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Azora smiled and held a large, furry hand pet her head and she grasped onto the banana with both. "Thank you," she whispered and ripped a chunk off for herself, listening...... barely listening to what tech said.

Brian grinned, and leaned back.
"Captain, a wise man once said that there are five working fundamentals: The tao, which inspires people to share the same ideals and expectations. Nature, that we have to exploit so much that it gives us some merits in this attack, Situation, who we have to react to, leadership, which should comfort every fighter and inspire him, and the art, to create a system and plan of attack where the tao triumphs.
Now, please be not offended by this, but as you have not yet covered the principle of leadership, let me ask you, what is the plan for Azora? If you do not have any plan for her, I would very much like to temporarily recruit her to be tech support, pun fully intended. "
He stood up, and stretched.
"As far as I see it, She and I do not have any place under the fine people of this ship. And as the Librarian is my trainee, he basically has to deccide, out of his free will what to do. And I would suggest him very much to be the tailgunner of the skift. As for her, if she likes, she can be the communications girl, if she wants to. Basically, I have the system ready that I talked about with you. It would enable her to shoot via hearing, in an area the Librarians gun points at. As for me, well, I guess there is not a single soul in this ship who has the flying-time behind various simulators of the world. I have been training for this basically every minute of my life as a progamer, from fokkers in world war one to X-wings in outer space, I have flewn everything. Now, if it is your deccision, but i would very much advise you that the crew on this skift should be a team that has a definite plan and background, not someone that cannot be relied on. "
He grinned, and leaned back. He did not know how much he could stretch this, but that was truthfully his oppinion. Besides, he did not want a blind girl unguarded near sexcrazed pirates, who seemed to lust for everything with holes, as far as the movies went, and he did not want the pirates near the librarian when he was not around to calm him down.
"Also, I would advise for the board-defense to attatch laserpointers to their cannons, which I happen to have a few around,and I would later on like to explain to the crew how to make sticky bombs, anti person-mines, and molotov-cocktails using only their socks, plastic explosives, grease, some screws, empty bottles and burnable liquids. Besides, I am a bit unsure about this, but could the archduke fire mortars on the side we are currently on? I mean, later in the battle, mortars have the great effect to clear a deck full of navy men in very little minutes. Which will make the job for the skiff or however you call that bugger a lot easier. So, Azora, would you like to join us? I guess it is pretty comfy sitting in here, and captain, you mind if I just follow you lot? I guess the librarian can get to know the girl, and we all will be invited to their wedding, where we will wear flowers in our hair, and dance around a maypole. "
Brian sighed, and stepped next to captain Eva, still wearing his boxers, his bathing robe, and his sunglasses. He simply tucked his Cigar in the mouth, slipped his right arm out of the robe#s arm, and scratched himself on his pale chest under the robes, only to rest his arm there.
"Captain Eva," he said, while still smiling friendly, " I still despise your superior attitude, and I guess you will never ever learn to change that, because your head seems to have swollen in your a**, and I think i will hate myself for all eternity for saying what I am about to say, but sometimes, just sometimes, I think I can understand you. Now, that is as close to a compliment you get from me, so hold on to that moment, wrap it in paper, place it in your memorabilia shrine, and never talk of it again..."
He had not said that very loud, and in the general noise from the ship, he was sure just himself and Captain Eva could have heard it, so he just grinned and waited for the others, while in his head, a plan began to form. he would show that girl what he was worth, and what a true leader could do to his people. And if it would be the last thing he ever did.

The librarian grinned, and as silently as only 400 pounds of Orang-Utan could, stepped behind her, and sat down. Then, he reached up, and massaged The girls temples, while repeatedly saying "Ugh" in a soothing manner. With his feet, he made extremly rude gestures towards Tech....

Brian /tech sighed, and looked up to Captain eva, who had something in her eyes what he would have called a smirk in progress. perhaps it was just the light.
"Ok, since obviously noone has cared to explain the simplest basics to the girl, let me shortly introduce her. "
He turned around, and looked at the girl.
"A communications person is basically the guy or girl that sits behind the radio, brings in status reports from the base, and enables communications between the base and the pilote, and in the vehicle. Is that sufficient, or shall we go into more detail?"
He did not even flinch a muscle, but his grin became somehow a bit more soft. there seemed to be a place for the girl, after all....

OoC: UGH! XD I got a Rubik's Cube today and its so hard. XD.. I'm messing up my Algorithms.. >>. Like i got my cross perfect and crap, but then i start messing up with the corner pieces. >>

"Azora-her codename is now Katsu, for those who wonder-can man the swithboard, as long as she does so from the general vicinity of the ores. Next to the Librarian, she's probably the best fighter aboard the ship right now, so I want her as the last line of defense for when something inevitably goes wrong. That tends to happen rather a lot. Anyway, captain, I believe we were off..." He nodded his consent.
"Your plans sound good and well thought out. I must admit, I was a bit worried at first. A child, an orangutan, and two women...But this should work long enough to get us over the border." He turned and led Eva off to the skiffs.

Over the next few hours, she dismantled both skiffs' engines, and rebuilt one into the most powerful thing ever to be strapped to a sailboat whose passenger capacity was in the single digits. Her reading had paid off, and she'd gained an acceptable knowlege of how the technology worked, good enough to make what she needed. When she finished, she asked for some of the spare sail material and the outboard motor, and used them, in conjunction with the remains of the other skiff, make a rough hangglider. It was a rough and ugly thing, but it had a motor strapped to the back and could definately fly if needed. By the time she finished, the sun had set and she was starving, so she made her way to the galley to get some questionable pickled items for dinner.

Brian grinned, and sat down on the deck. He loved to feel this absolute freedom, which enabled him to fly in such beautiful things like the Archduke. Not such a wicked cage of metal, but a formidable beauty of wood, electronics, and more.
While the hot water in his heater started to bubble as it reached boiling temperature, he leaned back, unhooked his PDA from his belt, and checked the list of things he had done today.
He had shown the girl how to man, or in her case, girl the radio-transmitter, which he had turned to the extremely low frequency area. It had been very hard, but it certainly was rewarding, and he even thought that he had seen a hint of joy in her eyes that she was able to do something for the outcome of the battle, instead of just sitting around waiting to be shot down.
He closed his eyes, and could almost hear the voice of his father, who had been in a POW camp in northern vietnam. Almost four years, he has had to suffer from terrible tortures, but during the whole time, he had learned to appreciate the wisdom of the east, as he said.
The pictures flashed inside his skull. He, even more tiny then now, had been sitting on the lap of his father, wrapped tightly in a blankett, and had listened how he had played the flute, and told him about war.
"Son, " his dad had said, while he smelled so wonderfully of pipe tobacco and of irish moss, "I do not ever want you to have to go to war. Sure, being in the army is fun, and it makes a great place for a bright young mind such as yours. But if you have to fight, never forget these three things.
One, there is allways somebody who will cry. If you have to go to war, you will, sooner or later, have to kill. if you have to kill, think allways that on the other end of your gun, sword, or whatever yoiu will have to use, are also people. Peoples who have families. Peoples who have friends. Peoples who share a place in this world, that will be empty if they do not return to it. Never ever enjoy killing. Allways keep in mind that with each person you kill, there will be more damages then just a bit of spilled blood.
Two, there are your troops. You will not be the only one fighting. besides you will stand dozens of husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children and parents. They all do not want to be killed. So, if you should be out there, make sure that you do for them as you wish that they will do for you. never ever expect anything in return. Allways give your best, and you will see that the others will be put to shame in a way that will force them to also give their best, and thus helps to keep them and you alive. never ever think that you are something better. You are a part of the troops, even you with your bright young mind. If you fight with them, they are your brothers and sisters. if they fight below you, they are your children. If they fight above you, they are your Parents, and aunts and uncles.
Third, if you ever deccide to fight, or raise your weapon in battle, make sure you only fight for what suits you. Let nobody fool you with what you owe them, and what they have done for you. let your little a** be allways the first in your consideration. If you deccide to fight, then survey the situation. There will be many types of good people, who just happen to have learned the battle tactics in a bucket full of sand. They may have the right clues, but they may not allways be aware of what it looks like from inside the lines.
Now, if you have made sure that all of that applies, then only one rule applies. Never ever draw your weapon just for the fun of it. If you draw it, then fight. Allways leave the other one an opportunity to piss off, or leave. but if they do not take it, show no sign of backing off if they beg you to. If you fight, then hit as hard as you can, allways hundred procent, untill nothing stands. OOh, and just fight folks who either attack you, or who can defend themself. "
He grinned, and let his hair fly in the wind that went over the deck. he would make his father proud.
He looked again at the list.
"Teaching the crew how to make homemade explosives - check"
This one was unusually fun. The cook first protested when he got all the grease from the kitchen and the machine room, but the protests were quickly silented when the Librarian threw his first sticky bomb over 400 meters onto the main mast, where it just stuck. He had also showed them how to make impact only electrical charges, that consisted of nothing more then a AAA-Battery and a bit of wires. Soon, the deck had been full of crew-members in their spare time practicing throwing balls in socks, or making sticky bombs, personal mines, and greater charges. of course, he had quality checked them all, and they would only detonate if being outside the area of the ship, a secret wjhich he had learned a few years ago in some camps in the middle east. The trick was to sent a steady signal on a low frequency that only reached a few feet around the ship. inside the ship, the charges could not be activated with a hammer and some patience, but outside the radius, he vas sure that if thrown hard enough, they would explode. After all, he had mixed some of the phosphor into the charges, which would also enable them to rain some firey death, and to burn holes into four inches of steel.
He looked at the next point.
"firing system"
That had been fairly easy. As far as he had found out with the cannoneers on spare time, they fired only on close proximity, and never with anything else then their eye-measurement. They had been quite surprised when he had given them the laser pointers, which were secured with a few rounds of duck-tape on the cannons. He grinned as he remembered the expression of the guys who turned the cannon in the right direction, as he gave them the artillery-tables that were still in use in WWII. He had once copied them out of a few files from old warbuddys of his father, who thought he needed the whole stuff for a school-paper. He had never really deleted them, and he was ashamed that he had no spare computing things, because that would have been really wicked. After all, the first computing engines had been develloped to solve the problem by only inputting width, degree-difference, speed difference and such, and reccieving how to turn the cannon and how much powder to use.
"operation jammathron. "
That one was really nice. He was really proud for the idea. If the ship would see any ships of the enemy fleet, the soldiers would simply let some dragons fly. With tinfoil-tails and skelleton. The crew had been very sceptical, but as he had launched only two of the suckers, the radar showed basically the same imagery like if the ship would have dispensed dozens of little flighing skiffs.
He had also prepared some shreddered tin-foil for if the guys would have anything like heatseeking missles or such.
He also had installed several jammers all over the ship, which he had connected with the extremely low energy supply. one switch of the blind girl, and everything except the elf frequences would be under filled with a broadcast of wagners ride of the valkyres. up to 20 miles around the ship. Finally, he looked on the list, and only one point remained halfly checked.

"The battle-skiff"
He had not dared to interrupt the captain in her chores, so he had just grabbed himself a manual and one of the techs, and had asked the s**t out of it. Basically, the skiffs were now in his laptop, completly analized, with all the neccessary informations regarding maneuverability, and so on. he had filled the cockpit with everything that he could need, from his laptop to his various pieces of equipment he had left from his duffle-bag. he knew he had to be sucessfull in this one, or else everybody would not accept him.

He sank back, toom the water heater, and poured the hot boiling water over his ramen. Looking up towards the disappearing sun, he sighed, and felt eternally peacefull. It was like his whole life, he had been racing towards this one opportunity, and now he was in sight of the finish line. He grinned as he remembered the little white block of paper he had stored in the cabin of the blind girl. It was the key to all of his passwords, anonymous accounts, and what not, written in braille. Half of his stuff would go towards the Librarian, including all of his software and hardware, which was scattered around the world in various accounts, including his diary. He grinned as he imagined what the Librarian would do with all the tools. It was literally 2001 all over.
Brian took his chopsticks, and hesitated. He saw three chains in his mind. The iron chain of the de la Roocas, which reached back till the days of Montezuma. The golden chain of the teachings from his father, which reached back towards feudal japan. The platinum chain of his hacking, which reached back to the dawn of silicon valley.
The fourche of all three chains was neccesary, as a new chain was added into the picture. The chain made out of blood, honour, steel, and victory.

"Click"

Brian becan slurping his ramen, and was sure that the chains would hold. They simply had to. whoever was out there would not let the de la roocas perish in the male line at such a young age.

((Sigh... Uni life making it almost impossible to find time to RP... Apologies. Hello everyone!

Whats happened to Sotako anyway? Should I continue with what me and him were doing, or leave it and do something else?))