<> <> (Welp. It's going to be very unfortunate when I get the gunners from Spaceballs up here to fire a warning shot across their bow.) <> (But that's... hard-hitting journalism. *sunglasses* YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH) <> * Hestia plays a short song on a recorder. A little tornado comes along and flies her right out of this session. (NOT AGAIN >_<) (WELCOME TO WARP ZONE) * Hestia is actually just sitting in the lounge, looking at a pad. Unhappily. (Warp whistles in ATC take you to SIGASP.) (Like I said. Warp zone.) * Lexi grumbles about the space planes from the pilot's seat. "Fucking media scum... I'm gonna try and lose them! Hang onto your martinis!" And she takes the Fatebreaker in for a dive and tries to outmaneuver the space planes! Because she's CRAZY! * Tomas is flipping through the channels blehing at the coverage and manages only just in time to grab a handhold. (Okay, the ship only takes minimal amounts of money to operate if you don't crash it into the planet.) * Zeke is already holding onto walls! Hopefully they explained what happened already! (On the other hand, our media problems will be over when we're high-velocity shrapnel.) <> * Amadeus is on a chair and hanging on to armrests, because uh, YEAH. * Kyle is sitting down because sitting is important when flying at crazyspeeds! * Hestia and the couch slowly slide across the lounge. Tia slides with it. It's very Mel Brooks. * Lexi "Space Jesus on a dunnostick don't these guys give up!" And she accelerates to a breakneck speeds and then pulls up sharply. * Zeke comments, "This is all very exciting for weapons not being involved." * Hestia typetype. "Mmmhmm." Typetypetype. <> (:D) (Is there anything but empty space here?) (How do you mean?) (We need to start ejecting banana peels.) (Like I don't know... asteroids, debris, space stations, small moons?) (You're in low Mars orbit, so the sky is pretty darn clear unless you want to head up towards Phobos or Diemos.) (If you are dodging Phobos or Deimos, I expect the navigational situation is dire indeed.) * Kyle looks at the space planes tailing them. Do they look like they can go out of orbit? (Well, they certainly can't jump.) <> * Hestia looks around. "Well, she sounds kind of angry, but on the other hand, she's probably having fun." You know, we could just get to a higher orbit than they can reach,. (She has some aggression to work out.) * Amadeus blinks, and looks to Tia. "Who?" * Hestia jerks a thumb up toward the bridge. * Amadeus ohs. * Lexi nods to Kyle. "Sure! Higher we go!" And she heads for a higher orbit. <> * Hestia sets down the pad on the couch, then thinks better of it and picks it back up. "So we have two months to figure out what the hell's going on. As much as I enjoy a high-G evasion of the mass media, I'm open to suggestions on what to do NOW." * Amadeus pushes up his glasses and rubs at his eyes. "Yeah, well... I'm not sure what to do. It's our word against, what, all of the major corps in existence? I'm not interested in hiding, and going down will just bury us in paparazzi." Unfortunately, our evading the media right now is only going to result in MORE paparazzi. * Hestia grins faintly. "There's always Twili..." Midway through the sentence, she trails off. * Tomas turns toward Tia and A-man, "and we don't even know who it is that threw us under this bus." * Zeke's birdsect seems about as stable as Zeke, which is to say, very. He comments, "I am not worried about the corps' response. The director of Galreg was reasonable and the corps have no control over us directly." Sure, the corps have no control over us DIRECTLY. But INDIRECTLY, they have control over nearly everything. * Lexi perks up at Hestia's comment and hmms. "You know... I do know some people there, T. It's not a bad idea." She giggles. "Although, I don't think I'd trust a ship this nice with them." * Hestia shakes her head. "I'm not going to Twilight City. It was a joke." * Zeke looks to Amadeus. "Perhaps, but exerting that control against GalReg's decision seems... ill advised." * Tomas raises an eyebrow toward the bridge, "You know people in Twilight City?" Ya know, I don't think I've ever been in there longer for a real amount of time. (err, in there for a real amount of time) * Lexi heads down into the lounge as she says that. "Hey, Masy (pronounced mahz-y) can you get me a vodka and tonic? I'm so sick of being sober for this shit." (I expect the parenthetical was spoken.) (It was a note to you guys) (I suppose I should have broke the quotations around it) (Who is Masy?) (That would be the guy who's name ends in mas) (That was my next question.) (er whose) (How chic.) * Tomas stands up and bows slightly before applying vodka liberally to tonic, "We should keep our ace pilot properly medicated with all of these fliers following us around." Oh yes. More alcohol is the perfect rider for all this high-velocity flying. * Zeke's birdsect is watching Tomas as Zeke looks between Amadeus and Hestia. "I believe that continuing to address Galreg and Galreg alone will minimize the issues we have while we take any other actions." * Lexi nods. "Now you're getting it, T!" She floats the drink over in front of her and takes a sip. It is not as if people were not... annoying before. * Hestia runs her hands through her hair. "Look. I don't know about you guys, but I *have* to know who was handing assignments down to Preston. I'm going to find out, one way or another. But you seem like nice folks if a little insane, so... you know. I don't want to get anyone in... trouble." * Lexi shrugs and takes another drink of her vodka. "Trouble? Oh no what will I ever do if I'm in trouble?" * Zeke looks directly at Hestia. "Preston stated he would inform us. I still believe it best to give him the opportunity to do so." Whatever information he gives us can be used from there. * Hestia suddenly slams her hands down on the couch and stares at Zeke with serious, undisguised anger. "GOD you're stupid! How can you POSSIBLY be this stupid?!" * Tomas returns with a vodka martini of his own, "Whatever information he gives us we'll have to verify anyway." (Poor Zeke. He doesn't really deserve it.) (He's just in the wrong genre, is all. We need to ship him back to Nadesico where he belongs.) * Kyle licks his lip as he sets up the ship to alert him if anything comes within [standard observation distance for visual range] and gets up, heading to the lounge. "So. What's the yelling match 'bout now?" * Zeke tilts his head at Hestia and replies, "Is it likely we will lose the information if we wait some short amount of time for his response?" YES. * Hestia runs her hand through her hair. "Look. I know you're all about the perfectly ordered logic, so take all the pieces together. We have an employer who was willing to send us out sight-unseen in exchange for a really large sum of money AND willing to hide that from us. We have employers who are probably triple-dipping AND have access to the sleythin star charts, which we went through fire and flood to get." * Hestia continues, unabated, ticking points off on her fingers. "Finally the entire thing explodes in their faces, one of their star teams of dupes is on the run amid a media circus, and GalReg is Very Curious about what's going on. Do you think they're just going to fold their hands and wait for the authorities to show up? They're going to burn the damn documents, Suit Boy! Wake the hell up!" * Lexi blinks and floats the drink over to Tia. "Here, T. You need this more than I do." * Hestia just snags the damn thing out of midair and drinks it in one go. * Zeke still looks confused, but the confusion slips away and he finally says, "Then it is good that we have talked with GalReg, as they will mitigate any reason for them to eliminate the records." * Hestia stares at Zeke. (OH MY GOD.) (I'm laughing RL even if Tia's "D:" is now bleeding over to me.) * Zeke looks back at her. "Since there will be no permanent punishment or effective investigation." ...was that a joke? (Zeke: "I have heard that military intelligence is an oxymoron." ) (EXACTLY.) (I am seriously cracking up, I can't even explain why. This is much funnier to me than it should be.) * Zeke tilts his head. "I significantly doubt the investigative effectiveness of GalReg." (Zeke is pretty funny.) (*blink* Did my router just die?) (Not that I can see.) (Still here.) (...how odd. Trillian gave me that "Your resource [x] is now offline" thing.) * Zeke's head stays tilted. "If they are truly attempting to investigate the people who contracted us, then causing a panic seems an ineffective way of discovering them. It does not make sense." ...I didn't say I was going to blow up a Red New York subway. I was referring to this panic. (Now you've lost me.) * Zeke looks around. "If you are correct, then this news story significantly damages anyones' chances of discovering the information they are after, making it an ineffective way of obtaining that information. Yes?" (Basically: Telling everyone WE'RE AFTER YOU NOW XD is not how you discover their secrets.) (Whose secrets? Our secrets? What?) (I don't know how that connects to Tia's arguments, though.) (Tia's argument is with respect to the secrets of Preston and the people who hired him.) (She's saying we have to strike while the iron is hot to investigate the people giving Preston info, before they finish their cover up.) (Yeah. Zeke's just questioning the necessity of a cover up. Only a moron would say 'We're coming to get you!' before coming to get them.) (So why would you bother covering up when they say 'Yeah, okay, 2 month suspension and that's it?') (Assuming there's some sort of cost to a coverup, anyway. Zeke doesn't know, but that's what he figures.) (Didn't the director say they planned to investgate?) (Yeah, but we saw what their investigation meant. Trying to call people on the phone.) (And bungle basic capture operations.) (I dunno. Zeke wants to wait on the Preston side. On the other ships, though, he doesn't care.) (Right. I think Tia's point is that waiting on the Preston side is naive, while he sneaks off to a resort planet in another show and is played by The Second Darren once things cool down.) (Probably a little.) (But now we're getting back into IC stuff.) (I'd be gratified if someone else would speak up, to be honest.) (... the second what now?) (Bewitched, Cham.) (There were two Darrens, by different actors, because he wasn't important and nobody really noticed or cared.) (Ah.) (But seriously, someone else say stuff. Mecha and I could have pretty much done all this by IM at this point. e_ea) (>_>) (D:<) (I'm not a conspiracy theorist!) (You have to have some kind of opinion on your future. ._.) (Sorry, stomach trying to choke my chest... somehow.) (Stupid stomachs.) (Gah) Regardless of whether they plan to destroy any documents, doing something is better than sitting around here just waiting. And as I already said, we'll need to verify whatever Preston tells us anyway, because I'm not in a very trusting mood right now. We might as well get a jump on that. * Hestia glances at Tomas, then nods, looking back at Zeke. "I agree. It could be the world is as rosy a picture as you're painting, but if it's not, we're the ones who lose out, not Preston and certainly not the people BEHIND Preston." * Zeke frowns. "I still believe it best to gather the information Preston will never give us, which is information on the other ships with similar patterns." A moment, then, "I... do not control your time." There's no reason we can't potentially do both, right? (What the hell is this "music") (Rainer Maria? I'm not sure. Weird.) * Hestia shrugs. "I can't imagine why not. If Preston turns out to come through, it's not as if what we do in the interim will make any difference one way or the other." * Amadeus nods. Okay, so. If we do look on our own, how do you think we should do that? I'm no expert hacker, and I don't really have *those* kind of connections. * Zeke shakes his head. "I lack the expertise to assist significantly, and am extremely noticable. I have a communications channel with GalReg, and if we set down, can guard the ship with reasonable effectiveness. That is all that I can offer on this subject." * Hestia puts a finger up near her nose. "I might know an expert hacker." (HESTIA'S CALLING YOU OUT.) (Sniff sniff.) (Sorry I'm a little distracted. I'm trying to edit a 10 page paper down to a length suitable for a 1 hour conference with 3 other presenters) (10 pages, 15 minutes, 5 for questions, piece of cake! XD) (Except that the standard reading length for a paper is 2 minutes per page =P So it's actually 20 minutes.) (I've got it down to 7 Which takes me about 14 minutes or so) Might? (But I'd like to get it down to 12. I have no idea how long the other papers are, but if we all take 12 it means we take 48 minutes total and have 12 minutes for questions) <> * Zeke is silent a moment, then, "I cannot think of a way in which I could assis--" His holohead turns back upright as he checks the caller if known! <> * Zeke says to the group, "GalReg is calling me. Continue without." He picks up, and they see holoface. He says, only on the phone, "Hello." * Hestia nods. "Might." She then decides to listen in on Zeke's conversation, once he says it's GalReg. "This should be good." (He's gonna be carrying it pretty much in suit only, much like last time, I think.) (Although maybe you can spyyyyy.) * Kyle raises an eyebrow at Zeke. * Zeke replies to the phone with, "No, that is quite all right, madame director. I hope he has not become more inebriated since the last time we conversed." (I'm just listening to your responses, unless they're subvocal.) * Zeke tilts his head. "Understandable. It is still quite strange that the situation developed so quickly, after such a long silence." <> * Tomas eyes the caller ID, because suddenly suspicious. <> (Nigerian prince huh? Really? 10 million dollars? I just need to send you 10,000 now?) * Tomas answers, "Tomas." * Tomas eyes Tia then chuckles, "No, not really." * Tomas backs off to reduce potential crosstalk! * Zeke replies, "I am not averse to making an official statement, but I am averse to captivity." A pause, then, "Do you mean to GalReg, or to the media?" * Hestia picks up her phone and looks at it. * Zeke's birdsect looks around, before he replies, "Understood. A moment to confer, if you will?" <> ( *jumps out of wall* AHA FOUND YOU.) * Tomas heads to the place where the secure datapads are kept, "Oh, very understandable. You wouldn't want that information to get out in the tabloids. Give me a second to find a datapad." * Hestia looks around at all the phone calls. "Busy day for fugitives." * Zeke turns off the 'speaking into the phone' part of his speaking into the phone and says, "The director of GalReg wishes us to make an official statement, both to GalReg and to the media." She believes this will help her... 'take control of the message'. * Tomas covers the mouthpiece of his phone, "Hold a tick, Z. I'm talking to Preston. His information may affect our plans." (I abbreviate it Z, because Zeke is too many syllables.) (It's a whole extra letter!) (A _K_, too.) * Tomas rummages through the magazines on the table and finds a datapad, "Ok, what do you have?" * Tomas dotdotdots, "Ok. One more second then." * Tomas covers the mouthpiece, "Preston apparently has a chip for us with the info he has. A little too much to just dictate. We have anymore abandoned rest stops we could meet him at?" * Hestia stares at Tomas blankly. "It's not like I keep a list." * Zeke looks around. "I do not believe we can keep the director waiting long enough for such a meeting." * Zeke glances to Hestia. "If my explanation before was satisfactory, then an official statement should be no more difficult." (TWO PEOPLE AT ONCE ARGH.) * Hestia pinches the bridge of her nose. "Uh... lie to her, Zeke. Buy us enough time to meet with Preston." As for a place to meet, I'm open to suggestions. It doesn't need to be fancy, but we can't ignore that it might be a trap. (You don't _need_ to do them linearly.) * Zeke frowns, and then says, "I do not see how Preston's information will change my statement about what happened." Well, yes. Somewhere with a nearby sniper's nest would be ideal *but I can't think of any*. (If anything, telling Zeke about Preston's info will just make it harder.) (Well then someone else make a decision! There's six people here!) (There are any number of rest stops, Tomas) (Yeah, but Hestia's the one who said that he had to wait. ^^;) (*cries softly*) Can't you tell her that we need a little time to compose a message? Because frankly, we do. * Tomas chooses a rest stop outside of Red Malmo, "How long then? Tell him two hours and get there in one to scout it out?" * Zeke nods slowly, then goes back to the phone, replying to the director with, "They wish time to compose a formal response. Do we have time?" Added benefit: it's not even a lie. * Zeke replies to the phone. "My... apologies for the difficulties, Director. May I contact you at this number when our statement is prepared?" * Tomas nods to himself and speaks into the phone again, "Meet us at < in two hours. It would probably go over better if you came with a uh minimal complement." * Hestia sits back and on the couch and leans back, staring at the ceiling. "Seriously considering cracking that bottle of wine." Might be worth it... but we don't want a drunk official statement. A... full night? * Hestia looks at Amadeus backwards off the back of the couch, regardless of where he is in the room, using her Franklin Richards-like ability to distort time and space. "If you think I'M writing it, you're out of your mind." * Tomas grins, "Understood. We'll see you then." * Amadeus smiles a little at Tia. "Just saying." * Tomas hangs up his phone, "We'll meet with Preston in two hours. He says he'll be as discreet as he can, but he can't guarantee he won't be followed." * Zeke blinks, then replies, "Of course, director. I... will be prepared." (He did not claim he would be as discrete as he could be, though. So he may be continuous.) (That bastard.) (Fired.) (At least he's not disconcinuous.) * Zeke replies to the phone, "I will call as soon as I am able, Director. Thank you," and then hangs up. How did it go? Did she offer to... uh... * Hestia sighs. "Bureaucrats do not lend themselves to sexual innuendo. The best I could do was 'rubber stamp your triplicate file'." So, uh, what's goin' on? * Amadeus snickers. * Zeke looks at Hestia strangely, then replies, "We will have to go to dinner. She implied it was for appearances. The corporate representatives will also be involved in some of these discussions." She said we would have to 'make a full night of it.' * Hestia makes a choking noise. Thankfully she's over the back of the couch so her expression isn't entirely visible, as she again flexes her reality warping powers. I shall have to retrieve my dress suit. * Zeke looks around. "We are going to meet Preston, then?" * Hestia literally falls off the back of the couch at 'dress suit'. There's a thump, some giggling, and then a muffled '...ow.' (Man, Tia's already drunk.) (I dunno, this is hilarious.) (I dunno why everyone else isn't laughing.) (it IS hilarious!) * Kyle stifles a chuckle. "Uh.... sure." * Hestia stands back up, smoothing out her hair nonchalantly. "Right. Let's get on that." (Everybody ready?) (Well, I'm going to have to do research on the Future Foxtrot, but sure!) (Oh god are we doing that NOW?) (We have a date with Preston first!) (Zeke can foxtrot with him for practive, if he likes.) (I think that's what Cham was implying.) (Yeah, Preston first, unless you wanted to spend the time to make the official statement then send Zeke off.) (I figured Zeke pretty much has the official statement handled anyway.) (Er, I figured we'd be doing it next week ^^; alright, let's walk into the ambush!) (BUSHES MADE OF AMBS) (Oh. Shit, it is kind of late.) (Yeah, we can hold off another week. Dre's busy, Ard's ill.) (zzzzzz wha?) (Yeah, sorry. Almost midnight for me, unless it was a very short thing I'd be pretty dead by the time it was over.) <>