"Oh, trust me, we're well beyond the sealing wax, cabbages and kings stage of the relationship. We're all mad here.
After all, you must be mad, otherwise you wouldn't be here."
Seabourne opened a channel to the docked liner
"Orbital Liner Orlando, this is runabout PuddleJumper. We have a delivery of Gaian wildlife for the menagerie.
"Uhhh, negative PuddleJumper, we have no such delivery scheduled for the itinerary."
"Of course you don't, the Gaians have been hitting scheduled transfer shuttles, didn't you get the memo? It was bright yellow and lemon scented! We're disguising them now as other things. What else is on your itinerary?"
"We're supposed to get some xenobiotic filters in an hour."
"See? There you go. What is a goose but a very elaborate filter for turning air and grain into foie gras and a ridiculous amount of poop? Now that that's cleared up, we'll be heading to the portside docking bay."
Seabourne signalled Scotty to start moving the bag around. The cacophony of jingling metal was a reasonable proxy for radio static.
"Uhhh, hold tight, PuddleJumper, let me check with a supervisor."
"Roger, heading to the docking bay now."
"What? No, I said hold your position!"
"Say again, Orlando? There's some wicked static on my end. Once I'm docked, we'll have to have your boys look at the radio."
Seabourne waved his arms to indicate for Scotty to pick up the jingling.
"PuddleJumper do NOT, I repeat, do NOT attempt to dock the port side bay."
"Affirmative, Orlando, proceeding to dock in portside bay."
"What?! No, stop! PuddleJumper, you need to-"
Seabourne cut off the radio.
"Meh, it was a boring conversation anyway. Now to proceed to the portside dock and hope they open up out of sheer confusion if nothing else. Bring the pillowcase, we'll need it later. I'll grab the magnet and the goose."
