Off-Duty Time }{ [OPEN]

[Drevin Bendis]

The Galley, Esteem; Feburary 24th 2523

Drevin and his squad walked into the galley to find Cravski eating his lunch. Drevin smiled and yelled, "Hey, Cravski, you Huen Dahn! Gather your squad. You guys are on rotation next."

Cravski looked up angrily and said, "Can't you see I'm eating Drevin? Get some other squad to do it."

"Hey, not my orders Crav. Now get your squad together and start your shift."

Scowling, Cravski got up from his seat and left the galley to find his squad. Drevin dumped himself down in the seat previously inhabited and Cravski and looked around at all of the other crew members in the galley, some of them White Arrow, some of them Alliance, although apart from the uniforms Drevin couldn't tell one from the other.

He let his head roll back in exhaustion and thought, "Why the hell am I doin' this. I mean sure, I act all macho and everything with Cravski, but if we pull this off, people are gonna die. Christ, maybes I should warn Sibil next time I meet her."

Drevin came back to reality when one of his squad tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hey Drev. What you want to eat."

Drevin shrugged and said, "Surprise me."

[Patricia Redman]

"That might not be the best idea, sometimes surprises lead to some, interesting tea choices." Patricia said softly as she approached Drevin's table. She smiled cunningly at him and looked out over the room once more, she had met only a fraction of the crew, but her work was never indeed done. She wanted to know as many people as she could, after all she had time to kill before they were in the move and she could start screening clients.

"Patricia Redman, and you are?" She asked with a slight raised brow, he seemed a little out of place, and she didn't remember his name under the normal staff roster. Perhaps he was one of the mercs that were brought on board, only time would tell.

[Drevin Bendis]

Drevin looked up at the woman, Patricia, and was immediately stunned by her looks.

Quickly recomposing himself, he said, "Hi. I'm Drevin Bendis. I'm with White Arrow, the guys who have just been hired to provide security. Pleased to meet you." Drevin held out his hand for her to shake.

Drevin noticed her clothing and said, "You must be the Companion I keep hearing about 'round here. Last time I had a run in with a Companion, I almost had mine and my girlfriend's heads shot off by a group of outlaws, so as you can tell I don't exactly trust 'em as far as I can throw 'em."

[Patricia Redman]

Patricia smiled and shook his hand before slowly sitting down across from him. "Most companions do not do that type of thing Mr. Bendis." Her hand ran through her hair and pushed it off her shoulders.

"But I am a Companion, and it does seem the crew do speak about me quite often. It is a pleasure to meet you, are you planning to stay with the ship long term? Or is your situation more give and take in that area." She wasn't sure how to feel about everything, companions were known to get swept up in the adventures of the black, and in some cases turn their backs on the guild all together. She didn't see herself ever changing however, this was her life.

[Drevin Bendis]

The squad who was getting everyone's food arrived back at the table and handed a sandwich to Drevin, saying, "There you go Drev. I'll be heading back in a minute for drinks so do you-woah...who's this then, Drevin?"

Drevin replied, "This is Patricia Redman. She's a Companion. Now, please don't interrupt the conversation."

The merc sat down and started on his own meal. Drevin turned back to Patricia and said, "Well it's a good thing that most Companions don't do stuff like that, 'cause I actually killed both the shooters and the "companion" that were involved."

Drevin smirked and said, "And in response to your question, I have truly no idea. It really depends on whether or not the Admiral thinks we're doin' a good job or not. Now, it's your turn. Why, from all of the ships that you could tag along with in the 'Verse, did you choose an Alliance cruiser?"

[Patricia Redman]

"Where else would I go? A liner with several other companions and hundreds of rich men? It's not really my thing. I never enjoyed that part of being a Companion. However, it is what we are trained for.. I chose this ship because of the crew. I spent days looking over all the ships I could get on..." She smirked and glanced over to the merc that sat with them. She looked back to Drevin.

"To be honest, I wanted to travel, see a new system, expand my client base." 'and a chance to escape the guild for a while, perhaps never return' she thought to herself. She looked him over for the first time, he wasn't bad looking, and he was the first merc she had ever met.

[orville]

Orville had been busy the last few days doing screenings of the guest list for the up coming event. Most of his focus had been put on the guest of the Duke's. He wanted to find some link to the Duke that would tie him to some sort of crime so they could finally nail him though the odds of that happening in this situaton was remote.

For now he was off shift and gonig to enjoy himself a bit. He had gone back to his quarters and freshened up a bit. He had taken his uniform top of but was still in the pants and undershirt. Then he headed off to the galley to get something to eat before he headed out to the rec area to have a bit of fun.

When he arrived in the galley he ordered his food and noticed that the companion he had heard of on the ship was there with the group of mercs. He walked over to them and set his try down. "Ya'll don't mind if I join ya do ya?" He took a seat before anyone had offered up a reply to accept him being there. "Lieutenant Owen." He said as he waited for the others to introduce themselves.

[Patricia Redman]

"I'm Patricia." She held out her hand with a cunning smile. She was always happy to meet someone else, and she was sure she had not seen him around before. But it was also hard for Hartley figure out everyone on this ship. So many faces, she suspected it might take several weeks to figure them all out, maybe months.

She normally would cringe at that thought. After all it was her job to know everyone. Perhaps she was slipping. Only time would tell.

Though as their hands met, she didn't say much else, wanting to give the others a chance to speak up and greet the alliance officer.

[Drevin Bendis]

Drevin smiled at the new arrival and said, "Drevin Bendis. I just got on board as a security detail."

Drevin looked the officer up and down and said, "You sound like you come from the Rim. How'd you wind being a officer for an Alliance cruiser? Hell, even I was background checked in case I was a terrorist."

One of Drevin's squad members, also from the Rim, said, "Me too, Drev. I would also like to find out how you got so high up."

Drevin smiled. "See, now we've drawn a crowd. So please, enlighten us."

[Sibil Tucker]

Sibil and Adamala had agreed that it was time for some lunch, or rather their stomachs had agreed for them. Entering the dining area, it was full as usual. There were over a thousand people on the Esteem, the kitchen staff kept busy. Not unlike every other department of course, the cruiser was a busy place.

Food in hand now it was time to find a seat, Adamala nudged Sibil lightly nodding her head in the direction where Lieutenant Owen was. "We could go play nice with the Lieutenant, Chief. Maybe he will hate you less if you talk to him." Both women laughed at the slightly teasing suggestion. She also saw Drevin and Patricia sitting at the same table. "Alright then, we can go make nice." Sibil still didn't understand why Orville seemed to have a dislike for her, but then she'd been much too busy to try and mend whatever it was anyway.

Sibil smiled at the group when they approached, Adamala's smile was much more wide and happy which was expected from the energetic woman. The ensign always seemed to be very cheerful and happy, Sibil had been trying to make sure it didn't rub off on her. It was generally working, but she did seem to have a hard time getting upset at anything with Secore was around.

Everyone was greeted by title and name, though it was a relaxed environment Sibil was always about protocol and what-not. It was her way at least until she felt comfortable, which took awhile. "I hope you all don't mind if we join you." At the acceptance the two women took a seat.

[Drevin Bendis]

Drevin turned from the Lieutenant and said to the newcomers, "Hey Sibil. How are the preparations going for that...thing that's happen..."

Drevin's mind suddenly turned back to the plan that Cravski was going to execute soon. As soon as he started thinking about it, Drevin considered telling Sibil about it, although he wasn't quite sure how Cravski and the rest of Arrow squad would react.

Looking around to make sure no one was looking, Drevin leaned over to Sibil and said, "Can we talk in private for a sec?"

[Sibil Tucker]

Sibil's smile faltered at Drevin's inquiry about the event, at least she assumed. There wasn't really any other even going on after all. "If you mean the media spectacle we're having in two days, preparations are going well. Though I'll be rather thankful once it's over." Yes she was none too happy about the events to come. Too many people and not enough security in her opinion, but to the higher brass her thoughts didn't mean much. The Esteem was still awaiting the rest of their additional security they had requested.

When Drevin leaned toward her, speaking softly Sibil raised her eyebrows questioningly. It was curious as to why he wanted to speak with her, privately at that. Perhaps it was something to do with the event?

Without a word or question Sibil nodded slightly and raised from her seat. Adamala stayed but watched as the two of them went off. While the pair walked out of the dining area she said nothing. Once they were in a hallway that was unoccupied at the moment Sibil turned to face Drevin, crossing her arms across her chest. "Is there a problem?"

[Drevin Bendis]

Drevin quickly said, "I don't know how to tell you this, but once your whole media thing that's going on here has ended, Cravski..." He hesitated, not sure whether or not to betray his friend, but he continued.

"Cravski's going to organise something that will cause a hell of a lot of people on this boat. Now please listen to me when I say that you will not be able to handle him or whichever men side with him, even if you out-number them. They will take over this ship in a matter of hours. That's why you need to limit whatever weaponry they want to take from the armoury and keep constant surveillance on him and the entire WA group on this ship. You must understand that if you even let on that I tipped you off, he will kill me and you in the most painful way he can think of."

Drevin looked around and then said to her, "That's all I can say for now. You can't let anything on to any other members of the crew, not even Vangard. Please, I wouldn't be telling you this if I didn't think it was worth it."

At that Drevin moved away from her back towards the galley, saying as he went, "I can't help you until this thing goes down. You're on your own."

[Sibil Tucker]

Sibil's eyes narrowed as Drevin spoke, telling her about some plans to take over the Esteem. He even thought so little of her skills to say that she couldn't handle any of the men. Sure the Chief hadn't seen the war in her time, but she'd been in combat many times.

He actually expected her to not say anything? Drevin was aware he was on a military ship, not some smuggler ship right? The one person above any other that she trusted on the Esteem was the Admiral.

When he moved back toward the dining area Sibil was glaring at him, unmoving. Her arms still crossed across her chest. Once Drevin was gone she left, not back to the galley but the opposite way down the hall. Straight for the offices where she would expect to find the Admiral. 'So much for a nice lunch and Adamala's idea about playing nice.'