Jessie listened silently to the proceedings, keeping her head down as she tried not to think too much about the tentacle-faced pirate captain taking up the viewscreen. Thankfully, she was able to look busy, as keeping a ship the size of the Prize stationary while in negotiations wasn't as simple as just pressing the 'Park' button. Minor adjustments, small thruster bursts, the occasional orbit correction, all of these things managed to keep her hands occupied while she listened to the negotiations. The pirates had captives, that much was obvious. The captain was willing to negotiate their release instead of sending them to auction, that was interesting. Jessie knew what pirates usually did to captives. It was why she'd fought so hard to fly her fathers ship away from them all those years ago. Prize's ambassador, Francesca Lunarius according to the computer, was doing a superb job at dealing with them. Even going to far as to pull a nonexistent code out of the air to bluff the pirates into sending the little boy away.

The rest of the negotiation was tense, but uneventful. Jessie was able to keep calm the entire time, but did wonder what was going on, exactly. It wasn't standard procedure to negotiate with pirates. Especially for the prices Du-Vos was demanding. It wasn't until after he cut the transmission on his end with an ominous promise to deal with his crew that Jessie began to piece things together. Captain Carabello was up like a shot, issuing commands in a surprising, but satisfying manner. He mentioned Beta team, implying the existence of an Alpha. A secret plan, likely something to do with the stranded crew transport floating in space and the shuttle missing from their docking bay. Then his attention turned to the bridge crew, with the question Jessica Beadle had been dreading. She had to answer. He was the captain. And if she didn't, the rest oft eh bridge crew would know, and someone would tell him anyway.

Standing up from her station, Lt. Beadle straightened her uniform jacket and cleared her throat. [color=92278f]"It was me, sir. Lt. Jessica Beadle. Today is my first on-duty day, I was taken aback by the pirates when I entered the bridge. I have a... History with pirates, sir. I'm very sorry, I should have been more professional, I could have endangered the negotiations."[/color] She admitted, the words tumbling out of her mouth in a single breath. This was it, she'd be dismissed for sure. Sent back to starbase, possibly stripped of her rank, if not booted entirely. Then the Cabal would be after her for the cost of the surgeries and implants and the favors and strings pulled and she'd be running for the rest of her life...