Episode 415: Entanglements, Part Two
On the bridge, Nika’s been surreptitiously following the women’s suit chatter and cuts a look at Joshua in the copilot’s seat. She doesn’t say a word to him about what’s happening outside.
Flying farther from the ship with every second, Rina rapidly goes through her options. The list is short. She can either open the oxy recharge valve on her suit and hope there is enough pressure remaining in her depleted air supply to propel her back to the Gift—and that’s assuming she hits the release on the right degree of arc in her spin to point her in the right direction—or she can pray that Kiera has enough air to push after her and grab her before she goes beyond the limit of Kiera’s tether.
At the airlock, Kiera curses and makes good on her bantering.
She pushes off. Plays out her line. Grabs for Rina.
Success!
Rina: See? We should’a been tethered together.
Kiera: (Yeah, right!) I didn’t cut free.
Kiera’s got a grip on Rina’s harness. Rina throws an arm around Kiera, grabs Kiera’s line, and yanks them hard for the ship. The weightlessness of space helps them here and they fly back toward the hull. Cutting a look at the redhead through their visors, Rina can see Kiera’s on her last gasp—literally and figuratively—and hauls hard again on their line. Rina’s in little better shape and her aim isn’t perfect. They both slam into the hull of the ship near the airlock and the stun knocks the starch out of Kiera. Rina claws for the airlock door, gets her gloved fingers around the jamb, and pulls them both inside. They yank the cable in so they can close the door and hit the controls to make everything airtight.
The airlock cycles shut. Atmo hisses in. Rina and Kiera gasp and suck and wait for the room to pressurize. Only then can they crack their helmets and breathe without dying. With practically no air in their suits, it’s a race to see which happens first—the airlock filling in time or the oxy still in their blood depleting, too little too late.
On the bridge, Nika sees the airlock light on her console change and she comms Arden.
Nika: Arden. Get down to the airlock. Now.
In the airlock, the lights go green and Rina cracks Kiera’s helmet first. The redhead is unconscious and her hair blows aside as the atmo rushes into her helmet. Rina cracks her own faceplate and pats Kiera’s cheek.
Rina: C’mon. Wake up. Don’t make me spit on you …
Despite the atmo, the strain on her system makes Rina pass out. Arden arrives to find her and Kiera in a heap on the airlock floor. A quick check shows they aren’t dead and he gets them installed in the wardroom. Rina and Kiera revive after about an hour and when Arden steps out for a moment, Rina looks at Kiera the next bed over.
Rina: Thank you so much for saving my life.
Kiera: You’re welcome.
Rina: Let’s not tell him.
Kiera: (agreeing) No. I’m not gonna tell him but do you reckon he won’t figure it out?
Rina: Well, we’ll let him figure it out. That’s his fault.
Kiera: All right.
And for the nonce, they both just lay there and breathe.
While she’s waiting for Rina to revive, Nika and Joshua review the situation on the bridge. The hydra has snagged us and though the pinger’s been disabled, we’re still fouled in cables. Our only engineer is lying unconscious in medbay and Nika resigns herself to not being able to do Jack. Joshua asks what if we can get a crew out there—Dean’s people can’t all be useless. Let’s recruit them to help get us free.
Nika: I can go and we can take some of the passengers out in a vac suit. If they’re willin’.
Joshua: Okay. We’ve got extra. I don’t know what their skill set is.
Nika: Maybe not, but they gotta have some guys …
Joshua: I could go.
Nika: And I could ask Dean if there’s anybody in his squad with vac suit abilities.
Joshua: Here’s the problem. I can do one of them but I can’t do both. I can time-in the suit skill, but not the repair. So I can get out there but then I can’t repair anything. Or I can take my chances in getting out there but be able to repair things. That’s kinda where it lies. So. What do you want to do, Captain?
Nika: Is the repair mechanical or tech?
At this stage, it’s mostly mechanical to get the cables off. Joshua asks Dean about his people. Unfortunately, they have land-based survival skills. Joshua has piloting as a skill and reviewing what he knows of space survival from a pilot’s angle he decides there’s enough skill overlap to attempt going out in a suit without further instruction in it.
Joshua: Assuming that, I can get Rina to give me the ten-minute “how to fix this” lecture and then I can go out.
Nika: Make it so, Number One.
Joshua: And when I do, I’ll say, “Wench! Don’t get yourself killed out there.”
Nika: And when she jack-slaps you into next week, I want to see it.
Joshua: She still hasn’t managed to do it to me when she’s fully conscious. I’d like to see her try when she’s almost knocked out.
Nika: Whatever.
Joshua: (to self) She thinks she’s better than me. I think I’ve proven at this point I’ve …
And he leaves for medbay and Nika goes with him. There’s no way she’s missing what’s coming up next. She parks her butt on Kiera’s bed to watch and both women look on as Joshua approaches Rina.
Joshua: Show me how to fix this and I’m going out. Cuz you’re not going out yet. (off her look) Wench, don’t give me that. You’re not going out.
Rina: Did the word wench go past your lips?
Joshua: You can try and take me, but you’re not going to.
Rina: (grinning) Good for you.
Joshua: Tell me how to fix this.
Rina: I don’t know if I can explain it. Can’t you take a Look?
Joshua: Yes you can illustrate—
Nika: She wants you to peek in her brain.
Joshua: Really?
Rina: (her accent’s back) Yes, really. It’s faster.
Joshua: (really?) It’s … faster … (really?)
Nika: You did say that you wanted us to let you utilize the skills with which you’ve been born—
Joshua: (annoyed) Yes, yes.
Nika: You did say that, did you not?
Joshua: Yes, Captain.
Nika: I’m not advocating that you should do so, but I am pointing out that she’s telling you to do something that you did say that you wanted her to do.
Joshua: I did have a line drawn where I said I didn’t Read the crew. Cuz bad things hap—
Nika: This doesn’t quite qualify as Reading the crew.
Rina: You’ve already crossed that line with me at least twice.
Joshua: (angry) The last time I Read you, you whacked me in the head with it!
Rina: (so?) But that was last Christmas. Surely you’ve gotten over that.
Joshua: Surely, you can’t be serious.
Joshua stares at Rina. Rina stares right back. Nika and Kiera can’t resist poking the pair.
Nika: Don’t call him Shirley.
Kiera: Be Frank with him. And if you can’t be Frank, be Ernest.
Rina: (to Kiera) But I like being a girl.
Joshua: (to Kiera) Thank you … (NOT!)
Joshua can see Rina’s mind is made up. She’s not going to back down. Damn her stubborn hide.
Joshua: Start thinking. Really hard. Hopefully I can get it out of your head. I’ve never done this before.
Rina: (closing eyes with a grin) Of course you can get it out of my head. You’ve gotten me out of everything else.
And she’s not making it easy for him, heaping innuendo on top of it. Nika and Kiera snigger on the sidelines. Taking a deep calming breath, Joshua closes his eyes, touches Rina’s shoulder to establish contact, and opens his mind. Joshua says nothing. Neither does Rina. To their observers, it’s all rather anti-climactic.
Kiera: (whispers) Huh. That’s not the sexy foreplay I’d thought they’d do.
Nika: Sh-hh.
Five minutes later, Joshua opens his eyes and gives Rina’s shoulder a squeeze as she opens hers.
Joshua: Okay. I got it. (firmly) You stay here.
Rina: Tether yourself.
Joshua: Yeah. And we’re going to have a talk when I get back about letting yourself get knocked unconscious.
Nika: Now this … is … (sputters) …
Nika’s not quite sure what to make of this entire weird-assed little scene and ends up falling off Kiera’s bed laughing. Joshua doesn’t comment on it but goes below to suit up. The information he’s pulled from Rina’s head is only temporary and the clock is ticking. He goes to Dean and asks if there’s anyone from his group who are comfortable getting into a suit: he’s going to need help outside. Dean finds one of his crew, a young man named Al, to spot him and they both get out there.
Once topside, Al taps Joshua on the shoulder and points to Joshua’s leg. Joshua looks and sees a thin plume of mist coming out of the rip in his vac suit even as he starts to feel it. Cold and exposure delivers a gut punch to his stamina. He’s shaky but he’s still up and breathing. He pulls out the patch tape and seals the rip shut. Great. He’s only been outside for minute and he bids fair to outdo Rina on damage done to self. She only passed out. He’s courting frostbite.
Al: (via suit comm) So, we goin’ back?
Joshua: No. Stick with me, please.
Al: (dubious) Okay …
Joshua: It’s fine. There’s nothing to worry about. Everything’s going to go smoothly from here on out.
They make their way aft and begin the arduous task of getting those cables off. There are places where it’s safe to cut them with the torch but for the majority of them, it requires following the path of the cables to their tip before prying and lifting them free of the hull. Two hours and two cables later, Joshua and Al return to the airlock. Unlike Rina, he scrupulously follows the safety protocols when his oxy gauge goes off with the ten-minute warning. He goes in with Al, they rest an hour, set their suits to recharge while they get into the last remaining suits and go back out again. Two more hours and another hour inside to rest and do a suit swap, and they go back out again. Five hours after Joshua’s started this venture, he’s wrestling with a particularly recalcitrant section of cable and gives it an extra yard yank. It snaps free … and there’s a plume of smoke following in its wake. It’s frozen hydrogen. Joshua’s just yanked the fuel line to one of our thrusters.
Ooooooh, Rina is going be SO pissed off at him.
Joshua inspects the end of the hose, looking for a valve, a plug, a collar—anything to cap off the leak. He thinks he’s found it but …
Joshua: Um … is that supposed to do that?
On the bridge, Nika’s following the comm chatter off the suits and his comment doesn’t sound good. She hails Joshua.
Nika: Is what supposed to do what?
Joshua: So. Um. About that …
Nika: Joshua!
Joshua: What? Yes, ma’am. There was a hose and it kinda came loose and something kinda went into space and it’s very light, there wasn’t much of it—oh. It’s still going.
Nika: Tie it off!
Joshua: I’m working on it.
It’s not that kind of hose. It’s not flexible enough to tie off.
Joshua: I’ll duct tape it.
Nika: Pinch it, man. Pinch it!
Joshua does what he can. Fortunately for us, our thrusters (and engines for that matter) do not run on just the one fuel line but several. So it’s entirely possible to run without the line in Joshua’s hand. However, Nika’s watching the fuel gauge on the bridge and she notices that one of our tanks is now dangerously close to empty. Of our total fuel capacity of 600 hours, minus 150 for two days of pulse, we lose another 200 hours before Joshua can seal off the line. It’s a temporary fix but it should hold until we either reach Miranda or Rina’s recovered enough to get out here and fix it herself.
Nika: Everybody back aboard.
Joshua: I don’t want to go back aboard.
Nika: Don’t tempt me.
Joshua debates for a minute if it would be better to go back aboard or stay outside for a little while. Rina’s reception of his blunder argues against it … He goes back in. He and Al have cleared enough of the cables off our girl that we can go forward again.
Meanwhile, Arden’s cleared Rina to go back on duty. She’s in the engine room and sees the drop in the fuel tank. But it’s worse than that. We’re going to have to blow a lot of energy getting our engines back online from a dead stop and by the time we get the pulse engines up to speed, we’ll have maybe just enough fuel to cover the one pulse and the remaining distance to Miranda. Well, we might. If we coast the last leg of it.
We gather on the bridge and shut the door and go over our options. The fuel source on the hydras are a no-go: both were depleted in their pursuit of us. Lagniappe is no help to us either: Lagniappe only has five hours fuel in her. Not enough to fill our tank.
Rina: But still, it’s five hours we wouldn’t otherwise have.
Kiera: Which means we have a slightly more controlled fall through atmo than we’d otherwise have.
Joshua: How much fuel do we have. Figure it out please.
Rina: Normally we’d have 250 hours of fuel left, but that’s not counting the fuel-spend on start-up. I don’t know how much we have because I don’t know how much that’s going to use.
Kiera: Plus, you don’t know if the fix on the hose is going to hold.
Rina: I could go back and reinforce it.
Nika: Now here’s one of the queries I have in mind. Presumably, if we’re cautious, how many days out are we? 48 to 72 hours, plus a 100 for the pulse, that’s a 172 hours we need to have to be able to make it to Miranda. Conservatively. Depending on how far out we are, I’m going for a straight three days. So that’s a 172 hours.
Nika checks the nav computer and wishes for the good old days when the Cortex went everywhere. Back then, the positions of the planets in real-time were available at the press of a button. Now? She’s got to estimate the orbital position of our target two years after our last visit. In most places, it wouldn’t be too hard to do, since all the settled planets and moons have a nav beacon she can latch onto and follow. Miranda has no beacon and therefore her calculations will have to be a little more precise.
And once off Miranda again, assuming we find the planet and are able to put Dean and his people on the ground, we don’t have enough fuel to get very far. We could aim ourselves for the nearest space lane and coast the rest of the way in, pinging a distress signal. But this is Blue Sun and we’ll be in Reaver territory. Do we really want to ping away as a sitting duck target for any hungry Reavers who might be feeling a mite peckish?
There is one other option. We are somewhat closer to Mr. Universe’s moon.
Rina: Lots of hulks floating around. Lots of fuel to scav.
There were hundreds of ships involved in the Reaver Battle there. Chances are there are several ships we can siphon fuel from. It’s also possible someone’s established a base or space station there and where there’s people, there’s the possibility to trade for what we need. It looks like our best bet yet. There’s just one problem: the debris field is not on any of the charts, even though Universe Moon is. Nika doesn’t like not knowing where the debris field is or the possibility of flying blind right into it.
However, if we don’t refuel now, we will have next to nothing to maneuver with once we arrive at Miranda. Since we don’t know what we’ll meet at Miranda once we drop out of pulse, running on fumes isn’t a smart idea. We may need more fuel to outrun the Reavers. As for scavving fuel dirtside on Miranda, it took us months to scav enough from the abandoned ships on the ground and we were parked at a major city. There’s no telling if we’re going to be so conveniently located this time around.
Universe Moon is closer. The ships there are bound to have the fuel we need.
Nika: Let Dean know we’re changing course.
Friday, 12 Sep 2521
Repairs and transit
Rina goes back outside before we pulse to strengthen Joshua’s cap on the broken line. She manages to save 200 hours of fuel—two pulses worth, an in and an out. Unless we can get more fuel elsewhere, what we have left beyond that is all we have to restart our engines from dead cold and to execute evasive action. Not enough. She gets back inside and we get our engines started and Nika pulses us for Universe Moon.
Saturday, 13 Sep 2521
Inside the ion cloud,
Mr. Universe’s Moon
Blue Sun (Qing Long) system
Thirty hours later, we drop out of pulse. Nika drops us out in low orbit around the moon. The ion cloud surrounding it plays havoc with our sensors so it’s see-and-avoid flying as we fly over it. We watch our sensors and stare out the windows looking for the debris field. Six hours later we find what we believe is a big ship under the ions. We cross our fingers and drop through the cloud.
It’s a rough ride—lightning, buffeting, our sensors going nuts, the sharp points on our girl flickering with St. Elmo’s Fire. The hydra cables still on our ship attracts the lightning, turning into a coruscating net over our hull. Rina keeps a close eye on our systems, praying the cables won’t cause anything to fail. Nika does what she does best, bulls through the cloud, and gets us in one piece to the other side. The ride smoothes out and we sail clear. Nothing in the engine room blows up. Nothing on the bridge goes dead. Rina quits the engine room for the bridge. Kiera’s not far behind her, rightfully thinking that if anything happens, the bridge is the best seat in the house to watch it unfold. Joshua’s already there in the copilot’s chair.
Nika has to dodge bits of debris here and there, but up ahead is our target: a 50,000-tonner. It’s Alliance, big, and it’s clearly taken some crippling hits. A ship that big reading empty on the fuel gauge should still have enough remaining in her lines to put us back to full.
Rina’s manning the sensors and as she’s filtering out the interference from the ion cloud, she spots an anomaly: Instant hink!
Rina: We’re not alone. I’m catching another power source. (to Nika) You feel like flying blind for a minute while I rejigger this or no? Your call, Cap’n.
Kiera: (no!) Gahhh…?
Rina: (to Kiera) She’s going to be doing the hard work.
Kiera: Yeah, but we’re gonna be doin’ the dying.
Nika: Yeah, go ahead.
Kiera: Ahhn? (sighs) It was nice knowing you. And you. And you. And that’s not how I planned to die but what the hell.
Joshua: You’re not going to die.
Rina gets to work on the sensors, boosting their gain and filtering out what she can of the ion interference. We hear the hiss of micro-debris scraping our hull, flinch as the staccato impacts of the same hit our bridge windows. Contrails of debris succumbing to the pull of the moon paint a fiery path to the surface. The field is a vast tumble of broken ships and flotsam, a meat grinder for any craft that enters it. Never one to back down from a challenge, Nika wins through with the seat-of-the-pants flying she’s famous for. That’s not to say we don’t have a couple of close calls. Orbits decay, debris falls, and some of it passes close enough to light a candle on. As for the view out the bridge windows—it’s terrifying and fascinating at once.
Joshua: This is amazing.
Kiera: (hell no) I’m not drunk enough yet.
Joshua: Well, the liquor cabinet’s that way. (sketches a wave aft) This is awesome! Get me something while you’re there. I’m not leaving this bridge.
Rina: (from below console) I could use a coffee.
Rina transfers the gain on the long range sensors to boost the short range and brings them back on line. At the limit of the short-range, she sees that there really is something moving out there. Not in the manner of the debris outside, orbiting and spiraling to its doom. Nope. Something tangential to our course. Something deliberate, on its own power.
Rina: They’re not coming for us but they’re moving.
Nika: They may not even know that we’re here.
Rina: Let’s keep it that way.
The object on our sensors pings back at about 10,000 tons larger than our girl. It’s pretty much a given it’s another ship. If we use our thrusters to get closer to our target, we’ll show up on their sensors. Nika decides to risk it and fires them up to get us closer to our objective. Nika flies us match-striking close, pulls up and comes around for another pass before we slide alongside to look for a docking point. Everyone else on the bridge gets reacquainted with breathing. Kiera pries her fingers off the door jamb and enters with a bottle of the good stuff in hand. Looks like she found the liquor cabinet.
Rina checks the sensors again and the other ship is moving.
Rina: It’s positioning itself to either get us from behind or it’s trying its angle its sensors to get a better look at us.
Joshua: Or some other thing we don’t know about.
It appears to be running a little bit hot.
Rina: And it’s running hot.
Kiera: Hot? Interesting.
Rina: I told you. We’re not alone out here.
Nika pulls around for yet another pass, going aft where the engines are. Rina detects more movement from the mystery ship. Knowing what she does of tactics and piloting, she realizes that its course is a stupid one for intercept or attack, but it is in keeping with a ship with the thrusters on one side missing. If we have to run away, we stand a chance of winning. Maneuvering with thrusters on one side only is a tricky business, demanding tight concentration, and Reavers aren’t that coherent to begin with. Rina relays that information to Nika.
Good news, everyone: it’s a wounded Reaver ship.
Rina: But you know what happens when you wound a bear. You only make it madder. (a beat) You might be able to thread a pursuit course, use that against them, and make them wipe-out on something.
Nika: I’ll work that. You get the fuel.
Rina: On it.
Not that it’s going to be easy. Once docked to the ship, we’re going to have to find the fuel tanks, find compatible fuel lines and couplings to link our respective fuel tanks together, then find a way to pump the fuel. All this with a Reaver ship in the vicinity who may or may not know we’re here. Oh, and we’re going to have to do all of this in a suit—the ship we’re looking to scav has big chunks taken out of her and has multiple decks exposed to vacuum.
Further investigation proves it’s not as bad as it initially looks. The section we need to board actually does have hull integrity. Vacuum may not be an issue. When the ship was evacuated during battle, the ship was sealed off deck by deck to reduce decompression and the systems were put on stand-by. There is still power in the batteries, the fuel remaining on the ship has been tasked to keep the batteries warmed up. Given that, stuff should still work. There might even still be grav and atmo.
Rina goes in her suit anyway. Too much has happened in the last 48 to make her confident to go without it. She starts gathering a crew to go aboard with her and several of Dean’s people step up. Their repair skills might be minimal—as we’ve seen—but they’ve got combat skill and weapons. If it comes to a fight, we won’t be totally helpless.
Joshua: Where do you want me, Captain?
Nika: Go. I’ll stay aboard and keep an eye on the sensors.
Joshua asks her how long we’ve got before the Reaver ship catches up with us. Based on their flight pattern, if they start coming at us in a heavy debris field at full power, they’ll run a good chance to wipe out before they get here. If by some miracle the Reavers exercise caution and make it to us in one piece, we’d have time to note their approach and bug out.
Nika: We’ll have half an hour at least.
Joshua: Let’s take a look.
Dean’s people are jazzed to go. All of them. A larger search party will allow us to cover more ground, find what we’re after quickly. Joshua’s not too enthused about the idea of keeping track of two dozen people scattered through a derelict ship. We could, however, concentrate our search in the two likeliest areas where there’d be fuel—the ship’s main tanks and the shuttle bays, where the storage tanks for the shuttle fuel will be. So we may get away with having only two separate parties. Rina and Joshua quickly arrange two teams of six each and we all take our comms, synchronize our channels. Kiera stands off to the side, watching.
Joshua: You coming?
Kiera: Yeah, probably. I was thinking of lying back in case y’all got in trouble, but …
Joshua: Which team?
Kiera: Eh, it doesn’t matter.
Rina: Six of one, half dozen of the other.
Kiera: (Eeny, meeny, miney … ) Moe. I’ll go with you again and tempt fate.
She walks over to Rina’s team. We walk aboard the hulk. There’s grav, atmo and even minimal power. We split up, Joshua’s team to the shuttle bays, Rina’s to the main tanks. Looking over the systems, it looks like there was a big engine fire at one point and here and there she finds signs of hand-to-hand combat. The boarding party can’t have been aboard for long and the ship’s crew wasn’t entirely helpless against them, but the signs are unmistakable: Reavers were here. She leaves off further speculation and gets back to work.
The tanks are aft, past a section of the ship where three consecutive decks have been pancaked in an explosion. The hull, however, has remained intact and the crater where the decks used to be has a lip wide enough to allow us to skirt the damage. Looking over the side, we can see girders and decking in a massive snarl of ruined metal rising the three floors to our feet. Anything traversing it would have a massively difficult time negotiating the maze. We hug the bulkhead and keep away from the edge.
Aft of the cratered deck we find the fuel tanks. They are all running low. Mind, each tank is hundreds of tons’ worth of hydro and even showing empty, they still have plenty of fuel for our purposes. The trick is getting it out of them. Rina hits on the solution of running as much hose as she can find from the derelict’s tanks directly to our own, and using the tank flushing system on our girl to supply the suction necessary to transfer the fuel. It’s not perfect: we must first find enough line and join the sections tightly enough to avoid leaks, then mate the business end to our ship. Hydrogen is flammable and explosive and therefore dangerous to work with.
Joshua’s group have gone to the shuttle bays to check out the storage tanks there but they come up empty for the most part. Certainly nothing in any usable amount. Rina comms Joshua that she’s found what we need and his party joins hers.
Dean pulls Joshua aside.
Dean: If you need people on the fuel line, I’ve got a couple of recommendations. None of these people have actually been in combat and some of them aren’t good for it ... (waves two of his people over)
Joshua: I bow to your judgment in this.
Dean: If she needs help the fuel lines—
Joshua: Yeah. Rina? These two.
Rina: I’ll take all the hands I can get. (points) You. Stand over there. Watch this coupling. (points again) You. Over there. Tighten that when I tell you to.
Those she doesn’t immediately put to equipment she sends off to scav more hose for the line, as many as Dean can give her. Meanwhile, Nika’s on the Gift keeping an eye on the sensors. The bogie out there is definitely coming in. It’s coming in cautiously. Which isn’t exactly a Reaver trait and it makes Nika a bit worried. And cautious approach or not, it will be here sooner than we can get all the fuel we need. Nika comms Rina to tell her they don’t have a lot of time. How much time have we got, Rina asks. Nika gives her an estimate based on the ship’s current movement …
Nika: But I wouldn’t count on it.
What we know of Reavers suggests strongly that they’ll try to come in for the close-up kill. They’ll try to board the hulk for the pleasure of hand-to-hand. That will buy us some time but best we get what we need and get ourselves gone before the Reavers get here. We work as fast as we can, fitting hose sections together, linking the tanks to our girl and getting that pump going.
Rina grumbles over the lost opportunities to rig traps for the Reavers: she could jigger the grav plating to amplify the grav to crushing strength or recalibrate their electromagnetic spectrum to make microwave traps capable of flash frying anything to instant death. But no. She acknowledges Nika’s priorities are right: fuel up now, before the Reavers get here and we won’t have to fight them. We’ll just outrun them. We’ll need fuel for that. Rina works steadily with the others to make that happen.
However, it doesn’t hurt to make some battle preparations. With the idea that the Reavers will likely enter the ship forward of our position, we decide to set up a choke point at the deck crater. The narrow walkway would force the Reavers to come at us one or two at a time. The crater will slow down the rest. Unless the Reavers develop ceiling-ninja capabilities we should be able to protect our rear flank as we continue pumping. We divert some of Dean’s people to the task of unmounting our machine gun from the gun bay on the Gift and setting it up on the deck of the derelict. Meanwhile, Rina and the others continue assembling the fuel line and then pumping the fuel into our girl.
As we feared, we aren’t quite done with the refueling when the Reavers get here.
We have to decide who to put on the battle line and who to hold back. Nika dispatches Arden to the bridge to man the sensors and be alert to fire up our girl for a getaway, while she joins our team on the front lines. Joshua approaches her when she gets there.
Joshua: I can teach myself to use a gun.
She stares at him: come again?
Joshua: I don’t want to.
Dean looks over from his position. He’s got his armor on and he has a cigar clenched in his teeth. He eyes Joshua appraisingly.
Dean: You’re assumin’ this is all gonna be guns? That ain’t right. It’s not going to be all guns. We’re not going to be able to get them all with bullets. That’s not the way they work.
Rina: (from the rear) See? I told you. Grav plating.
Nika: Remember the pistol whipping?
Joshua: I remember the pistol whipping. Unfortunately.
Rina: (muttering) Microwaves. Seriously.
Nika: Not to mention, if you don’t gorram know how to use a gun by now, I’m gonna airlock ya. Just gonna space your ass pretty soon here. (sighs) I’ve only been teaching ya for two years.
Joshua: (quietly) I’ve actually not been paying attention to any of that. I think I mentioned that before.
Kiera: Do you want me to give him the big salsa gun and just let him do it? Cuz if he just aims in the general direction… (mimes blowing something away: BLAM!)
Joshua: (exasperated) Remember I can learn it in ten minutes if I needed to learn it.
Nika: The next time, I’m just takin’ your good chef’s knife.
Ooh, the Captain’s in a foul mood.
Joshua: No you’re not, Captain.
Nika: And them I’m gonna start cuttin’ tin cans with it.
Joshua: No you’re not, Captain.
Rina: (from the rear) Lookit that tomato.
Nika: And then I’m gonna start cuttin’ Rina’s deck plate and blame it on ya.
And she’s an equal opportunist for abuse, apparently not restricting herself to pacifist stewards, too. We kvetch and kibbitz as we start shifting stuff around to make a barricade and a gun nest for our machine gun.
Joshua: I’ll let the gun people do the gun thing.
Nika: And I’ll make sure your stupid chef’s knife has little notches in it from where I’m cuttin’ deck plate.
Rina: In that case you’re gonna have to steal my grinding wheel too, cuz he’ll just hand it to me and I’ll grind it ni-iiiice and sharp again.
Kiera: Seriously, Captain. If you want I can loan him my shotgun.
Joshua: I’m sorry I have moral principles, Captain.
Nika: I’m sorry you have them too.
Joshua: If you prefer me to abandon them, I’ll do it on your order.
Nika: I’ve already told you that.
Rina: I wouldn’t mind if they were a little more flexible. (glares as she checks the fuel line)
Kiera: It’s a fault.
Joshua: (low, to Rina) You can’t mentally choke me. You could physically choke me but other than that …
Black humor, true, but anything’s better than dwelling on what’s coming. Nika has us pull the four assault rifles from our arms locker and their clips and our flash-bangs. We divvy them up amongst us. Joshua is reluctant to take his rifle. Kiera gives him a sour look.
Kiera: If you wrestle with a big hairy monster again, I will so kick your ass when you get out of it.
Rina: (to Joshua) Put your forehead to mine, darling. (taps forehead)
Nika: Actually, you should probably take my firearm skills.
Joshua: I can only learn them so far.
Nika’s gin skills just might exceed his paygrade, so to speak. His Blue Sun abilities are geared to allow him to learn just enough to fit the task at hand. He’s not going to need anything fancy or expert in the way of shooting skills for the coming battle. Joshua’s Blue Sun abilities also pick up something else: he’s getting a weird vibe off Marcus Dean. Joshua doesn’t even hesitate but immediately Reads the man—after all, we’re about to go into combat with Dean. Joshua would rather know just who and what we’re dealing with.
Joshua gets a flash, an image, from Dean that suggests he’s dealt with Reavers before: … Alliance Marines, in this very region … fighting Reavers …
Joshua decides to use the few minutes we have left to have a quiet word with Dean.
Joshua: (softly) So, you’ve fought them before?
Dean: I guess you could call it fighting.
Joshua: You’re alive.
Dean: That’s true.
Joshua: This area? Of the Verse?
Dean: Yeah. I was attached to a special forces regiment. I was boarded and then shortly before I was about to be killed, after my troops were falling in front of me, we had a collision and lost most of our systems. The smoke and the fire seemed to disorient the Reavers just long enough for me to find my way to an escape pod. There were no survivors.
Joshua: I’m sorry.
Dean: I’d say, there were no Marine survivors.
Joshua:' I’m sorry.
'Dean: (quietly) That’s what they call the Marines for.
Joshua: (quiet, too) Well, you got a well-trained group here.
Dean: We’ll see.
Joshua: That’s all we can do, right? (turns to crew) I’ll take the gun.
Go back to: Insomnia | Go Foward to Miranda Calling
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