Shifting ever so slightly in his seat, Admiral Fallon Hazelle did his best to hide his agitation from the crew of the small shuttle he was on. It would just be a few minutes more and they would be docking with the Formisten, a vessel in the small cruise fleet he commanded. Samirmen Cruiselines were already burning up the communications between here and there waiting for his next report and Fallon was seriously hoping he'd have good news to give them. It wasn't an unusual occurrence for someone to die on one of their vacation cruises, but it was certainly disturbing when he had done so with a large dagger protruding from his back. An act itself that bothered Fallon since in today's times there was certainly more quicker and less messier ways to do a man off.

The man in question, he'd joined this trip under the name Mel Brisien, which Fallon was already suspicious of, had been an older gentleman with, from reports Fallon had gotten before the incident, had been instantly labeled by the captain of the Formisten as a trouble maker and abrasive personality. Apparently someone found him abrasive enough to kill him and it was Fallon's job to try and figure out who did it. Normally an admiral of any type of fleet, even a small pleasure cruise type as Samirmen offered, wouldn't be bothered with such a preceding. Instead they would have let the ships officers handle it and, honestly, Fallon would have done so himself if it hadn't been for the fact that the captain of the vessel in question was also implicated.

Frowning mightily, the admiral couldn't believe that one man had gotten into so many fights with so many people in the short time their cruise had been underway. Proof was evident however as Fallon already had a long list of people Mel Brisien had been seen arguing with. Captain Drexen Molis had been surprisingly included in that list, but Fallon, having spent more than his fair share of time being a captain, understood sometimes, on a bad day, you could tangle with a particularly bad passenger. Certainly you fought more often with your crewman than passengers but it did happen. He was just surprised Captain Molis gave into the urge but he would soon be getting the entire story behind that. He'd messaged ahead letting them know he wanted certain people waiting outside the captains quarters to be questioned by him and he had no doubt Molis would get that done. Fairly new under Fallon's command, Molis had yet to prove himself anything other than a competent captain.

Once the small shuttle had docked, the admiral disembarked, leaving orders for the small craft to undock and continue a flight pattern around the Formisten. The entire fleet, three large passenger vessels and about twenty smaller shuttles, was on alert and holding positions. Until they had this matter cleared up and someone in custody, the three main ships would stay in their spots until further notice. They were the only line taking this lane around the blue moon of Tilren so there was no hurry. Normally their ships took three months to cruise around the moon and back planet side, but with this delay it looked as if they'd have to use emergency procedures to get people back to Golmuna sooner. Not a big problem as they small shuttles with their hyper drives could do it in seconds, but Fallon had no doubt some of the passengers would complain.

Having been abound many times before Fallon easily found his way to the captains chambers and was pleased to find people waiting outside. An imposingly large man, the admiral had been military his entire life up until his late 40's. Then he'd gotten tired of such life and retire, taking this job with Samirsen because it offered a different type of space life, one that he'd found himself doing quite well in. Yet he still carried himself with the straight and rigid posture of a structured military man and with his face blank of expression as it was, he looked ready to send them all to prison if need be.

"Captain Molis, I would speak with you first if you don't mind." Was the only words Fallon spoke before he stepped into the captain's quarters and made himself comfortable.

"Captain Molis, I would speak with you first if you don't mind."…
Molis nodded in reply. He closed the door to his quarters, and hit the door warning button. It would ring if anyone tried to eavesdrop.
Turning, he opened his mouth to offer the Admiral a seat, but noticed that he had already helped himself to one. Molis walked behind his desk to sit down, thought better of it, and continued walking. He grabbed his box of cigarras as he went around so as not to look funny.
“Ciggara Sir? Just got them in yesterday. Finest Bonaden had.” He offered the box to the Admiral, who took one.

Molis pulled up a chair opposite to the Admiral, and sat. Seeming at ease, his heart was palpitating as his brain raced with the implications that this killing could mean for his posision…

The Admiral broke into his brief reprieve with a gruff “Give me the lowdown Captain.”

“Uh… oh! Yes Sir!” Molis twitched at the voice. …lowdown… yes… yes… …where to start…

“Well, there isn’t much to tell. The victim was the late Mel Brisien. He joined the joined the Formisten at our last stop, and in no time was in trouble. He appears to have been on a business trip of some sort, but he never told me what he was doing. If he told any of the other people mixed up in this, they aren’t saying. From what we can tell though, he had business to conduct with a certain Mr Christelan. Mr Christelan has not yet divulged why he was aboard the Formisten.
Mel Brisien was seen fighting with Mr Christelan several times in the dining hall, probably over their business deals. He was also seen fighting with a two of our crew members, Lenix Polcarem, and Bulmen Hall.
I questioned these two just a few hours ago. It seems that Mr Brisien did not like the way they handled their luggage.”
Molis took a deep breath before continuing.
“I have never had any trouble with these two myself, and they’ve been on board this ship before I took command.

If Mr Brisien fought with any other people, which seems evedent, we have not been able to find them as of yet.”

Admiral Hazelle broke in. “What of the murder weapon. My sources say it was a knife”

“Yes, unfortunately it was a knife.” Molis sighed. This part was the touchiest of all. “It was one of the Lakes knives that Samirsen issues to every crew member on board their ships. Un breakable, un dull-able, super sharp. They work wonders for the crew, most of whom use them daily. But they also make good murder weapons.
We are currently asking about to see if any are missing. But you know crewmen. We’ve had three report in missing. Two were found upon inspection of the crewmembers rooms, and one was in the sheath in the mans boot.
We also called in the serial number to Samirsen, but they said that it could take days to get any news back from the main office. The recent terrorist attacks upon the home office have left the records a mess.”

OOC: not feeling like making a brand new EZboard, so i'm going to post with this one

IC:

Lenny and Bul were waiting outside the office, as requested by the admiral. They had been friends from the academy, guys who hadn't made military service, but had been trained in rudimentary engineering and had signed up together. That had been fifteen years ago, and the party hadn't really stopped.

Sure they weren't the brightest of guys, but they got along, they managed to survive the worst of the fighting between the Empire and the Rebellion. They sat quietly, awaiting the questions that the admiral had. They had been off duty and been drinking a little bit, the night seemd kind of fuzzy. Anyway, the admiral would straighten this out.

Sulvol, being his cunning and smart self, had learned of the death. He had also learned that a lot of people were meeting at the Captain's office. Deciding to drop in and see what was going on, he left the kitchen and entered his quarters.

He cleaned himself up some. and changed his clothes. Heading out again, he made his way to the Captains office. Quite a few people stood outside. He approached them.

"Hey! What's going on?"

"Not too much." Lenny said quietly. He was sitting in a chair, waiting his turn. Bul was standing, smoking quietly, almost pacing.

"The Admiral wanted to see us." Bul said quietly "Just because Lenny here takes a swing at some guy that winds up dead we are both off shift and going to lose a bit of our pay. "

"You'd have hit the guy as well if he'd been insulting Chandrila rather than Corellia." Lenny was up on his feet.

"Easy Lenny, yeah, i might have hit the guy, but i wouldn't have done it on the main deck in front of everybody. Come on man, that's the kind of stuff that gets crewmen tossed off the ship. You got to start thinking before you do stuff man."

"Yeah, probably so."

The two men went back to their relaxed states, something still creating tension between them. it had died down to a low simmer, they were back as best friends.

"If all the crew's knives are accounted for, we'll have to assume the assailant brought the weapon with them when they came aboard." Fallon tapped his chin, deep in thought. This meant the murder was more than premeditated, since the knife had to be snuck past security, scanners and everything. "I hate this assumption business, since you know what it can do to a person."

Slipping the ciggara into his shirt pocket, the captain aboard the cruiseliner he road on had a fondness for them, Fallon decided to get this investigation underway. "Tell me about your encounter with the man, Molis. I've gotten reports he caused some trouble with you his first day onboard and I want to hear your side of it right now, since I can't seem to find a written report. I'm assuming it's waiting to be sent, since you've never been late sending them in before."

“Yes, it’s in my quarters. Samirsen corp had this ship quarentiened when they heard of the murder. I have been unable to get it sent. I’ll have it delivered to your quarters so you can read it later, if you don’t mind Sir.”

Molis paused for a few seconds, gathering his thoughts.

“Mel Brisien boarded the Formisten twelve days ago. Within twenty minutes of his boarding, he was at the bridge door, demanding to get in.
The bridge crew ignored him, choosing instead to call me at my cabin. I arrived at the bridge approximately five minutes after Brisien begun his “siege” so to speak. My first officer and I managed to calm him down enough to get a comprehensive sentence out of ‘em.
It turned out that he did not want his poolside room. He insisted that he had ordered a room as far away from the pools as possible.
Being the peek of the cruise season, all the rooms are taken except for five of the twenty immigrant ones in the hold. He most definitely didn’t wish to be down there.

It took us half an hour to get it straightened out. During that time Brisien almost had two seizures from the rage he had worked himself into. We had to have a doctor droid stand outside the door because we were scared he would burst a blood vessel.
In between threatening to take legal action and threatening to have my job taken away he somehow managed to make an utter fool out of himself. This was compounded by the fact that he didn’t realize why we were all smiling at him.”

Molis grinned at the thought. He wiped it off his face in a moment, and stopped speaking. His mind hurried to catch up with his mouth. “Admiral, would you mind having a drink? I need to re-collect my thoughts here, and a shot of good Corrillian Ale would do me good.” The Admiral nodded, and replied. “Tell me Molis, how did you manage to fix the situation?”

Molis took two glasses and a bottle out of the wall bar, and walked over to the side table. “I put out an announcement over the com requesting anyone might be interested in changing rooms to contact me. I found a newly married couple of Mon-Cals who were more than happy to take pool side room that would normally cost over twice what they spent on their room. Brisien calmed down once he found out that he had a room that suited him well.”

“My report has the correct times written out in it, as well as the meeting between Brisien and I quoted verbatim.

Well, that was my first and only encounter with the late honorable Mr Brisien. Even though he threatened to have my job taken away, as well as cause a general commotion among the ship, I do regret that he had to die on my command.” Molis smiled, remembering a line from a very famous and popular Holo-Vid. “He could at least had the good will to die in hard vacuum”.


(OOC: Could everyone please put their Char's name in the post subject? It'll make it easier considering that several are playing without a new ID.
Thanks)

"Well, if I have any questions about your account, I'll be sure to call you back in here, Captain." The Admiral assured Molix, before standing and indicating he'd take the captain's seat now. "Send in the others as you see fit so I can question them... and I suspect you should have drinks or something sent up to them. I might be awhile if one or more of them."

Huh?...

Oh, yes. Quite right.

Molis stood, and walked over to the door.

"I'll send in Lenny first..."

He exited.

<hr>

Once outside, Molis noticed the crowd gathering. He raised his voice, and announced "There is nothing going on people! Unless you have been spesificly called to my cabin, please leave!"

The crowd began to disperse, and as it did so, Molis turned to Lenny.

"The admiral will see you now Lenny"

Lenny stood and entered the cabin.

Blast... gotta find out what's being said! I don't like Hazelle taking over like this...

It's my Command!

Stupid corperations...

"I'll have some drinks sent down for you people who need to wait"

With that, Molis exited.

What now?

Irritation crept quietly across Mr. Christelan’s features as he found himself called before the Admiral by the Officer of the Watch. Her arm around his, Lorien, his companion, seemed to be about as interested in the deck plating around her as much as the situation.

Which, didn't bode well for the situation.

Not that it mattered much what she showed interest in.

The form-fitting dress she wore shouted to all on board that she was a prize to be admired, lusted after, fought over… but her eyes… her eyes were what kept the package out of reach beyond a crystal clear barrier of ice.

Those that admired her from afar found her demeanor most intimidating.

Christelan didn’t seem to notice as they moved through corridor after corridor.

Hadn’t he given his statement to the duty officer? Hadn’t he given it to the Captain?

The bumbling fool!


The fact that an Admiral from Samirmen Cruiselines had been dispatched seemed to indicate that this “mishap” was either beyond the abilities of the cruiseship’s Captain or…

or the fool had implicated himself..

He wondered if these types would look for a patsy to remain free from blame.

The Officer of the Watch turned before going down the last hall. “Sir. The Admiral requested to speak only with you.” He said, his eyes once again riveted to the rather tight shimmering dress Lorien wore, the shine playing tricks with his eyes.

Voluptuous didn’t even begin to describe her.

“Lorien comes with me or I go no further.” Christelan immediately replied, his eyes taking on a bored look at once.

He knew these military types and knew how they worked.


“Uh.. Yes.. but Sir, I have my orders to..”

“She comes with me or I do not go at all.” Said Christelan once more, firmly.

Confusion was setting into the Officer of the Watch’s eyes as his mind tried to assimilate the situation that was starting to turn very negative. It was not a good thing.


“Did the Admiral specifically tell you that I could not bring Lorien with me?” Christelan finally asked.

“Umm.. well, no sir.”

“Then there is no confusion with your orders is there? I will be appearing before the Admiral and you will have followed his orders. Now may we proceed?”

Lorien’s gaze suddenly fell upon the crewman and the officer felt himself blush. She, though, didn’t seem to notice as her gaze appeared to go right through him. As if she were looking down the hall behind him..as if...as if he were not there.


The Officer stammered, fighting to keep his eyes above her chest and fixed on Christelan who seemed to be oblivious to the man’s discomfort. “Uh yes.. yes sir. Right this way sir.”


They stopped at the door leading into a waiting room which connected to the Admiral’s office and Christelan remembered his last statements to the Captain.

My business aboard is none of yours!

Christelan’s eyes narrowed in remembrance. The first time he was rudely questioned by a fearful officer.

The argument with Mr. Brisien was neither outstanding nor of any importance, especially given Mr. Brisien’s growing reputation aboard the ship. The man seemed to argue with just about half the ship’s compliment.

Then he took the offensive.

Ship's rumor has it that the man was killed with a knife. A knife that seems to be standard issue with all Samirsen crew members. I hear they work wonders for the crew most of whom are said to use the blades daily.


Christelan smiled at the thought as he rammed his point home to the Captain who seemed speechless as the tables were turned.

Tell me, Captain. What the frell do pleasure ship crewmen need with knives? Tell me, what use do your crewman find for them on a bloody spaceship?

No pun intended.


The Officer knocked on the door to the Admiral’s office to inform the occupants that the couple had arrived in the waiting area and Christelan felt Lorien’s hand tighten ever so slightly.


“Remind me to call my legal advisors, Lorien. I don’t think these people are used to dealing with me.”

Christelan, however, doubted Lorien would remember to remind him of anything..

..except perhaps an exotic pleasure spot... There is always that..


They entered an area that seemed reserved for those the Admiral was to question. Christelan eyed the others with idle curiosity.


This is going to take all day.. he thought lamentfully as a man named “Lenny” seemd to be called.