[SWAW] Technology [S7 Kelb]

Adam

After the shower with Squall it became reasonably evident she was going to need help kicking the habit again. Pem suggested a decent rehab center on station that would do the job. Pem wanted to go with you to check her in — probably for support to Squall — did you let him go? After that, Nill pinged you with the green light to drug Jazz. He was out cold when you came into the clinic, and the drugs were in full swing before long. The medic droid reported that everything seemed in order, and that he would start the treatments ASAP. Who did you assign to guard Jazz and the clinic while you're out?

Let's pick up with your interviewing Squall's replacement. You're in the middle of this interview, and you're already sold on the candidate ... Who did you find, and why did they stand out?

Rich

Yes, I let Pem help. He came with us. Have to say, I'm rather impressed that he cares about her like that. He's the biggest reason for my change of heart. I hope Squall gets better.

Knocking Jazz out nearly killed me. I put Tezzik in charge of watching him. I wish Jaina was around, she'd be a good back-up. But I ruined that. Ruined it. I miss her now, more than ever. Squall was a nice distraction, but I broke her.

As for the new techie:

He calls himself Ramud, like "Rah" plus "mood". He's a whiz with gadets, builds stuff on his own, likes to talk, probably too much, but he works cheap. He might be a sympathizer with the insurrectionists or whatever they call themselves now, but as long as he keeps his politics to himself, I don't care.

I mentioned cheap, right? And he's on station. So yeah, perfect.

Adam

Oh, he likes to talk alright...

"... So anyway, my buddy Halfcred comes up with this awesome plan to bypass the preamp entirely, and feed it directly into the ADC module with this new, ultra-sensitive crystal he got on the black market to increase the sensitivity — BANG! The thing works like a kriffing charm! So I start feeding in signal, run some new calculations to adjust for the extra noise, and lo-and-behold — we spot the kriffer's ship sitting there, barely giving off a heat signature, nearly two and a half systems away!"

He closes his eyes, and bites his lower lip like he's proud of himself, "Sorry... What was the question? I think I got a little off topic there..."

Rich

I followed most of what he just vomited out. Most of it. "Sounds good. We're leaving nowish. You ready to roll out?" If yes, I'm going... by the smuggler's bar. Not in, just near. Just pass by, look in. Maybe I'd see her.

Stupid Kelborn. But yeah, I do it.

Adam

Ramud nods frantically, "Yeah! Totally! I'll just, uh... I'll just meet you at your ship, then? I've got to grab my bag. What's the dock number?" Once he's got the details, he'll run off and do his thing, promising to be there before you know it.

As it just so happens, Jaina is indeed visible from the hallway outside the bar. She looks, as she would say, like poodoo — but what that really means is she's got a few hairs out of place, and doesn't have her makeup on. She's talking to a Wookiee you recognize from the guild — Rorwaa. It looks like she's negotiating with him, given the relatively calm look on her face, you'd guess for his services rather than a chance to flee the station before he breaks her legs. Rorwaa isn't very good at his job, though — how do you know that, Kelb?

Rich

Rorwaa is great, right up until you get him in a fight. He's an honored warrior among the Wookiee because he can enter a berserker rage. Problem is, he throws down his weapons and just starts tearing people up. Notice how I don't say "his enemies"?

Yeah.

Stars, she looks good. I always told her she looked good natural. Her beauty just shines through.

I wonder if I should hire Rorwaa out from under her, maybe slide Ukuun her way? No. Stupid Kelborn. Let it ride. She's good. It's alright, you'll only mess things up.

I'll head back to her ship, get things ready to roll after letting everyone who didn't know about Squall, know.

Adam

Ramud is waiting at the Ebon Hawk when you arrive, out of breath and grinning wide. He follows you up the catwalk into the deck proper, and Pem helps him get set up. Everyone knew Squall was going into rehab — it's a small crew, and Pem has a loud mouth. Still, you can see the crew appreciates that you went around to make sure everyone heard it from you.

Nill is up in the bridge, getting things ready for takeoff. She comes on the intercom to announce departure, "looks like we've got a full house — everyone buckle up for departure in 10. Kelb, can I see you on the bridge?"

Rich

I'm glad the team is taking this well. Without Jazz here, things feel really odd. I haven't been on an op without him since Mandalore.

Nill's calling me to the bridge? Interesting. I'll head up there to check out what's up. Is she the only one here?

Adam

She's the only one up there. She's got the place cleaned up a little, and is sitting in the copilot's chair. She points to the captain's seat and gestures for you to join her. "liftoff in 3, so you should buckle up. I don't know who repaired this ship last, but it handles like a space station... Can you close the door behind you?"

Rich

Well, I guess it's a tight ship now, isn't it? I smirk, and head over. I'm sure she knows I never sit in the captain's chair. But for her, to give this thing a real effort, I'll sit. Buckle up, run through pre-flight checks. Falling into routine. Feels pretty good, to be honest.

And yes, I closed the door. Does she have something to say, too, I wonder?

Adam

Nill takes you out into space, and sets a course for the first hyperspace jump. It takes a few minutes, but she asks for your help with a few calculations, but once you're in hyperspace she finally relaxes and spins her chair over to you. "Should be a couple of days out to Mandalore... I figured we should talk about what to expect there — maybe hammer out where we're going to land."

Rich

I enjoy the moments where Nill asks for help, thankful that I paid attention to all those times Jaina went on and on about her baby. The ship, I mean.

Then, we start planning. "Well, Nill, I've purposefully kept myself ignorant of Mandalore for a few cycles now, so my intel is out of date. But if we're looking to get a jump on Baltan's contacts, then we should look up some of my old squaddies and instructors, like Lux, Fenri, Dred, or Hudu. They would have some names, I'm sure. I've heard he was funding some of their activities."

Adam

"I'll have some old friends of mine run those names through the grinder, and see what they turn up. I presume we should avoid any mandalorian army entanglements?" She flicks a switch on the ship to turn on automated systems and adds, "Is there anyone planet side you would trust with your life?"

Rich

Without hesitation, I answer, "Rav. I'd trust her with my life. She is everything I wanted to be. Fett chose her to train the clones, she's tough, honorable, and wicked smart. Rav, for sure."

Adam

Nill nods, and gets lost in thought for a moment... Finding these people is obviously a top priority for her. She finally looks up after a while and asks, "Anywhere specific you'd like to go? I'd imagine it's been a while since you've touched home soil..."

Rich

I chew on the inside of my cheek, worried, but also excited about going home. "I wouldn't mind going to Keldabe. The capital should be nice this part of the cycle." A little smile sneaks onto my face, and I look over at Nill, reaching out to touch her forearm lightly, "You've never had fritters until you try them at Oyu 'baat!" That sounded really girlie, I think.

I look back to the viewscreen and collect myself, concluding with, "Let's just avoid Concordia. At all costs. Family issues."

Adam

Nill smirks at your sudden show of emotion — but you get the impression she understands, and maybe even thinks it's appropriate. She opens her mouth to speak, and there's even a hint of joy in her expression, but there's a sudden knock at the door, and you see Pem's face in the window — he looks a little annoyed. Ramud is behind him. Nill clams up again, and leans back in her chair, "A captain's work is never done," you hear her whisper as she returns to navigation.

Rich

Nill is pretty when she's happy. I didn't expect that, she's such a dour person normally. I let her take care of the cockpit and rise to go to the door.

After I open it, I step into the corridor outside with them, asking, "What's going on?" I don't sound annoyed, just asking like it matters.

Adam

Pem shoves a thumb over his shoulder to Ramud, and Ramud starts unloading... "Miss Vizsla, did you know someone routed every single ship subsystem to a single point of access in my dormitory? That is uber unsafe!" He points into the bridge, and without taking a breath continues, "I mean, my buddy Tre'lasi once did a full re-route from bridge systems to a secondary point of access near his life-support systems in the event he lost cabin pressure in the bridge — and when he got hit by a couple of pirates, he lost his whole ship because the kriffers figured out what he did, and locked him out of everything! Not to mention that this terminal I found has overrides on bridge controls! Was he trying to fly the ship from his bedroom or something?"

He steps around Pem and lowers his voice, but he still hasn't taken a breath, "Now I'm not saying whoever did their job last didn't know what they were doing — but this is the kind of thing that's going to take a few weeks worth of work to completely untangle... Can I take a look at the bridge? I'd bet microcreds on the cred that it's a kriffing mess in there..."

He blinks a few times in anticipation, and holds his breath for your response.

Rich

"Squall did the re-routes, and she's a whizzer. She did run the ship from her room at times." I look him over.

Maybe he works cheap for the wrong reasons... I'm going to read him.

Rich

[Kelborn]

Reading Ramud
(Rolled: 2d6+2. Rolls: 3, 5. Total: 10)

Rich

[Kelborn]

• is Ramud telling the truth about the danger this poses?
• what does Ramud intend to do?

Holding one.

Adam

Ramud absolutely believes this is a danger, and he truly believes everything he said was true. He definitely knows what he's talking about. You can tell that he intends to fix this ASAP, and get everything in order — at the very least dismantling Squall's work. "There's a reason ships have bridges — if you want to control the ship, you've got to be up there, and you've got to be at the helm. There's no good reason for that workaround..."

Rich

I shrug, look over at Pem. "Well, Ramud, you're right. When you're right, you're right. Don't take us out of commission, but fix what you can while we're in hyperspace." Is Pem pissed about this, like he's protecting Squall or something?

• what does Ramud wish I’d do?

Adam

Pem is certainly annoyed by all this — he grits his teeth whenever Ramud calls Squall's judgement into question — but he's keeping his mouth shut for now. Ramud hasn't earned his chops yet, at least not in his eyes. Ramud smiles and nods, "Sweet! ... Uh, yeah! I'll just squeeze by here, and see what's going on then..." He steps into the bridge and starts looking around all the stations for various re-routes. When he finds one, he immediately starts tearing it apart. "People should be running this poodoo by you, captain! Modifications to ship systems are the kind of thing that should have your stamp of approval... The problem is, this Squall did re-route Hyperdrive control, and shields, and armaments, and a whack of other poodoo... So shutting it down means we'll drop out of hyperspace... I'll do what I can for now, and deal with the rest when we touch down."

Ramud wants you to let him do a complete check on the ship — then let him bring it up to standard.

Rich

I reach over to touch Pem a little on his forearm, or chest, just a touch for his attention, letting him know I see it. I nod to him, like I've got it. Then to Ramud, "Let's go one system at a time. Squall did run this by me, Ramud. But she's... on holiday, so I'm willing to work it back to spec. But the Hawk is a tricky bird. And you're new."

I'll close the door on Pem, it's tight in here, he surely doesn't want to come in. Then I'll stroll over the couple paces to squat down by him. "Squall was more than our techie, Ramud. She's our friend. It'd be smart to talk tech, and not insult her in front of the crew. She did things her own way, but she got them done. Now... you're my tech. So I'll let you adjust the ship to standard, but slow. And respectful."

I offer him a tight grin. He better listen to me.

Adam

Ramud smiles back at you when you imply he should do it slow, "Huh? Oh... Yeah! No problems... There's more than one way to skin a nerf, right? My buddy Reefi was like that — anything to get the job done, you know? But my philosophy is, do it right the first time, and you won't be doing it again... Anyway, yeah, sure. I'll do things real quiet like... Respectful to her the person and all that..."

He shifts down under the console he was working on, and starts tearing out some wires. Nill seems intrigued by him — watching him work, and staying relatively quiet. She looks up to you, and asks, "anything else, Kelborn? We should be on autopilot for a few days at least..."

Rich

I look back at Nill, then to Ramud the talkative. Well, there went the first actual conversation I've enjoyed in weeks. "You got this then? I'm heading to my bunk."

I'm heading to my bunk, just need some quiet time. After a bit, I'll go on walkabout, check in on Pem and Macks. Stars, that's it. I can't believe we're so small. I should've picked up some more mercs, even though right now, I can't really afford them.

Adam

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