I was hoping to enquire about renting one of your shuttles.

Kevin Cliffe: Anyway, Roland, the captain says I can show you the cool stuff...which is probably necessary given that you might find it anyway.

Shen Jiutai looks a little grumpy, "I hope I don't have to cook for it or nothing, But if it eats the rats, instead of you usin’ my galley to cook ‘um, I guess I like him..."

Kevin Cliffe: Well hopefully we'll run out of rats.

Roland Josephus arches an eyebrow, "Well sounds like somethin’ else I'll have to fix... You better show me then."

Kevin Cliffe: “I hope not, but, better you know about it. I'll give you the specs as soon as I can.” He pulls up a floor panel, revealing a conduit that's not part of the standard firefly design...slightly thinner than the plasma conduits that would feed the turbines port and starboard.

Xiao Li idly scratches Nigel behind the ears.

Kevin Cliffe: That is the ventral feeder conduit for a set of 10mm paired rotary barrel plasma cannons.

Roland Josephus nods slowly, 'How are they cooled?"

Kevin Cliffe: I put a few mods on the coolant compressor, so it uses the same lines as the reactor core magnets.

Kevin Cliffe: There's a second conduit for the cannons on the dorsal side.

Roland Josephus: "That means the reactor is going to run hot if you fire them up... Less coolant, plus that line is liable to heat up, and it runs next to the coolant lines...Who put it in?

Kevin Cliffe: Sabrina and I did. And the system's set up to increase coolant flow. The reactor ramps up too to produce more plasma and feed more power, so the guns will work and the turbines don't lag. Xiao rewrote the software and we checked the arming process, no problems.

Roland Josephus kneels down, and looks at the conduit, and shakes his head, "I don't like it hooked to the reactor lines......I guess we could insulate those two lines, and see about getting a bigger coolant reservoir....

Kevin Cliffe: That'd be a good idea. The fact that it runs as is means that doing that would give us a better safety margin.

Shen Jiutai relaxes into her seat and looks to Xiao Li, "So, anything exciting happen while I was stuck on Meridian?"

Xiao Li: Other than an asshole passenger pullin' out the compression coil and leavin' us driftin' for a day an' a half, you mean?

Shen Jiutai looks up in suprise, "Passengers? On the drift? Sounds like perhaps bein' stuck with a grumpy Sabrina wasn't all that bad..…”

Xiao Li: I still think we shoulda killed that hun dan when we had a chance.

Shen Jiutai: And who exactly was this Hu-dan?

Xiao Li: Fella name of Anton Machin. Escorting Xeno's niece off to an arranged marriage on Newhall.

Shen Jiutai looks ashamed, "Oh, you met Xeno and Anton, I guess I must have left you guys with some unfinished business."

Xiao Li raises an eyebrow. "You could say that."

Kevin Cliffe: Anyway the weapons are concealed when not in use.

Roland Josephus: "What it means is... if you guys up front have to fire those guns... The coolant system for the reactor won't blow up, and kill us all with a containment breach.”

Kevin Cliffe: This is a tokomak type core, it won't blow unless you deliberately make it blow. But yeah...the system's tested and hasn't blown us up. There are a set of blow-vents for the conduits, just in case.

Roland lets out a long breath, and thinks for a moment, "Alright I can get the lines insulated without a problem... Think you can fabricate a tank big enough to hold the extra we'll need?"

Kevin Cliffe: Something that big isn't easily fabricated...I can salvage something, and maybe we can hide the extra line to make it look like spare fuel.

Roland Josephus shrugs, "Doesn't much matter.. If they know what to look for.. It won't fool 'em, and if they don't.. They won't know what they're looking at."

Shen Jiutai blushes and finds the buckle on her jacket very interesting, "I reckon I owe you all some apologies."

Xiao Li: I reckon you do.

Shen Jiutai stops fiddling and looks up, "I guess I was only thinking about myself." She pauses, "I'm sorry. I'll try to make it up to you somehow."

Xiao Li just nods, gazing levelly at Shen.

Kevin Cliffe: Oh, you haven't seen the neatest part yet. Full suite of sensors, plus extras, enough for targeting and...some neat tricks. And yeah, they might find it IF they knew what to look for. Heh heh heh... Under here... are the extra breakers, so if we do need to cut power to the special hardware, we have the main, dorsal, ventral, and thermoptic buses... Here, I'll show you the other neat thing.

Roland Josephus rubs his chin, "Hmmm Well .. I can set some relays....Run the controls circuits through the buss... If you get it programed... You can turn it off from a console.

Shen Jiutai diverts her eyes, "This boat, and this crew... I thought it was just Sabrina, but it's not... after being on Meridian for all of those weeks, well, I don't know how to say this, but I feel like I've finally come home again."

Kevin Cliffe: That much we've got worked out already, right Xiao? The control systems?

Xiao Li: Most of it, yeah.

Kevin Cliffe reaches up under a panel and pushes a button, flipping some holograms into existence over the display...the copilot's chair now seems more like fire control. He then lifts up a floor panel... “A second Quan-Tec mainframe. Just like the one the nav computer uses. Except this one is dedicated. It's the nerve center for a thermal-optical active camouflage system.”

Roland: "And I guess thats hooked to the reactor as well.

Kevin Cliffe: Nope. Standard power draw.

Roland: What kind of power usage are we talking about?

Kevin Cliffe: Well, the draw is usually low, 500 watts. When we run it, we turn on the emergency lighting instead. The emergency lighting draws less power, but more importantly, it's easier for the camo to work with.

Roland: 500 watts to hide a whole ship?

Kevin Cliffe: Yep. It's basically a wraparound hologram...two, actually. One in the visible spectrum, the other in infrared. Under the right conditions we're really hard to find.

Roland Josephus nods, "As long as they dont' scan us..."

Kevin Cliffe: Yeah. That's the big problem. I'm thinking about trying to make an active jamming system...but the problem with that is it makes too much noise.

Roland Josephus nods might as well hang a sign out that says, "Here we are" if you try jamming.

Kevin Cliffe: “If they use active scanning, we have to really hope they don't point it in our direction. And what's worse, the fed operators are well-trained. I'd like to try to avoid running the active camo around them. They might still pick up trace emissions from the reactor. But if we're far enough away, we can drift by. Outside of the feds, we don't need to worry. Pirates, Reavers, crime syndicates...” He turns off the fire control systems, and it looks just like a copilot's console all over again.

Roland: Prolly be better to shut down, and make like a hole in space... less you move the better... The less the computer has to adjust the hologram for what’s behind you.

Kevin Cliffe: Exactly. Drifting at constant velocity, it can easily handle. Standing still, it can easily handle. Slow maneuvers, we blur a little. If we're jinking, running with engines hot, we blur a lot. And if we use the guns, the system can't hide the muzzle flare. The weapons we have could put a hole in an alliance cruiser, but that same cruiser could then gut us stem to stern in a heartbeat with a plasma projection tube.

Roland Josephus shakes his head, "Be like throwing a turnip at a tank..."

Kevin Cliffe: Not really. Like I said, the guns are effective. Just that the alliance has weapons that are MORE effective, and they have ships full of people trained to use them. I'm almost worried you haven't asked the obvious question.

Roland Josephus shrugs, "What’s that?"

Kevin Cliffe: How I know all this.

Roland: Well that ain’t really any of my business.. Somethings it’s better I don't know.

Kevin Cliffe: Most of the rest of the crew knows already. But I won't force it on you.

Roland Josephus nods.

Kevin Cliffe: Let's just say there are things that I'm not too proud of, and one day I decided I'd had enough, and that's why I'm here.

Roland: Why yer here ain't none of my concern either.. Don't monkey around with the engines or the reactor, and we'll get along fine.

Kevin Cliffe: Hey, I don't monkey around with the things that keep me breathin' out in the black. I helped keep 'em running once or twice. But they're your engines now, and you don't need me stickin' an extra hand in where it won't do any help. So we're cool.

Roland Josephus nods, 'Good."

Kevin Cliffe: And I think it'd be better if we both work on the weapons where it concerns the feeders, because we're going to need to stay on the same page, right?

Roland Josephus nods, "Well I need to know what kind of power drain all these extra systems will have... I don't much care about guns, or holograms, or sensors.. I care about CO2 scrubbers, and reactor containments, and little stuff that keeps us breathin’…”

Kevin Cliffe: If you've got a cortex reader, I'll run a copy of the stats.

Roland: You guys run a full load test on all of it?

Kevin Cliffe: Yep, though we may need to do one again. It's been a while.

Roland Josephus nods, 'Well landing pad on an alliance controlled work prolly ain't the best place to start one."

Kevin Cliffe: Yeah, particularly if the test doesn't repeat the results of the last one. Last one ran fine. If the blow-vents trigger top and bottom and they decide to get anal...

Roland Josephus nods, and glances around, "Any other nasty surprises thats going to throw my specs off?"

Kevin Cliffe: Yeah. The rats. Always the rats. Although now that we have a cat that should be taken care of. We have, or had, a nest of rats in the works somewhere. We lately insulated and sealed off as much of the soft spots as possible. The feeders, both the weapon and the turbine feeders, are sealed, but the little bastards keep finding SOMETHING to chew on. Hence the cat. He's already bagged a few.

Roland Josephus: Goram rats? Can't you spray or something?

Kevin Cliffe: We tried that. Hell, I think we even tried opening the ship up in hard vacuum.

Roland Josephus just shakes his head.

Kevin Cliffe: At least this time we have a crew-mate that can get into the tight spaces and get the little pieces of gao se.

Roland Josephus winces, "I can't imagine."

Kevin Cliffe: The only other thing that could is a prototype that I was working on...the Patchbot. It can get into tight spaces in the event of a hull breach and detonate a foam canister, The foam expands, hardens, and plugs the hole.

Roland Josephus nods slowly.

Kevin Cliffe: Can't use it though...the foam is standard issue hull patch, but the bot still has trouble running in the tight spaces between the armor hull (just standard ship plating that keeps the micrometeors and radiation out) and pressure hull.

Roland Josephus: Temporary fix anyhow... You're still on the clock

Kevin Cliffe: Hm?

Roland Josephus: That foam will do you for awhile... But it ain't a fix.. Sooner or later.. it will fail.

Kevin Cliffe: Yeah, it's only until we hit atmo anyway. Especially if it's ventral...then we really need to ramp up the engines to offset the burn-through.

Roland Josephus nods, "Well lets hope we don't have to worry about that."

Kevin Cliffe: Always good to think ahead, though.

Roland Josephus nods, 'Ayup."

Kevin Cliffe: Ah well. Well, if you need any parts machined I can see what I can do. Ooh, also the ventral feeder supplies a furnace I have in my room. I'll get you the power draw on that. It's actually quite minimal, because it doesn't vent plasma, it circulates it and returns the gas to the reactor.

Roland Josephus nod slowly, "Fair enough...We're gonna need that coolant tank... Built or salvaged one."

Kevin Cliffe: I'll go raid the junkyard. Think the main compressor will give us enough push for a pressure test?

Roland Josephus: The pressure shouldn't be a problem... The extra coolant won't add enough weight to tax the pump very much... But it will give us some extra cooling for the reactor.. Just in case you get to shoot those guns.

Kevin Cliffe: Hey, like I said, we checked the weapons. The system will run on the coolant we've got if we need to. But...hey, it still makes sense.

Roland Josephus nods, 'Thats why you guys pay me."

Kevin Cliffe: That it does. 'sides, if we lose coolant, and find ourselves in a position where we need to fly AND shoot still...meh.

Roland Josephus nods, “Then we're hurtin.”

Kevin Cliffe: We lose coolant, the magnetic containment fails. Without containment, the plasma expands and loses density. No density, no fusion. No fusion, no power, everything shuts down. Not a good situation when we've got Reavers breathing down our necks...

Roland Josephus: "Well that pretty much goes without sayin..

Kevin Cliffe: Or if the coolant goes when we go to full burn...

Roland Josephus: It shouldn't... Unless something else is burning it up that I don't know about.

Kevin Cliffe: Like I said, you'll get full stats. Actually I meant more along the lines of a coolant leak, like a ruptured or damaged line.

Roland Josephus nods.

* * *

Shen Jiutai glances over to Xiao Li, "Well, I guess I'll go see about that cat food an’ litter... and I think Cap'n wanted some hot chocolate."

Xiao Li nods

Shen Jiutai: Need anything else?

Xiao Li: Nothin' comes to mind just yet. I'll let ya know.

Rae Overholt stands in the cargobay. Thinking.

Shen Jiutai nods and heads for the stairs. “Hey Cap'n, I'm headin' in to town..”

Rae Overholt nods. "What you going to get there?" She spots Xiao Li and nods. "Going to town too?"

Xiao Li shrugs. 'Might as well. It's that or listen to the boys talk shop all day.'

Rae Overholt: Anything particular you going for?

Li Mei: Excuse me, are you Captain Overholt?

Rae Overholt looks up at the fancy stranger. "I am. What can I do for ya? Needing passage somewhere?"

Xiao Li: *please* tell me you ain't got an escort.

Rae Overholt lets out a laugh and pokes Xiao LI with her elbow.

Li Mei smiles, "Yes, I was hoping to enquire about renting one of your shuttles."

Rae Overholt's eyebrows go up in surprise. "Well, haven’t rented a shuttle before. Xiao li? What's the going rate for a shuttle now days?"

Xiao Li raises an eyebrow, looking from Rae to the strange woman and back again. “I'm thinkin' maybe... 20 a week?”

Rae Overholt: Well you heard the pilot, 20 creds a week.

Li Mei frowns, appearing to run numbers through her head. “It sounds a bit steep, but I suppose it might be acceptable.” She hastens to add, "But at that rate, I would have some conditions."

Rae Overholt: What would those be? I'm not much of a tea maker myself and my crew aren't so good at being servants.

Li Mei smiles a little too sweetly and says, "I can manage brewing tea, and I have no need for servants."

Rae Overholt thinks back on their bratty passenger. "What would you like then?"

Li Mei: I only ask that none of the crew enter the shuttle, unless I invite them in, which I assure you is unlikely.

You: Well I don't have a problem with that. Don't rightly let them enter my cabin either.

Li Mei: I also need to know that I will be able to be near planets where I can conduct my business, and not be afraid that you will strand me there.

Rae Overholt gives her an odd look. "And leave one of my shuttles behind? Don't think you need to worry about that"

Li Mei nods, "I apologize, it's just that I've had some . . . unfortunate turns of events before, and I want to make sure they aren't repeated."

Rae Overholt: I imagine I can understand that. We'll do right by you. Won't we Xiao Li?

Xiao Li: If she pays we'll do right by her, sure.

Li Mei smiles, "Then does that mean we can do business"

Shen Jiutai approaches, "We takin' on a renter?"

Xiao Li: Could be.

Rae Overholt: Now, do you have anything we need to know about? No dragons after you? No Alliance? Clients gone mad?

Xiao Li: Ain't allergic to cats, are ya?

Li Mei hesitates, "No, definitely no dragons or Alliance issues. And I absolutely adore cats."

Rae Overholt: You sound a little like you're hedging. What story you leaving untold?

Li Mei looks offended, "I'm not hedging anything,"

Rae Overholt: “Alright.” She gives Xiao Li a look. “What might be your name?”

Xiao Li nods knowingly at Rae.

Li Mei: Oh, excuse me, I should have introduced myself. I'm Li Mei, And I know your name, but the rest of your crew . . .?

Rae Overholt: This here is Xiao Li, our pilot. That over there is Shen our..cook. Kevin our tactical officer and Roland our mechanic are on the ship... Gabe... he's missing today but he's my first mate.

Xiao Li: We also have a medic, at least in theory...

Li Mei bows her head slightly, "I'm pleased to meet you"

Rae Overholt: Well, the men folk might be able to help you get your things in.

Shen Jiutai looks to the Captain, "I'm goin' up the hill, I guess I could lend a hand..."

Li Mei: That would be most helpful.

Rae Overholt: Thank you Shen. Xiao Li, you up for it? I can go get the fellas? Where were you staying Li?

Li Mei: My home is just up the hill, behind the market.

Xiao Li rolls her eyes and lets out an exaggerated sigh. "I *guess* so."

Rae Overholt: Alright then. I'll be right back.

Li Mei: Thank you all so much.

Rae Overholt: Roland?

Roland Josephus grunts from behind his coffee cup, "Cap'n?"

Rae Overholt: Got a moment to help lug our new ‘what seems to be companion’s’ stuff to her shuttle? Everyone here is lending a hand.

Roland Josephus coughs, and lowers his coffee cup, "We got a companion on here? Why don't ye jest take the mule?"

Rae Overholt frowns, "knew I hired you for a reason... Still."

Li Mei nods, "That will be fine, thank you. I will see you all shortly, then."

Shen Jiutai nods.

Li Mei heads up the hill to her house.

Rae Overholt: We'll take the mule

**Xiao Li, Shen and Rae board the mule and fly up the hill to meet Li Mei at her current Washtown residence.”

Li Mei points at a large, but not huge trunk, "Most of my things are packed in this trunk. The rest I have in my bag, which I can carry"
Rae Overholt: “Okay.” ::she sighs and goes to lift a corner:: “C'mon ladies, the men chickened out on us.”

Shen Jiutai walks to the trunk and takes one end.

Li Mei grins, "Men usually do"

Shen Jiutai bends her knees and waits until the other end rises then lifts the trunk.

Rae Overholt: “He can unload it.” She looks a little less than happy as she begins to work towards the mule with the luggage.

Xiao Li is... supervising. Yeah, that's it.

Rae Overholt glares at Xiao Li as they shove the trunk onto the mule. "You get to offload as well"

Shen Jiutai heaves the trunk into the mule, "Guess I need to get to the store now."

Li Mei: I will pick up the rest of what I need the next time we're near a . . . more civilized world. I love this moon, but it lacks in shopping facilities.

Rae Overholt: See ya Shen. You need me to come back with the mule for you?

Li Mei: “That won't be necessary. I need the exercise anyway."

Rae Overholt: How about you Shen?

Shen Jiutai: Yeah, I figure I might as well lay in enough supplies to last a while in the black, you got the creds on account at the store, right?

Rae Overholt: Yeah.

Shen Jiutai: OK, then just come back in, say half an hour.

Rae Overholt nods.

Li Mei nods, "I will see you all then"

Shen Jiutai wanders off to the store.

***Rae and Xiao Li take the mule back to the spaceport as Li wanders down the path.***

Xiao Li clambers into the back of the mule to lift one end of the trunk

Li Mei hears a cat somewhere and looks around for the kitty.

Rae Overholt yells out, "ROLAND GET YOUR KEESTER DOWN HERE TO CARGO AND HELP UNLOAD"

Roland Josephus: You ain't got to hollar.. I heard ye.

Xiao Li: Where's Kevin?

Roland Josephus: Ain't my day to keep up with the man... He ran off ...something about the junk yard...

Li Mei looks at Roland, "You must be Roland. I'm Li Mei."

Roland Josephus glances over to Li Mei, and back to Rae, "Where you want all this stuff?"

Rae Overholt: Starboard shuttle.

Roland Josephus nods once, and moves toward the MULE reaching for two of the bags.

Rae Overholt: The one big trunk. Xiao Li will help as she didn’t earlier. Li can get the other.

Li Mei: Yes, thank you, I can manage this bag, it's just the trunk I need help with.

Xiao Li: Okay, Rol, you get that end, I'll get this one...

Roland Josephus shrugs, and reaches for his end of the trunk. He lifts up on the handle, and blinks a bit in surprise, before dropping his other hand to the task.

Xiao Li hauls upward with all her not-very-much might. Hey, she got hired for her brains, not her bulging biceps.

Rae Overholt chuckles.

Li Mei looks around the cargo bay, "This is nice. Much larger than it appears from the outside."

Rae Overholt: Firefly's are the best out there. Not much to look at, but they'll go forever with a good mechanic.

Roland Josephus just grunts, and hefts up on the trunk, moving toward the stairs.

Li Mei nods, "A ship is only as good as her crew."

Xiao Li: Hey hey hey slow down...

Li Mei stares at Roland's biceps, "And it looks like you have a fine crew"

Xiao Li struggles to keep her end of the trunk up.

Rae Overholt: A fine crew that was absent earlier..

Roland Josephus winces, and slows down for the woman. "Hurry up will ya.. I got a dozen things to get done before we can lift off.…”

Li Mei follows Roland and Xiao Li to the shuttle.

Rae Overholt: So, companion. Guild trained then? What brings you out here?

Li Mei stops, turns to look at the captain, "Yes, I am a member of the guild. I came out here originally because life in the core was beginning to bore me"

Xiao Li: Well if you weren't so busy gabbin' at Kevin you coulda’ done it all already...

Li Mei: "Unfortunately, locating suitable clients out here has proved more difficult than I thought."

Rae Overholt: Well, you shouldn't be bored out here.

Li Mei smiles, "I don't doubt that."

Roland Josephus just shakes his head, 'I can't help it if the man is long winded... Think you can make it up the stairs?"

Li Mei: "I need more . . . mobility, to conduct m business out here. That is why I contacted you about the shuttle."

Xiao Li eyes the stairs warily. "Think maybe you should take the bottom end for that."

Rae Overholt nods, "Sure, aughta do you good then. Make things easier for you"

Li Mei: "I certainly hope it will"

Roland Josephus slowly sets the trunk down, and nods once, "Fair enough.. Lets switch."

Rae Overholt: “For the love of Buddah.” ::she dashes up the stairs and takes hold of Xiao Li's end to give her a hand:: "Let's move on then."

Li Mei giggles at the crews struggles with the trunk, but attempts to hide the giggle.

***Somehow, they manage to wrestle the thing up to the catwalk with only minor injuries sustained***

Rae Overholt comes back down nursing a bruised shin and heading back for the mule to go get Shen.

Xiao Li limps toward the galley, muttering curses under her breath.

Roland Josephus calls after the to injured women, "… Sorry..."

Li Mei heads towards the shuttle, "If you will excuse me, I'll go unpack my things"