"Untrustworthy Passengers"

[Shane 0]

After the visitors had left, Shane entered the hotel room and shut the door behind him with a bang. Watching with disinterest as Dash treated Chris, he stood next to his chief at the edge of the room. With a low growl, he spoke to Pher, "I don't like the look of them."

 

"Hopefully," she responded, "they didn't like the look of you, either." She looked him up and down again, unable to interpret the massive arm as anything but an obvious statement. This guy had to have anger issues. Pher responded with her usual ploy, the opposite ploy, inviting him to see her as the stereotype oversexed animal woman, and therefore not dangerous at all. "In this business, I'm used to being just about the only person anyone likes the look of."

 

She paused, briefly. "But it's to be expected. Anyone who wants off this dry rock, and wants off it now, is going to be desperate enough to take some big risks. They're going to be trouble and in trouble. Whatever passengers we pick off are going to bear watching. You have anything specific you picked up, or any tricks that might help?"

 

"Yeah," Shane said, "I'd like to know how in the heck they found us. You rented this room all by your lonesome, without connections to Qob or Manning. Yet they somehow were able to find our hotel and our exact room number, knowing we were crewed aboard a vessel. This was all done without asking some of the hotel staff in the lobby, were I've been during your entire 'procedure'."

 

"Well, that I can clear up, at least. The Captain has a plan. A cunning plan." Pher's eyes smiled a bit. "Too cunning, perhaps, but sometimes you have to be cunning. Before we met up with you, several of us were spreading rumors that we were planning to make a late night run. We were trying to attract certain people. These weren't quite the right people, but that's what happens when you try to be cunning.

 

The big cyborg was silent for a moment as he considered what he had just heard. Then his eyes widened slightly as a realization dawned on him. Shane looked at the Orion with suspicion in his eyes, "Were you trying to get Minos on the Qob?"

 

"Me? No. I'm just some innocent but green morale officer. The captain? The Guardians? Well, yes. They had such ideas. Whether these ideas are still in play or not, we'll have to see. The problem with cunning plans is that they never seem to hold still."

Edited September 19, 2010 by Shane