| Betty and Ragan look at each other....
Inquirer could almost swear that bemused look would be just like what they'd wear if her mother had asked those famous questions from that one Scott Adam's novel. Why are people born? Inquirer imagine her mother asking in her calm, collected manner she had adopted early in her life in admiration, Why do people die? Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches? Inquirer made a mental effort not to laugh at that silly image. It was kind of funny, and kind of not. The Doctor and the others had been visiting here to see if what she'd heard of that one barrister up in Walants, Rift, had been successful with that one case he'd been putting together.... Wouldn't undo the damage done here, but it would be better than nothing at all.... Betty and Ragan laugh nervously. "Oh my," Betty says softly, "What a question!" "Um...," Ragan says, remembering what she'd seen in the series, "Well, let's see... Avon, unquestionably, will be seriously pissed off at the thought of having his life on display." Evis nods sagely, motioning for them to continue. "Major invasion of privacy." Betty put in, "Vila, I can imagine, might rather enjoy the thought of being a "vid star" and having a fan following and such. Blake, I dunno... Mildly bemused, I suppose, but I don't think he'll care all that much." "Tarrant would think it was ridiculous," Ragan continues, "and would probably be the only one to really have a problem with the bad FX." All pause as a rather aggrieved and loud young man can be heard shouting over Evis' communicator. "My ship did not look like that!" they all hear Tarrant shout in the background. "Heh," Betty and Ragan say together. "Simmer down, dearie!" they hear Daina Walker say just as loudly with her leather lungs of hers, "I told ya that it wasn't what you'd call high budget! Was built upon a British police show that got cancelled, it was. You did insist on seeing it! "And Avon....please stop sneering!" the aggrieved Walker finishes off. Walker is showing them something from the show? Betty thinks to herself. Both Betty and Ragan hope it'll only be select cuts. Betty and Ragan want to keep the tapes away from them. There's a lot of stuff on there that it wouldn't be kind to inflict on any of them, you know? Evis also had some similar thoughts, but being familiar with Walker knew that while the former Drill Instructor turned Empress was a major hard case at times....she wasn't intentionally cruel when it wasn't called for. There was the job, and there was the rest of life for her..... "Well, Avon would sneer at the bad FX," Inquirer muttered to herself, having gotten the measure of the man soon upon meeting him, "but Avon sneers at everything." Betty and Ragan chuckle at that and get back to business. "Soolin would probably be annoyed at the invasion-of-privacy thing," Ragan said, "but not as bad as Avon, if only because *much* less of her privacy has been invaded." "You know....she might actually be more amused at Avon's reaction than offended on her own behalf." Betty almost giggled, imagining the scene happening on the other side of the communicator. "I can imagine Dayna wanting to watch over selected bits," Ragan smiles, enjoying what she saw in her mind's eye, "enjoying reliving her own best moments, seeing what the others had been up to when she wasn't there, etc." "And Orac would want to investigate the whole phenomenon." Inquirer put in, putting what she had learned of that machine intelligence, "Fascinating guy, and we could have the beginning of a beautiful friendship there. He's gotta work on that attitude problem of his, though." "Does that help?" Betty asks, looking over at the elder female Golem. Evis 7 holds up a hand as she speaks softly with Probe on the other side. She and Inquirer smile slightly at what Probe reported from his side of things. Evis confirmed Betty's and Ragan's predictions. "Pretty much figured Avon would be pissed about that," Inquirer said to herself, "As for the others it was a tossup for me how they'd react. Hadn't spent anything like enough time to make a determination on that score." Being security conscious and all that she was with the line of work she'd been in, she was cautious with new people she met until she decided whether or not she could trust them. Once determined, she ceased prodding and probing with her senses (was like a living lie detector, remember). Inquirer then took on a serious look as she turned with a question. "Mom, did Rift get that case together against those consortiums over the inadverntant invasion of privacy here with the Star Trekers and the Doctor?" she asked. "Huh?" the Doctor asked, caught flat footed for a second. Rare, but it happens, folks. Evis 7 smiled and nodded graciously, glad to be able to explain. That done, she then turned to Betty and Ragan....who probably knew the B7 folks best here. "How do you think they'd react to the news that similar problems with several other people have occurred due to recent events?" the elder Golem began, "That and the consortiums that had been formed of various parallel world BBCs and Paramounts (the makers of Dr. Who, Blake's 7, and the Star Trek series) to protect their markets from cheap imports from off world studios has settled with one particular Walants lawyer? A barrister named Rifts from Terra Prime?" Betty and the others break into wide grins. Ragan goes one further and laughs out loud! "Oh, that's a nifty twist." she gasps between chuckles. "The settlement being, naturally, that a percentage of present and future income from related merchandise be awarded to those who's privacy having been invaded." Evis 7 said in a soft, satisfied voice. "Would that unruffle their feathers a bit?" "In other words," Inquirer muttered softly to herself, "Avon being the greedy SOB he is...." "You know him so well already on such short acquaintance," Betty chuckles softly to herself. "...would his ego be somewhat salved by the money he'd get from this inadvertent invasion of privacy?" Inquirer continued on, smiling along with the others, knowing in her guts the answer. "Well, I think he'd figure that," Ragan says, thinking aloud, "the damage having already been done, he might as well at least make a profit off of it..." "What sort of currency will this payment be in?" the Doctor asks as Evis calls for Rifts to make a call or three, "21st century currency isn't likely to be of much use to them..." "It'll be converted into an equivalent worth in whatever coin or commodity they wish," Evis 7 explained. "See, right now Terra Pime is still using gold and other precious metals as money where the Military and the Alliance uses the BTU as the basis of money......" No mention of what the Star Trek universe used as an economy basis. Few to no ordinary people not born there could make heads or tails of it. Inquirer quickly put in about the exciting potentials that Military replicator technology had on replicating any amount of gold, silver, and gems. A godsend for the Dragons, who's life depended on certain ammounts of such things in their Hoard in order to survive..... "Right now they're slowly phasing it out over to our system....since with the technology we have we could flood the market with cheap gold and silver.....and ruin their economy," the elder female Golem explained, "We've set up artificial equivalents conversion to where a certain amount of Terra Prime gold, silver, etc is worth so much in Military credits." "How about the others?" Leela, who'd come in on the middle of this, asks. "Oh, Vila will be thrilled." Ragan laughs, "The others... Well, they're pragmatic types, I guess. None of them are likely to turn down the money! (Though I can easily imagine Blake somehow commandeering it all for his fight.) Those who are inclined to complain are still likely to complain, though." After a few moments, Rifts had come back with a figure and credit balance, and.....things were basically as Betty had predicted. Almost like what she'd predicted, but Blake appears to have no plans on trying to commandeer the new found wealth of the others in his fight with his Federation. The amounts they all get from the percentage of combined incomes from hundreds of BBCs.....is quiet substantial. Even Avon looks a bit shellshocked when he thinks nobody's watching! "Have a new thing to add to the old website," Betty says softly to herself, "If I could get to it. 'You know you're watching too much Blake's 7 when you can predict what each character will do before they do it in real life!'" Moments later, Evis 7 and Probe are walking down the Spaceport's chapel's aisle (located at the capitol city of the Elven Nation). The ceremony is simple and efficient, but somehow lovely as well. Inquirer cries a little bit in happiness, even. After the wedding and the gifts, the newlyweds take Blake's 7 to meet some friends of his to discuss....things. A landing ship nearby attracts Probe's and the other Military people's attention when they note seems to belong to a flag officer (i.e. high man in the brass). That's when they all jump when they hear a scream and crash from a side room (near the route that Inquirer notes the security party escorting Arlen to Holding is). The woman in question then comes flying out (head over heels) and lands hard right at their feet. A young man (no more than fifteen) of the Military comes storming out, plasma pistol in one hand and something that looks like a high tech curling iron in the other. Angered (and bruisd) security officials come out right after the teen. "Not....again!" the woman says softly as passes out. "She grabbed at this logic probe like it was some kind of weapon!" the youngster shouted in anger, pointing down at the prone Federation Security Officer. Not being able to seriously take it at first (but seeing from a dangling security restraint on one wrist that, nut or not, this woman was an escapee), Jones had at first played out a scene from an old, horrid "Spaghetti Western." He willed his reflex implants up to their highest setting and then grabbed the probe out of her hand six times. Six times he put it back in her hand, along with a jarring slap! The plan had been to intimidate the woman into submission..... Hey, the guy is young, even though in the Military culture he was an adult! Arlen had been able to use her combat hand to hand skills to knock away her captors when faking an injury and come upon what she'd thought was a weapon. She'd planned to use the boy as a hostage to escape from here (wherever that was) and get back to her unit. Or maybe a better idea would be to run for the metaphorical hills! Gauda Prime's raid had been lead by what Arlen recognized (secretly) as none other than Servalan! Go Back |
