IC - 10 - Jack's Play - Sam & Kiara

[Mephistophilis]

Day 1
11th March 2189
21:30 Earth Central European Time
Barnard's Rest Colony, Titan

Jack's Play is dark inside. Along one wall is a long bar decorated with spirit optics lit up by LED lights in various colours. The bar top itself is chrome with a red neon trim. Along the other wall are a number of booths, each one mostly enclosed for privacy and trimmed in green leather. In the centre of the room is a raised podium and connecting walkway where a half dressed man writhes with an almost naked woman to the piped music, a sleazy jazz-grime crossover, all sax and breakbeats. The air is hazy with artificial smoke and has a cool, wet smell.

Androgynous waiting staff flit in and out of the booths, collecting drinks from the bar which is tended by an obese woman in her fifties with excessive makeup and overly revealing clothes.

'Well this is classy' says Isabella. She walks up to the bar, 'I'm buying, what're you guys having?'

[jp1885]

“I don’t suppose they have mineral water? Otherwise a soda will be fine,” replies Kiara. She scans the place, looking for this Sergei guy.

[Mr. Handy]

"I'll have the same," says Sam. She also looks around, checking for familiar faces or anyone paying undue attention to them, as well as making a mental note of where the exits are in case things go south.

[Mephistophilis]

Isabella scowls and then catches the barmaid's attention, 'Two mineral waters and a Scotch whisky, double, no ice, dash of water.'

It is difficult to see anyone in the booths due to the way they are positioned. A couple of people sit at the bar, neither is familiar, one is completely average looking, average height and build, not attractive, not ugly, aged in his early thirties, head buried in his drink. The second is a woman, likely in her forties, well dressed, elegant but restrained. She sits at the bar observing the goings on in the club and she takes some interest in Sam, Isabella, and Kiara without staring. There's no sign of the beardy man, Sergei.

[Mr. Handy]

Sam quietly fills in the others about her observations. "I wouldn't expect to see him yet," she says. "We did get here early. But this is his home turf, so he may have friends here keeping watch."

[jp1885]

“I wonder which one’s Jack,” Kiara speculates idly as she finds a seat and sips her water.

[Mephistophilis]

Virgil enters the bar just as the music stops and the two dancers head back along the walkway to disappear through a curtained door at the rear. Sitting at the bar are Sam and Kiara ostentatiously drinking from bottles of Earth mineral water, impractically expensive luxuries this far out in the solar system. Beside them Isabella sips a whiskey sulkily, 'Not much going on here unless you like cheap skin shows' she huffs.

[aine]

Virgil looks around and shudders. “Hideous!” He mutters and then walks up to the bar and the others.
“This music’s not too shabby!” He exclaims to them in a loud voice. “I’m betting that classy lady is Jack so mind your manners.” He says in a low voice as he signals to the bar woman. “Irish, no ice.”

[Mr. Handy]

So much for pretending not to know him, thinks Sam.

[jp1885]

“Yeah, I think you might be right,” replies Kiara to Virgil’s comment. “So I guess we just wait now? Maybe we should take the opportunity to go over what we’ve learned so far - we all know something’s very wrong on this station.”

[aine]

“Good idea, we’ve got ten minutes or so.” Virgil looks casually around the bar. “What do you think is happening at the station?” He asks Kiara.

[Mr. Handy]

"Aren't we being observed?" asks Sam. "And I don't mean just by the other people present."

[jp1885]

“We’ve got to talk somewhere, and I was hoping the music might make it more difficult for certain computer systems to eavesdrop,” Kiara explains.

“How’s Montrose by the way? When I left you were trying to get into his quarters. The CENTRAL went haywire and all hell broke loose.”

[Mr. Handy]

"I don't know what happened there after I left for Engineering," says Sam. "Marshall Favre got him to let her into his quarters, at least. About CENTRAL - I think whatever's gone wrong with it is the cause of many of the problems here. We were about to head into the sublevels to restart the backup generator when the computer came back online. It's like it didn't want us poking around down there."

[aine]

“We are always under observation.” Virgil murmurs. “That’s very interesting and it does explain a lot of the weird stuff going on around here. I think CENTRAL has gone rogue and needs a factory reset. The challenge will be doing it without alerting it. I was thinking of checking any out-lying areas but other that that, once CENTRAL is fixed I reckon we can head home.”

[Mephistophilis]

One of the waiting staff comes over, she is carrying a tray with a bottle and four wine flutes. She places it on the counter, 'Ms Torrance sent this for you, to say welcome to Barnard's Rest.' The older lady at the bar gives a wink and a smile. Looking at the bottle it is something called 'Prosecco frizzante', they recall it is some kind of Earth sparkling wine, a bit like Champagne, popular in the 21st Century.

[Mr. Handy]

"Please convey our thanks to her," says Sam. She pours wine for all of them, the fourth glass possibly for the miner who was going to join them. After the waitress has left, she continues speaking. "I was thinking along the same lines. A factory reset is an excellent start, but it isn't enough. CENTRAL had started out that way before going rogue, and it could do so again. We also need to do a root cause analysis and fix whatever bugs allowed this to happen."

[Mephistophilis]

Isabella takes a glass and downs it in one, 'Not bad.' She gives an appreciative wave to Ms Torrance.

OOC,Everyone roll Listen, let me know if it is a regular or hard succcess

OOC:   ETA Ignore the Listen role now, see below

Isabella Listen 40%,0

[jp1885]

“I think we’ve got more to worry about than CENTRAL; so far there have been two guys going crazy, one of whom killed himself. Chief White was attacked and there’s something being excavated on the other side of the lake.”

Kiara blushes, well aware of how crazy it all sounds. The blush deepens when the complimentary drinks arrive.

“Yeah... I don’t really do alcohol...”

While she squirms uncomfortably, her datapad emits a shrill ‘bing’.

“Saved by the bell,” she says with relief. “I sent a back a report a while ago. Excuse me, while I go to the restroom.”

Politely pushing away the wine glass, she heads to the ladies loos.

[aine]

Virgil frowns and watches Kiera weave her way out, “I confess I’m a bit worried about Kiera. Keep an eye on her if you can; she seems somewhat unfocused.

It’s true that there’s been several attacks but these things do happen out here; it’s a stressful environment and unfortunately these things go with the territory.”

He nods to Ms Torrance with a thin smile but doesn’t drink.