<span style="color: red">“Pleasure’s all mine, sir,”</span>Covud replied to the bodyguard getting up from his chair to shake the offered hand. He didn’t seem offended by Torin’s intrusion in the conversation, in fact he was interested to learn more about the man… Torin seemed to be a military man (judging by Guard issue Las-pistol and his constant surveyance of their surroundings) with his heart in his job. A good superior to serve with. Whatever his suspicions surrounding D’crux, he couldn’t deny she seemed to know how to pick her staff.<br/><br/>As D'crux introduced the other woman, Covud couldn’t help but smile. The gesture seemed to be so overtly grand and ostentacious thanks to the organ playing… It was exactly the sort of thing he expected of rogue traders, stereotypical in the extreme. Covud offered a small bow to Abida, already finding his curiosity aroused. She came from a lost world… Well that explained her heavily accented Low-Gothic at least.<br/><br/>When the Techpriest entered the bridge Covud chuckled, unable to contain himself.<span style="color: red">“Emperor’s withered crotch, I thought I was tall...”</span>He muttered, shaking his head. While not entirely comfortable in the presence of techpriests, Covud found this person's presence far more tolerable than that of the servitors, even with that cold synthetic voice. Covud noticed the way the priest almost shunted Abida out of his way, the man (well whatever was left of the “man”) was so large he was bound to bump into something inadvertently, so Covud didn't comment.<br/><br/>At the mention of Abida being taken under the Techpriest’s wing, Covud’s eyebrow arched.<span style="color: red">’Is she seriously expecting the cogboy to teach her?’</span>He thought, knowing full well how secretive the Adeptus Mechanicus tended to be towards outsiders. To boot, the explorator could very easily be branded a Heretek if any other cogboys learned of such tutoring. More surprising to him though was the idea that Abida might have some kind of technical knowledge to begin with, she most certainly didn’t look like any engineer or technician he’d ever seen, there was far too much flesh on her. Suspicion once more came into his mind and again he had to squash it.<br/><br/>When talk began of their destination, Covud remained silent and simply listened. He had no real input to give anyway, all he wanted to do was get out of the Calixis sector. If that happened he’d be happy.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>