No Longer Drifting Souls[Open to Crew]

[robertborden]

Robert turned to Ben. He recognized the man from war footage and from the wanted notices. This was the infamous "Bulletproof" Ben Barrow. Now he had his first target with his new ship. He was pretty sure it could outrun any firefly and he could have a couple dozen alliance feds come charging in any time now but Robert then couldn't arrest the entire crew, like he wanted. No he would just follow them for a little while and find out if they were doing anything illegal first.

"Oh my, are you the legendary Ben Barrow. It is an honor to meet you," he said to the captain of the Orlando. "Yes I'm here to buy this here mule for my own ship, the Horizon."

This was a good first day for an Alliance captain. He had already met a boatload of criminals. He may even become friends with them, then they could lead him to others in the smuggling field.

[benbarrow]

"Oh my, are you the legendary Ben Barrow. It is an honor to meet you. Yes I'm here to buy this here mule for my own ship, the Horizon."

There were only three kinds of people that would recognize him as "Bulletproof" Ben Barrow: Independent war veterans, those that Ben introduced himself to, and Alliance agents sent to hunt him down and bring him to 'justice'. All others may have known him by name, but otherwise no one knew what Ben actually looked like.

Ben knew that the man in front of him wasn't an Independent veteran. If he was, he would never have got shot in O'Hanrahan's. And since Ben hadn't introduced himself to the newcomer yet, it became pretty obvious that the man just had to be an Alliance agent, or at the very least had been an Alliance agent.

Ben knew that he had to be careful now. Shooting this character here and now in the docks may cause an entire Alliance death squadron raining down upon them. And Ben also knew that they couldn't afford getting into trouble on Persephone. After all, this is where the work and the money was. A well placed lie was pretty much in order now.

Luckily the Alliance itself provided an excellent cover for Ben. After the war was over they staged a false execution, just to make the 'Verse believe he was dead, while in reality they never found him. So they lied about him being dead in order not to lose their face.

"I think you need to brush up on your history there, chief." Ben said. "The Alliance found Bulletproof and they executed him. They're keeping his body in the University of Osiris, don't you watch the news?"

Ben then turned to Roxanne and George. It was definately time to get out of there now.

"Roxanne, get to the cockpit and start the flight check." Ben said. "George, round up your business here and get that dermal mender to the medbay. We leave in fifteen minutes."

Giving Borden a quick nod, Ben returned to the cargobay to check if everything was hold down tight. Seems from this day forward Ben had to keep an eye out for a ship called the Horizon.

[roxanne]

Roxanne frowned as she jumped from the crate and turned away from the two men. She had meant to say something to George, but Ben’s words stopped him. This was one of the few times she visibly frowned in worry-though only George could probably see. Something in Ben’s character had changed. Why was he lying about who he was? She pretended to find something to do in searching around some crates for something. As she wasn’t a big part of the war she sent a quizzed look to George before pulling back on a smile to hide any suspicion.

Apparently she’d have to brush up on her war history. Guess these two’s first hand accounts would be best if they didn’t mind. With a nod she made her way up the steps. ”Safe travels.” The good thing about her flying for so long and her father owning a ship was that she just had to go through things in her head-unless there were specifics the captain liked. Then that took a little extra time to learn. But so far there was nothing else to check.

As she disappeared from the bay area she waved to George before she skipped ahead and whistling a joyous melody.

[robertborden]

"i do watch the news but with the people I hang with, you'd think that bulletproof was invincible. You look just like they described him to be. Sorry for the mistaken identity." Robert tried to play it off but it was likely that he had been discovered already. Maybe the next time we meet I'll just need to make them trust me. Captain Borden hoped planned on using the Orlando for more than just a single group of arrests. Hopefully, he could follow and link them to other smugglers and he could take down a larger number later on.

However, the plan wasn't turning out too well. He could tell that Ben Barrow didn't trust him and on any other day, that would be a huge positive. The main reason was probably the bullet wound received at O'halloran's. The only people who got shot in that place were alliance sympathizers. The story he gave West was that he was speaking sarcastically about the alliance but the people nearby didn't think he was sarcastic enough.

"Well, I better be going. I see y'all are busy so I'll leave you to work goings ons." With that, he paid West for the mule hopped on and rode out of the firefly.

[georgewest]

George noticed something was up, Ben didn't trust or like this Borden. His suspicions were confirmed by the look on Roxanne's face. George recounted the money he had just been given and continued to move the mender toward the medical bay.

"I know what you're thinking Ben, but Robert isn't pro-Alliance. He got shot because someone didn't understand sarcasm," George tried to explain. However, Ben's instincts seemed to be something you should trust. West now wondered about Borden. West knew he had never been the best judge of character and that had gotten him into trouble in the past. He would have to watch out for Borden and his Horizon or there might be trouble in the future.