The Alpha Blue Blues

Jesus Christ, Bunny, get your shit together! :^P

Bunny shuts off the radio quickly. Good God, let's not have an altercation before we even land!

"I'm so sorry, everyone!" Bunny says, quite flustered. "I— I guess I should have read up on these controls; I've only ever flown military grade ships before..."

"God will forgive you," Saul snapped sharply, he was not angry but he was noticeably irritated, "But I do not easily forget matters such as these. Of all the places in the universe, the docking area is the last place I'd expect a pilot to fail to land properly. I hope that we do not crash into an asteroid the next time you're in the cockpit."

You hear a knocking (well, technically a clanging) on the ship's airlock door.

"Who is it?"

Going to the airlock door, you see that a humanoid shaped robot standing at the door. It knocks again on the door.

Bunny, attempting to prove that she isn't a failure entirely, goes to the door, holding her stun baton.

"What do you want?" she calls.

edited 26th May '16 3:51:22 AM by spacealien

Saul sees that a stun baton isn't enough to smash a robot's chest in, so he grabs his battle mace. Suddenly, he realized that he shouldn't just beat anybody who came through the door or the authorities would confiscate their vessel and they would be sent off to prison. He still didn't trust the officials here but needed to cooperate with them.

So he put down his battle mace and said, "We have heard of this station's reputation. Identify yourself immediately and you will not be harmed."

" I - am -Twiggy." the robot says, speaking in an odd, mechanical cadence. "I - have - been - sent - from - Station - Control - to - collect - one - hundred - credits." Twiggy then freezes in place, waiting outside the still closed airlock door.

"Very well," Saul turned to Bunny, "Give me your 100 credit note and open the airlock, but keep your laser pistol ready. I will hand the payment to him, but you must have my back."

Bunny nods and hands him the money. She steps back, holding her pistol.

"SHIEC," Saul said before approaching the airlock, "Keep your eyes on the instruments in case there are changes that we haven't noticed yet."

With that said, the pious-looking templar walked towards the airlock and opened it.

The Airlock door opens... about an inch. Saul 2, 6 slides his fingers into the crack and pushes the airlock door open fully, resulting in actually repairing 1 point of damage done to the ship.

Twiggy looks at Saul. "Welcome - to - Alpha - Complex." Twiggy recites robotically, then plucks the 100 credit bill from Saul's fingers before sliding the bill into a slot in its chest. The robot's eyes flash randomly for several seconds. "Your - parking - fee - payment - has - been......... accepted. Please - enjoy - your - stay."

There is a mechanical grinding noise from Twiggy's chest, then a piece of flat bright orange plastic film, with printing on it, pops out of the slot. Twiggy pulls the plastic sheet out and hands it to Saul.

RECEIPT: 65 CREDITS FOR SEVEN (7) STANDARD DAY CYCLES PARKING

5 CREDIT PROCESSING FEE

20 CREDIT WATER/ATMOSPHERE TAX

10 MANDATORY VOLUNTARY DONATION, STATION MANAGER REELECTION FUND

 TOTAL CHARGE: 100 CREDITS. TOTAL PAYMENT: 100 CREDITS

 REMEMBER: ALPHA BLUE STATION AND ITS STAFF ARE NOT RESPONSIBILE FOR LOST OR DAMAGED PROPERTY, VIRGINITY, OR LIFE.

Twiggy turns and begins to march stiffly off.

Will any of you follow him into the station or do you all plan to stay on the ship for awhile?

edited 30th May '16 3:31:16 PM by Nodrog

"I think we should head out to the station," Bunny says. "The sooner we get this fixed up and deliver the goods, the sooner we can get going, right?"

"Right, we have to give it to Bajja the Yurt." Saul steps outside the ship and right onto the deck of the station, "Problem is that we don't even know where he is. We'll have to find him."

"Let's ask Twiggy," says Bunny. "Hey, uh, do you know where we could find a guy, Bajja the Yurt?"

Saul glanced at the receipt with one detail catching his eye. There was a station manager re-election fund, and he was intrigued to find that this station held elections for its officers rather than being appointed to that position by a planetary government official. Was this station self-governed? That wouldn't be surprising considering the notorious lawlessness of its inhabitants.

Subjecting the unruly denizens of Alpha Blue to the freedom of democracy gave them the opportunity to wreck total havoc on the station. Saul feared that this was no democracy, instead it gave way to its more twisted cousin, mobocracy, the rule of the mob. Every administrator or in this case, station manager, could not remain immune from the passions of the people, they had to appeal to it. As a result, this dramatically exacerbated the chaos of Alpha Blue.

"Twiggy," Saul said in a shaky voice, "Tell me more about the station manager elections. There are more questions to be asked, so be prepared to give answers." Twiggy was currently their only hope of navigating the terrors of Alpha Blue, so Saul wished to make the best use out of Twiggy.

edited 1st Jun '16 2:54:29 AM by Victor_Skye

Twiggy stops in his march and turns. "I - charge - 10 - credits - per - question - answered. Yes - I - know - where - you - can - find - Bajja - the - Yurt. The - station - manager - elections - are - held - once - every - five - standard - years - and - the -next - election - is - in - one - standard - month. That - will - be - 20 - credits - please."

Twiggy holds out his hand expectantly. Be careful in phrasing questions; Twiggy will not directly lie, but will answer most questions very literally and may choose not to answer open ended questions. Also, if you ask him for information he doesn't have, he will say "I don't know" and still charge 10 credits.

edited 1st Jun '16 11:14:09 PM by Nodrog

Bunny sighs and forks over the credits. "Freakin' robots. Present company excluded, of course," she says quickly to SHIEC. She pauses, and phrases the next question as carefully as she can. "Alright, Twiggy. What are some places that Bajja is likely to be today?"

Bunny pays 20 credits, plus another ten credits for her next question. Your group has a total on 1020 credits remaining.

Twiggy stuffs the 30 credits in his chest slot, then begins speaking. "Locations - where - Bajja - the - Yurt - Is - likely - to - be - today: the - slave - market, any - of - the - three - on - station - restaurants - featuring - Yurt - Cruisine, at - the - Arena, at - his - private - apartment, or - in - his - throne - room. All - other - locations - on - station - are - either - transient - points - instead - of -destinations - or - fall - below - 50 - percent - probability - threshold."

"All of these locations sound really dangerous to venture in," Saul said dejectedly so he turned to Bunny and asked, "How are we going to get there in the first place?"

"You - can - walk, rent - an - auto - cart, or- try - a - point - to -point - teleport. That - will - be - ten - credits."

"Hey, Bunny, are you alive? You're spacing out for a bit there. And no that was not a question directed at you, Twiggy." Saul hands the ten credits to the robot.

"I ain't dead," said Bunny. "I'm just trying not to ask any rhetorical questions. I think that's about all we'll be needing Mister Literal here for. I can't say the company's been pleasant, but, oh well."

(('d))

edited 8th Jun '16 4:31:17 AM by spacealien

"We'll have to find the Yurt then, but suggest a place to look for first. All of them seem dangerous so... I'm quite reluctant to pick one."

While the three of you are talking, another spaceship begins landing. This one is a Firefly class transport, about the same age of your own ship; however, this one is clearly being helmed by a much better pilot. It touches down as easily as a leaf on the wind.

Unless one of you wants to ask Twiggy another question, he'll start to walk away again.