<i>Stand by mode initiated; </i><br/><br/>Minimal external stimuli was ever processed while on standby. External optics were shutdown in this mode. There absence created new data that could be analyzed. There were eighty-seven other instances where Bianca's external optics were force shutdown due to the absence of light. All of those records were archived and awaiting analysis.<br/><br/><i>Close proximity voice patterns recognized. Dwayne-Captain; Anjali-Crewman; see also Maria Alvarez; Boot up sequence initiated; <b>#New; </b>Begin new line;</i><br/><br/>She was picked up and placed inside the left jacket pocket of Anjali. Bianca recognized her cardiac rhythm as soon as she reached the bottom of the pocket.<br/><br/>"Greeting Maria. It is good to share physical proximity with you and Dwayne once again. If all physical detention activities have been completed, I suggest we return and gather your purchased items."<br/><br/>Dwayne was not wearing his ear piece. For the moment, Bianca preferred it that way. Anjali was still 'new' and they shared the same gender identification. It helped with her developmental progression and new data nearly always took priority at the top of the stack. She could converse with Dwayne once they were aboard the Rag Tag once more.<br/><br/>"Storage lockers, up near the market? Ya, I know where those are." Dwayne said.<br/><br/>Bianca chose to leave her external voice unit unengaged. Her presence sometimes brought human defense protocols online. There were only two humans on this planet who had Bianca's IFF signature set to green. They might be vastly outnumbered if she made her presence known. Their knowledge of the destination was adequate, but biped locomotion travel left many clock cycles to be desired. Bianca searched her logs while processing data from an open omniweb connection. She had been in Dwayne's pocket a few times during resupply activities, but her trip with Anjali was the first time she'd ever been 'shopping'. Bianca took Anjali's purchases into account for her omniweb searches, and cataloged a new table in her primary data base, labeled<i>girly stuff. </i>With the returned external data, she drew her logical conclusion and shared it with Anjali.<br/><br/>"You should certainly wear<i>girly stuff</i>to the Captain's cabin during your next sleep cycle Maria. Factual data that I've just gathered form the omniweb suggests your opposing gender counterparts delight in external optical analytics of the enclosures you have just procured. Men like girly stuff. Captain Dwayne is male. Following the path to its logical conclusion, Captain Dwayne will like your girly things."<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center">**********​</div><br/>Dwayne watched as Anjali pulled a bag from the locker. Then another. And another. Yet another.<br/><br/>"I only gave you like nine hundred pips. You're relentless...good work!"<br/><br/><b>"I guess the girly stuff I bought on this planet got us into a heap of trouble. Are you mad at me?"</b><br/><br/>"No." Dwayne let that hang in the air before he continued. "I didn't have anything to do with the clothes the ear rings or the makeup. And it wasn't your fault, you just happened to be the catalyst. That crowd was going to pop off the next time a seemingly available and desirable woman with a friendly disposition showed them any attention at all. That woman just happened to be you. If a fellow that damn starved for affection, he ought not be drinking so heavily. And he ought not be drinking in place where all the 'boys' hang out. There are other establishments on the Lighthouse where single people can meet one another and have a drink. And now that you<i>know </i>what you know, dancing in a dive bar with minimal bouncers is sort of a bad idea. There are places on the Lighthouse for that too. I'll take you sometime. I've never seen a belly dancer perform in person before. I kind of like to see it again."<br/><br/>“<b>And uh, what is Posse Comitatus?”</b><br/><br/>Dwayne's eyes widened a little bit as he inhaled. It was a complicated question and he wasn't an expert on it. "It's a law that originated on Earth. Well, it's more like a bunch of laws really. An act. Mostly it's there to keep military forces from bullying civilian law enforcement. Armies and Navies exist to engage and repel 'foreign' threats. They can't act domestically unless there's an insurrection or some other case where martial law is declared. And even in those cases they can only keep the peace, return fire if fired upon, detain people with cause and assign them to work crews. Did you notice how there were no Peacekeepers or Magistrates present when we came to your cell? And how Charlie got quiet when I said Posse Comitatus? Charlie's a naval officer. So when it comes to assigning charges, levying fines or passing a sentence, he doesn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. At best he was only able to trade favors for access to us and use intimidation tactics to try and get us to agree to something.<i>All </i>warfare is based on deception."<br/><br/>Dwayne placed a hand on the small of her back as he leaned in close to her ear to whisper, "Back in the day, I used to get deployed domestically to places I probably shouldn't have been. It always had this 'don't get caught and don't get seen' vibe to it. That's how I learned about Posse Comitatus."<br/><br/>It had happened. Somewhere between finding the most advanced stasis pod in the verge and getting arrested together. Dwayne had been on the brink of making Commodore Charles Rollings rue his first birthday. And with the simplest of physical contact Anjali had stopped him cold. Pillow antics aside, sleeping next to, without the pressure of anything more, had yielded a more restful sleep cycle than Dwayne had know in a long time. He didn't let it linger. Dwayne's hand dropped back to his side when he was finished whispering. Physical contact between them felt like the most natural thing in verge, regardless of what planet they were on.<br/><br/>The exchange that took place back at the Rag Tag was short and uncomfortable. Gerald had sent his android enclosed dumb AI with payment in exchange for the salvage they'd collected. Under Confederate law, android enclosures could only mimic a human extent to a certain degree. Their joint servos were visible. Vertical seems were visible in the synthetic skin at the corners of their mouth as it opened to speak. And the eyes.<br/><br/>"Captain Dwayne dislikes synthetic enclosures. When I'm monitoring him, I can some times detect an adrenal response to their presence, that I do not understand. Additional data is required." Bianca advised Anjali.<br/><br/>Dock hands loaded the nutrient raw that had been delivered and off loaded the salvage for customs to inspect for contraband. Customs almost never inspected the entire ship unless there was a suspected security risk.<i>Contraband </i>could and did vary from planet to planet. Dwayne accepted the payment that was produced from a hollow panel on the enclosure's abdomen. He watched as the enclosure, jerkily, walked away with the load on a large grav cart.<br/><br/>"Well, that wasn't creepy at<i>ALL</i>. Let's go see what neigh impossible task the Navy wants done." Dwayne suggested.<br/><br/>He settled in on the bridge's main console and put away his captain's emblem. Charlie had sent over a bounty board task. An exit vector wouldn't be available for another three hours. Dwayne began to read and sent a copy to another console for Anjali to read. Bounty board work was often hit or miss. Dwayne usually tried to find six or seven different jobs in a similar location and completed what he could. He didn't have all the high end tech the hard line boys kept at their disposal. Dwayne often just dabbled in 'law enforcement for hire'. Sometimes he was the distortion field racket. Sometimes he was the grav ball. He always stuck to listing that provided several details. The listings of 'Wanted: for theft. Reward: p500' were usually without number. The idea of running somebody in that committed theft so they could have a meal made him twitch.<br/><br/>Charlie's task paid a damn sight more than p500. There were various different levels of payment depending on the degree of success. Dr. Gabriella Hernandez was a missing person. Top pips were for her safe return. Bottom of the barrel was discovering evidence of her fate. Dwayne was painfully aware they might not find either. Her last know location was on Hephaestus III, in Mekanicksville province. Dwayne pulled up all relevant data concerning their new destination. He didn't have to look very far. Mekanicksville province was listed as a hot zone for reasons of civil unrest.<br/><br/><i>No wonder nobody wants this assignment. Thanks a million...Chuck...</i><br/><br/>"Congratulations Anjali, you just graduated to bounty hunter. Come on. Food. Then basic combat training begins. We might need it."