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[detectivewonder]

Who: Tim Drake AND YOU.
Broadcast: Fleetwide video & text stream.
Action: The Marsiva.
When: 1/29; evening.

[Tim has been pacing the deck, finding every corner, every computer console, working furiously to research whatever he can since the moment he woke up. Knowledge is a form of control; secrecy is another, and he has far too much of one and absolutely no guarantee of the second, and it makes him edgy. But once he's gotten a grip on the basic concept, delaying makes no sense.]

[The video broadcast reveals a young man - eighteen, give or take a few months - in a trim blue suit and red tie, dark hair neatly parted but still falling into his eyes, which are blue and unmistakably angry or tense no matter how well we modulates his tone and keeps it off the rest of his face, crisp and professional.]

Good... evening, I think, is the local time? Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, Pilot Officer reporting for duty - or I will be soon, if I'm getting the right idea here. I wanted to reach out and touch base before I was assigned - get an idea of what the ships are like, who I might be serving with, how long everyone's been here. Anything you can tell me would be appreciated.

Comments

video forever

[aberrant_type]

[The video reveals a friendly face, at least? Keen brown eyes and a keen smile. Hange gives the kid a grin. No reason not to, since he's fresh... on the ship, as the case may be.]

A pilot! Excellent, I feel like we're a bit skimpy on those. That might just be my ship's composition, though.

Welcome to the fleet.

[detectivewonder]

It might be based on prior experience - if they do that. I have some flight experience already with aerospace vehicles.

Nothing like this, though.

[aberrant_type]

Don't worry. You're equipped with what you need to know, I'm sure. Those augments have a nice trick for that - you won't fly the ship into any walls unless you do that deliberately.

[detectivewonder]

That wouldn't be very bright. Especially not with other people on the ship.

[aberrant_type]

Well, who knows what you'd choose to do! [Cheerfully.]

Augments... do seem to have some rhyme and reason to them, as far as I've seen. I have a lab augment, for example, and I was a researcher back at home! But you could have something entirely different too.

[detectivewonder]

If I'd been choosing for myself, a lab augment is probably what I would have gone with.

[aberrant_type]

I'm sure you'll find a place to be useful with what you've got. At least if you're inclined to be useful!

[And he's dressed so sharply, her conclusion as to whether he's useful or not... could go either way.]

You'll be on board the Marsiva for, oh, a couple more days I'd guess, kiddo. Then you're going to be sent out to join one of the smaller ships. I won't be seeing you, I'm afraid! Red Fish is topped up for crew.

[detectivewonder]

I don't suppose you know which ships have openings right now? Can I access that data from here?

[aberrant_type]

I'm not sure, I've never been on the Marsiva. But I suppose I can pull it up for you. Give me a minute.

[Give it a few seconds...]

The Pathstone has an opening, as do the Bloodsport, Three Twins, Blue Fish, Wonderduck, Huntress and Bishop. It looks like First Breath is completely empty as of right now. Really it's just about everyone that has space!

[detectivewonder]

... Never? You didn't arrive here the same way I did?

[aberrant_type]

I was in the first round. I went to one of the smaller ships straightaway.

[detectivewonder]

How long ago was that?

[aberrant_type]

A few months now. About three, pushing four now, I'd say.

[detectivewonder]

How many ships were active then, compared to now?

[aberrant_type]

I'd guess one less, at most. Our group's always been small, and they don't exactly announce when they launch new ships, though.

[detectivewonder]

Too many and it's hard to develop a base that the audience can easily identify with.

[aberrant_type]

Haha, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the justification! Tell you something funny, though: talk about Drift Fleet to anyone on a waystation, or a planet for that matter, and they won't know what you're talking about.

[detectivewonder]

Maybe we're not a live broadcast.

[aberrant_type]

I don't know what that means.

[detectivewonder]

They could still be collecting material and editing it, not sending it out yet.

[aberrant_type]

For four months, you mean...? I wasn't aware that was a possibility, but that sure is an interesting one. It might explain things, certainly.

[detectivewonder]

At home, it's often done in a cycle of twenty to twenty-six weeks. But I have no idea if that would apply here.

[aberrant_type]

Twenty weeks would put it at five months at minimum before we showed up for people, in that case. It'd be worthwhile to check in again with the waystation and planet people at around that point... so, in a month or two.

[detectivewonder]

I'll make a note.

[aberrant_type]

Nice initiative, kiddo! I'm sorry you've been ripped away from your home like this, but I'm glad to have you on board!