"Patching you through, sir." Harmony sends the enemy ship a wave, blocking all data except visual and audio from the line: not even a timestamp gets across. Once she's sure it's secure, she forwards it to the Captain and continues to monitor it for any attempts at hacking. Finally, she'll aim all forward-mounted weapons at the enemy vessel, and then deactivate the Pulse drive, letting the ship resume it's earlier drifting pace.
"Yours was the best ship headin' out of Rubicon," Phillip says. "It's what I do. I'm a hijacker and a scrapper; gets me rich at the expense of others! Like I have much of a choice anyway."
-
"Wouldn't you like to know," the man tries to save bravely; it comes out as a whimper.
-
"This is Gan Ying to hijacker vessel, over," Kelly says. "Do you read me?"
Radio silence for a moment, then a crackled response.
"Let us collect our dead; then we'll talk," says whomever is at the helm.
"I kinda want to talk now, actually," Kelly says. "I certainly do mind if you shut me down. I have your guys on-board, and I have my guns on you. They're up and running, trust me on that."
"I repeat my request more respectfully, then," comes the other voice. A definite outer-world accent.
"You are right.. I can't... But you can."
I will unholster my gun, and point it at his head.
"My trigger finger is faster than you could ever hope to be. I'm going to give you my sword and you are going to kill him. Or I will blow your brains out.... And then make someone else do it. Or you could just tell me."
And then I will hand him my Kantana and stand behind him with my gun pointed at his head.
"Don't you know who Niska is?" he asks, terrified. "He'll make a soup out of my face if I give you any more than his name!"
Admittedly, you do not. But Marina, who is observing this exchange, does. Adelai Niska is the sadistic crimeboss, the one that you do not want to tangle with. He is exceptionally careful with his reputation- that he is a sadistic crimeboss that never lets anyone do wrong by him, and that his definition of being wronged is extremely loose. If you have been victimized by one of his schemes... oh boy. Doubly so if you've trumped it.
Toki will stand in their defense. Finding information is one thing but threatening to slaughter prisoners is another. "No, you won't be slitting anyone's throat. I put these men down, I spared their lives so they can have a chance at redemption. They're not dying because of a closed mouth. For all we know, they attacked us because they have no real jobs and they're hungry." Toki will stand beside the hijacker to assure him that he won't let anything bad happen to him. "It's ok, I'd appreciate it if you could tell us what you can and understand what you can not say. You do however have my word that your name shall never be mentioned if asked where we received this information.
This is very Deer Hunter, tpt, rather nice touch, but Gabriel does indeed not agree with something like that.
Gabriel who has tried to stay in the background, just observing the situation has become more and more distraught with Shaftoe's approach. He cringed at the sick idea of having one guy in charge of taking his friends life, but didn't say anything, hoping it was just a bluff, albeit a deranged one.
But now, realizing that he wants to kill this surrendered prisoner, considering his past, he has to intervene. Before Shaftoe finishes his words he shouts out "STOP IT", and moves for the crewmember grabbing onto his sword hand to and with anger in his voice he tells him "The man has told you what you asked. They are our prisoners, have you no honor? Listen to your Toki."
Harmony is focused entirely on the data stream and the enemy vessel and isn't paying attention to the events inside the maintenance hatch. Otherwise, she'd be reacting pretty badly. Prisoners of war have rights, after all.
But since she is focusing on that wave, she takes a moment to fine-tune the aiming on the weapons systems, locking onto the engines with missiles, and aiming for the body of the ship with the Big Frickin' Laser, which is still hidden.
Marina puts her gun on Gabriel as she perceives his action as aggressive, but realizes he is only trying to prevent further bloodshed than what has already happened, and lowers her gun.
"I think they should spill their guts figuratively, not literally," Marina says. "Not at this point. They make better hostages than anything, at this point. Whoever is still on that ship might want them back. Besides... if they're from Niska, we shouldn't mess too much with them. He's going to be supremely pissed."
Marina will fill the others in about who Niska is.
I am afraid the others have spoken, Shaftoe; your hand is halted. You could technically overrule Marina and Toki with your status as First Mate, but Gabriel is someone you don't actually have authority over; he's a paying passenger, not a crewmember. You don't think he'll listen.
-
"The man I work for, I am indebted to," Phillip says. "He's not someone you break bonds with. Not easily."
-
"Fine," Kelly says. "Just remember; try anything and you're gone."
"Noted, Captain," says the other man.
"Keep that lock, Harmony," Kelly says. "I'm not trustin' this fellow one bit. The moment he tries firing on us, take him out. All the way out."
"Docking sounds absolutely awful," Kelly says. "Suggestions with shuttling are welcome. Dunno if they have one or not. Might have to use ours..."
-
"Adelei Niska," Phillip says.
Uh oh. Nadra, Kenneth, and Christopher all get two successes on their Savoir Faire check and so know just about the same amount of information about Niska. He's a terrifying crimeboss who operates out of his Skyplex station, who takes great care in maintaining his reptutation. People who cross him generally do not last long.