<> <> (I hope it has an attached jazz club called the Felonious Squid Monk.) (:D) (Also it is very unlikely I am here for this so I'ma dename for now.) <> (Ahahah. Yeah, get out of that Opera House, guys. Soooooon.) (Did he recover his badge? He may need it.) <> * Zeke is sitting in the car and wearing a massive blue suit jacket. The kind mafia enforcers wear, broad shouldered, with a white shirt underneath. He has matching blue slacks as well, although no shoes. The birdsect has a bowtie on it. Really. He settles into the unfortunate seat. * Tomas sits across from the agent. He's neatly trimmed his beard and managed to find a dapper black and white tuxedo in a classic earth cut in his size. It features a bow tie. (Someone get me an artists, stat) * Tomas grins at the agent, "Exciting couple days?" <> "... it's just my job, sir." * Tomas nods solemnly, "And you're doing it well, son." ".... thank you, sir." * Todd is now known as Hestia <> (I assume the car's on the move?) (Yeah, it's just a trail.) * Zeke looks around, as does the birdsect. "What other activities do you do normally?" "Mostly I guard facilities and important personages, sir." ("Well, and you." "What?" "Nothing.") * Tomas raises an eyebrow, "Important personages? Like who? You meet anybody interesting?" Except us of course. * Tomas glances at Zeke, "Well, me." * Zeke's birdsect looks at Tomas, but Zeke does not rise to the taunt. <> "I'm not allowed to talk about it, sir." * Tomas frowns slightly before going on, "Guarding facilities too? So like a security guard?" "I've helped ensure the safety of the samples turned over to GalReg." Very important for the continued research progress. * Tomas nods, "You ever have any problems? Bandits ambushing the transport or such?" ".... no. Do ... you think they would actually do that?" <> * Tomas shrugs, "They wouldn't have you guarding the cargo if there wasn't a risk, no?" (Well if you're going to steal things, have 12 arms.) * Zeke moves slowly to stand when they're stopped, getting out so he can stand upright and look around. <> "Hello, Mr. Chezik. Pleased to meet you in person. And you as well, Mr. Holliday. I'm Noelle Antima, director of GalReg." * Tomas bows slightly. * Zeke's holoface smiles slightly as he extends his hand. "I am... pleased as well." A moment, then he adds, "It has been a while since I have come to Red New York City." <> "You should visit more often. The GalReg local city bureaus have nothing on the main office." * Tomas takes her hand, "I look forward to trying the cuisine here." <> "They serve some great ceviche enchilada potstickers." <> "Shall we?" (What? You can't. huh?) * Tomas's eyes grow wide and he grins, "Let's." * Zeke nods and says, "Yes, we should." <> (Haha, Josh hasn't seen ATCverse fusion food before, has he?) ( I am aware of it, but ceviche potsticker. What?) <> "I'm sorry for being rude, but we thought it'd be easier to move everyone except you into position first. They're all waiting at the table."" * Zeke's holoface actually presses its lips together. "The media situation certainly has not left things sedate. A shame." He nods slightly at her statement. "Reasonable." "Yeah, well. Welcome to the modern era." < is actual coral.>> <> <> (Is it obvious who should sit where?) (And Noelle has sat down?) (You don't have nametags but there's only two open chairs.) * Tomas greets the others and waits for Noelle to take a seat before sitting himself to her right. <> "Before we even get to introductions I want to get my food ordered. I'll have a bad enough headache if I do this with a full stomach." * Zeke just walks along. The birdsect gives various parties the evil, uh, 'eye', but he doesn't seem to bother. Assuming, as he looks down at the chairs, that it will fit him, he sits down in the only one left, looking across to all the corporate people. "Understandable, Director. It has been... difficult for all of us." <> * Zeke has a hyperfancy menu! Sweet. He looks to Noelle and asks, "Is this a place you visit often?" <> "When I can write it off as an expense, sure." (Oh jesus.) (I can't even watch this. I'm already leaking blood from one nostril.) (Zeke doesn't know what to get!) (This is a very effective way of determining recommendations!) (YOU JUST ASKED IF SHE COMES HERE OFTEN.) (BUT THAT IS HOW YOU DETERMINE IF SHE HAS REASONABLE INFORMATION.) ("Also, is your father involved in burglary or petty theft? He appears to have appropriated large balls of flaming gas, and set them in your eye sockets.") (Ha ha ha.) * Zeke nods and asks, "Do you have a recommendation for the main dish?" <> "The cod roast poi platter is good, but I think the last time I came here I ordered the bottled crab, which is one of their weird specialties." <> "The bottled crab is spectacular when it's fresh, yes." * Tomas peeks out from behind his menu, "Bottled crab?" (You believe what is called what.) * Zeke nods and replies, "Thank you." He punches things into his menu as he looks over at Madiana. "Is this not far afield for you?" <> "Put the crab in the bottle with some vegetables and a secret glaze, and they superheat it. Boils the crab, candies the vegetables, and flavors the meats." * Tomas nods, "Interesting." He punches up some bottled crab into his menu. <> "These days it's hard to do any job without good contacts in RNYC." * Zeke nods, then replies, "That is true. Small groups taking busines risks with a low chance for great success seems to be a common thread in these days." <> "Thank you, Mr. Chezik. That brings us nicely to the point of tonight, doesn't it?" <> "Yes. I will begin, Ms. Antima, by stating flat out that your lax attitude towards safety procedures abolutely must change. We cannot be sending untrained and reckless cont ractors to planets where potential threats to humanity might lurk!" <> "And of course ATC should be the one to do the initial surveys, seeing as they have the most resources, yes, I've heard your argument for stealing all the information before we can get to it." <> "This is *not* what we are here for. I will enjoy argument when we have it, but here is for speaking to the Fate Breaker crew." <> Hi. * Zeke looks between them, looks to Tomas, then says, "What about our reports bothered you so much that this was necessary?" <> "Are you kidding us? Giant bird in exosuit? This is biggest threat since Bugs!" (kekekeke) * Zeke tilts his head. "That is not why we are here. The existance of the threat happened with or without us. We only need be here if we made a mistake." * Zeke looks around the table, leaving the question to be filled in. (?) <> "From a certain perspective it could be said that your mistake was being independent. If you had more resources, a disastrous first contact like this could possibly have been avoided." <> "Can you hon estly say you handled their questions as well as a xenobiologist could have?" (A-man isn't a xenobiologist, is he?) (Not strictly, no.) * Zeke tilts his head down slightly in a nod, then replies, "A reasonable reply. However, even directly corporate funded teams do not have that sort of immediate depth of team capability. It would only come into play in cases where negotiation was likely, and negotiation was not likely given the other abandoned planets." * Tomas begins poking a fork into the bottle and absently says, "A xenobiologist isn't a diplomat either." * Zeke nods slightly after Tomas' statement. He is correct, after all! <> "Working technology and defense systems were not enough of a clue that someone was still at home, so to speak?" * Tomas taps at the sides of the bottle, examining it more closely and trying to find a way in, "There was nobody home on the Walphin planet, yet the installation we found was powered and had at least mild security in place." Tomas is correct. Three abandoned planets, with significant nonfunctional technology does not reasonably indicate a continued presence, as I explained to the Director earlier. * Tomas looks up for a moment, "Do you think all species on the eve of their eradication will have a plan in place to turn the lights off before they go?" (YES. THE CLAPPER) (hrngh....CLAP..............CLAP. flop.) <> <> "In at least one case the installation was not powered until you turned on. What if this woke them out of hibernation?" * Tomas smiles delightedly and begins eating straight from the bottlehalf. * Zeke went with Noelle's first recommendation for cod roast poi, and so is putting it in the opening, which closes so he can eat it for reals. It's a bit weird. After a few moments, he says, "Possible, but extremely unlikely. This is also a return to the Walphin argument: Any abandoned facility could as easily be such a trigger. Would you have there be no chain jumping at all?" * Tomas picks a small bit of glass out of his vegetables and frowns at it, "You have to take big risks for the big rewards." <> "It's my suspicion that their argument is close to that, Mr. Chezik. They don't want there to be chainjumping unless they control it, with a huge corporate army waiting in the wings to crush any Bug resurgences." <> "Personally I think they're irritated that you're making them look bad." <> * Zeke smiles slightly and looks over at Noelle. "Perhaps, but that seems like something they should handle themselves, not pressure you for." He then turns back to them. "Even the legendary Europa Team investigated partially functioning abandoned ruins. Would you have called them back at the first signs of life as well?" * Tomas smirks. <> <> "The safety of our solar system is too important to risk. Anyone can do the subtraction between the number of species the sleythin claim to have surveyed and the number we've seen and come up with a large number of utterly ruined species, but no one ever suspected we would encounter so many so fast. Two in as many months is astonishing, for the number of stars and planets there are. I f it is the case that we will continue to encounter such things with increasing regularity, then the only sane response is to let the people with the resources to protect humanity encounter them!" * Tomas raises an eyebrow, "Would the Duekti situation have fallen out any differently? Your scout team would have investigated the planet, discovered the Duekti, been threatened, and reported back to you, just as we reported back to GalReg. Or do you propose sending an army for each scouting mission? Just in case." * Zeke closes the food slot and then looks to Ismail, letting Tomas answer. Of course, had you sent a full regiment to investigate the Duekti, they may have just started shooting instead of bothering to start with a threat. "It ... is not that it was handled poorly, it is that you were lucky! You could not have responded if they were hostile, and ... " <> "Let it go, Ismail. You just said it yourself, they could not have done any differently." <> "At this point it is a matter of discussion between us and Director Antima. We should instead concentrate on asking them more about these mostly unknown enemies." (Which is basically cue for session end since it's just boring "Tell us everything you have told everybody already.") (Once you guys get in your last jabs.) * Tomas bows his head to Madiana, "Thank you," and begins answering questions as the scene fades? * Zeke doesn't have any jabs. Except to put more food in his recepticle. (I can't think of any more ways to disassemble their arguments. Besides. Dissassemble = Dead.) (It's okay, it got late.) <>