Episode 311: Suckered, Part Four
Arden tries to discern where the distress call is coming from. Please don’t let it come from inside our ship. Please. But…it looks like it might be from either our girl or Orcus.
The signal disappears. Arden relays the news, keeping the possible origin of the signal to himself. He’s not eager to set himself up for more ribbing from the crew. Not yet.
Joshua: (to self) I hate this place. I hate this place. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.
Rick: Right. We need to tear some panels down. We need some blowtorches…
Arden: Why?
Joshua: To get behind the panels.
Arden: There are no such things as ghosts.
Joshua: Yeah, and I bet you thought there were no such things as Readers either.
Arden: Or zombies.
Joshua: See?
Arden: Or telepathic gorillas. But there’s still no thing as ghosts.
Joshua: You’re not making your argument, Arden.
Ghosts or not, Rina gets her torch rig out and fires it up, cutting through the various panels and plates the decommissioning crew had installed, getting at the goods underneath. What greets her when she pries the smoking panels away aren’t ghosts, but parts. Parts and components she can use on our girl. Some of the critical systems required to actually fly Orcus are missing, rather like removing the firing pin from a pistol renders it unable to shoot, but there is still enough left to make salvaging the remainder worthwhile.
Rina: (smiles to self) Jackpot.
She’s also uncovered the communications system of Orcus. There may be a way to hack into its transmissions log to see where the mysterious distress call came from. Rina comms Arden to get over here and start hacking.
Rina: That’s up his alley. I have to do more salvage.
She starts running through her never-ending parts list in her head. There are lots of useful things she can use, too many for her to pull in good time. Unless we’re able to tow Orcus behind us as a floating parts palace, Rina’s going to have to estimate what is going to fail on our girl next and pull the part she’ll need to fix it off Orcus.
Meanwhile Arden hacks into the transmissions log and finds out that someone or something has turned off the transmitter since our last visit here.
Back on the Gift, Rick has an idea.
Rick: Ouija board?
Joshua: Those don’t work.
Well, we might need one. If Orcus is haunted, doesn’t it stand to reason that the parts we’re taking off her are haunted too? If we get enough of those parts on our ship…then, who knows? Perhaps all the parts gathered together would be sufficient to make up one whole ghost. Or three.
Joshua: (alarmed) Oh god. We’re turning our ship into a haunted ship…
Rick: (grinning broadly) One can hope.
Joshua: No…
The chain yanking has gone too far for Joshua. He leaves Rick to find Rina on Orcus, finds her squirming around in the other ship’s innards and says of the salvage job:
Joshua: Can’t we just get this done?
Rina: I’m workin’ on it.
Joshua: I’ll help you. I’m going to help you. I want to stay away from him. Like…
Rina: Okay, all right…I’m crawling into avionics and I’m getting the sensor array out.
Rick starts scavving what he needs to make a Ouija board. The crew works on.
Day Two:
Thursday, 21 Nov 2520
2000hrs, ship’s time
There is another power outage as unexpected and creepy as the first, and this time when it the power returns it comes back in fits and starts, blinking on and off from bow to stern before finally stabilizing.
Joshua: (pained) Ohhhhh….
Arden: Now that is not normal.
Rick’s Ouija board is complete and Rick brings it out when this latest creepiness hits us.
Rick: Who’s Ouijaing with me? You want to Ouija with me?
Rina: Not me. I’m busy getting the sensor array.
Faria: I only have one hand. You need two hands for a Ouija board.
Joshua: Technically, you need two hands.
Rick: You do?
Joshua: Yeah.
Rick: Sucks. (a beat) Who’s Ouijaing?
Joshua: Do you really think it’s a good idea to have a psychically sensitive Reader and a Ouija board?
Not having any luck getting anyone else to do this with him, Rick gets busy with it by himself. The planchette spells out K-I-L-L.
Arden: (to Rick) There is something very wrong with you.
Joshua: (hustling out of there) Let’s keep working. Keep working.
And so the chain yanking continues….
Faria and Arden both try sussing out the cause of the power blinks while the rest of us stay busy with the repairs. Faria’s not entirely sure if human agencies are behind the creepiness or not, since there is little to be gained from pulling these sorts of pranks. Arden surmises that with the bow of our ship’s hull being somewhat damaged from the missing sensor array, our protective shielding is compromised enough to allow flares from the system’s sun to affect us.
It’s all mere speculation. We’re unable to pinpoint the cause one way or the other. We work on.
Day Three:
Friday, 22 Nov 2520
It takes Rina a full day to remove and install the sensor array. Installing the airlock door and stairs and the deflector vanes will take two to three days. It’s all EVA work and will necessitate multiple recharges of oxy in the suits to get the exterior repairs done.
Day Six:
Monday, 25 Nov 2520
1305hrs, ship’s time
Over the six days we’ve been scavving and repairing, the oddities continue to pile up. On Orcus, things turn on and off for no apparent reason. Strange noises. Stuff glimpsed in the corner of the eye that aren’t there when we focus. Nika’s concussion demands she take it easy until she heals and she reports having strange dreams. Rick is still importuning people to work the Ouija board with him. Rina insists she has no time. After six days of fighting off the heebie-jeebies, Joshua is eager to dispel the spirits he feels pressing in. He sits down with Rick and they get busy with the board.
Rick: Let’s do it.
Arden: Oh you are so wrong. You know you’re asking for trouble.
Joshua: Nothing’s going to happen.
Arden: Oh yeah, says the person something wrong always happens to.
Joshua: I would like to point out that you were the one that, like, not two days ago you said there was no such thing as ghosts so, like, what the hell do you care whether we do this or not?
Arden: You are asking for trouble, though.
Rick: (sliding the planchette around) ‘K-I-L-L….’
Arden: See?
Joshua tenses. The planchette spells. Rick reads.
Rick: ‘…R-O-B-O-T-S.’
To his credit, Joshua takes the leg-pulling rather well, standing up and focusing on getting the repairs done. It’s time for us to EVA again and Joshua volunteers to go. He doesn’t have any experience in it but thanks to Blue Sun’s modifications, he needs only about ten minutes of observation to learn any skill. He does so, carefully not thinking about the ghosts he can feel in the background. In fact, Joshua likes it outside. It’s quiet and peaceful out in the Black.
Rina, Rick and Joshua manage to get the door on the airlock. And as she’s looking at the coupling between the two ships, Rina notices something …not quite right. She alerts Rick and Joshua via their suit comms.
Rina: I see something. I’m going to take a closer look.
She drifts over to seal joining the two ships. She sees something that doesn’t belong. At first she thinks it’s an electrical conduit trailing wires that somehow got pinched in the seal…but upon closer inspection it’s not. It’s something much worse.
It’s a Reaver booby-trap, one of the squid-like devices they leave behind to sucker onto and disable ships that come within range. Sure enough, it’s got multiple tendrils suckered onto our girl and they lead back to a device with the standard nuclear symbol on it. Rina suspects it’s a heavy EMP device and she sees that it’s damaged.
As she starts sussing out how to take the thing off our ship, she surmises that the damage has prevented the EMP device from discharging as designed. Instead of releasing a single devastating burst, it’s been leaking microbursts, causing lesser havoc like our power blinks. It’s connected to a power source—the Gift via Orcus—to gather power for the bursts but if she could disconnect it from the power source, the device could be neutralized. There’s no guarantee that even if we turn off everything electronic on both ships that anything would survive if the thing goes off.
Rina: We’ve got an EMP booby-trap suckered onto both our ships.
Arden: (via ship comm) How did that happen?
Rina: (sighing) Reaver booby trap.
Arden: That doesn’t tell me how it happened.
Rina explains it was lying in wait outside on the hull by the airlock. When we got near and docked with Orcus, it got busy with its little suckers, attaching itself to our ship.
Arden: Can you fix it?
Rina: I can try.
Arden: There is no try. Only do.
Rina: All right, Yoda, you get in the fuckin’ suit and you go ahead and disconnect it.
There’s a brief flurry of debate how best to go about it. Power down our systems to protect them somewhat if the device detonates? With our systems turned off, we should be able to turn them on again after detonation with less damage than if they’d been fried while on during the pulse. Then there’s the odd distress call we’d received the first day we were here. Was it some scrap of transmission somehow preserved by an electromagnetic charge clinging to the device? Or was it a fake distress call sent by Reavers to flush their prey. Which only makes us worry that there are Reavers in the vicinity waiting for the EMP device to go off—once it does, it’s a signal for the Reavers to come and pick up their next meal.
That being a distinct possibility, we decide to get as much of our repairs done as possible before we attempt to neutralize or detach the EMP. If the device is triggered, for whatever reason, we’re going to want to be repaired enough to get away before the Reavers arrive.
We continue with the airlock and deflector vane repairs. That takes the rest of the day. The EMP device would simply have to wait.
To save time on the repairs, Rina’s decided to nix installing the airlock stairs. It’s more important to our escape to get the EMP device off our ship and get us out of the Reavers’ range. Preparations include dispatching Faria to our gun container to warm things up and have everything standing by to fire. Arden joins Nika on the bridge to watch for Reavers.
Rina suits up to remove the EMP. Joshua and Rick assist. With knowledge of all the myriad things that can go wrong and remembering her close call at the inspection station in the Halo nearly two years ago, she has the crew secure her to a tether attached to the inner airlock bulkhead. Someone will be on hand in a suit, holding onto the line. If the worst comes of it, they’ll be able to reel her body in.
It’s been a day over two weeks since Meridian, with precious little time to heal and the stress of working while wounded is hampering Rina’s ability to do the job. The clumsiness imparted by her suit gloves only adds to the difficulty and it isn’t long before she flubs. The device sparks sporadically under her gloves and…
Rina: Ohhhhh—!
ZAP!
A strong electrical discharge hits her full on, stunning and wounding her instantly. She manages to shake off the shock, blinks and realizes her vac suit is no longer working. She checks it head to toe. No holes. No atmo loss, even though the circulating pump is fritzed. She’s got maybe a minute of air trapped in her helmet before it’s used up.
Thanking God for her foresight, she gently spins to face the ship, grabs her tether and gives it a yank, imparting enough momentum to send her sailing slowly toward the airlock and her crewmates. Joshua’s manning the tether and starts reeling her in.
Up on the bridge, Arden notes the loss of signal from Rina’s suit.
Arden: Is she okay?
Joshua: Hell no.
Rina’s just about out of air and she starts holding her breath. Joshua hand-over-hands her into the airlock, gets her inside and seals the door. It’s an agonizing 10-second wait for sufficient atmo and when the indicator goes green, she cracks her helmet and sucks the blessed air in.
Rina: ….(choke, cough) …oh, God…
Joshua: (softly) Are you all right?
Rina: Gimme a minute….
Joshua: ‘Kay.
Rina: (deep breath) …okay…..
She picks herself up. We take stock. At present, our girl’s electrical systems are still functioning. Rina checks things over and determines the EMP didn’t actually discharge at full strength but rather gave out a mini-burst similar to the others we’ve weathered.
Arden: Before you go back out there I want to see you in med bay.
Rina: Do I gotta?
Arden: Yeah.
Joshua: Yeah. You do.
Rina: …(small voice) ….all right….
And that’s the extent of her argument (if you could call it that) and it’s a clue to how crappy she actually feels. Joshua escorts her in to make sure she gets there. Arden examines her to see if the electrical pulse didn’t screw up her heart rhythm or other critical systems. Her insides check out well enough. Arden gets his supplies together and starts patching Rina up. And given her one-track mind when focused on a task, Rina’s still sussing out the problem as Arden works.
Rina: Actually, this might work in our favor.
Joshua: Why is that?
Rina: It didn’t…it didn’t go off completely. So if- if the Reavers are watching this device…they’ll just think it’s another flare and it hasn’t caught anybody yet.
Joshua: Okay.
Rina: So they may not be coming.
Joshua: Uh-huh.
Rina: (rubbing her face) Oh god, I need a drink….
Rick sticks his head into med bay and quips.
Rick: You’ve got some vodka in the cabinet.
Rina: (through her fingers) Not that vodka….
Meaning the bottle of vodka that got sent to us anonymously—filled with an acid strong enough to etch metal in the blink of an eye—labeled accordingly and kept under lock and key in the hazardous materials cabinet in the machine shop.
Rina: (dropping her hands) That’s for when the Reavers come, okay?
Arden: I would recommend a day before you do that again. Just so you can recover some.
Joshua: Can anyone else do it?
Arden: I might be able to do it if I had vac suit training.
Rick: You’re the person we don’t want to get injured.
Arden: Yeah.
After all, he’s the only doctor we have and we get hurt quite a lot. More so of late, even. Joshua can pick up any skill upon watching for ten minutes, but only one skill at a time. He’s got vac suit right now from helping Rina and his naturally-acquired covert skills might enable him to deactivate the device. He and Rick work out the angles while Arden continues patching Rina up.
Rick: Could we do an…assisted action?
Joshua: The two of us together. I don’t know. Probably. I mean, we can basically back each other up for a botching….you know.
Rina: Please, if you have to kill me, do it quick. Please don’t botch.
Joshua: I think….The trick is we need somebody—if the two of us going out there, we need somebody, like, in here for us, so they can….
Rina: I can rig you up suit cams and I can talk you through it.
Joshua: I’m not worried about you talking us through it. I can do it.
All told, Arden spends an hour on Rina and puts her in the wardroom to rest up. He exits and finds Rick and Joshua still planning to go out there.
Arden: Wait til the morning.
Joshua: What’s that?
Arden: Wait til the morning. At this point, you all could go out there, something really bad could happen when the Reavers come or—
Joshua: What’s the point of waiting til morning? I’m serious. What’s the differential between doing it now and doing it later?
Arden: Risking one person instead of two.
Joshua: Risking who? Rina?
Arden: Mm-hm.
Joshua: We’re not letting Rina go out there. Like, in that state? Like…Are you crazy?
Rick: If we have two people out there we’re less likely to run into another discharge.
Arden: Why?
Joshua: Going to back each other up, basically. Sort of like me backing you up in surgery.
Faria chimes in.
Faria: I can work in a vac suit.
Arden: Really?
Faria: Without my prosthetics.
Rick: So would you be all right just staying in the airlock? To pull us in?
Faria: I’ve done demolitions work. Well, more like ordering people around than demolitions work.
Point is, he’s got some relevant experience and we can use all the help we can get. Anything’s better at this point than waiting around for the device to go off and call the Reavers in.
And now that everyone’s got a job to do, they go to it. Faria holds Joshua and Rick’s tethers and anchors himself in the airlock as the men go outside. They approach the bomb with some trepidation and carefully start detaching it. Rick botches but Joshua recovers before anything untoward happens—back up, indeed. They manage to defuse the bomb portion but must go back to refill their suits before detaching it from our hull. Which they get done much more quickly now that there’s no danger of the damned thing going off under their hands. The tentacles shrink back from our girl and float aimlessly, its base still suckered onto Orcus.
It took two hours, but we’re free of it.
Joshua: What are we doing with it?
Rick: We need to get the fuck outa here, now.
Joshua: That would be the plan, yes. We’re done.
We’re getting out of here. Nika breaks seal with Orcus and we ease away from her hull. Nika starts to turn on our sensors and Rick stops her—if we ping, won’t that tell the Reavers that we’re here? It could. On the other hand, if we’re ready to go to pulse we’ll be long gone before they get here. Rick suggests we get a safe distance away, then ping and pulse.
Sounds like a plan.
We chart a course for New Canaan, make our way to our pulse point and turn on our sensors. As their screens flicker to life and the ping goes out, Arden spots something on our mid-range sensors. Sure enough, we get a reading that could be a ship…or it could be space debris. In any La Grange area, stuff tends to collect—inasmuch stuff collects in space—and debris wouldn’t be unusual. It would also be the perfect place to float a ship, letting the debris disguise its presence until it is ready to attack.
We don’t stop to investigate. We pulse the hell out of there. Goodbye Orcus, hello New Canaan.
Tuesday, 26 Nov 2520
Kuiper II Class, Summer’s Gift
En route to New Canaan
Blue Sun (Qing Long) system
0605hrs, ship’s time
It’s seventeen hours to New Canaan and we keep an eye on the sensors. Nothing follows us. Not any that we can see anyway. As we get closer to New Canaan, Rick glances at the sensors and then at Joshua.
Rick: Something’s following us.
Joshua: No.
Rick: Ghosts….
Joshua: They do, like, travel through space.
Rick: (relenting) There weren’t any ghosts, my man.
Joshua: (S’okay) I know.
Rick saunters off, tossing his parting shot over his shoulder.
Rick: Only robots….
We fly on. Rina’s up and about again, sore and dour. She’s healing, albeit slowly, and puts the finishing touches on such internal repairs to the Gift as she can.
We get a couple of waves on the narrow band once we come within New Canaan’s range. Arden receives a wave from Valerie Sampson.
Arden: Oh, joy.
Rina: How do we know it’s her?
Joshua: Maybe it’s a bullshit wave.
The message says: You’ve brought them to me. You need to help me escape.
Joshua: Nope. Not a bullshit wave. That has the ring of ….
Arden: (resigned) Yeah.
Rick gets an anonymous photo message. He opens it right up.
Rick: Hell yeah!
Rina: Porn?
He shows it to the crew. It’s a picture of Valerie Sampson—fully clothed—and the caption underneath reads: This is not a robot.
However, the word ‘not’ has been crossed out.
Rick: Holy shit, dude. She might be a robot.
Go to: Fais Do-Do | Forward to: Stealing Away Home
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