The officers wardroom was a small space, just large enough for the table and chairs that had been bolted to the deck in its small walls. Kaiden as the new XO was offically being dined in by the company and had generously extended an invitation to Captain Micha who had graciously accepted. The Vickie was cruising in real space, making an orbit of MXD-41 and showing the flag of Cinnabar to all in the system. Theoretically this was to ward of pirates, but Sabatine doubted it would be very effective in that. Pirates were a scourge this far from the civilized worlds and whether a ship was a trader or a pirate largely depended on whether they thought one would be more profitable than the other at any given moment. All of the senior warrants as well as Ottis were present. The only absentee was midshipman Mckay, the most junior of the company thus, as propriety demanded, stuck on the bridge as the deck officer.

The meal had been sumptuous, roast meat prepared with local spices and thinly sliced vegetables in a rum and pepper sauce. Wine and rum from their last landfall had been plentiful and they were settling in for the dessert course of treacle putting with fresh custard. Byron might have a long ways to go as a spacer, but his talents as a mess steward were on full display. As the steaming pudding was unveiled, he circled the table and topped up drinks without being asked before midshipman Ottis stood and raised his glass in the traditional toast. The other officers followed suit careful not to bang their chairs against the bulkhead doors.

"To a bloody war or a sickly season," the youth declared and the others echoed him before downing their drinks. Given the circumstances the toast seemed particularly ominous, but each 'day' of ship time had its own toast and the RCN never deviated from tradition. They all resumed their seats as Byron began to dispense the pudding with a wooden serving spoon with a bladed edge.

"Speaking of impending hostilities sir," Sabatine began, "Ms Savarti did some digging into our runaway freighter and I think you were probably right in that it wasn't a pirate." Micha nodded agreeably, favoring her with a patronizing smile now that he felt she wasn't going to challenge him.

"As much as we might all wish for action, this is no time to be jumping at shadows," Micha replied sagely. Chief Savachev nodded but Helenna Graving looked disappointed. No doubt the gunner was more enthusiastic about the prospect of action against pirates than most of them. Even in fleet actions, plasma cannon were primarily defensive weapons, meant to nudge incoming missiles off target, but every gunner dreamed of being able to use them to rip open a lightly armored pirate at close range. 

"Quite right sir," Sabatine agreed, following the plan that she and Kaiden had worked out together. Tilda had been surprisingly helpful as well, no doubt her background as an investigative journalist gave her an instinct for how to use such social engineering.

"According to Tilda," Kaiden broke in, taking up his part of the plan, "It looks like Tarlock Trading is probably just moving cargo off the books, stashing it on a moon somewhere out behind MXD-43 or one of the other gas giants. Probably figure war is coming and are looking to avoid confiscation of iridium. Smugglers," he concluded with an aristocratic sneer. Kaiden Caladwarden, the scion of a rich and powerful family, could hardly be expected to care about such money grubbing tactics as avoiding legal excise duties. Every other officer in the mess however, including Micha sat up a little straighter. Sabatine concealed a grin by draining her rum and lifting her glass for a refill. The rest of the plan should unfold without so much as another word.

"That would make whatever they are stashing out their subject to seizure and condemnation by a prize court wouldn't it?" Higgs asked, looking more than a little bleary eyed from the amount of liquor he had consumed. Kaiden had assured her that it wasn't necessary to bring him into the scheme, and she was pleased to see she had been right.

"It certainly would," Leyla Savachev agreed in her Xenos drawl as she mentally calculated what a chief engineers share of such a seizure might be. Doubtless that share was all the more inflated for being imaginary. Micha was rubbing his chin too. Micha didn't come from money or even the aristocracy, quite the opposite in fact, he had worked his way up through years of thankless peacetime service, only to find himself far from the action and chance for advancement when the last war broke out. Even on active service the pay of a senior lieutenant was not extravagant, not unless you won prize money and that didn't happen without action. Unless of course you found an excuse to seize a valuable cargo from smugglers. 

"I'll bet you the prize court on Herculaneum would condem it no questions asked, as little trade as they have been getting lately," Graving speculated. The idea was clearly taking hold and Sabatine could almost feel the avarice take hold.

"Speaking of Herculaneum, if we put back in I'd like to see about replacing number three starboard, she stuck again during extraction," Sabatine interjected, steering the topic away from smuggling and prize money as Tilda had suggested. Kaiden raised his glass surreptitiously in salute. Sabatine had no doubt that by morning, the Captain would have not only found an excuse to sweep the system for smugglers caches, but be thoroughly convinced it was his own idea.