Plan for the Future

[Onas Knox]

Onas had takin a seat at the galley table and had his lighter, cigerettes, ashtray, mug of coffee, his knife and sharpening kit spread out in front of him. The truth was that the Dutchess was running so well, and was so compleatly in order, that he had very little to do. Onas, and indeed, the entire crew had become rather used to longer days of work. Waking up around four in the morning, and getting done around ten at night. That was his whole life. A few years ago, time spent in space was time they could use. And use it they would. Panels would be taken down, unnessisary componants pulled free. Contacts would be updated. Plumbing and indoor electric lines were yanked from the walls. If they had a week in the black, they could have a ships interior gutted by the time they got it back to the barn. So this was a new experiance for him. Onas honestly had very little to do, and what he did have to do, was already done.

So for now, he contented himself with sharpening his knife. It had been a long while since he'd taken it out. The blood crusted blade had begun to rust, and the edge had several kinks and drop marks. He took his time cleaning the blade. Sharpening the edges of the curve, and grinding the chinks out was never an easy task, but what else was there to do? He tapped the edge, and then turned it over in his hand. The serade on this knife was uncommonly large. It had only a few tips, and each was the size of a pinky fingernail. Each one sharp as a razor, making it hell for whatever the blade dug into. Onas didn't particularly enjoy killing people, but he wouldn't go so far as to say that he lost any real sleep over it. It really just depended on the actual kill.

But that's another story.

[Jackson Grimm]

Have you ever walked into your kitchen and opened up your refrigerator, even though, you knew what was in it? This is essentially what Grimm was doing with the Cortex. Going through database after database with no real change or update in the results. In years past, during the opening leg of the trip, Jax would be working the nav systems. Most of his work would be done at the barn, but what little he could do would be just about done by now. Then he would help the occupying team remove all they could manage. Normaly, you only had a few days to get a headstart on the op. Every ounce of a ship under Onas' shop was useable in one way or another. It just depended on the job, and how they were fencing the raw goods. For instance, if a ship was being lifted for parts, then his job was to scrubb the serial numbers and code traces. If the ship was being stolen for it's frame, it would be stripped of all essential componants, but left in prestien condition for refit. If it was for new parts, than this was more common.

One method of fencing stolen parts was buying an abondoned, or deadlined starship, and then stealing an identical vessel in good working order. In that case, both ships would be kept in fair order. Jackson's job was the hardest in those jobs, as he had to scrubb old codes, and graft the new numbers in. In the old days, like, centuries ago, these numbers were simply plates that were burned, stamped or bolted on. In modern times, it was done through thermal bonding. Kind of like a barcode fused into metal. That was what Jackson had to merge.

Today. It was this. Staring at a moniter with nothing on it. If this were a job, Onas would problebly beat him. He'd tell him to find the next mark or... Hey Jackson thought. Find the next mark. So Jackson went shopping. Diving into the docking manifests on Tiften, he turned his screens into a cataloge of profitable oppertunities. The shiniest one being a brand new Armitage class transport named Wonderland. Now at first glance this ship didn't seem like much ,but what it did boast was a state of the art fuel management system that would pay six months worth or wages for the whole crew.

"Well thats a gorram pipe dream," Jackson said aloud. Turning to look to see if Nick would chime in, Jax realized that his friend hadn't even noticed he said anything.
"Hey, buddy what you doin over there" he called to the back of Nick's head. No response was forthcoming.

"Nick, you alive over there," asked letting his voice rise, still no answer.

"Hey!!! Jackleg," Jackson was nearly screaming at the top of his lungs by now.

Nick started and the moved his hand to his left ear pulling out a small wireless ear bud. Turning to look at his large and very red faced friend who now sported a razor thin smile, that generally followed these types of embarsing moments.

"Sup dude, you need me or som'in," Nick asked.
Jackson just rolled his eyes.

"What you doing over there bud," Jax said as he moved towards the front of the bridge.

"Lisn'in ta som muzac bre, you," Nick replied kinda sleepily.

"Just sittin here somewhere between boredom and oblivion... Right, well I think i am going to leave all this exciting stuff to you sir and head to the galley to make some grub, if you get hungry come on down" Jax stated as he made his way to the door.

"That's was up, I'll be down in a few" Nick commented lazily as Jackson went out of site.

Making a stop by his room, Jackson grabbed his gun case and cleaning kit, and then continued on his way to the galley. He figured he'd kill the rest of the evening cleaning his new toy and cooking dinner for the crew. Walking into the galley, Jackson spotted Onas sitting at the table with his knife, appearing to have had the same idea that he did.

"You bored too boss..." Jackson asked announcing he presence.

Setting down his gun case and cleaning kit, Jax rounded the counter into the pantry, grabbing select vegetables. Next he went to the fridge and picked out some plump chicken protien stubs. Really, these didn't need to be refrigerated, but it was just Jax style. He felt that if you treated it like real food, it somehow enhanced the flavor. Jax continued his preperations as Nick entered the galley.

"Oh you ain't done yet? I thought it was grub time," Nick casually joked to Jackson.

"Things of this caliber take some time man," Jax said, pausing and jestureing with his knife, and joking back.

"I thought white boys got it done quick," Nick continued, pulling out a chair, turning a chair backwards and sitting at the table. He reached out and slid Onas' ashtray closer.

Jackson stopped what he was doing and turned towards Nick, "No... white boys get it done right, the first time, which is why it seems quick," he said, punctuating every point with his index finger.

"Oh so thats why you got all those leads on Kitty when I came up blank, right?" Nick quiped.

Jackson gripped his guts and stumbled back, "Low blow, it's a low blow!" They laughed and carried on for a bit, when the conversation took a turn.

"Onas," Nick said, "You think about what I said earlier? Bout the new pilot? Cause I've been thinkin," Nick started, ashing his cigar, "If we can find one, which, come on dawg, we can, there's so much oppertunity out there. And you remember that lil warehouse that's fer sale back on seph. We could... get a few gigs lined up..."

"You talkin bout openin another shop? Cause if you are, I kinda saw a lead on Santo. Got one of them hyped up TPI MOLY Base Fuel Management systems..." Jax chimed in.

"That's what I'm talkin bout Onkey. Dat's tha new new, and its right where we're goin." Nick said, gaining momentum. Both stared Onas near out of his seat, waiting for something.

[Onas Knox]

"Little bit bud," Onas answered Jax as he came into the galley. Jackson began the fixings of some supper, or lunch, or breakfast, or whatever meal you would want to call it in the black. He had only been in the room for a total of three minutes when Nick came in, talking crap off the bat.

Onas let them go back and forth for a minute, before commenting, "We need to put him in his place Jax. We got him outnumbered here!" He joked at Nick as they sat around.

Nick and Jax hit him with a chop shop plan shortly thereafter. Onas was a little confounded. "Back up Nick. I mean, I get you Jax, you havn't been here for the last two months, but Nick, ain't you been one of the main propriators for the Onas Goes Legit parade? Now you want to buy Orchird and Third to reboot a shop? Did I miss something here? From what I understood, this was suppose to be the quote, last job. Unquote. And you can't count the Briggs Jobs. We already had those..."

[Jackson Grimm]

"Last job, HA, there all the last job." Jackson scoffed, hammering home the last five words. Without taking a breath he added, "Just like its the last cigarette until you go buy another pack. This is who we are O.J., your a chain smoker, Nicks is a womanizer, and I am a gym rat. This is just who we are we can't change it, and do we really want to? The money's great and admit it were damn good at it to boot. What would you have us do Onas, go legit? Open up a shop, fix ships instead of steal them," Jackson went on at a relentless pace that bordered almost fury.

"Hell Onkey, I went legit! The whole time I was on Santo I was legit. And let me tell you the honest life gaisi de xi, it sucks bad too. Long hours for little pay, hell boss, you know I don't mind the hours we run. But only because of the juice. My checks on Santo," He stopped and emphasised his next point, "For the same hours mind you, were maybe a tenth of the pay. No contest. Not even close. Not even in the same ball park. Hold on Nick, I aint done yet," He shushed at Nick when he tried to add in, "Plus if you opened a shop, and some fat ta ma de customer tries to jew you down on the price, ya can't just shoot him and walk away! Ya gotta kiss his ass, and hope he brings you more buisness! If this job goes sideways, we blast our way out with the goods, and sell it on our own. Honest pricks have to grind the mill, take the crap... and smile when that's what they get! I'm tellin ya, again, we won't get the same pay, and we'll do more work for it!"

Jackson continued, as he went through all of this, he scarcely looked at Nick or Onas, he started cooking, and kept unloading everything he'd bottled up since he'd gotten here, and heard this talk creep in. "And don't even get me started on the laws. Their so convaluted and twisted, they only exsist to keep honest people in check. Sometimes I think that their so out of whack just so we can exploit them! Did you see how not long it took me to make those idents? What skill is that gonna translate into in the real world? Just the other day I scanned an article on the cortex that refered to a gun bill that the Alliance is tryin to pass, that private ships are only allowed to have so many certain types of guns on board. You allready can't install ship to ship weapons, now they want yur handguns! They're makin this way too easy for us, we can't quit now!"

He put all the portions into the pan, added some artificial butter so the food wouldn't stick, and swished the pan a few times. Letting it sizzle, he kicked his soapbox away, and took a deep breath, "All I'm sayin O.J. is that this is a pipe dream. It has always been a pipe dream, it will always be a pipe dream. All three crews I've worked on, refused[i/] to just let this die. Every few years like clockwork, 'we should go legit, open a garage/shop/trade shop/junkyard/used ship lot/blablabla.' The ever present crap dream. I never thought that You would buy into it though. Either of you. And you were talking it a week ago Nick, so I'm talking to you too. We should nip this on Santo. We can take that ship, and haul it back to Seph in christening of our new/old buisness venture." Jax crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter.

He added as an afterthought, "Hell Onkey, the TPI cells would pay for the building... and a lot more."

[Onas Knox]

Onas leaned back as Jackson jumped on him in a veracious scolding that kept amping up as the minutes ticked by. How long had he held this in? Onas didn't have time to continplate it, he just listened to his friends onslaught, point after point. Nick tried to jump in, but even he was shut down, as Jax later confirmed, that he'd been harping on both of them.

When Jax finnaly finsihed, he leaned back and said nothing. Nick looked like he was going to say something, but instead, he just waved his finger first at Jax, and then at Onas, gesturing that Jackson had made all points known. Onas sat back, and thought before answering. He puffed on his cigarette a few times, and played with the smoke as he thought, blowing smoke rings, or wisping it between his fingers.

Jax made a compelling argument of course, but the bit that stung him deepest was the dissapointment in his comrad's tone, and words. Was it really a pipe dream after all? Onas had of course considered that many times in the past few weeks. But he'd nearly convinced himself that it was a solid plan. He realized that this whole thing really amped up when his brother got ready to go back to their father. He'd pressed hard that the "normal" life was solid, and profitable. But now that he stood at the precipace, the way down seemed more dangerous and alien than it had been a week ago. How could he have thought of this as the "last Job"? It was far from that. Off the top of his head, they had this, the two Briggs Jobs, Kitty and Voyer.

Even if he went legit, it was two months away at best speed, with little to no profit directly ahead. Onas pulled at his soulpatch lightly as he considered Nick and Jax's offer. One might surmise that this was truely what they wanted, solely because they'd done their homework, but Onas wouldn't expect anything less. This wasn't all they wanted, it was all they knew. Still that didn't make their proposal any less sound. He took a breath of smoke in, and let it sit for a moment longer, then looked to Jax.

"And this is how you all feel is it?"

When both offered their confirmation, he abandoned his apparant 'pipe dream', offering a silent apoligy to his distant brother. Onas sighed deep, and began, "So we need a pilot. I can only assume that this is your way of telling me that you want to run the ground on Persephone Nick?"

Nick answered almost before Onas had finished speaking, "Helllll yes Onas. In the years that we were apart, I worked on five different crews. I'd just about decided to go back to engineering, but then you called. When the crew came together on this ship, I felt like a whole had filled. I felt alive again. This isn't just what were good at like Jax said, it's what we love. Every day we wake up, I look forward to getting dressed, no matter what lies in front of us. Me an Reaper talked about it, we want to do this, but you are paramount to the operation. We agreed not to tell you about this to you after you got past the crud, but when you were gone for those three weeks, it took me, Alice, Andre and Nell setting aside our work just to pull your weight. We were seriously considering hiring someone to come in and do your job, but we didn't know anyone we could trust with our baby. As much as you talk about needing me, your that much more important. You run the crew, and bring in the ships. I'll run the shop, and fence the props. We can do this."

Onas listened to Nick as intently as he'd listened to Jackson. He wondered about Alice. Jax and Nick may have plotted this course, but they couldn't speak for her. Although, Alice would almost certainly agree with Jax on any point. She may have lead their relationship through Jackson's unyeilding devotion to her, but the Grimms always agreed to one course of action. So it went without saying.

Onas nodded his head without speaking.

Then at long last, he answered, confident in the popular opinion that this would not only work, that was the easy part, but that it was the best thing for them. "All right. I'm in. Leave it at that. So we need a new pilot. Nick... find us some options. Jackson, you help him. And... we should run a search on Priya, or, Paige Demore, see if we can find her. I owe her a dept. This ship is our masterpiece, it will have to be enough. Perhaps we should find another. Or perhaps she would join us, though I doubt it. I didn't know her for long, but what little I learned from her, this just doesn't seem like her style."

"There's all kinds of work out there Oj, your the one who started expanding our options. We... let me rephrase, I can drum up all kinds of work. And we are smarter than Sid was. We can run multiple crews, start building from his example, and improve on the parts he got wrong."

"You mean keeping it low profile?"

"Yep. All right, Reaper, meet me on the bridge when your done. And bring me a plate." Nick said getting up and leaving.

"I appreciate your cooking bud, but I'm not hungry now, I'll have some in a bit, thank you though." Onas left as well, but not to the bridge, he went to confront Alice, and get her true oppinion before she could be givin bias from her husband.