I-266-Oliver: Spanial, Control (N-Space near the Nonoop Nav Buoy)

It takes five more Tasks for Spanial to reach the Separatist ship.

Once that’s done, Oliver can see the disc-shaped vessel with his naked eye through the Control room windows instead of on the sensor view.  This close Oliver can read what might be a name painted on the hull – Welcome Wagon.

On one, slightly thicker, part of the Separatist ship’s disc, lights illuminate a set of cargo doors and a docking mechanism, and Jennie gently noses Spanial into docking contact – a slight vibration runs through the ship as they connect.

Karmen rises from her workstation, “Guess I have to go back to work in Cargo Ops now Lia’s not here.  Jennie you have the Conn.”

“I have the Conn,” Jennie replies. 

She swivels in her seat to look at Oliver, “good luck.” 

Ipan nods, bye.

Karmen will lead Oliver out of Control, “You got everything?”

You can assume he has his backpack with him, or he can collect it from his cabin.  If there’s anything else he wants to grab, do or say before his departure, now is the time.  Is there anything he’s specifically taking or not taking with him?

Either way, Karmen will wait for him at the end of the habitat cross-corridor.  She takes a moment to pause at a nondescript locker along that corridor, opens it with a retinal pattern to an unobtrusive sensor (which Oliver may or may not have noticed while he’s been on the ship, being alert to such things) and withdraws a sidearm that she checks and loads before shoving it into a pocket of her coat.

“I’m not expectin’ trouble, but I’m not not expectin’ it either.”

With that she will lead Oliver to the open-sided elevator that runs through the ship and travel with him past the Engineering decks up to Cargo Operations.

Gregar and a sleepy-looking Prrri stop what they’re doing and turn and watch as Oliver and Karmen rise past them.

Arriving in Cargo Operations, Karmen seats herself in the workstation chair there, dons a communication headset, and opens the shutters on the observation window above them.  Red lights illuminate the Cargo Hold; it looks to be about half-full.  She works her console and the robot cargo arm emerges from its storage bay.

She gestures to a nearby locker, “Up to you, you might want to put on an emergency Vacc Suit, or at least take a respirator.  I’ve pressurised it but the oxygen’s always low in the big space.  I can’t say what the Sep ship is like, they say they’ve pressurised, but who knows?  Take a pair of gecko overshoes if you need them too – zero G in there; unless you can jump like Prrri, you should use the ladder at the side.  Stay here, though, while I move some boxes around.  Hate to squish you by accident if I drop one, for sure.”

Oliver can do all, some or none of the things that Karmen suggested; what will he choose?  

Meanwhile he can hear her side of a conversation where she seems to be negotiating the cargo transfer with the Separatist ship.  In the bay, the cargo doors open, white light from the other cargo hold beyond spilling in, casting angular, red-lit shadows.  While Oliver may or may not be doing things in the locker, Karmen moves containers, hands them off to another cargo arm on the far side of the doors.

Presently she seems done.

“Ready?”

She gestures to the internal cargo airlock, “Your transport awaits.”