[ this is possibly the fullest gunnery’s ever been, but jax is saving that observation for later, hoping maybe to get a laugh out of anderson. the two of them are standing up by the bridge, jax leaning against the main battle station, deceptively casual, cigarette tucked behind his ear. anderson provides a contrast to jax’s apparent casualness, her back ramrod straight, standing at an almost perfect parade rest.

it’s a serious meeting. they need to figure something out here, some clear way to proceed that everyone can agree on. jax has his doubts about universal agreement, but he and anderson are here to make an attempt at finding it. ]

This is a good turnout. Make yourselves comfortable as you can, and me and Anderson’ll bend your ears for a few minutes before we all start talking.

[ or before everyone starts shouting over each other. jax has seen discussions of this magnitude take place on the network, which kept its own order, but doing it like this, they might need to come up with a better way of keeping people cool. he glances at anderson, eyebrows raised, but continues. ]

We asked you all to come down because we’re looking to coordinate. We got a real decision to make about this bullshit with Van Rijn’s people. We’ve got Ward and Resnik making noise about it, and I don’t trust either of them, but we need to figure out what we’re doing if Lina starts jawing at us again. [ jax’s tone stays level, but his expression tightens at the mention of lina. the idea of her doesn’t sit right, hasn’t from the start. jax doesn’t like it, but that’s something to talk about later. ] We figured meeting here was best, because neither of us trust the network, no matter what kind of fancy locks you slap on your conversation. We know they can hear us if they want, and no matter what we choose, I figure the element of surprise is the best way to go.

[ he pauses, takes the cigarette out from behind his ear as he tips his head to anderson. ]

Anderson here’s gonna lay out our options. Or our options as far as we figure them.

[ anderson takes a step forward. ] The most likely explanation is that they are after the ship. Whether or not they would be true to their word of rescue is unknown. This leaves us with three options.

[ ticking them off on her fingers, she lists, ] First, we engage with them but lie to them, feed them no useful information while we try to gain information from them.

Second, complete radio silence. No one engages with them.

Third, we tell them what we know and hope for rescue.

[ all of these options are neutrally presented, neither tone nor stance betraying any preference. jax’s gaze lingers on anderson for a moment, as if checking to see if she’s got anything else, before he speaks again. ]

And before we get into the discussion part of the evening, y’all should know we’re still operating at around forty percent with the turrets and cannons. We’ve been working on repairs, but if anyone with some technological know-how wants to donate a couple shifts, we’d be obliged. [ not that it’s so simple, but any extra set of hands would be better than none, even if he and anderson had to do a crash course in turret repair. ] If we’re taking Ward and Resnik’s advice, we better prepare for the day Lina and her people stop talking and start trying something more hands on.

[ and on that optimistic note: ]

So anyone else got any bright ideas they want to add, or should we put this to vote?

( ooc: jax and anderson, also an ooc post for explanations + handwaving and ooc coordination!! )