Prepare for Boarding

JP with Omni, Jaxx, redsword_7, Kudzu, and CS

Checking the systems, the Captain saw that they were back to normal and the FTL drive was fully repaired.

Just then, Lohan saw a ping for a ship again and it was gone. "God damn, glitches."
Kenny asked, "Did you see something Paddy?"

"Another ship, but there's nothing out here, Cap.", Paddy nodded at the Captain.
Kenny sipped his coffee and thought for a bit before looking at Roberts, Asahi, Roku and Vera.

Kenny asks, "Just out of curiosity... is it possible for an android to use stealth?"

Roku nods., "Of course, they are programmed to act human. Vera here, would have fooled me up until I ran her medical examination... which she's been putting off. I suspected she was pregnant, which was concerning in itself, I'm actually relieved to have an android on board."

Kenny rubbed his chin a bit then looked at Paddy and replied,"So it is possible we are picking up a cloaked ship, cloaked Android, an echo or it could be a glitch. To be honest, all of those possibilities make my heart race in a bad way. Paddy, before we attach the umbilical, let's try to remove some of those variables first. If we are dealing with a rogue android super soldier, things could get bad for us. It would not surprise me if the company was working on a super soldier program using androids. To be honest, I would prefer they stick to the Vera model, but if wishes were wings... frogs wouldn't bump their butts when they hopped. Vera, Roku, Asahi and Roberts work with Paddy here to run multiple scans and try to find what is causing our glitch.”

"I suppose I am chopped liver, McCormick?", Jensen spoke up.

Kenny replied, "If you think you can contribute anything Jensen, you are welcome to try."

Jensen anxiously twirled his access card in his hands. "It seems like you're stalling, Captain. We are chasing ghosts in the dark here. Let's get this over with."

Kenny looked at Jensen and smirked, replying, "I am just trying to keep my crew safe, but since you are so eager to enter that ghost ship, is it safe to assume you will be the first one in line?"

“Have it your way, McCormick.”, Jensen stormed off the bridge.
Roku, biting her lip, looked at Kenny, sighed and walked out after Bruce Jensen.
Kenny looked at Roberts and said, "You are still on point Roberts. Jensen is looking for a big score to make a name for himself so keep that in mind if he tries to FUBAR the mission."

"I understand," said Roberts. "I will make sure he does not trip down the stairs too many times." He said jokingly.

"I will keep an eye on him besides he can't overrule me when it comes to safety.", said Roberts. He started to turn away then stopped with a funny grin, "So should I bring you back a souvenir?" asked Roberts.

Kenny replied, "I am fine with the crew being safe."

"Great. I will try not to lose anyone then. Well, most anyway.", Roberts said, walking away laughing.

Ogai looked at Kenny and said, "You shouldn't be so harsh with him, sir. He's probably having as much as a shit time as the rest of us."

He clapped Vera on the shoulder gently before moving off to find Jensen and Roku.
Kenny looked at Vera and muttered, "He is in an awful big hurry to go into that deathtrap. Kinda makes you wonder why. You did a good job Vera. Thanks."

"Anytime… if I had to guess, he thinks he knows what to expect over there...but he's probably wrong. Everything about this seems wrong. You may have to consider not letting us back in after we explore that thing." said Vera.

Kenny nodded at Vera and replied, "He is so blinded by greed he forgot the cardinal rule of salvage. Getting rich is pointless if we die in the process."

________________________

At the airlock, Roberts waited for the others to show. He looked them over a bit, "OK everybody, make sure you have everything we need." Roberts said.
He waited until the checks were completed then went to the comms panel and activated the intercom "OK, Lohan, line us up beside the Cronus. Let's get this over with." He ordered.

Stepping into the airlock he did a comms check of his gear with the Montero bridge crew.

Capt. Kenny watched the screens as Paddy and Roberts were talking. He had a real bad feeling about this mission. It felt like death was waiting on the Cronus and gesturing to them to try their luck. In reality Kenny wanted to bail on this mission but the "YES" man Jensen and the greedy/penny-pinching company just had to squeeze out any profit they could get at the cost of a few lives.

He knew ships like this vanished for bad reasons and finding them usually ended badly for the unprepared. For all he knew they were working on deadly viruses, diseases or technology and his ragtag crew was expected to fix all that with less than the minimum staff or equipment. So he sipped his coffee to calm his nerves since the odds were high that this was going to be his last mission.

Roku met with Roberts near the airlock as Paddy got into position to extend and lower the umbilical arm down onto the dorsal entry of the Cronus.

Jensen entered the bridge with everything but his helmet on; he walked over to the Captain, visibly nervous. "Captain, can I have a word."

"Just one?" Kenny sipped his coffee again.

"Listen, McCormick. I wanted to uh... apologize for earlier... I'm just anxious, none of this feels right and the waiting was just uh... starting to get to me. I..."

Jensen moved closer, leaned in and whispered. "Any chance we can scrap this whole side mission? I don't know... fake it?, or something? Maybe pretend like we didn't get MUTHUR's orders? I've heard those rumors about the company too and I'm gonna level with you... I know you think I'm a prick but the only reason I'm interested in any salvage of that ship is because I got no place else to go in this company. You understand? I'm lookin' at my future down there, and right now... it's pretty hazy."

Kenny whispered back, "MU/TH/UR is watching our every move. The moment we try that... we won't have a future. So unless you have a foolproof plan... it won't end well."

"Fuck. Can't we just reprogram it or something, take out the order?", Jensen whispered harshly

Kenny sipped his coffee then replied, "How? No one here can pull that off."
Grasping at straws and looking off into space, Jensen replied, "Vera... upload Vera to the mainframe, see if she can override or replace MUTHUR... McCormick, she is a rogue anyway, we can't trust her."

Kenny took another sip, then whispered back, "You seem to forget that MU/TH/UR is in control of our ships functions... like power, heat and oxygen. How do you plan to accomplish that real fast before MU/TH/UR notices?"

"Christ...", he took a deep deep breath and donned his helmet, shaking his head. Jensen headed toward the airlock, muttering to himself.

He stopped in the galley, opened his chrome briefcase and removed the Naproleve and extra reloads of pistol ammunition, tucking them into his suit packs.
While they waited for the others, Roku twisted some dials, calibrating the Motion Tracker.

________________________

...meanwhile... on the bridge...

“Yo, Cap, need me for anything right now?, Lohan asked as he stretched. I gotta go use the john.”

"Make it quick. There is a high probability we may need to escape if we get in over our heads.", replied Kenny.

“Yeah, yeah. They don’t look like they're going anywhere anytime soon. Maybe I should go. At least I might see some action. It’s gonna be pretty boring over here. No offense.", Lohan joked.

Kenny replied, "Just like any horror film made in the past, it starts off boring and simple. Then things get real bad and one by one the killer starts picking off the unsuspecting characters till it's too late to escape and then all hell breaks loose. Man, I hope it's just a boring job."

Lohan cocked his head, “Wow, this ain’t like you. All doom and gloom, how about a little pick me up?” He raised an eyebrow.

"I'm drinking it right now and it's the only thing keeping me calm right now. This job is giving me gout and I might have to retire if we live through this one.", Kenny replied.

Lohan chuckled as he exited the bridge, “More for me.” He then made his way to the latrine, stopping by Medlab on his way. He found the bottles and syringes of experimental X-drugs, poured out 6 pills into his bottle and put the rest back.