The Crew 2

Captain Jester took a few minutes before turning to Jordan, the comms officer, "announce a possible danger zone established by pirates, to the passengers, tell them we will first anchor at a safe distance to assess the danger levels, they may find the opportunity to blast pirates sooner than expected, that should get them to relax a little bit and keep them off our backs, send a private message to the liaison, tell him threat assessment may require his aid, transfer the video files and the scan results to the meeting room, wake the repair modules and get all crew to the meeting room".

Jester left as soon as she said her words, giving Jordan barely enough time to hide the worst of his secret setup, as she left, the federation liaison burst inside only to find four people looking at him like an idiot, he looked around and tried to access comms but was shouted out of the room by Jordan, who left with the rest of his crewmates a few minutes later.

In the meeting room, Jester took her usual seat, she held the pad in her hands looking intently at the screen and showing no more than an acknowledging glance at those who arrived. The medic, the gunner, the engineer, the comms, the navigator, the tech, the diplomat, the service and finally the spy.

The medic, Lars, a middle-aged male quack doctor with an aptitude for fringe medicine, knows too much for his own good, and doesn't hide that fact.

The gunner, Rin, a young lady barely out of her teens, a security officer and war enthusiast, knows all there is to know about guns, fighting, and keeping you safe, as long as she likes you, a former assassin for hire, took that job to pay her university fees.

The engineer, an old man with salt and pepper hair, looks more fit than anyone on the ship, has never shared his name with any crew member except for the captain, like to be called engineer, his background is top-secret.

The comm, Jordan, ex-pirate, a paranoid skinny man with a burning hatred for authority, has enough blackmail material to topple the federation twice over, according to himself.

The navigator, called herself M, a skilled pilot and has a knack for finding the most bizarre pathways, can get you from one end of the galaxy to the other while blindfolded. 

The tech, Mist, a scientist with gender ambiguity, runs the labs and keeps all the equipment in the ship functional, mist brags about being an experimental subject who won their freedom through: "out sciencing" their captors.

The diplomat, Ina, a licensed companion, she makes contact with all local governments they end up dealing with, provides her services with the cruiser as her base, does most of the representative and advertising work to attract customers.

The service, Orin, a quiet guy who likes cleaning and cooking, has proven to be capable of doing everything the ship required to keep running, he likes to work on his hobby, helping others, never to be underestimated.

The spy, Argus, artificial intelligence, provides most of the information, top-secret or otherwise, mostly responsible for finding the items of enjoyment requested by the patrons, excels at counterintelligence, stays hidden as the ship Ai when the federation is listening.

The last person to join the meeting was Rob, short for Robert, he is a trained field agent of the federation, knows the book and too enthusiastic to practice all of it, on himself and others, has a great record for uncovering shady businesses that are very organized and make a show of following the rules, he was assigned here, because the previous guy had nothing to report for half a year.

The look on Rob's face was a good representation of the question: What is the meaning of this? But he knew better than to ask such a question, two months in this cruise has fixed most of his superiority issues, he knew better than to ask meaningless questions, and to wait for the captain to speak.

"This thing says it has been broadcasting to the entire galaxy, the stamp dates are about a month old, there have been no news nor any instructions to avoid this solar system, this place has no local government we can contact, therefore, according to federation regulations, it can be treated as open space. I decided that we will investigate this case before taking any further action, the danger level may be too high for our ship, therefore we anchored outside of the system, techy, comms, what can we do".

"We can use the long range scanners to sweep the outer planets and slowly close in on the inhabitable belt, keep our comm shield up and try not to come into contact with whatever got this guy so riled up, landing is out of the question, in the meantime, we can distract the cash-cows by mining some cold planet under the imagined threat of pirates or worse, we can also watch the video logs and get a better understanding of the hows and whys" says Mist.

"Sure, as long as we stay out of range of the jammers, I can find a workaround, and get into the local network to see the situation, also I recommend secrecy, if the federation has already investigated and kept things hushed, we will be dead if any information leaked out. I will, therefore, monitor all incoming and outgoing communications, anything about this, and I will cut off all communications" Jordan adds, to the dismay of Rob.

"Ina and Argus, you two stay on standby, Orin, Rin and engineer, I want my ship combat-ready, jump into action or flee, I want my order to be executed immediately, Lars, prepare your medbay for potential survivors with priority to injured crew, Jordan, Mist and M, find out why We are the only ship around, if anyone came before us find out why they left, and if anyone is coming after we arrived, find out what they know, Orin will take the patrons mining as soon as we have some safe location, the rest of you, when you are not doing anything, help me watch these videos and get some clues from the background and the contents"

Jester then turned to Rob, "Rob, I have called this an open space operation, please respect that when you contact your department, I hope Jordan does not have to censor your communication, feel free to relay that to your bosses, and the fact that you are monitored as well, oh, I claim this mission to be a code red, the danger level may escalate to black or beyond, now then, everyone get to work!".