[i]‘I believe you mean what you say. But I do not believe you are true.’[/i] Fuck was that even supposed to mean? ‘You’re not full of shit, but you are.’? Or maybe ‘Your facts are sound, but you’re still bullshitting.’? Hardly, since she glossed over Astrid’s PRC-USSR mixup. Funnily enough, you could argue Astrid was actually full of shit with that last statement. Guess Vei lumped all reds into the same, nationalized basket? Or she was just talking out of her ass like Astrid expected her to. Perhaps it was for the best they got kicked out of discount Birkenau before Astrid could say something inappropriate about it.
[hr]“So… this is it, then?”
The technician’s voice broke Astrid out of her thoughts. With the Prize now back in very high orbit and talks of the mission being scrapped circulating throughout the grapevine, she started reinvesting her time from the ship to the junior servicemen who thought this mission would open a lot of doors for their careers. After visiting an alien Pope, supervising a trio of rookie techs repainting the ship’s nameplate was nice to calm one’s nerves. And yet, she found herself staring at the planet where the recent events transpired.
“Looks that way, Lance Corporal.” She sighed and turned around just in time to catch two of the three shoving each other with their elbows, probably over something stupid one of them said on a different channel she couldn’t hear. But just as she was about to start chewing them out for being idiots in an environment where an electromagnet on each heel and a tether connecting you to your buddy were the only things keeping you from floating off into space…
“Prize to all EVA teams, return immediately. Unknown ship on approach, hot.”
“Team two copies, four coming in via the ventral fore airlock.” She gave the regulation reply and turned her attention back to her charges, “You two neutron stars, stop doing what you’re doíng, grab the rollers and skip along back to the barn.”

Having stowed away the three vac suits, there wasn’t much she could do for the fugitive. Well, aside from preventing Denise from reaching the med bay, but was she willing to sacrifice brain cells by interacting with the woman for the local? A resounding ‘No’. There was, however, something more in her line of work. Not wanting to bother Carabello directly, as he was likely busy with the situation, she simply sent a text message via the ship’s internal communication system, hoping he’d see it before the situation blew over.

[code]
To: CAPT Carabello
From: LT Faust
Captain, are we going to attempt recovery of our guest’s ship, or do we not bother because of the risks?
[/code]

Wouldn’t be the first time she’d be catching a drifting derelict, and she was still curious about what made Havi stuff tick and how, but approaching any damaged and uncontrolled ship was dangerous in and of itself, not to mention how the - she assumed - Havi pursuers might react to the Prize stealing one of their ships after aiding a fugitive when they’ve been told to sod off.