Manhattan bar

[Malaclypse 666]

Pops waggled his fingers at Sophie and stuck his tongue out as he walked back from the comms cubicle.

"Gents and Ladies," he began as he sat back down at the table, pulling a fresh cheroot from his vest pocket. "I have an amazing tale to tell."

Cheroot lit, and unwaggling fingers wrapped around the sparkling Sapphire, Pop looked unsure where to start. He paused while he looked around at Maria, Patrick, Yahvo, the rather stiff young man Wolfpack, and Jay, bemused as ever. He began.

"It seems last night there was a complete and total recall of each and every C-Trans in Sirius. They've downgraded its capacity, due to structural stresses at high cruise speeds. And many of the turrets being used were adding to the vibration, posing a further hazard.

"Well, my newly reinstalled "Sophie", supposedly reprogrammed to behave like the pilot and not the captain, took the recall very seriously. She decided to take it upon herself once again, to captain. She attempted to boost for New Tokyo to have the modifications made immediately! What she had not noticed was that I had removed several of the ignition modules from the Daddy W, to preclude any more unsupervised shopping excursions.

"Now the manufacturer is telling everyone to just flog the offending turrets, and to proceed cautiously to New Tokyo for refit; but at the time, Sophie "reasoned" that the ship had already been either damaged or even comdemed. She SOLD the bloody thing!

"She mounted my precious DW's heavy armor and weps on a ..choke.. CSV. Every thing off my dear ship went crammed into the hold of that CSV. She didn't even offload to one of our warehouses! But that isn't the turd in life's punchbowl. Instead of proceeding to New Tokyo to at least purchase and refit the Daddy's replacement, she decides once again, ..to go shopping.

"I've seen the logs, boys and girls. She commenced to go through a tidy sum in a very short time. First, a bloody SVHF of some sort from over in Bretonia, but she decided it didn't suit her.. some blather about an asymmetrical wing that interfered with her turret practice.

"Next, Sophie took a fancy to some new pirate craft down in the Omegas. A pirate ship, for Goddess' sake! She said it looked like something from some far-away galaxy. At least the fnording thing has some financial acumen, realizing that with an 800 capacity cargo hold, her shopping might be seriously curtailed.

"Apparently not embarrassed to ask for directions, Sophie finally managed to find her way to Scarborough. Some tens of millions of dollars and three incarnations later, I now have to learn to pilot a new ship.

"That is, if Sophie will let me.."

---

[Zukeenee]

"A recall, eh? Well, guess it's time for me to make another trip down to New Tokyo. Luckily, it's on my route, but it will still take a while to get there from Manhattan. This place is pretty far out of my way. I'll be on my way, then. Nice talking to you all; I'll be back in a few days."

Yahvo left.

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[Wolfpack98]

I always felt the C Transport was a bad ship... but I didn't think an android could go on shopping sprees!!!

*tosses keys in air and grabs em* This is why I like my Large Train so much...

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User was banned for: Compromised account
Time left: (Permanent)

[Fellow Hoodlum]

"Yep, back with me old dog again, picked her up cheap, the dealer hadn't managed to shift
her with the rush to buy the Con.T. Stuck with her for a long time before these buggers
told me the Connie was the mutts nuts. Something about it never flew right ...
Ah well, nice to have it back.
Maria must have known something, bought the train straight off, lucky move I think.
I took a bit of a cold bath on the trade in price, bloody crooks those dealers.
I hear Manuel and you been route checkin' again. Anything new, keep under yer hat.
Spys everywhere ...
Pat, hows the ship hunt going ?? Can't have these Epsilons sitting on their asses all day
you know.
Oh for Gods sake Pops, you do come out with some glorious stories you know, ought to
lay off those cheroots, Sophie dear never left the place, think your space sickness is coming
on again. Poor girl gets the blame for everything, though she doesn't get paid enough to put
up with you lot ...
Right, usual and make it large." ...

---

Some say he is a proud member of: "The most paranoid group of people in the Community."

[Malaclypse 666]

"Sophie dear never left the place, think your space sickness is coming
on again. Poor girl gets the blame for everything, though she doesn't get paid enough to put up with you lot ...

[snapback]46090[/snapback]

"Perhaps I should try arriving sober some time, Jay. Sophie, bring your warm, breathing, delectable self over here so that I may grovel and apologize. How I got you confused with one of our steel servitors, I cannot fathom!

"And now it is obvious why "my" Sophie (who, by the way, Wolfpack, is not really an "android".. just a transponder cum AI cum ship's computer with an attitude), has such great shopping skills!

"Sophie, when you get some time off, please feel free to visit the D.W.'s "Sophie", and perhaps teach her the other side of shopping: knowing bloody when NOT to shop. And, do we have another bottle of that pungent Bombay Blue?"

---

[Nightfall]

'Boss, the hunt goes excellent for now, I'm thrilled by the new specs discovered. I also got a couple LSF guys to help. Ducks on water.' said Pat leaning back satisfied, he took the glass and took a good one.
Manuel just smiled mysteriously... 'Feels good driving the LTrain again. Just don't type SMSs and fly through heavy rocks.'

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If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov
The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor

[romer]

"...it figures. Stuck in between administrative limbo and beaurocratic hell. Seems I'm stuck with the old CTrans... and a faulty one at that! Oh well, I know how to solve this problem. I need a bottle of something flammable. Don't get up Sophie, I know where it is. You do enough around here as it is. Hell, just putting up with those Winters boys is bad enough. Really, you ought to put in for some vacation time. Talk to the boss and let me know. If he comes up too tight-fisted to give you some paid leave, we'll take up some donations. We'll call it the 'Save Sophie's Sanity' vacation fund."

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[Wolfpack98]

"Ladies and gentlemen.. I just got back from a 2-week run and I can say this. $38 million profit. Woohoo!" exclaims the man called Wolfpack.

sitting down at the bar, he ordered a beer. "Sir, the beer's on the house..."

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User was banned for: Compromised account
Time left: (Permanent)

[caylith]

"Well hello there Wolfpack," Cay said from the rim of her martini glass.

"We need to knock down a wall or something to make this place bigger, dontcha think Jay? Jay? It's a shame to hear about the CT guys, thank goodness I never ordered one. I can barely park, um fly, my L train," Cay just kept on rambling as Sophie poured another drink.

-----

"Damn guys! I've been waitin' at Southhampton for a week now! All the while ya'll are here drinkin' your butts off! And where the hell is Edgar?!" Carly shrugged out of her flight jacket and threw it in the corner.

She realized there were new faces staring at her. Great first impression, she thought. If she were going to be flying escort for these guys she might as well get to know them. "Hi, sorry for the outburst. I'm Carly." She headed over to the new guys and settled down.

[Chucc]

The VidComm crackles to life and Renno can be seen scowling into it.

"What the bloody hell? Why didn't i get the memo on the CTrans Mal-function? Not nice of you chaps, Oh, Hiya Cay and Carly, Lasses as well. My pardon. But I'm out here in 47 roasting to a crisp because my CTrans decided to let the main thruster wiggle and jiggle till it actually fell off. Can you picture the look on my face? Oh theres one good part I guess, I can't scalp my ship. This confounded piece of scrap had made a few good runs then it just quit. I have a salvage and repair ship en route. No need to run to your ships to help. So hard on the cargo though, I must say. These AL's are just eating my pockets right out of my pants. Well the ships should be here soon and I will get a tow to the nearest place they don't open up on me and get a new thruster. Then its off to get raped by the dealers to get a good old LTrain. Screwy slant technology anyway. When will they learn that smaller isn't always better, especially in a thing this danged pricey? Well that's the update from Marooned Injun News. Till then mates and hopeful dates. He winks toward the ladies from his 2D picture Wish me luck.

Renno out.
The VidComm goes dark.

---

Looking into returning, maybe.