Salvage [2430-1-2-Sun-3:00pm]

[Grace Forjacks]

Grace had come back up after making her lap and checking to make sure everyone was alright (and that nothing dangerous was floating around). She'd have to make another just before the gravity was turned back on. But right now she had things to get through an airlock.

The boxes were bouncing around in the airlock when she floated in. Castle's he was in view and she grinned up at him. The man had done a good job. Grace was pleased by how efficient he was. Struggling with this many crates in zero-g wasn't something most men could do, especially without a lot of training. If Castle had never been in zero-g before, then he handled it quite well.

She made a move-your-head gesture and got to the airlock controls. Once he was clear, she shut the airlock and cycled the air through the filters. A moment later, she opened the door and brought in the prizes. It looked like Klove was right, mostly mining materials. Those would still pay for a day's worth of fuel, making the trip worth it.

Grace sealed the airlock and reopened the aperture, the dead ship's insides slowly coming into view again.

[Klove Makem]

Klove watched at the aperture reopened. "Thanks Castle." He said, pleased to see that his trust in him had paid off. Klove moved through the silverware and carefully dropped the box of parts and tools into the airlock, then headed to the pantry.

He yanked it open, and stopped and stared. Dozens of air-tight containers floated around, their contents perfectly preserved by the nature freezer that was space. Klove reached out and grabbed one. The strawberries, that should have been rotted ages ago, were still eternally fresh and bright. "Grace." He said, careful to keep his voice steady, "They were carrying a load of fresh, real fruit."

[Grace Forjacks]

Grace let out a sentence that would have curled wallpaper. She quickly jetted over to the intercom and radioed back, "Get as much as the fridge and freezers can fit. Hell, get it all. We'll eat what we can't keep preserved."

Real fresh fruit. It was worth it's weight in gold out here on the edges of the system. Only the second and third planet managed to grow fruit. Heimdall was too hot, Glacies was too cold, and it was too dark on Nox to grow anything that needed that much sun to flower and ripen. Both Glacies and Nox would pay through the nose for real, undried or canned fruit.

This explained the bit of mining equipment and mostly empty cargo bay. Their real cargo had been fruit. They'd probably sold some on Glacies and then decided to try their luck at Nox, using the equipment as a distraction if they were attacked . But they'd never gotten that far.

Grace grinned. The salvage had not only paid for a day's worth of fuel, but if they could sell even half of what they were grabbing, it would pay for the entire trip. Which meant there would be nothing but profit when they sold the blood and fruit. This was turning out to be a very good day.

[Klove Makem]

Klove got to work as best he could, grabbing an empty box floating in midair and filling it with the frozen fruit. It was primarily strawberries, peaches and kiwis, all carefully held in their air-tight containers meant to keep them fresh longer. Then the space of cold had done an even better job.

It wouldn't be worth as much frozen as fresh, but it would still be worth something. Klove remembered how rare it was to have fruit on Nox. There were a few crabapple trees that managed to grow in the eternal twilight, a few other small and bitter fruits. Nothing like the ones grown on Antheia or in the hydroponics units of Terra. His stomach rumbled a little. While Klove was more of a meat guy for obvious reasons, he did enjoy the super-sweet taste of fruit.

He floated the first box out to Castle and got to work packing another. He didn't have to tell Castle what he had to do. It was pretty obvious what needed to be done.

It took another box to get the last of it. Some of the packages had broken open while floating around, and the loose fruit had been tossed in to the bottom of the third box. That stuff would be eaten. He was tempted to crack another case of strawberries open, but he was sure Grace would say yes to digging into one of those. She wasn't a skinflint.

He floated over with the last box and let it drop down the hole. The aperture closed, and he gave Castle a thumbs-up. "Good job. Too bad you didn't find anything for yourself. Maybe next time!"

[Jared Castle]

After a little bit of struggling to keep the crates steady, he noticed Grace. He moved his head and then the doors opened. Grace took the crates and Castle went back into the Mess hall of the dead ship. Klove was rummaging through the fridge and freezer. Maybe there was some good looking food in there. Like steak. Jared's mouth watered at the thought of a nice juicy sirloin steak.

Klove managed to fill some boxes with whatever he found and passed one to him. Castle was curious so he looked inside. Fruit. He loved fruit. Especially strawberries. He lowered the box through the airlock and passed it to Grace. The next box Klove dropped down to him. He gave that one to Grace as well.

He nodded at the compliment in his work. Then thought about the eInkr he took after Klove mentioned that he didn't get anything for himself. "Yeah, too bad."

[Grace Forjacks]

Grace brought in the fruit and tools. She carefully handled one of the frozen peaches. It looks nearly perfect, just on the edge of ripeness. Someone had gone to great lengths to catch the fruit at the perfect moment before sealing them up. And while they were probably dead, they had just given Grace a substantial chunk of change.

She set them under her desk so they wouldn't go floating around. The other crates kept themselves organized, still held together by the ropes. Grace opened the airlock back up. Klove came floating down. She shut it and let him in, then opened it back up for Castle.

As Klove pulled his helmet off, Grace headed out into the corridor and got suited up. While she had no doubt they'd gotten the bulk of what there was to get on the ship, Grace still liked to take a look on her own. You never knew when you'd find something you needed.

She floated back in, snapping her helmet in place. Klove was letting Castle out of the airlock. She waited until he was out, and then went in. Klove handed her the cutter and shut the airlock door, cycling her through. Grace slipped up and into the dead ship.

While Klove moved like a fish in water, Grace had always had a harder time. It just didn't come naturally to her. But she had enough practice that it wasn't difficult. She floated down the ship's corridors, checking the unopened doors. There were about ten bodies in total, counting the two in the kitchen. That was fairly full for a BarGo ship. Most of them were carrying only a little cash, but she took it anyway. A few had pistols and she took them as well. You could always sell weapons.

Little by little, she looted the place, taking cash and weapons, and anything else nice and useful. Klove tended to skip over them. She wasn't sure why. Maybe he felt guilt at taking personal possessions. But these were dead men, and their company had abandoned them. The widows would be paid a little, just enough to keep them from complaining loudly, and the ship would be left to float through space until eventually it crashed on a planet, or floated right out of the system and disappeared for good.

Finally, sure that she'd checked every place worth checking, she headed back to the ship, dropping down into the airlock with her armload of things. Klove cycled the air and opened the door for her. She glided through and set her own haul down in the general vicinity of the bed. It floated around.

Grace pulled the helmet off, "Well done. Klove, take the crates to storage. Castle, take the fruit to Quillian. Get him to identify what's worth selling and what's not. I'm going to clean up here, mark the ship as salvaged, and turn the gravity back on once we're settled."

Orders given, she got the rest of the suit off.

[Jared Castle]

Castle watched as Klove lowered down and waited for his turn. He dove down through the door when it opened. He thought he'd make himself look cool by flipping himself around so that his feet hit the floor. He did so but stumbled a little on the landing. He steadied himself.

He was confused when Grace went up into the dead ship. He'd thought that they were finished looting. Castle grabbed the helmet and pulled it off his head. He took the suit off, making sure to quickly switch the salvaged eInkr from the suit pocket to his pant's own pocket. He waited for Grace to finish up. He wanted to ask her a question.

Once her salvage was complete, Klove opened the door for her. Castle looked at her arms and how they were filled with stuff that interested him. Guns, and other various objects that Jared must have just skipped over. She definitely was much better at this than he was. It was his first time, nobody expects the first time to be amazing. He instantly forgot the question he wanted to ask her after looking at her successful loot. Grace gave him an order and he did so still flabbergasted by all the things she found.

He picked up the box of froze fruit and floated down the corridor to the stairs and into the kitchen to find Quillan.

[Klove Makem]

Klove cycled Grace through and waited for her to come back. It was pretty clear that Castle was confused. He thought about trying to explain it, but he knew he'd understand when Grace came back. No matter how good Klove combed through a ship, she always came back with something he hadn't seen.

And she didn't disappoint. When she came back, her arms were full. Klove grinned at her and cycled her through. The aperture shut for the last time and he locked the airlock. When the ship detached, the dead ship was going to lose all atmo. It was a hell of a thing to see. But Grace gave him orders, and he headed off to get them done.

Klove waited until Castle went down the stairs, and then followed, dragging the crates with him. They jostled against the walls, but that was fine. They were able to stand that sort of treatment. He dragged them into the storage, passing the other floating crates. He got to work securing everything. There was nothing worse than a total collapse when the gravity came back. A few ropes would keep everything somewhat level with the floor.

He tied the roped crates to the grips on either side of the storage wall, then started collecting the other floating crates and doing the same with them.

[Grace Forjacks]

Grace put the suits away, locking the cabinet back up. The items floated around in her room, but they didn't go far. All the same, she unloaded the guns. The last thing she needed was one accidentally going off when gravity came back on.

She drifted into the cockpit and got herself settled, buckling herself into the captain's chair. Grace disengaged the magnets, started the jets and moved the ships apart. There was no sound as the air exited the ship, but from her viewscreen, she could see the ship shaking as it aired out. Silverware, bodies, and general riffraff floated out as all the oxygen came pouring out.

Grace turned on the lasers with a flick of one toggle. She targeted and started carving words into the side of the ship. She put it in Common, a simple "salvaged", followed by the symbol for a salvaged ship: a circle with a large X through it. Others would likely try their hand anyway, always hoping there was some treasure to be found, but it was still a courtesy thing.

She set the ship to wait. If they started moving around too much, everything was going to start flying around. That was a way to make sure you killed someone. Grace unbuckled herself and headed down to see how everyone was coping. Klove looked like he was doing fine in storage. So she headed on over to the mess to make sure Qullian wasn't about to piss Castle off. Murder was bad enough when the gravity on, but in zero-g? The blood got everywhere.