All of us have various skills, which might lead to very different plans. I’d like to hear suggestions from everyone, think through the best of them, but only go to execute if a plan looks solid. I’ll start with my own approach. Gular has fingers in a whole bunch of operations. One project, located on New Risa, is developing next generation high tech sex slaves. Some of these girls have cyborg enhancements, some are genetically modified, and some are both. It just so happens that I could pass quite well, thank you, as the product of said Gular project, with that cover able to withstand any degree of scrutiny. Without benefit of any other sort of cover, I could walk into Gular’s front door, say I have a biological problem and need to talk to someone highly trusted to keep corporate secrets, and with a medical background. I could then spin a tale about an unusual alien race infiltrating the Rainmakers. I could get quite elaborate about this. I could make a convincing argument that Gular is one of the few best organizations capable of countering the threat. I might offer a sample of the aliens, and might fish a bit to get paid for it. I might try to get direct contact with the highest levels of their organization. I might also wear a flower in my hair, which is a sign on New Risa of a girl on the clock. If they wish to evaluate a product of their New Risan endeavor, I’d give them the chance. Many alpha males like to talk about themselves. I might pick up something. I would not want to push this too obviously, though. I might want to bring Byblos with me, as some cross of bodyguard and pimp. There might be a real need for escort between parts of the station. If I’m dressing to pass as a New Risan lifeguard, having someone big, strong and possessive lurking nearby might be wise. While he couldn’t take on the whole of Gular security and wouldn’t be expected to, he might deter advances unless proper gifts are offered and enforce a few New Risan traditions. What I’d expect is that he gets excluded from a lot of meetings, and ends up hanging out with Gular security. He might just keep his eyes open and conversation flowing, getting the lay of the land without intent to do anything forward, at least initially. This would be an initial penetration, likely best made under our own identities. If Troy comes up with some cute devices for us to deploy, maybe. If information we gather helps someone else’s more direct approach, fine. It does potentially draw some attention to the Qob. It’s not a free lunch, a certain answer to all. It still seems the best I can initially offer using my own approach to things. I might argue that establishing the cover might be done for its own sake, and might be more important than any follow up. Comments and alternatives welcome.

About to board the shuttle, Pher gestured for Troy and Byblos to go ahead, then turned to the Verbistul security chief. “Alex? I’ll still welcome you on this jaunt if you are so inclined, but I’m having second thoughts. If the explosions are as bad as Joe and Simmons are saying, there will soon be a bunch of life pods that will have to be tractored in. Some of them are likely to be full of armed bad guys, others full of injured. You might want to decide which pods should be brought in first, who gets disarmed, who gets locked up, and who gets copies of the Gold 7 files. Remember what Troy and Byblos did coming off the shuttle, and you might not want to let it happen again. “Joe wants me got get the Qob people off Capricorn. I’m intending to tell my people to hit the life pods, and tractor them to the Qob. After that, I hope to be at your service. I’d like to keep Troy and Byblos for a while. We might end up boarding Capricorn, but at the moment I’m hoping to avoid it. I'd rather put an end to this one life pod at a time.” Byblos spoke. "Pher, last time I flew this thing I nearly crashed it. I'm not a pilot, and I don't believe Troy here is either." He glanced at Troy. "Oh and the pilot seat is missing. But one can sit on the floorboard and pilot the shuttle, but I suggest yourself or Alex." Pher tried not to groan. She was damn good with a surfboard, sailboard, underwater jet rigs, and all sorts of small water craft. Shuttles were not the same. Still, she'd be OK if there was no need for anything fast or fancy, and if she could convince her hands that vacuum gave a lot less resistance than salt water. Alex looked almost frantic as she glanced between Byblos, Troy and Pher. "Wait, wait. Va! I'm gettin' jykin' benched again?" she directed at Pher. She didn't give Pher the chance to answer; no doubt Pher wouldn't understand what she'd meant by again. The one consolation was Byblos's suggestion that she pilot the shuttle. But her anger had her blinded, convinced that Pher was intentionally acting against her and there was no way around Pher's 'second thoughts'. "Fine," she growled and then whipped around on her heel. She threw up her hands, muttering a linguistically rich string of curses as she left the shuttle bay. Pher didn't quite laugh. "Not benching her," she muttered for Troy and Byblos's consumption, while heading up towards the pilot's seat, or lack thereof. "She's playing goaltender, and I'm about to send as much trouble as possible right at her. Hope she figures this out. We're running out of starships." "And people," Byblos observed as Alex left the shuttle. "I think we could of used her gun on Capricorn sir. But I've got your back. Only wish I had a blade or another rifle to make up for our numbers." Byblos looked at Troy then back to Pher placing his phaser rifle on stun. "Ready." "Good nuff," responded Pher, "but if I had another blade or rifle, I'd keep it for myself. Right now I've got no weapons but sweet talk, which is what I intend to use. If we have to board Capricorn, I intend to visit Qob first and grab the girlie gun and a spare pain stick, and get you a blade. Still, Plan A is to get folks into life pods and control the movement of life pods. I want this shuttle to wield the decisive puny little tractor beam that decides this mess. The three of us on Capricorn would be in an uphill fight. We'd just make more trouble on a ship that doesn't need more trouble just now. This ugliness has got to stop, and it won't stop if everyone's first thought is to draw weapons and charge, while their second thought is to blow up some vital part of one ship or another. Objective one is Qob people off Capricorn. Objective two is Capricorn people off Qob. Poor Alex is bored. I want to give her all the excitement I can, and hope she doesn't get our one intact starship too badly damaged." She glanced back at the others. "Are you two with me?"

Federation ships were supposedly built for five year exploration missions. They had a reputation for wasting space on the sort of luxuries that made their people soft. Capricorn had been in the hands of raiders for long enough that the remnants of the luxuries were rather worn. Still, Pher and Byblos managed to find a rather worse for wear ‘lounge’ with a view. If it was nothing compared to New Risa’s tourist accommodations, it was still far ahead of what they were used to on the Qob. “Byblos? Feeling better?” Pher asked. “Much thank you Pher. We Nausicaans do have some personal pride.” “A fine thing, pride. I might have to experiment with it some time.” “Well, I mean. Most everyone thinks Nausicaans are savages.” Byblos looked about for a chair, and not finding one large enough for his frame, leaned against the wall. “I guess I haven't helped that stereotype.” Pher snorted. “I know about racial stereotypes. Our males are expected to be pirates or gangsters. Our ladies are expected to be sluts. There's enough truth in it not to like it, but…” Pher shook her head. “I guess I'm not doing any better than expected.” “I don't understand,” Byblos replied, leaning his head to one side. “No? I grew up as… well…” She considered. “The polite phrase is 'sex industry professional.' Hardly anyone uses the polite phrase, and there are so many less polite ones.” “Yet," the Nausicaan paused, "you are not the most petite Orion female I have met. You are taller than most. Stronger.” “True.” “Listen if you don't want to talk about that aspect of your life I understand. Well, sort of.” Pher considered accepting the offered out, but he wouldn’t understand her without understanding her past. “I guess I don't want to go into details, no. Still. I do understand that belonging to one species or another means you carry baggage.” She smirked. “At least we don't have to be logical all the time, and only come into heat every seven years.” She faked a mock shudder. “How do they stand it?” “Hmm, Nausicaan women are very," He had to think of the word, "Homeloving." You don't see them off world. It's a Culture thing, I'll explain that to you when we are in a non-combat zone, it takes some time. Ah, but you wanted to talk about something else.” “Just… Are you still comfortable working security? We've had a really bad breakdown in the chain of command. I'm not liking it. It's not going to go away. Do you feel you can handle it?” “Okay, the boss assigned Troy to command the mission to Capricorn. That threw me a bit because It seemed more your expertise. But the Boss..being the Boss I felt I had to comply. Did it work?” He gestured with his hands in a way to make the question rhetorical. “No. I'd rather answer to you than..a scientist.” He scratched the back of his clean hair. “I'd have preferred to work with you myself,” Pher answered with sincerity. “Troy… is something of a wild man. He might be a scientist in name, but he will meddle in security often enough. He has some very useful security skills. I'd like to be able to point him in a general direction and duck behind cover. Thing is, I was needed down on the planet. With two missions being run at the same time, security personnel had to split. It's going to happen again, I'm afraid.” “Yes. Most likely. What surprises me is given our lack of crew we would do that, something my former boss on Tranquility never did.” “Heck, when I went down to the planet, no one knew Capricorn was going to show up. It's not that it was planned. Did things go to plan in your old gang?” Pher sounded a bit dubious. One strove to act to plan, but the universe was not always cooperative. “Good for a while,” he responded, “until some "Brain" like Troy dropped into our city and fixed the Guardians' equipment. Basically if the Guardians showed up unexpectedly, we could run on our bikes. This human Pet`aQ shows up, gives them them the ability to chase us, everything went downhill. He turned their speeders into racing vehicles; and they had a Guardian who us ODRIs, like yours... in a way I never thought a Guardian would.” He growled, showing his opinion of brains and guardians. “Finally killed that jykin' Guardian in an OP, but by then it was too late. The Cycle Gang had been basically overrun.” “Yah. Even if it hadn't been, there are always too many Guardians. Some things can't be taken head on.” “What can a Nausicaan do if he is instantly declared a criminal even if he's just drinking bloodwine? Nausicaans were profiled. There were not many of us on Tranquility to begin with; maybe a couple of thousand. I imagine you know what that term means from Risa, to be Profiled? ” “Well, we weren't profiled. Or perhaps we were. We were raised with one profession in mind, and not given much in the way of alternative life choices.” Byblos had to ask.“But your clients, were they not "profiled" aggressive, criminal, gentle, cheap or greedy?” “Yes and no.” Pher considered briefly. “They were generally aggressive, criminal, greedy, overbearing, used to getting their way. You see, they could afford to go on interstellar vacations. We got to know these real 'quality' people. the people that live on the top of the towers, who own the banks, who tell the Guardians where to go and what to do. We got to know em up close and personal. Not nice people, a lot of em. But we gave em what they wanted, so we got to play at living their life style.” Byblos considered that for a moment with his hand on his chin, thinking what has Pher been through. He thought he had it rough. “But someone must of… protected you from… known... or presumed Pe`taQs.” “Some protected me.” Pher considered. “I did eventually got off the world. A lot of the tourists were the Pe'taQs, but not all of them. There were security goons too, that in theory provided protection, but their job was to keep the customers happy. They figured that the best way to assure we kept the customer happy was to make us unhappy if we didn’t, and they looked for any excuse to sample the merchandise. We girls found it best to solve any problems without involving the goons, but rule one was still to make the customer happy.” Rule two, assuming rule one was unacceptable, was to make it look like an accident, but even this far from New Risa, that was best not mentioned. “Listen, Byblos said. “If the boss ever puts you in a spot where he wants you to…” He thought it best left unsaid. “I'll object. Of course, that would be the end of my job too.” Pher smiled sadly. “Not to worry. I think I was made to enjoy my work, or maybe all Orions are like me, or… I don't know. Even Orion Animal Women look down at New Risan lifeguards as being a lower class of slut. Anyway, I need more than any one male can give me. My problem with Joe isn't that he forces himself on me, but the opposite. The Qob is a ship of prudes." “Uh... Prudes? Where is the Feddie UT when you need one?” “Prudes.” Pher mocked the stereotypical Fed science officer talking down to the unwashed. “When a highly passionate over sexed female is overwhelmed by desire, a prude is one who isn't willing to risk getting addicted to her pheromones just so she feels better.” She paused. “Do you need a definition of slut?” Then she thought better of it. “Sorry.” “There are no sluts on this crew. Wait-” He paused. “Are you saying you need certain...attention? Other than what the XO Provides?” “He…” Pher considered. “We need each other, but he got himself overdosed by Redera. I have to keep cutting back or he will have the same sort of problems many recreational drug users have. I would… Well.” How should she phrase this? “The short answer is yes. I'm not sure 'need' is the right word. I can survive. I just… Maybe need is the right word.” “Well, I could certainly arrange for that need…” Byblos stepped a little closer to Pher. “Problem is, I have not been in the best...what would a lady say?” “I'm not sure I can answer that,” Pher replied, stepping into Byblos in response. “We never had ladies on New Risa.” “But, there had been on Risa, shall I say cleanliness?” “Water we had,” Pher replied. “Water was one thing that was always there in abundance. It was land we were short on.” “Space is dry ,cold and harsh. Being with a crew full of scum would, I imagine make it worse. Pher you are smart and strong. I respect that, I also respect you, as well as I have certain needs sometimes.” He came closer still. “But,” he put a hand up close to Pher, “only if you wish. Not on my insistence. You are better than that.” He stepped back. “Besides you can kill me quite easily I suppose if 'things' were not up to your specifications.” Pher blinked. “Not to worry. I slept with a lot of Pe'taQs, and never felt an uge to kill them.” This wasn’t precisely true, but if the Sisterhood killed every tourist guilty of really bad sex, it would have wrecked the New Risan economy. “I might not have the sort of stink one can wash away in a shower, but I know I can't judge.” Pher smiled, relaxed the hold she kept on her emotions, stepped close to Byblos, and let little dust fly. Audrey chimed. No one was pleased. “Oh dear, “ Pher said, after a glance at Audrey’s screen. “Time to plot and plan.” “Agreed.” Byblos unaffected from any dust Pher used, reached towards his backsheath. “Oh by the way my sword is gone. Got that rifle?” “Aye. So I do,” she replied, returning it. She’d have to see about arming herself later. Byblos would need a weapon. For a while longer, Pher felt more comfortable not seeming to be a threat. “You'll stay by me?” “I have your back,” he replied with a wink. “Let's fix this mess.”