, I’ll be sending you back to your ship and, in time, inform you of Admiral Gavon whereabouts. Stay close. If you decline, I’ll kill you here and now.” Eshten now dusts off some non-existent dirt from his uniform with a quick backhand on his fingers, and concludes; “So… make your decision. State your terms of accepting this mission.” [hr] Back on board the Tempest, Rufus stops in his tracks to regard the 5 foot hovering mechanical construction with a look a of overwhelmed amazement. “Woah... machine dude, you’re like something from Star Wars of something. So righteous, my main man.” He extends one hand, tapping on the ASP between its eyes with his index finger, as if giving a light knock on a door. “Name’s Rufus, yo. I don’t mean no harm or nothing. Just checking out the specs, ya know? Those other dudes that were here, man, they just kinda deserted poor Rufus. Can’t blame a man for that, right. Buy say….” Rufus reaches into his tracksuit pocket and produces a clip sealed bag of marijuana, dangling in front of ASP’s face. “Can a righteous dude like yourself get high, man? I reckon we can sit back, play some games and have a few bongs, right?” He looks around expectantly. “Sure there must be something around here we can make a bong out of. Seriously – less you have one stashed away in those walls of yours.” He then pulls out a join from his other pocket, suggesting; “But I got this wicked J as the next option. Am I right or am right, awesome dude?” [hr] [@Quote5] The thin redhead man appears pleasantly surprised by the web-like substance the plush cat produces. Taking hold of one end he started pulling himself to safety. As he does this, the rock that Ramrod tied the ohter end of the web to groans, but at the same time it lifts from the ground with an extension of rock legs and starts walking away as if it were fed up with situation, yet no doubt helping with pulling the man from the quicksand. As the man climbs free and crawls happily onto solid ground, the quicksand releases an ‘aww….’ of obvious disappointment. Sitting back on the ground and resting against the trunk of a tree that sighs with an odd kind of satisfaction, the young man gives a thankful nod to Ramrod. “Little dude, never thought I’d see the day where my eyes would witness a righteous stuffed animal like yourself. You saved my life, little dude. Consider me in you debt. Name’s Rufus from planet Earth, by the way…” He adds, extending his hand to the plush cat to greet him. With his other hand he produces a clip seal bag of weed and gives it a little shake. “the honor is mine.” Meanwhile, the rock continues to make its way deeper into the forest letting out small griping grunts as it goes, while the orange shrub that had followed Ramrod, plants its roots in the soil beside Rufus and Ramrod, leaning curiously as it analyses the bag of weed with the brown eyes that appear on its upper stem.