Fish, short for Phisheradoctylmedileer (Fih-SHER-uh-Dock-till-MED-uh-Leer) is a member of Neptune's feathered family and a frequent patron of the Ox & Carriage. Fish is very likeable and has a strong charismatic charm, frequently buying rounds for the pub and telling fascinating stories with big setups and surprising payoffs to the enraptured attention of her fellow patrons. She also knows a whole bunch of bar tricks, carrying packs of cards and old-fashioned metal coins just for the opportunity to show them off. Fish is very much a "life of the party" sort of person, and while she says she works in sales there is a deeper truth beneath her showy and disarming facade.
- Fish can't be hired for work. She'd love to help but she's busy that day.
- Fish isn't hiring for work at the moment, sorry. Do you have a card? She'll call you if something comes up.
So, a little backstory: within the Sol system there are two worlds who maintain an outsized presence in the space around their planets: Terra and Neptune. Their major starship technologies conglomerates, respectively, are Delta Astronautical Solutions and Quasar Galactic Systems Specialists- these two companies lead their industries in producing the life support and navigational computer systems that make long-term space travel possible for their worlds, and they're in everything from personal craft to industrial cargo haulers to starfleet military carriers and battleships. It's a lucrative industry and the two companies have grown to tremendous size. In recent years Quasar Galactic has been attempting to buy a controlling stake in Delta Astronautics. Fish is an agent working for Quasar.
Fish's current assignment has her tracking down a data chip containing highly sensitive Neptunian defense systems information that was lost several years ago and has yet to be accounted for. Quasar's records show the chip's courier chartered a private flight to avoid traveling under the Quasar brand to minimize attention. Records of this flight show it leaving Neptunian space, crossing just behind Caelian orbit and then disappearing from record, never making it past Saturnian relay satellites. No distress signals or communications were heard from the chartered ship, and the ship itself wasn't found until years later when Fish's investigation brought her aboard the wreck of the Reef Shark.
It was clear someone had found the Reef Shark before Fish, as it was quite thoroughly looted of valuables. Pieces of hardware were removed from the ship so cleanly it looked as if the factory itself had unassembled the craft's interior. In contrast, a Holonet headset was crudely wired up to a burnt-out astronavigational computer bank and looks to have suffered massive electrical damage. The crew and passenger list were mostly accounted for amongst the ship's dead, with just two exceptions: the Delta astronav droid and the Terran pilot were nowhere to be found. Fish's conclusion: the Terran pilot sabotaged communications on their ship, killed the crew, stole the Quasar defense chip and escaped with the astronav droid to cover their tracks. Serial data on the astronav droid is confidential, Delta had not been forthcoming with this information despite official requests from Quasar headquarters. Starships entering Neptunian space after this incident had already been investigated with no leads emerging, so the working theory is the Terran pilot escaped to the next-nearest outpost: Titan Garden.
Back at the Ox & Carriage Fish is playing a game with a Venusian and a Caelian. There is a bet to see who is the last person to pour water into a glass without it spilling over. The water curves above the rim of the glass, its tensile strength pushed to the limit as a Venusian man carefully tips a drop onto the burdened swell. Earlier that day Fish had tracked a piece of the Reef Shark to the inside of a personal craft- a gravity control module. The ship's owner insisted they didn't know where it came from, they just bought it from a secondhand shop at the Dockyards. A place called Jumbo's Parts & Performance. Fish still feels the dull sting in her talons as she recalls the interrogation; she's getting warmer, her Terran pilot can't be far. The Caelian drips a drop of water onto the glass, the gathered crowd cheer as it spills out onto the bartop. The Venusian man had won himself a tidy sum of credits. Fish applauds his skill and buys the pub another round in his honor.