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"Nothing beyond Proxima except space..." Shade laughs long and hard. "Try telling that to Kalagan-aranmengvi and the rest of the Chuanyé, silly khre! And please don't tell me you've eaten cat. We were getting on so well before, I would hate to have to shoot you now."
------------------ "As you are now, I once was. As I am now, so shall you be. So come, prepare to follow me." - Unknown Epitaph
"I didn't say empty space..." DZ replies, "I just said 'space'. And I have eaten cat. Some Miranu I stayed with served it, I didn't want to offend them by refusing to eat this delicacy they had paid so much for..."
------------------ Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy... and then he dies.
Rima shook her head at the question. "No, I didn't precisely explore. I got ambushed when my shields and armor had been recharging from a previous fight, and my computer targetted a system nearby. Good thing I had bought that Nebula Penetration Device. I altered it a little of course, probably why I was able to get past the nebula. Anyway, so my poor little ships jumps into the a systems. I look at the map, and there it was, I was in the nebula. I explored a bit, both inside and eventually a bit beyond, but unlike you, i didn't find anything right away, and decided to go back before I got lost. I was low on ammo anyway."
Her eyes narrow as she looks at DZ. "Hmm. Do you happen to know where they got those cats? I think I might want to talk to their supplier. And you can say the beyond anything is just space. unless you find a 'portal. I'm not really sure what to call what's neyond those. Some have space, some..." She shrugged, realizing that they might no even know what kind of portal she was talking about. She really did want to find that cat supplier of the Miranu's, but the talk might consist of a phase pistol to his head.
------------------ There were once two planets. Then humans destroyed the second. Then there was one.
"He flew a beat-up old Arada. The Cat's Pyjamas. He delivered his merchandise. Short guy, human or really similar. Looked a lot like that hobbit..." DZ tosses a small data chip onto her table. "If you see him, drop me a message there. He has kidnapped... a person. One I particularly need to see. Those UE commies already have a price on his head, I think."
Cresent gets bored of current activity of guy-watching, so she wanders over to Rima and Shade's table, catching the last bit of the conversation. Eager for action, she offers to hunt down the Cat's Pyjamas.
------------------ To err is human. To err and blame it on someone else, is even more human.
"Last I heard he was running in Hatuli. If you get him... bring his ship here, I'll buy it from you. Two mil creds, no questions." With this, DZ stands and walks out of the bar. His ship starts to warm up, then takes off, headed for Igadzra space.
Rima takes out a data pad, loading the contents of the data disc into it. She put it back on the table. "I dislike selling animals for food specifically when their was a treaty made once that cats would not be exported to the Miranu. I'll try to get your ship. I don't plan for a big battle anyway. I'll just catch him, maybe on the planet's surface. Catch him, drop him off on some uninhabitated system. Then we'll see how he does."
She hears Crescent's offer and shrugs. "I just want him not to sell the cats to the miranu, and since no one else is doing anything, well, i'll do something. If you want to hunt him too, It just makes it harder for him to get away. You can have his ship, bring it back for DZ. I certainly don't want it." She nods to Shade. "I'll see you again in a few days. I'm going bounty hunting. I'm very protective of that treaty. Considering what it cost me and some friends to set it up." She goes towards the door, walking into her ship, a little white kitten mewing hello as the Zidara headed out. Rima petted her, heading towards Hatuli.
Frodo orders a White Cream Soda and sits back in a corner and intently watches the action.
------------------ One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
Cresent merely laughs and shakes her head. In fact she seem quite insulted by DZ's offer. "I'm no bounty hunter," she says cheerfully, "I just want to have some fun." Leaving the bar, she boards her upgraded Crescent Warship and follows Rima.
DZ's Longbow lands, but it's now all black. He strolls into the bar and notices that Rima and Crescent are both gone, yet Frodo is back. "Wonderful. The grand total of two female patrons has been replaced by a hobbit..." He pauses, deep in thought. "Although I guess it is partly my fault... Two mil creds for a beat-up Arada... And they thought I was serious!" He smirks and retreats to his corner to await the return of the two huntresses.
Down in the Hatuli system, a Zidara jumped in, sensors tracking the Arada named Cat's Pyjamas which was on the surface of one of the planets for the moment. It waited, watching as the ship rose unsteadily. Rima hailed the ship, opening the channel with her kitten on her lap as the video link came on. "Hi, You know that little document that ensures that no kittens are to be sold to the miranu for food? I'm one of those who set it up. You can surrender now and save me some time, or I can beat up that poor excuse for an Arada you're in. Your choice." The link was suddenly cut, the video feed having briefly showed a surprised, fearful, and angry short man in the captains seat, then the Arada opened fire. Rima shrugged, and the space battle began. It would be over quickly, but Rima didn't want to destroy it, simply disable it, so tightly controlled the weapon systems. It would have been so easy, but she wanted to talk to this guy personally. To make sure he hadn't had help in his illegal kitten selling.
Hatuli System
Shek Sunrunner's stolen Voinian Heavy Fighter, upgraded through the use of some extremely generous favors from his Azdgari cousins, jumped into the system.
Ah, there they are. Just as the swordmaster said they would be.
He fired his maneuvering jets and headed towards the skirmish. He opened a feed to the Zidara.
"This is Shek Sunrunner. I was sleeping in the bar, but my Ellifi trained unconscious allowed me to awake knowing that you were out to find this poacher. As you'll realize some day, I have strong environmental tendencies, and if this man has indeed been selling cats for those money-hungry Miranu to eat, well, all I can say is, it's time to do justice.
"Bear in mind, though, that I'm watching your actions here as well. Keep it honorable, and there won't be a problem.
"If you are hearing all of this, as I realize you might be somewhat concentrated on your controls, do let me talk to the captain of the Cat's Pyjamas as well. Something tells me I know this guy."
------------------ All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king. J. R. R. Tolkien (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/search.cgi?action=intro&default;=26")The Search Feature(/url)
Oh great, this is turning into a story.
Frodo starts laughing at the seriousness of the other bar patrons.
DZ shoots frodo in the head. "Disregard my last comment, this is beginning to be fun. And you, you dirty little halfling , shut up. Anyhoo, the offer for the Cat's Pyjamas stands. Oh, and his name is Billy-Joe Bauregard. So, Billy-Joe and his Cat's Pyjamas , dead or alive. Preferably the latter."
He retreats into his corner, facing the door, to await the return of the hunters.
Cresent's warship jumped into the Hatuli system, luckily for her, quite close the the arada. She was in no mood to be chasing it across the system. Feining(sp?) uninterest and moving her ship in close, Cresent fired all four of her phase turrents at the arada, doing sufficient damage before it could move out of firing range. Shek's ship flew by, and for some reason she thought she recognised it. On impulse Cresent hailed it, and was surprised to see Shek. "Hey, long time no see! I guess you're in on this too?"
Rima saw from a corner of her eye the two other ships enter the system, hearing Shek's message. Fortunately, with Cresent's newly added firepower, and her own, the Arada became disabled. She immediately stopped firing, finally opening a channel Shek.
"You want to talk to him? Fine with me, as long as eventually he pays for his crimes. I'll probably won't kill him. Even if he did murder all those poor cats."
The white cat raised its head, mewing at the screen. "And this is Cyma by the way. She's one cat no one will sell, but all the cats deserve the same as her. She is what made me start up that little treaty, and I won't allow anyone to break it. Yet, I know it would be wrong to kill him, and apparently he's gotten more than just enviromentalists and cat-lovers angry. About every government but the Miranu and some of the independents has a bounty on him."
She opened a channel to Cresent now too, talking to them both. "Since we all seem to want something out of this battle, I suggest we figure out what we're doing before anyone boards the ship or takes it anywhere. I want to talk to him, find out where he's been buying the cats, if anyone else is selling them, etc. I care about nothing else at the moment."
"Now, you two have your seperate reasons for being here. Therefore, I do not want to be selfish and just serve my own wishes. What do you two think we should do at the moment? Whatever it is, I do not care, as long as this man is stopped. And apparently, DZ also wants to talk to this Billy-Joe"
The Longbow jumps into the system. DZ overrides all the comms, "Just thought I'd drop in, Make sure you greenies don't do anything rash. I need to talk to this guy for a bit, but I'll turn him over to the rest of you in a moment."
With this, the Longbow docks with the Cat's Pyjamas. A few minutes later, the black warship undocks and flies away. Once again, DZ ovrrides all the comm channels. "You'll find him quite willing to tell you whatever you ask. His supplier happens to be one of the people I'm looking for, so I'll drop you all a message when I get him. Do me and Voltaire here a favor," A black cat is perched next to DZ's head. "And convince him to stop trafficking in felines. Oh, by the way, you'll find a two million credit chip in the ship. Divide it as you see fit."
EDIT: I used bit twice in one sentence. Oh, the horror. ------------------ Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy... and then he dies.
(This message has been edited by double_zero (edited 06-23-2003).)
Cresent laughed and opened a channel to Rima. "Hey, look ,I don't want anything out of this ship. I know DZ said he'd pay me for it, but I don't need or want the money, and I have no intention of taking it. Besides he already talked to the captain."
Shek scratched his chin, contemplating. Eventually, he opened a channel to both Rima's zidara and Cresent's warship, and said, "I, like you, want to know who he's working for. It seems remarkably similar to the Hrineesan fuzz debacle a few years back. Let's see if that old smuggling ring is still alive.
"However, a little slice of money wouldn't hurt."
Seeing that he is the only one still in the bar, Frodo celebrates this event with cake and ice cream.