Episode 408: Resin, Part Five

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Maybe it’s the weather or maybe the topic of our lunchtime conversation has jinxed it for us but it’s not long after we resume work when we suffer our first injury. Nika’s chainsaw sticks in a tree trunk then kicks free and bites her on her calf, cutting through leather and cloth to the flesh beneath. Arden rushes to administer first aid. The cut isn’t deep but it has ripped a chunk out of her and it is painful. Very much so and Nika’s suppressing her screams by dint of sheer will. Even so, she’s not quiet. Not by a long shot.

All work stops. Rina and Joshua make a two-man carry crew and get Nika off the heights and back to camp the minute Arden’s stabilized her injury. Mindful of the danger of mold infection in her open wound, we get her inside as soon as we can to reduce her chances of exposure. Our guards aren’t unsympathetic and don’t contest Arden’s care or decision to take her back to camp. They simply follow us down and Kiera watches them like a hawk. The guards lead us to the main office building of the camp where there is an infirmary on the ground floor. Arden gets her on the exam table and orders one of the guards to get his bag. He doesn’t wait for their return but immediately starts working with the supplies at hand. Kiera joins him.

Kiera: Arden, can you just excise it out? I don’t think you can clean that out.
Arden: I hope. That’s what I’m going to try to do.
Kiera: If you can’t you might need to excise it so it doesn’t spread.
Nika: Are you kiddin’ me?!
Kiera: No.
Arden: (grinning) I think I should amputate. What do you think?
Kiera: Yeah, I would amputate. You might have to give her a tranquilizer if you keep talkin’. I’m serious, though.
Nika: Stop!
Arden: I am not excising. Excising isn’t an option. You won’t need to be excised.
Nika: Stop.
Kiera: I’m just sayin’. (to Arden) You’re the Prion expert.
Arden: This isn’t Prion disease. It’s a mold.
Kiera: I know. Which is why I’m sayin’. It’ll go systemic if you don’t excise it out. Just clean it and make sure.
Nika: (to Rina) I was doin’ fine til they started talkin’.
Rina: You’re okay.
Arden: This may sting a little …

It’s a pretty straightforward and simple procedure. Nothing gets amputated or excised. Arden pours on the alcohol and Nika nearly levitates off the table. And screams some more. Rina holds Nika’s hand and offers up the consolation that Nika will henceforth have a sexy little scar on her calf that she can tell stories about. Kiera gets out of the way, not willing to second-guess Arden. Joshua offers Arden his help and when Arden declines, Joshua goes to find Schweiss to tell him what’s happened. Schweiss seems pretty blasé about the injury.

Joshua: What’s your plan Dr. Schweiss? If you’re willing to share that.
Dr. Schweiss: A plan? To sell the resin?
Joshua: Yeah. To sell the stuff. Sorry, but I’d be interested in hearing it if it doesn’t really matter.
Dr. Schweiss: I’ve … I have a silent partner out there who is looking into potential buyers.
Joshua: And he gets a cut?
Dr. Schweiss: Yes.
Joshua: How many cuts is everybody getting? You’re cut a lot of ways at this point.
Dr. Schweiss: That’s true. But if we’re looking at the figures that I think we’re looking at, it shouldn’t make much of a difference.
Joshua: You got a way out of here?
Dr. Schweiss: Yes I have a way out.
Joshua: This would go a lot faster if we weren’t working at gunpoint and your guys were working alongside. To be honest, I mean, really honest, the rest of the crew, we’re really not interested in the cut.

Joshua can hear Kiera’s eyes rolling in the distance but he pushes on.

Joshua: Well, that’s not a complete truth and one of our crew members is dying a small death right now at my saying that. On the other hand, we’re getting what for us is a fairly substantial pay to get this place cleared for the company within two weeks. Putting one set of people to work at a time is not getting anything done any faster. And to be honest, what I’m worried what’s going to happen is that our employer is going to write us off after two weeks. And then send in the big guns and decide it’s not worthwhile. If you don’t kill us, we’re gonna get killed in the crossfire. So all I’m asking—
Dr. Schweiss: Hopefully before two weeks have passed, we’ll be out of here.
Joshua: You think? Because you were saying a few weeks, earlier.
Dr. Schweiss: Well, you know it’s always tricky. You’re looking at, each day could be… It took some time to construct the distillery and to find the proper chemicals.
Joshua: Yeah, I get it. My question is, do you have a set date? Or are you just working until you figure you’ve got enough?
Dr. Schweiss: We are … we actually have a man in town who’s keeping up on what’s going on with any potential … things … going on. So we were somewhat prepared for your arrival. But suffice it to say, we should have plenty of advance notice before we need to leave. Until then, there’s no reason to leave this … gold. So you may be working for a while. But, as I say, as long as you’re working well, there’s no reason for us to harm you beyond that.
Joshua: So you’re going to be done after two weeks? Before two weeks?
Dr. Schweiss: If in two weeks your people are going to approach, we may have to be.
Joshua: My point is, there’s very little motivation other than you killing us for us to work and unless we’re gonna get out of here—unless everybody’s gonna get out of here in less than two weeks—there’s very little motivation for us to work. And to be honest, working that kind of level of work, at gunpoint, unwillingly, is not going to get much of anything done.
Dr. Schweiss: So now you do want a cut? Is that what you’re saying?
Joshua: No. I’m just saying I want to be done in under two weeks. Because it doesn’t to us any good if we’re not.
Dr. Schweiss: Well, let me see what I can—
Joshua: What do you mean? Aren’t you in charge?
Dr. Schweiss: I’m trying to think of a way to make you feel more comfortable. Would you prefer to sleep in the dorm? Would that make you more comfortable?
Joshua: What I would prefer is not to be gunpointed around.
Dr. Schweiss: You were the ones who brought guns here first.
Joshua: I didn’t bring any freaking guns. And you have to understand, the atmosphere you set perhaps encouraged people to be carrying guns.
Dr. Schweiss: That’s true. We brought guns to it too.
Joshua: I’ve been trying from Moment One to get a peaceful negotiation out of—
Dr. Schweiss: You’ve been quite fair about it. The thing is, though, I have quite a gold mine as it were, here, and you haven’t provided me with much incentive to not mine it through.
Joshua: What can I do? I don’t care. I don’t want to be in the resin business. I don’t care. All I want to do, to be honest, is have enough money to keep the ship flying. And what we’re going to get paid from the company is more than enough for that. So, really all I would like to do is get out of your hair and get you out of here in two weeks. And anything I can do that would speed that process up and encourage you that we’re not interested in your cut of the resin or screwing with your operation here or whatnot—.
Dr. Schweiss: (firmly) Let’s see what happens in a week.
Joshua: Uh-huh. Okay.
Dr. Schweiss: If after a few days you pose no threat, make no attempts to hide weapons or anything like that, then I see no reason we need four people guarding you. Perhaps we can reduce your guard, if that makes you feel better.

Joshua gapes at the man. Has Schweiss even been listening? Or was he just waiting for his turn to talk?

Dr. Schweiss: (off Joshua’s look) Didn’t you just say you didn’t want a bunch of people guarding you?
Joshua: What I want is for us to be working as a unit instead of as slave labor for you. Things work smoother if the people working are willingly working because we’re both working at the same objective, which is getting everyone out of here in under two weeks.
Dr. Schweiss: Right. So why don’t you work with that idea in mind. Yes. If you work hard, in two weeks, you may very well be able to be let go at the end of it. (a beat) Or if your friends start to show up, you’ll also get to go. So, either way …
Joshua: Eh-huh. Okay. Thanks.

There is no reasoning with Schweiss. Joshua turns right around and rejoins the crew. And when he’s out of earshot, he cuts loose with a low and fervent curse. Cào nĭ mā and yob tvoyu mat’, y’all, and the horse you rode in on, too.

When Joshua makes it back to the rest of us, it’s in time to hear Kiera speculate calling her Daddy the second we’re free and telling him about buying this parcel of land we’re on. Drawing from her knowledge of naturopathy, Kiera susses that it’s highly unlikely that there would be only ONE grove of trees infected with the mold. It’s more likely that this entire slope, or even the entire forest, may be infected. Meaning there’s more resin to be had, if someone was willing to systematically search, find, and map it. Nika looks at Joshua and immediately realizes where he’s been and how well it went and sympathizes.

Schweiss comes to us a little later with a proposal: If we’re willing to clean out the mess hall of the dust and ash, he will allow us to eat with the others there and maybe ease up on some of the other harsh conditions we’re under. We’ve been good workers so far and due a concession or two. Arden states he wants to carry his med kit with him when he’s out in the field working. Schweiss allows that it might be possible if he removes anything of tactical use against the guards first. Arden agrees.

Kiera suggest to Schweiss we have Nika sit out the cleaning duties for the nonce and also that we get her something to eat. Schweiss gives the wounded woman permission to stay in the camp’s sick bay even as Nika protests she’s not THAT wounded.

Kiera goes off to start on the cleaning and after dinner, she buttonholes Schweiss for more information. Does he knows who owns the property hereabouts the camp? He knows that Burnham Corp purchased the camp and the area around it from the bank. Kiera surmises that as far as Burnham Corp is concerned they’ve got nothing but raw lumber on their property. Schweiss counters that wood of itself isn’t exactly what you call worthless, but he admits the agar wood is considerably more valuable. Kiera continues her fishing expedition: and agar wood is not exactly something you can float down the river, can you? Actually you can, says Schweiss, you’d just have to adjust your cutting strategies to do it. Who is he working with to get the agar wood off world? How are they going to sell it? Do they have somebody—?

Dr. Schweiss: Yes, we do.
Kiera: You do? So is he or she with Burnham Corp?
Dr. Schweiss: … Well … not entirely …
Kiera: Have they in the past worked with Burnham Corp?
Dr. Schweiss: Possibly.
Kiera: Does Burnham Corp know what they have exactly?
Dr. Schweiss: Oh, no. No.
Kiera: Okay, what I got a question is, is I can put you in contact with somebody and we can buy everything out from Burnham Corp and you will not have a one-time profit, you will have a long-term profit. Because I know people who would be willing to share it and make this a worthwhile deal for you. You may make a one-term profit. They may hunt you down. If it this turns out this is good. If we buy it out from under them before they know what they’ve got, this is a partnership that would be fruitful for a very long time. Just wanted you to think about it. You’re smart man.

And on that line, Kiera goes back to the chore at hand. Schweiss watches her leave speculatively, thinking that she might have been sent by Burnham Corp to shark his prize out from under him… or maybe she’s just a businesswoman thinking to go into business for herself… hmmm …

Nika gets established in the dorm where the beds are a little cushier and after dinner we’re all allowed to join her there. Kiera shares what she’s found out from her conversation with Schweiss and we all speculate who is contact is. Privately, Kiera makes plans to get one of her father’s shadow companies to buy the land if Burnham Corp doesn’t know about the resin. Arden opines that he didn’t get the impression that anyone in town would have the skills to be involved in an operation like this—except for David Jarvis, who hired us.

Rina: Jarvis.
Arden: What if he hired us to get rid of the Doctor for him? Without telling us what was going on?
Nika: (groans) Ohhh, c’mon Arden!
Arden: What?
Nika: You’re giving me a headache now. We’re back to conspiracies. And unfortunately that’s entirely too … (grudgingly) … too rational and logical and I don’t like it.
Arden: It was just an idea.
Kiera: Well, no. The Doctor said and told me he kinda knew we were on the way up. If he already knew that, it wouldn’t be to get rid of him, it would be, yeah send some survey team to make sure the company keeps the—
Arden: He doesn’t have to tell everybody what’s going on. Just tell the doctor someone’s coming up and you need to get rid of him. He attacks us, we attack back, someone dies.
Nika: And he actually said his contact is in the town?
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Nika: The other possibility being that he could be negotiating with the camp up the river to get off the planet.
Kiera: That’s also true. Joshua, what else did he tell you?
Joshua: That was basically the sum of it, other than, you know, promising a lot and not actually promising anything at all.
Kiera: Well, he actually seems to think that the guy or whoever he or she is working with has the capability to work with him and take care of him.
Joshua: He seemed relatively confident about that.
Kiera: But it would have to be someone relatively low-level.
Joshua: Actually, he seemed confident about a lot of things.
Kiera: I know but they’re both low-level because they’re both thinking short-term. And basically they’re comin’ at this like running in and stealin’ money from the bank. They don’t plan this to be a money-maker for a lifetime. This is “Oh, my God, we found something. Let’s run before anybody else notices it.”
Joshua: Okay.
Kiera: So it would have to be someone close to his level in the company or somebody on his way up.
Arden: I suppose it could be the Sheriff.
Kiera: Could be.
Joshua: So. Actionable information. What are you doing about it? Assuming one conspiracy or another is true, do we do anything? Or do we sit here?
Arden: We’re in the position of needing his trust, so we have to go along with what he wants us to do.
Joshua: All right. Happy-happy.
Arden: However, I get the feeling he’s not running on all cylinders. He’s missing a few cards out of his deck.
Kiera: I don’t know that he’s insane, I just think that he’s frustrated. Like life has dealt him a harsh hand. This is a quickie, short-term way for him to get some money and get out.
Arden: Maybe.
Kiera: I don’t think he’s thinking long term. He’s thinking “I’m gon’ run off and they won’t notice it.”
Joshua: Do we really want to encourage him to think long term?
Nika: That seems like a foolish plan.
Kiera: I don’t think he’s ever going to be able to think long term because he really wants a short turn-around. The only thing we can do is turn everybody against everybody and hope somebody’s on our side and not paying attention. But we’ll still get killed in the crossfire.
Nika: Well, right now so far as I’m aware, we were sorta bluffing over the idea that they were going to send soldiers up here.
Kiera: Nah, I figure after the two weeks our guy will think that he’s all excited and the money he doesn’t have to pay us out and he’s all done. Probably impound the Gift and that’ll be it.
Joshua: All right. Moving on.
Arden: Assuming Jarvis hired us to get rid of the doctor … if we got rid of the doctor, he then could come in and say “We saved it and now it’s all mine.”
Nika: That’s true.
Arden: If the doctor gets rid of us, he can report back to the company “I did all I could do, I hired who I could, but nothing’s happening. It must be taken over by Reavers and we need to blow it up. Which would end up getting rid of the doctor and leaving him the land.

But wouldn’t that indicate Jarvis doesn’t know what Schweiss has found? But then again, does it matter? Jarvis will have the camp regardless of who survives. The company gets its property back and they can continue to make money off it. Or if they do go with the bombing scenario, they’d just liquidate their assets off the camp for the money it can net them. As for the Reaver scenario, no Rim corporation that believed there are Reavers up here would send a shuttle up and drop some bombs—the shuttle would be attacked. Hell, if Reavers were up here, the company would just sell the land off as fast as it could get rid of it.

Joshua: Although I’d like to point out, based on my last conversation with Dr. Schweiss, I’m less than concerned about a firefight breaking out, if that tells you anything.
Arden: Wow.
Rina: I don’t think he’s gonna let us live a second longer than he can pack those damned suitcases and I’d been keeping that behind my teeth til now, because I promised I’d be positive.
Arden: I wouldn’t let anyone in this facility to live. I’m including his help.
Nika: We all know how many people he’s got. You guys want to fight it out to the bottom?
Arden: How many does he have? Four?
Nika: Four and himself.
Joshua: We’ll make that four. So …
Nika: So you wanna just barricade ourselves in or what?
Joshua: I’m not arguing. I’m saying, let’s go to work.
Nika: Somebody go talk to the doctor, in the bunker, and clock him on the head.
Arden: (to Nika) Well, you’re going to be stuck here.
Kiera: (ditto) I was about to say you can’t go.
Nika: What do you mean I—You’re not gonna leave me here in camp.
Arden: (he is) I’m not?
Kiera: You wanna hobble up there?

Kiera points upslope. The rain is still falling and the trails will be treacherous from the mud. And Nika has an injured leg.

Nika: I have been shot worse than this.
Kiera: All right …
Joshua: All right. (snaps fingers) Work-y, work-y. It’s either that or start taking weapons. Try and take weapons and start a firefight. I don’t care which one, so long as we make a decision, if that tells you anything.
Nika: If you want me to stay behind here and clock him over the head, I’ll do it. But I’m thinkin’ that’s just dumb.

There’s something about this operation that just doesn’t sit right with Kiera. Going over everything she’s seen and heard, she realizes if Schweiss works for four weeks, he’ll end up extracting a fair amount of money from all this … but it may be there’s more money to be made legitimately rather than illegitimately. If Schweiss could be convinced. And that’s what she tried to tell him earlier, hoping to have him think on it overnight.

Nika: Lemme ask you somethin’. I have never worked with a corporation and I got really no idea how this works, but … he’s up here. A low-level nobody. The guys up the river have a deal with some corporation for logging rights or whatever it is they’re doin’ up there.
Kiera: Yup. They’re loggin’. We saw them.
Nika: How about instead of going to Burnham with what he’s found, he’s distilling what he’s got. And maybe he is looking the long-term, only is deal is with them.
Kiera: They would already come in. He has enough already.
Nika: You think?
Kiera: Well, yeah. I mean, lookin’ at it I knew what I was lookin’ at. And I didn’t even mess with it. So yeah, he doesn’t need tons of it. But to prove what he’s done, he needs just enough.
Nika: (taking it up) He does need tons of it in order to walk away with some of it before they swoop in and take it and give him this tiny little piece of cut.
Kiera: I don’t think he’s thought of that and I think he’s still thinking he’s gonna fence it.

We can speculate all we want as to what the doctor is actually thinking. Or we could get Joshua to delve into his thoughts directly … and it’s something that occurs to the crew at one point or another and it’s something that nobody mentions aloud. Kiera doesn’t know about Joshua’s Reader abilities and right now, that might be a good thing. Nika looks at Joshua and Joshua looks at Nika.

Joshua: The question is, do you want me to do that?
Nika: I’m not entirely sure I do want you to do that.
Kiera: I would love it if—what are you doin’? Do you have a way of interrogatin’ him?
Joshua: Yeah. Let’s say that. (to Nika) What do you want out of him? What do we want to know? Who he’s working for? Whether he’s going to kill us?
Arden: I think whether or not he’s going to kill us is pretty high up there on the want-to-know list.
Kiera: I want to know what he knows about the deal. What deal does he have going? Killing us is not as important right now.
Arden: I think it’s really important right now!
Kiera: No, you’re—
Nika: Look at this in the context of what we were hired to do. What will it take to get him the hell out of here?
Kiera: Right. What leverage will it take to make him move?
Joshua: The problem is, it’s not that simple. It’s not a … I don’t know.
Nika: That’s why I don’t ask you to do this kind of thing.
Joshua: No, I’m not—that’s not a Don’t-ask-me-to-do-that sort of thing. I’m just trying to figure out …

How do they talk about this with Kiera standing right there without letting the cat out of the bag?

Nika: How to sift?
Joshua: Yeah.
Nika: I kinda figured. (a beat) And I don’t have a clear question to make you sift for.
Kiera: So you’re an official interrogator or somethin’?
Joshua: Yeah … let’s call it that. A professional mind reader is actually more like it.
Kiera: Like … a carnival or something?
Joshua: Yeah.
Arden: Like something.
Joshua: Like something.
Kiera: All right.
Joshua: Give me five minutes. I have to think about this for a second.

And Kiera gives him that minute, studying him all the while.

Arden: Let me put it this way. You ever see Joshua assist me in surgery?
Kiera: No actually, I haven’t.
Arden: He can. It takes him about fifteen minutes to get ready but he can.
Rina: (quietly) He’s helped me in engineering.
Kiera: I had no idea he actually can—
Rina: He’s a quick study.
Arden: Very.
Kiera: Interesting.
Nika: And he can fly far better than most people. With about fifteen minutes of study.
Joshua: Ten minutes.
Kiera: That’s an interesting ability.
Nika: Let’s call it a … mimicking ability.

And how do we use that to our advantage? We can’t just hammer at the doctor constantly—it will make him suspicious and negate any slack our cooperation has gotten us so far. Nika advises holding off for a few days before trying again.

Which we do. We behave ourselves, work hard, and on the third day Joshua approaches Schweiss again.

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