<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/0/0a/Rudy_reyes.jpeg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">Santiago,</span><em>First Mate and "Public Relations"</em><br/>2519, present day<br/>Last Stand Saloon, Eavesdown Docks, Persephone<br/>Tagging - Babette Lafayette, Aaron Shaw<br/>Location - Last Stand Saloon, the bar<br/><hr/><br/>Had my eyes all over the place.  Primarily, my attention was on Thalia, but out of my peripherals and using mirrors I could still see plenty more than that, including what Samson was up to with this Aaron Shaw and that familiar looking girl.  She caught me looking at her, at her reflection, rather, made direct eye contact with me, and raised her glass to me.  For someone to be perceptive enough to notice my surveillance, she must be extraordinary in some wa-<br/><br/>That's when the familiarity turned into straight up recognition.  When I was trying to read them lips as she spoke, there was one point I missed out on what she was saying.  Then I realized.<em>"Crazy Babs."</em><br/><br/>Crazy Babs was a legend among the Browncoats.  The tales about her was too fantastic to be true.  There was stories, so many stories.  Crazy Babs sneaking across a battlefield when communications was down to relay commands between separated units that ended up winning a battle.  Crazy Babs getting herself captured, escaping her restraints, and freeing imprisoned Browncoats from Alliance prison facilities.  Crazy Babs learning valuable intel from purple-bellied officers just by sitting in a room with them in silence.  Crazy Babs saving a pinned down squad by taking out a sniper with a knife before finishing off the rest of his platoon with his rifle.<br/><br/>It all sounded like a myth.  But I was in that unit that lost communications.  I was there to help the prisoners escape when she done it all by her lonesome.  I was there when she didn't say nothing and an Alliance officer didn't say nothing and she knew all the useful particulars that was needed.  I was there when sniper fire stopped hitting us and starting hitting them instead.<br/><br/>She done crazy deeds.  She took crazy chances.  She pulled of crazy stunts.  And maybe she really was crazy.  And maybe that girl sitting next to the captain really was Crazy Babs.<br/><br/>I looked back at the chair she was sitting in, but she wasn't there no more.<br/><br/>Instead, I found her standing right next to me.  She was sneaky alright.  I bought her and Aaron drinks, consolation prizes for when Samson seemed to deny them, judging from his demeanor and body language.<br/><br/>"Have a drink, Shaw."  I got to be the good cop now.  "You said something interesting earlier - how you know people who owe you a favor, how you got their lives back on track, and that's how you can get parts on the cheap.  To start, we'll need a primary buffer panel..."  I rattled off some other items I knew the ship would need to be replaced.  Fortunately, most of the damage was on the outside of<em>Man's Ruin</em>, although some stuff did get shaken up in the engine room, and Marcus had some weird custom work going on in there.  "... Is that a shopping list you can handle, Shaw?"<br/><br/>I gave Babs her drink, too.  "Been a long time since I seen you, Babs.  Didn't think you made it out.  Name's Santiago.  Maybe you know me as my old call-sign, 'Nomad.'  What have you been up to, and what are you doing here?"<br/><br/>