On Tuesday 24 April 2007 16:16, Eris Reddoch wrote:
> Earl F Hampton III wrote:
> > On Friday 20 April 2007 01:40, Bob Kondrk wrote:
> >> On 4/19/07, Eris Reddoch  wrote:
> >>> OOC: Have at it you, two. :)
> >>
> >> [OOC:  Okay then.  Time to get this thread moving.
> >>
> >> :D]
> >>
> >> Dame Sharda gets dressed in yet another of her Vilani-style "almost
> >> a uniform" outfits, this one in a very subdued navy blue with
> >> slightly lighter and somewhat narrow piping along the pants legs.
> >> She ends up taking a while to get ready, deciding to style her hair
> >> tied together on the side and plaited into a rather complex braid
> >> resting on one shoulder and running down the front.
> >
> > Bart changes out of his shorts and into the second of the three
> > identical outfits he picked up on post the day he put in his
> > paperwork.
> >
> >> She looks at Bart and gives him a polite nod (as well as an almost
> >> imperceptible sigh).  "Well, I suppose we better go collect His
> >> Lordship now..."
> >
> > "Lead the way," Bart says.
>
> The pair leave the ship and make their way to a nearby space taxi dock.
> As they pass through the large, open, pressure doors, they notice the
> sign on them warning that they are entering a "Potential Vacuum Zone."
>
> The taxi dock is a long metal platform facing onto an open area. Beyond
> the open area the two travellers can see the shimmering electro-static
> curtain that contains *most* of the air pressure along the dock allowing
> people to breath here, with open vacuum just a few meters away. A light
> breeze blowing on their back warns them that although the curtain
> retains most of the air, some continuously leaks out and has to be
> replaced.
>
> There are four people waiting in queue on the platform as you arrive
> along with two of the small space taxis discharging passengers. After
> only a short wait you are in a taxi and swooping out through the shimmer
> into the black emptiness beyond.
>
> "Where to folks?" asks the cabbie without turning his head from his
> controls as he maneuvers the taxi into the chaotic traffic here among
> the rocks of the Glisten cluster.
>
>
> A short ride later, you are disembarking on a platform much like the one
> you were on earlier, except this one has many more people and taxis
> coming going. You pay off the cab driver quickly and as soon as you do
> people are boarding his small boat and he is pulling away from the dock.
>
> Glisten's main rock, where the hotel is located, sports a population of
> close to a half million sophents and many more than that pass through
> its docks for work or entertainment every day. The corridors here are
> much more crowded and lively than on the Blisten rock. A crowded
> slideway takes you to the central area where the Hotel Arbellatra is
> located.
>
> Passing through the large Plexiglases double doors, forming an effective
> airlock if needed, you leave behind the lights, noise and bustle of the
> rock for an area of soft music and dim lights. This place *reeks* of
> power and big money. Across the uncrowded lobby you see a registration
> desk manned by real humans...not the robots that you would find in most
> mid and lower quality hotels.
>
> Bart, being Bart, notes the four hard faced men in suits scattered
> around the lobby, the security cameras unobtrusively positioned near the
> ceiling around the room...and suspects there might be automatic gas
> dispensers, if not automatic weapons hidden up there as well. This place
> is as secure as a good bank lobby, no probably *more* secure.
>
> Sharda, being Sharda, notes the small groups of men and women seated in
> conversation areas around the lobby. She sees the slight shimmer around
> each of these areas indicating that privacy fields are in operation
> blocking most sound and shifting light just enough to make reading lips
> from the outside impossible. Sharda recognizes that *deals* are being
> made here, money being made and lost. Today, this place reminds her a
> great deal of the Brokerage Floors and Tardii Rooms she has been in
> where merchants ply their trades.
>
> Bart and Sharda follow the natural path laid out in the design of the
> lobby that takes them from the doors to the front desk where a woman
> says, "Welcome to the Hotel Arbellatra! How can we serve you today?"
>
Bart offers his beefy paw in greeting to the woman, "Bartholomew Cuthbert, but 
just call me Bart." Releasing her hand, "We're s'posed to pick up Lord Percy 
and ditch the whore in his pocket," he blurts with a big smile. "We're 
willing to take suggestions," he adds, his eyebrows climbing in question.

Earl