Gumball Wishes and Taxicab Dreams

[thespaceopera]

[On today's episode of the Drift Fleet:

The cargo holds are full of mysterious crates! The crews are filling beyond capacity with new faces! Official alerts are informing the passengers that they are signed to contracts that they've never agreed to! They are docking at the dazzling FS Starlight, but are flat broke!

What are they going to do!? Stay tuned to find out!


...Meaning, this is a kickoff mingle for you all to enjoy the beginning of the latest plot setting. This is a convenient place to start threads relating to the first week of the event-- meeting new crewmembers, reacting to the mysterious cargo, arriving on the station and discovering that you're all broke, etc.

Tag around, start whatever you'd like, have fun. And, as always, feel free to make your own posts and mingles from here on in, as this will be the only mod-posted one for this event!]

Comments

[save_the_souls]

I'm...fine!

I was just- caught by surprise! That's all!

[dancingmd]

[She looks skeptical, but she'll leave well enough alone, as far as his pride goes.]

Good... you scared me so... I'm glad you're okay.

[Frown.]

But you said that we're being investigated? Did they say why?

[HAS SOMEONE NOTICED A BUNCH OF KIDNAPPED PEOPLE FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE?

Haha no of course not, Beverly. Don't be silly.]

[save_the_souls]

Sorry...didn't mean to do that.

[And ha, of course not Bev]

Something about unauthorized cargo, it seems.

[dancingmd]

You mean the gumballs? I knew there was something suspicious about that cargo... Have you had a chance to look at them yet?

[save_the_souls]

Gumballs?

Is that what Atroma wants us to ship?

[dancingmd]

I don't think they're your run of the mill gumballs.

[Beverly takes out her tricorder (Because yes, it's always with her. Always), pulls up some data, and turns the screen to face Allen, sliding it across his desk towards him.]

Take a look at this. The tricorder is unable to identify these molecules - which is surprising, with all the data it has at its disposal - and the polymers have an unusual structure, very regular - probably synthetic.

Maybe none of that means anything, and when I first scanned the cases, I simply thought it was a substance I had not yet encountered, something to enhance the flavor or the texture but now knowing that we're being investigated...

[save_the_souls]

[He frowns a little as he considers it]

...That's a little troubling, I'll admit. [Tricorder not recognizing it? Definitely odd]

But on the other hand, the unauthorized cargo could mean any number of things on this ship too. These systems do all seem to run by their own set of laws...some more peculiar than others.

[dancingmd]

Perhaps...

[She slides the tricorder back over to her, studying it a moment.]

I don't want to jump to conclusions. It's simply that coincidences don't seem to be so coincidental where Atroma is concerned.

[save_the_souls]

[He makes a thoughtful sound and there's a pause]

...I'm willing to bet someone will break theirs open this month. Maybe when that happens, we can ask them to give us some gumballs that we can examine more closely.

[That way you still get the answers, and blue fish gets paid. Win-win]

[dancingmd]

[So sneaky, Allen. But she'll take it - while she's not exactly pleased with the idea of Atroma using them to ship illegal cargo, at least it doesn't seem to present any physical danger to the crew, so she won't fight to open the crates themselves.]

You're probably right. [She frowns.] Let me know if you get hold of any. I'll talk to a few of my friends on other ships as well, see if they've found out anything.

[save_the_souls]

[He gives a nod. Allen really didn't care all that much if they were illegal by this space station or not. Since hey, if it wasn't human trafficking or weapons? What did he care.]

I will. Thank you, Beverly, for bringing this to my attention.

[dancingmd]

[Well there is that issue of the station freezing all their funds because of it...]

You're welcome. And listen, I don't have any cash to contribute, but don't worry, we have plenty of vegetables from the gardens, and Sokka did a lot of hunting last month, so we'll be all right on the food front. In the meantime, I'm sure we can find jobs at a station as large as this one. Places like this tend to be used to transient workers.

[save_the_souls]

Ah- right. Thanks Beverly. [He gives a little nod as he consoles himself] Yeah, we'll be fine! We got plenty of resources besides money to work with...

It just came as a bit of an unpleasant surprise, that's all.

[dancingmd]

[That's an understatement. She's having a hard time remembering the last time she heard someone scream like that.]

And who knows, maybe it's all just some misunderstanding we can clear up with the authorities. In any case, I'll keep you updated, both on anything new I find out about the cargo and on the money front.

[save_the_souls]

It would be nice if that turned out to be the case. [he has his doubts, but one can always hope it was an honest mistake that won't result in jail time!!]

But thank you again, Beverly. I truly appreciate it.

[dancingmd]

You're welcome.

[She moves to leave.]

Let me know if you need anything else, okay?

[save_the_souls]

I will, thank you.