Episode 505: Stand and Deliver, Part Two

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Nika: Okay. (to Kiera) Come with me. You.
Kiera: (to the Duquesnes) Wow. Hmm. You’re cargo is going to cost a little more to carry. I hate to be rude about it but you do understand. I assume. ’Scuze us.

Nika and Kiera leave. They find a quiet corner of the conference room. Nika checks if the coast is clear, then:

Nika: I got Rina checking whatever passes for the system Cortex for faces, to see what they’re actually wanted for.
Kiera: So what is making us … somebody alert on our passengers … ?
Nika: Well, we had a truck come in with what appears to be—

Nika pulls out Vasquez’s card and passes it to Kiera.

Kiera: A bounty hunter with a personal card?
Nika: I don’t know if it’s bounty hunters.

Kiera reads the card and recognizes the private security firm, Agua-Negra Seguridad. Okay, not bounty hunters but close, if certain parts of their reputation are true. Certainly mercenary private security. Since the pull-out of the Alliance, many have turned to private security firms to deliver what the Feds once provided.

Nika: So, best guess, they hired this company to police their area.
Kiera: Great. Private cops.
Nika: And being as I am not entirely certain what Joshua said to them, but it apparently piqued their interest.
Kiera: Oh, no.
Nika: And so I have Rina double-checking to see if there’s a picture or faces or what have you, and … you know … I’m tryin’ …
Kiera: And you’re sayin’ they got us locked down, so it’s not like we can try and … ?
Nika: Yeah. I’m tryin’ to decide here, quick, if we need to disguise them. Can we do that quickly enough to make that worth our while to do?
Kiera: Sure. Or I could shove them in the hidey hole. Cuz we could always say we were paid to take the shuttle.
Nika: Or we could say the shuttle’s yours.
Kiera: That’s true. I’ve been known to own a few. (a beat) Although it would be nice if they took the product off. They and their product can go hide in the hidey hole.

Meanwhile Rina’s trawling the Cortex on the conference room’s smart table for BOLOs, APBs, photos, news reports ... whatever she can find. So far, nothing conclusive falls under her eye. She keeps looking.

Nika: Ultimately, is the hidey hole secure enough for them not to be spotted?
Kiera: Sure, unless they want to take the ship apart or walk around with some bio-scanner.
Nika: All right. Do it.
Kiera: Well, I’ll ask the question. Do you want to do it or do you want to throw ’em and hang ’em out?
Nika: Fugitives. You know … uhnnnn. I’m—I’m torn if I want to cover them or not. If all they’re taking is seed off, I’m not sure I care one way or the other, but …
Kiera: It would be interesting to know, did they mention them by name? Show you a picture?
Nika: Joshua said they just said ‘two people’ with a very general basic description. “You’d know ’em if you saw them”.

Really? Kiera throws a look back at the Duquesnes’ cabin. Seriously? You can practically see Kiera’s eyes rolling. Hell, Rina’s are practically spinning in her head.

Nika: Yeah. That.
Kiera: In other words, you’ll know them when you see them. (Seriously?) Uh-huh. What’s the likelihood of that person that Joshua talked to went back to air control and slid ’em some money and said ‘hold that ship for me’? Since this is the card that you showed me.

She holds up the card between her two fingers. Rina pipes up from the table, her eyes on the screens.

Rina: Kiera, I was there twenty minutes ago.
Kiera: (miffed) I’m slow. Usually from the non-paranoia! I’m an amateur neurotic. I’m sorry.

Nika knows that out on the Rim and the Border, officials of all stripes are sometimes known for their flexible ... morals. While there are some reputable lawmen who would never take a bribe, maybe this batch would …?

Nika: (to Kiera) Why don’t we send you with some of their money—(hooks a thumb at the Duquesnes’ cabin)—over to and take care of it?
Kiera: I think that might be a nice idea.
Nika: (wry) You think?
Kiera: I think so.
Nika: Okay. I’ll send my steward over to figure out what the gorram hell’s going on.
Kiera: Instead of your XO?
Nika: Apparently so, cuz my XO can’t lie.
Kiera: Okay, and I’ll go to the passengers and say ... ?
Nika: You deal with the passengers and here’s the thing—if they’re just wanted for that, tell’em they gotta pay the bribe and the fine and the whatever to get us off landlock.
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Nika: And you’ll take care of it.
Kiera: Exactly.
Nika: And then charge them out the ass.
Kiera: (grimly) Oh, yeah. “No question. Talk with the XO. The XO’s in charge. Just tell him.”

While the Captain and the Steward are arranging for the reaming of the Duquesnes’ wallet, down in the hold, Joshua and Arden continue getting the shuttle tied down. The cargo bay doors are still open. Shut them or leave them open? Arden wants to keep them open as long as we’re landlocked. Hell, why not?

Kiera goes back to the Duquesnes and breaks the news to them.

Kiera: (sighing) We may have to pay an additional take-off fee … which you guys may have to pony up. That if we go to space control and sufficiently pay them what we owe them, then they might be willing to take the landlock off. Which I’d be more than happy to—
Parker Duquesne: Well, we don’t have a lot of cash but we could … give you some of our … seeds. They’ll be worth money.
Kiera: (seriously) Now, see? That only implicates you more. And me even more.

Can they be any more inept at criminality?

Parker Duquesne: You have the platinum we gave you and we’ll pay you in seeds for when we get to Verbena.
Kiera: (dry) Yes, because I’ve always wanted to be a seed dealer.
Parker Duquesne: You shouldn’t have too much trouble finding buyers for this stuff. We can, in fact, find you a buyer.

Why no, not inept, exactly. Try cheap.

Parker Duquesne: Or if you’re willing to wait until we get to Verbena, we’ll just pay you in cash.
Kiera: I might just go for the cash option and let you find the buyer, cuz I’d like to say my friends are higher quality than that, but I would be lying. But I will take the cash and I will go and the understanding is that you will make up what I lost paying this out.
Parker Duquesne: I gave you five hundred … (reckons it) … Yeah, you should be able to do that.
Kiera: Okay. All right.
Parker Duquesne: Or we might go back to the Core where we might be able to pay you in credits.
Kiera: We’ll work it out with the Captain. We’ll go and see if we can … take care of the fines. And the extra … payment we need to make.

Kiera leaves to find Nika and explains the platinum. Arden’s with Nika and is just finishing up explaining that the stuff the Duquesnes are carrying is illegal for space transport.

Nika: (archly) I don’t have any in my cargo.
Arden: Yeah, you do.
Nika: Uh-uh.
Arden: Oh … it’s on board the shuttle?
Nika: Uh-huh.
Arden: Oh, okay.

Cuz the shuttle ain’t ours. But …

Arden: It’s not really going to help us in the long run.

Nika: Actually, Joshua’s the one who made up my mind, because he said, “I didn’t like them.”
Kiera: Uh-oh.
Arden: So it’s Joshua’s fault, now?
Joshua: It’s always Joshua’s fault. Have you not cottoned that, yet?
Rina: You should be glad, Arden. Before Joshua came on board it was always your fault.
Kiera: You’re not the whipping boy anymore. This is good. (off Arden’s look) You can still be, if you want it.
Joshua: (pulling a fade) I’ll just see to the cargo bay.
Arden: I’m going to check the Cortex.

He takes off for his quarters, to surf the Cortex and to play with the kitten. The womenfolk watch the men leave and chuckle, and then get back to work. Rina looks for information on the Duquesnes on the Cortex. Joshua finishes tying down the shuttle. Our doors are still open in the cargo bay, so he has no trouble seeing the vehicle approaching our position. Judging by its appearance, it’s the same truck that arrived before and going by its current speed, it’ll be here in a few minutes. He goes to the nearest wall comm and opens a line.

Joshua: Cap’n?
Nika: (sees it) Yeah, I guess we have to pay a … a take-off fee.
Joshua: That might be influenced by the fact that there is a vehicle headed this way—
Nika: Oh, no, I told you the Sheriff was coming to search the ship.
Joshua: All right. Okay. I’m here in the cargo bay. I’ll facilitate the—
Nika: No, I’m coming back down. I believe we are supposed to be handling a take-off fee. According to the steward.
Joshua: Wait … Oh, all right.

Joshua doesn’t remember telling the Sheriff that. Oh, that’s right. Joshua’s not the steward anymore. Kiera is. Kiera follows Nika to the cargo bay. Rina follows on her heels, her search on the Cortex being a bust.

Kiera: Captain. Why don’t I take that shuttle—(points to the Duquesnes’ shuttle)—and fly it over there and give them the take-off money.
Joshua: I just tied that down.
Kiera: Darn you and your efficiency.

Yeah, if we had forty minutes for the preflight and the engine warm-up.

Nika: There is no way it’s gonna work. Which is the only reason I didn’t suggest such a thing earlier.
Joshua: (pointing at the truck) It’s the bounty hunters and not the Sheriff.
Nika: Well the Sheriff said something about being in the truck, so … At best guess they were hired on by the local constabulary.

It could be him and the bounty hunters. But Joshua thinks back on his conversation with Vasquez and remembers the truck going into town after they parted company. Still, that’s an Armadillo class ship over across the way and it belongs to the mercenaries and not the Sheriff, so what’s the Sheriff doing in their truck? He’s local and they’re not.

Joshua: I’m not 100% positive the Sheriff is in that ship.
Nika: What? This part you didn’t tell me.
Joshua: The Sheriff is—what part did I have to tell you? (points again) The mercenaries, their truck.
Nika: So, what you’re telling me is you don’t think these folks in any fashion are working for the Sheriff?
Joshua: I’d have to say no. It’s possible they forked over a little money and they obtained the landlock, but I don’t think they necessarily have any interest in doing this at all legally and tight. They want their fugitives.
Kiera: Hell, they want their cash.
Joshua: I don’t know anything anyway. I was supposed to give them up and I didn’t give them up. So I don’t know anything.
Nika: Yeah, well you didn’t give them up so we’re covering for them.
Joshua: And that’s fine.
Nika: And I don’t mind that. I’m just asking you for your opinion.

Meanwhile, Joshua’s keeping an eye on that truck and it’s still coming for us.

Joshua: Where are they? They’re coming. Where are they?
Nika: In their quarters.
Joshua: In their quarters? Where did you put them?
Nika: (to Kiera) Unless you put them in the hidey-hole?
Kiera: No. I didn’t put them in the hidey-hole because I was going to pay something to go and—
Joshua: So we have a—(sighs, gives up)
Nika: We got a miscommunication thing going on.
Kiera: We can go put them in the hidey-hole right quick.
Joshua: Do you want to hide them? Then I would suggest putting them in the hidey-hole. If you don’t want to hide them—
Nika: (to Kiera) Go on ahead and do that and tell them the shuttle is yours.
Kiera: Okay.
Nika: Run.

Kiera tears off the for stairs to the upper deck, to grab the Duquesnes and stash them in the hidey. She grabs a screwdriver along the way to get that panel off.

Nika: (to Joshua) And we’ll pay the landing fee.
Joshua: The bounty hunters are mercenaries, no matter where they are, and they’re—
Nika: I don’t care. So long as I get the landlock off my ship.
Joshua: If they aren’t the Sheriff, they may not be able to take the landlock off the ship.
Nika: We can all tell about them when the Sheriff gets here, cuz apparently he’s coming too.
Joshua: Yeah. In forty minutes, you said. Right?
Nika: Yeah, however long it would take you from town.

Of course, the Sheriff could be in the truck with the mercenaries. If so …

Nika: More power to us all.
Joshua: If he’s in the truck with them, we’re boned anyway.
Nika: Whatever.
Joshua: Because if we get them in the hidey-hole—(nods upstairs toward the passenger deck)—and then get the 100 kilograms of stuff—
Nika: We can’t move 100 kilograms of seed. Not nearly fast enough.
Joshua: A 100 kilograms of seed is like …

He does the math. It’s about 200 pounds. That’s only about the weight of a 6-foot tall man. It’s actually doable. Nika apologizes, stating her head just wasn’t geared for the math right now.

Nika: Sorry, I was thinking of 100 tons.
Joshua: So you wanna put that in the hidey-hole, too?
Nika: (pissed) Yes, I want that in the hidey-hole, too!

Speaking of which, Kiera’s with the Duquesnes explaining the new arrangement even as she’s pulling them out of their quarters to the hidey-hole.

Kiera: You need to go in here cuz there’s someone coming for you and they’re coming quick. (unscrews the cover panel, pulls it off) You have got to get in here. There’s people coming.
Marion Duquesne: (peering at hole) Uhh, you want to hide us in there?
Kiera: Uh-huh. Y’all will understand once you get in there.
Marion Duquesne: Have you done this before?
Kiera: Yes. We have. (shoves) We’ve smuggled much.

The seed is in the shuttle. Joshua tries the hatch. It’s locked.

Joshua: We’re boned.
Nika: Joshua. Go get the money. Meet me back down here. And then lock up the ship behind me when I go down.
Joshua: Yes, ma’am.

Joshua does as ordered, gets the money out of the safe. Nika goes to the nearest wall comm and punches it: Kiera, Kiera, Kiera! Kiera leaves off shoving the Duquesnes and runs to answer it.

Kiera: Yes, Captain.
Nika: I need the keycode into the shuttle.
Kiera: (Over shoulder to passengers) What’s the keycode to get into your shuttle? So we can get those seeds off?
Parker Duquesne: It’s biolocked.
Kiera: Biolocked? (huffs)
Nika: (overhearing) How fast can you get down here?
Kiera: (relaying) How fast can one of you—Or is it both of you?
Parker Duquesne: Both of us.
Kiera: Run run run like you never run before we’re running out of time go get the thing open—.
Parker Duquesne: What are we doing?
Kiera: You are gonna open it up so we can get the seed off the shuttle cuz if they find it in the hold—
Parker Duquesne: I thought you were going to try to negotiate the landlock off.
Kiera: Well we would have except for the mercenaries that are coming back for you.

She explains what she knows, based on what she was told and what was on the card.

Parker Duquesne: Why don’t you shut the door and we can talk about this.
Kiera: Okay, we will talk about this but talk fast. We are running out of time.
Parker Duquesne: No, I meant can you shut the ship’s door so they can’t get in?

Kiera grabs the Duquesnes and hustles them down to the cargo bay to join the rest of the crew. Maybe the Captain can explain the situation in words the Duquesnes can understand. She slaps the comms on the way out to call out a last query.

Kiera: Y’all have shut the door yet, right?
Nika: Yeah, no. That’s not going to happen.
Joshua: To be fair, we’re well well past that point.

The truck is pulling up as we have this little exchange. Nika slaps the door controls and waves at the truck as the occupants get out and our doors close in their faces. We all smile and wave and the cargo doors boom shut as Kiera and the Duquesnes come off the stairs.

Nika: Jesus God … This is like the friggin’ Keystone Kops.
Rina: (sighing) Yeah.
Parker Duquesne: So I take it attempts to negotiate with the Sheriff failed? Is that right?
Arden: We haven’t done any, so far as I know.
Kiera: We don’t even know if the Sheriff’s there but—
Parker Duquesne: You said you’d done this before! You don’t seem like you’ve—
Kiera: No, we don’t even know if the Sheriff’s there but negotiating with mercenaries is another thing. Especially if they’ve paid off—
Marion Duquesne: Mercenaries?
Parker Duquesne: I thought you said it was the Sheriff that landlocked us?
Nika: The Sheriff has landlocked us but …

Nika pulls out the ANS card and hands it to him.

Kiera: That’s who’s looking for you.
Parker Duquesne: Well … (reads, sighs) … All right. They were like the police on Greenleaf, I guess.
Kiera: There you go!
Nika: They were like the police there but they are not the police here. I’m not worried about them.
Arden: Either that or they’ve bought the police here.
Nika: Potentially that’s the problem, yes.
Parker Duquesne: Probably. So that means he’s morally suspect and therefore we don’t have to do what he says.
Arden: Wow. I’ll let you explain that fact to him.
Kiera: Well, yeah, but that doesn’t alleviate the fact that our ship is landlocked and we can’t take off.
Arden: We can if we give them …

Joshua interrupts before he can complete that thought.

Joshua: (to Arden) Can you bust it?
Arden: Bust what?
Joshua and Kiera at once: The landlock.
Kiera: Sure. We’ve done it before.
Arden: If I get lucky.
Kiera: Well, get lucky!
Nika: (to Arden, with fervor) I’ll make it so you’ll get lucky.
Joshua: (squick!) Hello! That’s a helluva incentive.
Arden: I’ll see what I can do.

He makes tracks for the bridge to start on hacking that landlock off. Meanwhile, the comm at our cargo doors is squawking for our attention. Nika hits the accept button.

Comm: Uhh … Equinox. This is Sheriff Marley. You said you would welcome us to search the ship? We’re here.
Nika: Knock yourself out.
Parker Duquesne: Wait, wait, wait! You’re not going to let him search the ship?!
Kiera: That’s it. Your butt is going back in the hidey-hole. And yes, we are.
Marion Duquesne: But we’re here! We’re on the ship. They’ll find us.
Kiera: No they won’t. They will not find you where I am going to shove you.
Joshua: That’s something I didn’t really need to hear.
Parker Duquesne: If they search the ship, they’ll search our shuttle and then they’ll know that we’re here. They’ll know that we’re here, right?
Kiera: No, it’s my shuttle.
Parker Duquesne: They’re gonna know it’s our shuttle. Because there’s stuff on our ship that is going to tie it to us.
Kiera: Well, see that idea won’t work, Cap’n.
Nika: Then we’re just getting the landlock broken. I’m heading for the bridge.

And we still have someone on our doorstep.

Sheriff Marley: This is Sheriff Marley … You gotta open up.
Kiera: (eyeroll) You should open a window and throw him money.
Joshua: No, I am not going to throw him money. (hits the comm button) We’re having some problems with our door …

A woman’s voice comes out of the comm speaker.

Vasquez: Equinox. Is this really a fight you want to have?
Joshua: (hand over mouth) We’re … zhhsst-st … having problems with our … zhhssst-t! … comms. (cuts the comms)

How armored is our ship? It has armor but can it take what the ANS can dish out? For sure the truck doesn’t have anything that can hurt EQ, but Joshua’s more worried about the Armadillo class ship a mere five minute truck ride away. Up on the bridge, Nika settles in her seat and tells Rina over the PA to spin our engines up. From the windows, Nika can also see the truck start up and drive away for the Armadillo class ship parked across the pit from us. Arden also sees this and announces it.

Arden: That vehicle is leaving.
Nika: (snapping) Work on the landlock.
Arden: I am.
Nika: Then quit looking out the window.

Arden gets back to hacking. In the cargo bay, Joshua and Kiera hear banging on the door, as if someone outside is testing it. Kiera climbs up to the bridge.

Kiera: Captain, permission to call ground control.
Nika: Sure. If you want to.
Kiera: Okay.

She keys up the channel for ground control and the response is immediate.

Ground Control: This is ground control.
Kiera: (politely) Ground control, we seem to have a landlock on us. Can you tell us what’s going on? This is the Equinox.
Ground Control: Uh, yeah. Sheriff ordered the landlock.
Kiera: Did we not pay all our landing and take-off fees?
Ground Control: I don’t know.
Kiera: You don’t know? Is there a person I can talk to, to see if we owe any fees or anything still? I thought we cleared everything.
Ground Control: Sure. Here’s the Sheriff’s number. (sounds of buttons punching)
Kiera: Oh, okay. That’s all right. I’ll talk to the Sheriff.

Behind her, Nika facepalms and whispers: Jesus Christ. On the comms, there is no answer. Kiera turns to Nika.

Kiera: See? They’re not gonna do it.
Nika: Cuz the Sheriff’s in the truck.
Kiera: Yeah, I know. If he’d have answered, I’d’ve been like ‘I’d like to clear some fees and fines, sir, if possible.’
Nika: I’m sure you can talk to him on the comm. He’s been trying to comm us.
Kiera: Oh. Well… Do you want me to answer? I’ll explain my reasoning. If he can be bought once, he might be able to be bought again.

The Sheriff is in the truck. It’s hard to be bought when you’re with the other party.

Kiera: Oh, that’s never bothered me.
Arden: (still hacking) Yeah, it’s never stopped her.

Of course, should she try doing this in sight and hearing of the other party, she just might buy the Sheriff a bullet. Not that she’d lose any sleep over it—she doesn’t know the Sheriff, after all. But getting the Sheriff shot won’t advance our cause any, either. Besides, Kiera has heard about Agua-Negra. They’re ruthless, unsavory, and in general not nice people. Nika’s heard something of them too.

Nika: I’m not liking getting the Sheriff stuck in the middle of that, if that’s what’s going on. Even if he is a monkey’s butt.
Kiera: Well, he was probably just making money on the side.
Nika: Yep. I know. Like I said, even if he is a monkey’s butt.
Arden: (hacking away) He’s an honest lawman: once he’s bought, he stays bought.
Kiera: Well, no. I think at this point, he’s caught between a rock and a hard place.

We have no way of knowing the whole story. Agua-Negra might have just driven up to the Sheriff, handed him a check, and hey! he’s rich and he’s easily bought. Or it could be Agua-Negra is a reasonable power here and going against them might have greater consequences.

Kiera: The ripples will not be fun for him.
Nika: Mm-hm.

Nika’s been running a sensor scan on the other ship across the way and she eyeballs the ship out the window herself—and catches some action going on: Metal plates shut down over the other ship’s bridge windows and something that looks very much like a decent-sized cannon pops up from its hull.

Nika: Oh, shi!

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