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"I know passenger manifest is a highly confidential thing but I would like more information about this lady before I decide, please and thank you?"

There's a pause on the other side of the comms before Captain Porphyros replies.

"Her name is Evangeline Rudker.

"And?"

"Like you said, our data on our passengers in highly confidential- hold on, Arnold."

You receive a ping that the hail is being muted on the other side right now. It lasts several long seconds.

"Right, miss Rudker says her fellows promised to arrive before 0800 hours this day. Can I have your reply to her request now, Arnold?"

A) "Alright, drop her off, I can accomodate her for few hours!"
B) "Sorry, but no, I'm afraid I can't let her stay this long."

You decide to read some more trivia, for a slim chance there will be more recipes to be found there.


You barely get started on an article about differences between fruity and sweet drinks when the sensors' console sends you an alert.

You go check that stuff.

Sensors Station Alert! IFF beacon translation in progress...

Done!

"Prinz Eugen", Venera-class Luxury Casino Liner, approaching from direction of Poseidonis Jump Gate.

Docking request received.

Docking Airlock assigned: #4 (authority: Automated Refueling AI)

Estimated arrival time: 22 minutes.

You're about to consider whether to hail them or not, when the security console pings again.

Prinz Eugen's crew is hailing your outpost.

A) Ignore the hail and return to reading.
B) Let's not be rude - answer the hail!

You navigate the computer core's memory to reach the folders containing the sprawling media series about Captain Zirconius.


The date is 666 United Space Year. Hiro Zirconius, the Captain of Space Police Corvette Hyperion-3, goes through the dossiers of file clerks, new recruits, grumpy veterans, to assemble his bridge crew; Chief Engineer Hota Jaxo (a snarky janitor from Federal Space Police Fortress Poseidonis), Communications Chief Marga Trelis (ex-radio jockey fresh out of Space Police Academy), Computer Specialist Mikhaila Syarkova (former laboratory chief of FSPF Poseidonis) and Weapons Officer Chester-Beta42 (second iteration of Chester, a bodyguard droid serie). Their first mission as a crew takes them once again into fight with the brutal Barbary Pirates, destroying one of their bandit flotillas, killing one of their Crime Barons, Barbus Shrapnel-Maw, and rescuing Milan Milan, a young computer jack who was about to be sold into slavery for his debts to the criminal underworld. Shortly after returning to Fortress Poseidonis, Zirconius is contacted by Crime Prince Borelion, who offers the young Captain a deal...

So ends Chapter 2.

A) Maybe there's some bartending lore to be found in manuals and stuff?
B) Let's just chill and pass the time.
C) Great moment to hook myself to the computer and peer deeper into my organic and electronic pathways!
D) Alright, I guess I could go through Chapter 3 as well.

You head for the East Docking Ring.

It is time to put your genius engineering skills to good use once again!


You seal the pressurized spacesuit and have it clamped on your body tightly. You put on the interface helmet and pull up the holo-console with your eyesight before, well, your eyes.

The interface informs you that the pressure is stable but the door controls have been locked.

With a sigh, you pull up schematics of the airlock and find the manual override panel. With a loud clunk, it pops open and you pull the heavy lever down. The airlock door opens with a hiss and rolls out slowly to the side.

You enter the main airlock area, glancing at the darkness behind the outer airlock door. Several tonnes of plasteel is all that separates you from cold, deadly void of space.

You take off the maintenance panel and run diagnostics. The outer airlock door #2 is on manual, the inner airlock door is on manual, docking clamps for all three outer airlocks are jammed into 'closed' position, requiring a manual reset to open and then fixing the power problem between them and the computer...

You have quite a lot of work before you.

1

You inadverently cause a power surge and the outer airlock door #2 rolls open!

Your magnetic boots keep you in place but you grab a nearby handle just to be on the safe side. You wait until the air is vented into space over the next dozen seconds to avoid being pushed about by the pressure difference. You glance at the far end of the corridor, where the gate to the main hall is keeping the bar from being vented out of air.

Well, at least something in here is working properly.

Once oxygen is gone and void conquers the entire East Docking Wing, you try to finagle a way to restore control over the outer airlock door #2.

1

Bad luck however haunts you and you inadverently cause a power surge in the control panel itself. The interface on the panel goes offline, but your maintenance pad shows it still has power. You could potentially try to reroute it to the panel or fix the burned-out cable or something...

Still: woops.

A) Alright, lets just manually close the outer airlock door.
B) I can fix that later. Time to peek outside and try to reset the docking clamps.
C) Third time's the charm! Let's try fixing the control panel again!
D) You know what, this is it. The maintenance team can fix this. Let's just go back, seal the outer airlock and keep East Wing out-of-order until tomorrow night.

You grab a screwdriver and maintenance pad.

You open the side panel and begin looking for trouble inside.


You check the power conduits (everything's ok), the messaging system (all is well), the alarm system itself (BEEP-BEEP is loud and clear).

Then you notice something - the manual control for alert system has been activated and the switch was set to 'off'.

You flip the swit-

BEEP-BEEP
BEEP-BEEP
BEEP-BEEP
BEEP-BEEP

You acknowledge the alarm, disable manual control and put everything back in its place.

You wonder who could've have had the time, tools and the whole idea of putting the notification system for the sleep pod on manual.

Then you remember that you're not the first bartender for this outpost, obviously, so it must've been the previous bartender. Quite irresponsible on their part (you can understand the decision, though. That alarm is loud).

A) Anyway! Time to do some more maintenance and check the East Docking Wing!
B) Anyway! I have done enough maintenance, time to prep up the bar for whomever might be visiting today!

You playback the message.

"Hey Arnie, you cutie. Didn't want to wake you up to say goodbye - I hope the station doesn't ping you in your sleep - but yeah, I gotta go and just wanted to say goodbye. Keep the bar open for me and I will try to get jobs going through Beta Carotenii more often. Okay? Okay, bye then. Until next time."

You feel fluffy inside your organic body parts. But it is time to get back to professionalism. You decide to investigate...

A) ...the power loss in door control in East Docking Wing.
B) ...if your Sleep Pod had its alert system disabled or was otherwise tampered with.

You politely explain to her that she has nothing to fear from you, because this marriage is purely political and if she is truly wants it to be like that, she is free to do so.

She claps her hands and looks as if great burden was lifted off her shoulders.

"Thank you muchly, my dear husband." She quietly leaves for her bedroom, without even a smooch for goodnight.


The Spymaster tips his hat and leaves hurriedly while you grimace.

No wonder Iselda did not want to consummate the marriage - when only one maiden stayed behind with her, you knew something was fishy about that. The servants have started sharing rumors so your good Spymaster did a little hunting for information.

Your wife has hots for her maiden Camira, and that feeling is mutual. You begin to wonder if this in particular was the reason Tastan was keeping her away from marriage for so long and then sent her over so quickly to you.

A) "Under watchful eye of Pantheon, all love is celebrated love, everyone knows that."
B) "I ought to have a real talk with her. Love is love but she should've been clear with me and my court from the start!"
C) "This is a big fraud that upsets the very core of my being! I must divorce that harlot at once!!"