Episode 501: Shakedown Cruise, Part Three

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Monday, 06 Jan 2522
Whitefall, Moon of Athens
Georgia (Huang Long) system

We come out of pulse and Joshua pilots us down on Whitefall. It’s a lovely little moon, half of it entirely owned by the redoubtable woman known only as Patience. Luckily for us, we’re headed for the half she doesn’t own. Reentry is very smooth and it shows just how well-built Equinox is. She hasn’t any parts welded onto her or scavved from derelict ships on the Rim. She doesn’t shake as much coming through atmo. In comparison to Summer’s Gift, the ride is smooth as glass, so much so Kiera can serve coffee on the bridge en route without danger of spilling it. Nika is sitting on the bridge and she’s can feel how well Equinox is flying and she’s impressed.

Nika: Nice flyin’ Joshua. Very smooth.
Joshua: Thank you.

We land outside the little town our passengers specify and as our engines spin down and the hull cools, Joshua sits back and takes up his coffee.

Joshua: Wow. That was nice. I guess I could get used to that.
Kiera: You guess?
Joshua: (quietly) I’m still not … I don’t like the cargo deck. I don’t like the passenger deck.
Nika: (over her coffee) Why not?
Joshua: I don’t. (off their looks) Don’t get—don’t be that way. I just don’t like ’em. And see? I almost get trapped and ejected out the cargo bay airlock.

Kiera just sputters at him. Internally she’s wondering how can he not like Equinox? She’s beautiful and fast and … dammit, a great ship all around. What is wrong with the man? She flounces off the bridge to take the passengers’ breakfast orders. They’ve voiced no complaint against our girl.

Nika: Are you going to like it better when the computer’s up and running?
Joshua: Yeah.
Nika: Are you sure?
Joshua: Yes.
Nika: You’re not generally paranoid so I’m willing to listen to your gut, here.
Joshua: I’m not paranoid. I’m just … I just don’t like it.
Nika: (gestures to the ship) Well, it’s different.
Joshua: It’s a different state.

Kiera finds the passengers already in the cargo deck, checking their shipment of trees and seeds and readying them for off-loading. Everything came through fine. The crusty passenger from the night before, Williamson, grins at Kiera as she approaches.

Williamson: Well, that was a pretty good ride. (chuckles) We’ve had worse. One time I remember this adventure we had where we …

And he’s off on yet another longwinded account of the adventures in the nursery trade. Kiera merely nods and smiles and turns on the white noise generator in her head and gets their breakfast orders taken. Once we’ve fed them, we unload them and their cargo without difficulty. The job is done, the money changes hands, and we wave goodbye.

Joshua goes to Nika and discusses our options. We haven’t any cargo for Athens. Do we want to fly empty or line up something for our trip to the planet? If she’s interested, we could take a look. Nika gives him the go-ahead to find what he can find. We’re headed for Athens anyway, so why not?

Joshua: Beggar suggested—and you’re probably in agreement with this—no pulse, from moon to planet.
Nika: (Agreeing) Oh, yeah, no. Moving in pulse from moon to planet? That would be outrageous.

Joshua leaves Nika on the bridge to find Kiera. There’s a little matter of cargo …

Joshua: Kiera.
Kiera: Sir?
Joshua: We’re going to take a quick jaunt. See if you can find any cargo from the moon to the planet. We’re not expecting a lot but … (waggles a hand: do what you can)
Kiera: Love to. You never know what you can find.

Kiera goes off to change into something a little nicer for dealing with the townsfolk and goes off in search of that cargo. Arden, meanwhile, is conducting a search of his own. He’s surfing the local Cortex looking for word of Faria, of all people, hoping for a clue as to the man’s whereabouts. By all accounts, the Shepherd is still on Shepherd’s Moon in Blue Sun and minus evidence to the contrary, he still has Schrödinger, the Gift’s resident cat. In that uncanny way of felines, the kitty missed all the subsequent hardships we’d encountered after parting company with the good Shepherd but that doesn’t lessen Arden’s desire for Schrödinger’s company. Or barring that, the company of another ship’s cat. He goes into town to find someone with a cat to sell.

The town we’ve landed at is pretty much a one horse town and Kiera comes up empty in her search for cargo. No cargo or cat to be had. Joshua and Kiera take it in stride—they’d seen the situation on landing and hadn’t expected to meet with success, but had wanted to try.

Joshua makes a quick check of our resources. We’re okay on food and fuel. He sends out the call to return to the ship and what crew has left to explore the town head on back. Arden is the last to step aboard and once we’re all settled, we pull stakes and fly without pulse to the planet. It takes a day.

It isn’t long before we discover Arden did not return to the ship alone. We all hear meowing sounds coming from Arden’s cabin and in quick order the cat is out of the bag. Rina knocks first on his door. Arden opens it.

Rina: Where’d you get the kitty?
Arden: Back on the planet we just left.
Rina: (pushing inside) Well, dammit, you’ve been holding out on us. Let me see …

Word of the cat gets around quickly and everyone soon makes its acquaintance with it. Some introductions go smoothly and some do not. For instance, Kiera gets scratched on first meeting. Ow. Nika’s left chuckling over the whole business while she’s on the bridge.

Tuesday, 07 Jan 2522
Acropolis Spaceport, Acropolis
Athens, Georgia (Huang Long) system
0930 hrs, local time

Arden brings his cat out of his cabin on the trip over, to introduce it to the ship and the crew. Again, much is made of the animal. It can get lonely in the stretches between ports and having a pet aboard goes far in softening the metal environment of a ship.

Joshua: What are we calling the cat?
Arden: I haven’t given it a name yet.
Joshua: Okay. It’s your cat. Or you’re the one who achieved the cat, so …
Arden: I have achieved catness. (pets the kitty) I have to find the cat’s personality.
Joshua: That’s true. That’s fair.

We land at Acropolis’s spaceport and like Eavesdown Docks on Persephone, approach and landing is where you manage to make it. We settle on our berth, power down, and get to the business of finding Chu. Acropolis is a city of 10 million people and it’s larger than Vandenberg on Boros. In fact, Acropolis is the largest city in Georgia. Finding Chu amongst all those people could be difficult.

Kiera calls up her high and low places contacts and together they search out Hannibal Chu. The word comes back: He’s still on Athens and his ship is now running under the name Hēimǎ, ‘Dark Horse’. Back when Kiera did business with Chu, his ship was called Dark Horse. Kiera thanks her contacts and wraps up weighing favors given and owed, then tells the crew what she’s found.

We split up to search for Chu’s ship. Kiera and Rina team up together and Arden and Beglan make the second team. Joshua will stay on Equinox with Nika.

Beglan: Boys against Girls.
Rina: Yeah!
Joshua: Whoever wins, we get us a surgeon. The two of you go (points to Kiera), the two of you go (points to Beglan). Search.
Rina: All right. Loser has to do dishes for a week.
Arden: No.
Joshua: No, no. I think we covered this. Winner gets us an eye surgeon.
Arden: Yes.
Joshua: Loser … gets us an eye surgeon. Because we’ll have one.
Nika: Loser gets us an eye surgeon?
Joshua: Winner and loser, we’re getting an eye surgeon. However this turns out. Go search.

And he kicks us out the door.

Arden and Beglan find Chu first. His ship is travelling under a different name, Lǎo Luózi (or ‘Old Mule’) and they comm the news back to Equinox. Joshua relays Kiera and Rina the information. The two women hustle over to the berth entrance and scope out the situation. Chu’s ship is built to carry cargo containers like our old girl, only it’s configured to carry just two. Currently only one is attached, the dock for the other one stands empty. The remaining container is sitting on the ground and open for business as a sunglasses kiosk. An attractive twenties-something Asian woman is manning it.

Beglan whispers to Kiera and Rina as they join them.

Beglan: Kiera. We’ve spotted the ship. I think.
Kiera: Have you spotted him though?
Beglan: Ah…no.
Arden: (to Kiera) I don’t think we want to approach him without you.
Kiera: Fair enough.
Beglan: There appears to be a person inside. A customer.
Kiera: All right. (to Beglan) You’re the one that’s charming. (to Arden) You’re not. (back to Beglan) You come with me.
Arden: No. I want to go.

Rina just cuts an eyeroll and leans against the wall to watch.

Beglan: He’s got a point. He is a doctor.
Kiera: You’re gonna make him mad. (glares at Arden) You say nothing.
Beglan: There is an alternative.
Kiera: Which is?
Beglan: We can all go.
Arden: All three of us.
Kiera: And you’ll keep him from saying anything.
Beglan: Ahh … Arden?
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Beglan: Why? He’s a respectable doctor. He’ll have things to say to an occulist—er … ophthalmologist.
Arden: Exactly.
Kiera: Yeah. Cuz Hannibal is such a respectable doctor.
Arden: That’s my point. That’s why I want to meet him.
Kiera: (gives up) All right, everybody. Come on. We’ll all go together.

They link arms and go. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the … Arden, off to see the Wizard. Yay.

The attendant at the kiosk is tending to a male customer, trying on glasses. She looks up as our crew approaches and says pleasantly:

Attendant: Feel free to look around. I’ll be with you in a moment, after this gentleman.
Kiera: (friendly) All righty. I’m looking for some glasses. Do you have an ophthalmologist or are you the salesgirl or what?
Attendant: Oh, I do a couple of things but I can find some glasses.

She turns back to her customer and she’s upselling him a more expensive pair of glasses. These lenses are okay. They’ll get scratched and we’ll be back on this planet in a couple of years but these lenses …. And so on. She does a reasonably good job, flirting a little and makes the sale. Customer taken care of and transaction secured, she turns to us again.

Attendant: Which one of you needs glasses.
Kiera: Actually, it’s probably a friend of ours who really might need a little bit of eye work.

After all, one doesn’t approach a black market surgical genius at eye transplants by stating your goal up-front.

Attendant: Oh?
Kiera: Yeah.
Attendant: There are many fine doctors here in Athens. I can recommend someone.
Kiera: Well, actually, I used to know an old friend who flew a ship like this …
Attendant: This is one of the most common ships in the Verse.
Kiera: Yes. I know. And I was kinda hoping to see him again. (a beat) Do you have a partner?
Attendant: (grokking it now) I’m sorry, what did you say your name was again?
Kiera: Oh, you can call me Kiera.
Attendant: Kiera … ?
Kiera: I’m looking for a man who used to call himself Hannibal. He may not do that now. We tend to switch names a lot.
Attendant: Ahh … Hannibal …. Hannibal ….

As she mulls the name, Arden casts a discreet look around for surveillance cameras. He doesn’t see any.

Attendant: Hannibal … no, ummm … trying to think, has there been someone else working ... We may have met another optician named Hannibal one time. Joseph Hannibal? (shakes head) I don’t remember. I think it was back in the Kalidasa system, though. It was not here. But maybe I can help you. What is your eye problem? An eye disease?
Kiera: Well, no. She seems to have had an accident.
Attendant: She?
Kiera: Mm-hm. A friend of mine.
Arden: Her corneas have been warped and they need to be replaced.
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Attendant: Oh. Well, as you can see that’s not the kind of stuff we can do here.

She indicates the sunglasses kiosk.

Arden: No. It isn’t. That’s the kind of stuff Mr. Hannibal can do. Doctor Hannibal.
Kiera: If you run into him again, I’d appreciate it if …
Attendant: Well, sure if you would give me your card or something, I can check around and see if anyone is …

We hand her our contact information, along with our berth number, and Arden prompts her for her name. Miss—?

Attendant: Hm?
Arden: Miss…?
Attendant: Oh. Li.
Kiera: You sell sunglasses here too?
Attendant: Yes.
Kiera: Actually, we may need to get some.

At the moment, we haven’t any money on us, but Nika might need a good pair after her operation.

Arden: Thank you for your time. We hope to hear from you soon.
Kiera: Yes. Appreciate all your help.

They draw off and Arden calls over his shoulder.

Arden: There might be perhaps a reward or a finding fee.
Kiera: (undertone) See? This is why you’re not supposed to talk. (swats arm)
Arden: I said might. I didn’t say there would be.
Kiera: Okay, in this world, ‘might’ is.
Rina: (joining them) It’s like hand grenades. Close enough.

We go back to the ship. We talk once we’re out of earshot.

Arden: What are the chances he’s actually there?
Kiera: I don’t know.
Arden: What do you mean, you don’t know.
Kiera: (firmly) I don’t know. It’s Hannibal. Hannibal could’ve turned around in his ship, If it attracted too much heat, he could’ve flipped it.
Beglan: Well, she knew Hannibal.
Kiera: Yeah. No question.
Beglan: I think it was pretty clear. So I don’t think that—
Kiera: So you don’t think he flipped it. You think he’s on-ship.
Beglan: I noticed that the ship seemed to use two containers and there was only one there. So perhaps … he’s with the other container.
Kiera: More than probable.
Beglan: So you think he’d have an operation like your old one?
Kiera: Oh yeah. You gotta move’em quick. It’s an in-and-out kinda thing and the ID guys and girls come and go.
Arden: Great. Eye surgeon. Out Patient.
Rina: Well, yeah.

How else could you run it under the Feds’ radar?

Kiera: We did a good job, Arden.
Arden: Did a good job on what?
Kiera: On the people we worked on.
Arden: I’m sure you did. I’m not concerned about them. I’m concerned about Nika.
Kiera: He’ll do a good job. He’s really good at this.

We return to the Equinox, but Kiera goes back to Chu’s ship towards evening, around 8 PM, hoping to obtain better results alone. She tells everyone on the crew what she’s doing and where. Arden quips she needs to get cat food on the way back. She’s not unaware most are still leery of trusting her, given how we lost the Gift.

Kiera: Y’all can have someone shadow me, I don’t mind.
Rina: Why shadow? I can just go with you.
Kiera: That’ll work too.
Joshua: Okay. So talk to me. What’s your plan?
Kiera: I want to go back and see if the container’s back or if Hannibal’s back.
Joshua: And then what?
Kiera: See if we can talk to him and not his …
Rina: His gatekeeper.
Kiera: And Rina wants to go.
Beglan: So we’re sending our twitchy person and the— (thinks better of it)
Joshua: I’m not hearing an argument yet that suggests that this is the possible best strategy.
Rina: (to Joshua) Then you go.
Joshua: I’m not arguing that you go, I’m just trying to figure out why Rina is going.
Kiera: She volunteered.

Nika cuts through the crap.

Nika: You know what? Joshua.
Joshua: Yes, Captain?
Nika: (sweetly) Would you please give me five credits from the ship’s stash?
Joshua: Yes, Captain.
Nika: Thank you.
Joshua: We’re going to need to document that.
Nika: That’s fine. It can come out of my pay.
Joshua: I’m joking.
Nika: (to Kiera) Come on. We’ll walk down, pass the ship on the way to the pub, because I need a beer.
Kiera: Sounds like a plan.
Joshua: If you buy five credits worth of beer—
Nika: (fed up) I didn’t say five credits worth of beer, but I want five credits on me just in case.

Rina fetches a pair of hand comms and gives one to Kiera. After making sure Nika is secure on Kiera’s arm, the womenfolk pick up and leave. Nika shifts her grip from Kiera’s arm to a light touch on the woman’s elbow and walks easily just behind. Kiera reviews what she knows of Hannibal’s habits: if he’s taken his medical container off his ship, that means he’s not long for this planet. He tends to do a job and get out of town quickly. Or he’s been dropped off on a different planet entirely and isn’t on Athens at all, but will be picked up later. Kiera’s already got the funds from her father, converted to platinum, and she has it on hand. She pockets one of the platinum pieces with her on the walk, as proof of ability to pay.

As we get over there, we see the lights are on aboard the ship but Li is closing up the container. End of business day, apparently. We also notice something else. Back off from the ship is a guy in a duster, who we think was there two and a half hours earlier when we first came by. He’s just hanging out, looking around, but not really moving on or doing anything. He doesn’t look like a dock employee.

Kiera: I’ll go up and talk to him.
Nika: What?!
Rina: I’ll take her.

Rina is, after all, wearing her usual suspects. Nika stays with Rina and turns as if to talk to her while Kiera walks up to the guy. Rina’s less subtle. She frankly stares after Kiera. The guy straightens up a little bit on Kiera’s approach and Kiera sees evidence that perhaps under his duster he’s got something sizeable like a carbine underneath it. His eyes shift in her direction with a clear message: Move along.

She ignores it. She nods toward the container with a smile.

Kiera: They closing already, are they? You think I can get in?
Guy: (quietly) Don’t know about that, ma’am.
Kiera: Okay, let me go bug in and see if I can catch her. She’s gonna have my glasses ready. I’ll be right back.

Now Kiera knows there’s a man watching Chu’s ship, with a big honkin’ gun. Kiera darts right over.

Kiera: Miss Li! Oh, you can’t close yet, Miss Li! I’m sorry, I have one last question.
Li: (nervous) What is it?
Kiera: (low) Is there any way you could write down on a piece of paper where you last saw him, do you think?
Li: No, I looked it up and I don’t know who you’re talking about.
Kiera: You don’t know who I’m talking about.
Li: No, I thought it was a different person. There’s no Hannibal Chu anywhere in my records.
Kiera: Even with this?

She slides the platinum onto the counter, under her palm, gives Li a peek. Kiera knows Chu works strictly cash.

Kiera: Just in case you remember. If you do run across him, since you do seem to travel a lot … so, tell him Kiera’s looking for him. (slides the platinum back into her pocket) Thanks, I appreciate it. Looks like you’re packing up. I would have liked to have bought sunglasses.

Off to the side of the landing pad with Nika, Rina spies someone moving around inside Chu’s ship, a shadow passing behind the bridge windows. Kiera rejoins her and Nika, saying quietly:

Kiera: Yeah, she’s never heard of Hannibal Chu. Which is kinda funny, because I never said his last name. Strange that.
Rina: (just as quietly) I think he’s aboard. I saw someone else up there, saw a shadow.
Kiera: I could run and this guy could shoot me in the back. (nods slightly toward the watcher) Or we could just go knock on the ship’s door and see what tall, dark and scary over there does. (off Rina’s look) He’s gonna skip if we don’t do something.
Rina: Okay. Just tell me where you want me and tell me where you want me to shoot.
Kiera: I don’t want you to shoot anybody. I don’t want bullets to fly because Nika can’t see them.
Rina: That’s true.
Kiera: I want y’all to stay safe. I am going over to the ship.

And she boldfacedly walks right up the stairs to Chu’s airlock. Halfway up she starts yelling:

Kiera: Hannibal! Dammit!

She pounds on the airlock door.

Kiera: Is this the way you treat your friends?! Gāisǐ de nǐ, is this how you treat your friends?!
Li: Hey! You can’t go up there!

After a minute of pounding, the door opens and Kiera gets yanked inside. The door shuts and Li is left to man the outside. Kiera gets her footing back and sees her friend Hannibal Chu standing in front of her. He’s an old Chinese man, lean and silver-haired but his skin has yet to crease with age. He’s tall and only slightly bent. He’s pissed as hell and hisses, keeping his voice down as if afraid people outside will hear.

Chu: Kiera! What are you doing here?
Kiera: I need your help. Who did you piss off that you’re hiding in your ship? I did everything but jump up and down and scream your name.
Chu: It wasn’t me. A client. Did anyone see you?
Kiera: No … Except for some guy, I kinda—
Chu: (upset) So someone saw you!
Kiera: There’s your guy with a gun—
Chu: (more upset) I don’t have a guy with a gun!
Kiera: Aw, shi… (sighs) Hold that thought.

Kiera pulls her comm and hails Rina.

Kiera: Guy with gun. Not Hannibal’s.

She cuts the channel and puts the comm back in her pocket. Out on the tarmac, Rina listens with a frown and mutters.

Rina: Guessed that. (to Nika) I think he’s pissed somebody off.
Nika: (quietly) What’s guy-with-gun doing? If anything.

Rina looks and sees the man talking into his collar. She swears under her breath. This can’t be good.

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