Episode 714: Business as Usual, Part Three

Go to: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, Special Features

Rina: They're not here. They're on the other ship. Turn them on themselves.
Kiera: But would that turn them? Or would they just be hyped up? But not any less adjustable … right?
Sherman: Right. Well, they're slightly less suggestive when they're …
Kiera: So there isn't a way to turn them onto complete frenzy.
Nika: (dry) You could give them a heart attack.
Sherman: I mean, once they start fighting, if they're on full meds then they have trouble stopping fighting. But … they won't—you can't go from zero to—
Nika: No but you can take it from zero to adrenaline highs and give them all heart attacks.
Joshua: I'm not liking that idea.
Sherman: Actually, the blastomere hearts that these guys have make them very resistant to that sort of thing.
Nika: Oh, interesting.
Joshua: (relieved) Oh, good.
Sherman: Not to mention our heart-tech technology. We're monitoring their vitals all the time and … um …
Nika: And how are you doing that?
Sherman: I'd say … well, here. You can look at it on the screens. Oh, well, I could if we weren't locked out of them. But of course, there's also automatic things in there—
Kiera: Why don't we just shoot the door controls to the bridge like we did to get into medbay?
Sherman: Well, it might not work cuz those doors are likely under a magnetic lock. So it'll just bleed off.

Nika catches the expression on Joshua's face.

Nika: You're thinking awfully hard. What are you thinking about?
Joshua: I'm just trying to put the pieces together. I don't know yet. Right now, we're basically coming up with all these random scenarios and I'm just trying to figure out what we want to accomplish. Is it getting ourselves out of here? Is it waiting until they arrive?
Arden: Keeping the Ark out of Blue Sun's hands.
Joshua: Well, yes. So we haven't yet established the way to do that. Right now we're just stabbing randomly for the answers. And I don't know the answers so please don’t look at me that way.
Arden: Two things. We either need to get rid of Anna and her men or take control of this ship. We need to get leverage against Anna in some way.
Sherman: That's going to be tricky. There's probably reinforcements on the way, too.
Kiera: On the ship that's supposed to refuel, yes?
Sherman: Yes.
Joshua: You really don't know when to shut your mouth.
Nika: He really doesn't know when to shut up, does he?

Doesn't Sherman realize he's telling us sensitive information? Jesus, why not give us the entire candy store while he's at it?

Arden: Some people have no sense of self-preservation.
Joshua: So that narrows us down to we need to get to Anna somehow. Which means we don't necessarily need to turn this into a frenzied bloodbath. In fact it might be a bad idea to turn it into a frenzied bloodbath.
Nika: You always say that.
Joshua: I know, but in this case I might be right. I might be right.
Arden: And in this case, I'm actually agreeing with him.
Nika: I don't like that at all.
Arden: Neither do I.
Joshua: (plowing on) So if we're going to try to get to Anna we're going to need a small, quiet—like, you know, find her and get control of her … (gestures to Kolya)
Arden: If only we had ninjas.
Nika: She's got the crazy ninja people. They make him throw up, though.

Meaning Joshua's sensitivity to the BTs. Sherman said Anna had four of them, but we killed two of them before she captured us. That leaves only two to worry about.

Joshua: Let's focus how we're going to get off this ship and onto the Ark.
Kiera: Where is the airlock to leave this ship?
Sherman: It's on the troop deck upstairs.
Arden: I would like to have control of this ship before leaving it.
Nika: Oh bugger. I don't know if control of this ship is going to help us at all. Why do you think it's going to help us?
Arden: Because it has resources and it has access to—
Joshua: But right now Anna doesn't need access to the resources on this ship. She's essentially right now using it as an elaborate brig.
Arden: Okay. I'll stop thinking.
Joshua: No, it's fine.
Nika: Yeah, no. That's not what I'm saying. I'm asking for your train of thought so I understand where you're coming from.
Arden: I … (gives up)
Kiera: If this ship is still connected to the other ship, I'm sure the bridge person has radioed that we're out of our cell.
Nika: Oh, I'm sure.
Kiera: So the question is—
Arden: So why did he threaten to blow the airlock then? And how can he blow the airlock if it's attached to the other ship?
Kiera: No, can he just vent it.
Rina: And there's always more than one airlock on a ship.
Nika: Yeah. He was going to vent the hall we were in.

And we can't just tell him that we're going back to our cell when we aren't. He'll be able to track us on the ship's internal cameras. It was even mentioned.

Nika: (to Sherman) How many cameras do you have aboard?
Sherman: You're asking me? Like I'd know? (off her look) I'd say twelve.
Joshua: Good answer.
Sherman: Well … maybe five.
Joshua: Stop. Just stop.
Nika: Three days. No sleep. Violent woman.
Arden: Is there an intercom in here? Comm equipment?
Sherman: Yeah, there's all sorts in here. You could—
Arden: Why don't we just comm the guy on the bridge? Why don't we just say "We know you're in there behind locked doors and it's not going to help you when we hack through the system and blow up the ship? Because we've had three days without sleep and we're going to blow up the ship unless you give us access to the bridge". Now. Unless they're open, I'm hacking.
Sherman: You don't have to ask my permission. Go ahead.
Joshua: You're welcome to try it. Go ahead.
Arden: You're the one with the persuasion. Not me.
Joshua: I'm not really good at the—
Arden: But you're so awesome!
Joshua: But I'm not awesome unless I'm in love.
Nika: Then sweet talk him.
Joshua: The problem is we already cut off the sweet talk option when we threatened him. Like, already a couple of times at the door. And we basically gave him the middle finger multiple times while we were at the door. I'm pretty sure he's not going to buy it.
Nika: Just tell him we'll leave his ass alive.
Kiera: Why don't you just Read him and we'll—
Arden: Fine. I'm going to an intercom.

And Arden marches over to the nearest one and keys it.

Nika: (groans) Oh no.
Arden: Can you hear me?
Intercom: Uh … yes.
Arden: We're fairly resourceful. We've lots of skills at our command and we will eventually get onto the bridge. When we do, we're gonna be so angry, we're going to kill you. Do you understand?
Nika: Arden! (swats him)
Arden: (to the intercom) Do you understand that bit?
Intercom: Who is that? I want to talk to her. She doesn't sound like she wants to kill me.
Arden: I don't want to kill you … if you open up the door.
Nika: Shut it! Zip it!
Intercom: I don't want to talk to you.
Arden: Fine.

Nika steps up.

Nika: Look, I'm assuming you're either the back-up pilot or the back-up navigator and you've got bridge detail. Would that be a reasonable assumption on my part?
Intercom: Uh … you can assume what you want, lady. I've got dozens of troops here. If you should get in there—
Kiera: No you don't.
Intercom: Really, I've—
Nika: If you had dozens of troops, you would have already sent back-up.
Intercom: We know you have a hostage in there. Let him go or we'll go in there and open fire.
Nika: I don't care what you're doing.
Intercom: We'll do it. We'll go in there.
Nika: I don't want to come at you. All I want is to go back to the other ship.
Intercom: This place is surrounded by-by … bioengineered super soldiers and any moment we'll burst in there. We just ask that you surrender.
Joshua: Excuse me, sir. I used to professionally lie for a living. You are a horrible liar.

The man on the bridge starts to falter as the rest of the crew starts verbally rolling their eyes at how lame he is. Rina starts inspecting the atmo vents as a possible avenue toward the bridge.

Arden: Here's an idea. We get off this ship, get onto our ship, radio the Resistance and tell them what's going on.
Joshua: I'm all for that plan if we can get to an airlock to get off into the Ark.
Nika: Young man on the Bridge. Do you have a name?
Intercom: Uhm. Yes. You think I'm going to tell you that and then you're going to call your—
Nika: You can give me any name you like.
Intercom: Call your Browncoat friends to kill my family or something?
Nika: Nope. Just give me a name, something to call you.
Intercom: Uhm …
Nika: Cuz I don't want to call you 'Guy'.
Intercom: You can call me … um … Bridge?
Nika: Okay. I'll call you Bridge. (a beat) Bridge?
Bridge: Shoot.

Another eyeroll from the crew. Nika quells us with a look and continues sweetly.

Nika: Bridge. I would like to traverse from here to the airlock without encountering any of your security troops. I would like to go to the other ship and I will release your hostage at the airlock of this ship so that he can come back to med bay.
Bridge: Ma'am, that's not going to happen.
Nika: Why not?
Bridge: Because I don't really want to be punctured by the Captain.

Knowing Anna, it's not an unreasonable response.

Kiera: Did it ever occur to you that maybe you need to help us so someone that evil will …
Nika: Get her come-uppance?
Kiera: I mean, really. Wouldn't you love to see that?
Nika: Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you're on the wrong side if you are that afraid of your Captain? Torturing you?
Bridge: You could be lying anyway. You—
Nika: I'm not asking you to come out and risk yourself.
Bridge: I've got a family and stuff. I'm not going to risk my whole career on letting you try to ruin … whatever … whatever we're trying to do. I know you're trying to create some sort of … bioweapon to take out the Core planets and …

Jeez, what a crock of shi… And this guy sounds like he actually believes it. At this point, Nika's about ready to blow her cool and Joshua's got a grip on her arms.

Joshua: (softly) No, no, just let it go. Don't raise to the bait, Captain. Don't.
Bridge: Hey, I've heard the stories.
Nika: Hhnnn! Look, all I wanna do is get your bloody Captain off my ship.
Bridge: … Off … your ship?
Nika: My ship.
Bridge: Wait. So you're the Captain of the Ark?
Kiera: Yes.
Bridge: … Uh … That don't seem plausible.
Kiera: We claimed it. It's ours.
Bridge: Oh, you claimed it. Okay.
Joshua: And actually we were made Japanese Fleet Admirals, so I'm pretty sure we are in charge of the ship. Kon'nichiwa.
Kiera: The AI knows us.
Bridge: Oh, so we're pretending you've legitimate claim to the ship.
Nika: Under salvage rights, I do have legitimate claim to the ship.
Bridge: What about the quarter million people aboard the ship? Are they all dead? Did you murder them, you and your crew?
Joshua: They're alive, they're alive.
Nika: They're all alive. Do you think your Captain is planning on keeping that way?
Bridge: Well, that's her … our orders.
Nika: Uh-huh. And she follows orders so well.
Bridge: She has so far.
Arden: As far as you're aware of.
Bridge: Cuz we're not the murders. You guys are the murderers.
Joshua: This is like arguing with a wooden block.

Nika steps back from the intercom.

Nika: You know what? He doesn't have enough security on this ship to stop us from getting to the airlock.
Joshua: That's what I'm saying. Let's stop talking to him and let's go.
Kiera: Come along little friendly doctor person.
Joshua: Also, I would like to point out for the topsy-turvy world that Arden was arguing for killing random people cuz he was pissed off and tired. And you were arguing we're on the good side, turn to the people with morals.

Rina pulls her head out of the atmo vent, having made a thorough examination of the ship's structures in the interim. While the bulkhead screens are pretty much fastened securely enough to make crawling through them worth the effort, Rina knows ships. There is always another way to do something. She remembers someone mentioning that the deck below the one they're on is a cargo deck … and cargo decks generally have airlocks that work in multiple directions. She passes that along to the rest of the crew and gathers Kolya up to leave.

Nika: All right. Down we go. Come along, Little Mr. Butter Bar.
Sherman: Well, it's really just an honorary rank …
Kiera: Okay, then we can knock you unconscious and—
Nika: No. We are not going to hurt you. You are here strictly as an escort down to where we need to go.
Arden: To make sure we don't damage anything.
Nika: And you are more than welcome to—(off Sherman's look)—We will turn you over to the security personnel to get them off our back.
Sherman: But they'll just shoot me. I don't want to be shot. Okay, okay. I'll go with you but I think you really overestimate my value in terms as a hostage.
Nika: In truth? I don't want to leave you behind to be killed by her because you cooperated with us.
Sherman: But I can say I didn't cooperate.
Joshua: Do you really think she'll believe you?
Rina: Do you really think she'll care?
Kiera: You're not hurt, so unless we beat you up, she'll think that wow, you caved in really quickly.
Sherman: Well … you had guns and stuff. You can't expect me to do anything.
Joshua: Oh yes you can.
Kiera: Oh yes you can. You get used to it.
Sherman: But I'm not trained to fight.
Kiera: That's too bad.
Rina: (eyeroll!) Let's go!
Joshua: Yes, let's go. Less arguing.
Sherman: Are you taking him with…?

He looks askance at Rina leading Kolya to the door.

Nika: Yes, I would very much like you to help us keep an eye on this young man who happens to be her brother.
Kiera: You know how he works.
Sherman: Well, sort of.
Kiera: Close enough. Walk.

We take the access ladders running between decks, disabling the locks as we go. Our usual method of using the air vents won't work with the bulkhead screening and also for the fact that Kolya might not be able to travel through them. His armor is bulky and we're not entirely sure if we can even communicate something as complicated as "squeeze yourself in a really tiny claustrophobic space and squirm around until you get to the deck below". No, better something wider and better lit, with ladders providing an instant clue.

Working together, Arden and Rina pop the locks on the access ladders and we all go down. Down in the cargo area, we see cargo like we'd expect on a military vessel instead of a medical one. There are crates labeled 'ammunition'. There is a small APC parked to the side. There is a variety of space suits and EVA gear. There is armor like Kolya's. There are mines with timers. Missiles. Food supplies. Bags and packs and gear. Pretty much everything you'd need to outfit an army.

Nika: (dry) Yeah. It looks like she's here to help out all those 250,000 people.
Rina: Ohh! Mines! Limpet mines. (evil chuckle.)
Kiera: Hey, food. Food's good. Food would be really really good.
Rina: Food. Yes. We can eat on the move.
Kiera: Warrior needs food badly. And guns.
Nika: (no joke!) Yeah. Get guns.

Rina grabs an ammo bag and starts filling it with ammo. And food. And water. Nika and the others start going through the bounty and getting what we need.

Nika: Yeah, it looks like she's really armed to help out those 250,000 people, isn't she?
Sherman: Well, she's here to rescue them from … from the Independent rebels.
Kiera: But there's only you and how many other med doctors to take care of a quarter of a million people?
Sherman: Well, you guys are here, right? (off our looks) Well we knew that this was a … a security action and—
Nika: They are armed for bear. Mines and missiles and weapons and armored personnel carriers. There's enough stuff here to start a small war on a planet.
Joshua: Are we going to start a small war?
Kiera: On this planet-sized ship? (grabs a gun for herself) Sure.
Joshua: Everybody be careful please.
Nika: Yeah we don't want to hurt any other people on board.

Rina wonders if they can drive the APV out of the hold. It would be great if we could travel faster than a snail's pace on foot and we'd have carrying capacity and protective armor plating as well. She eyeballs its dimensions and regretfully comes to the conclusion that while she could drive it through the airlock, it's too wide to fit through anything but the primary corridors of the Ark. They wouldn’t be able to take it down the secondary or tertiary corridors, where we would have better advantage to ambush and hide. Rina finds a grav sled off to the side. We could load our gear and our more injured upon it and push it along with us. Nika's examining the tactical armored suits standing at the ready and determines that they don't need specialized programming to use. We could use the protection they can give us.

Rina: You know, if we put these on, we'll look like them. I say it's time we put on a disguise.
Joshua: Is it the same armor as the—?
Rina: Yes. Although maybe I should look it over and disable any remote control take-over device.
Nika: Yeah. That was one of the things I'm concerned about. These might all be equipped with needles and such inside to drug the people in them.
Sherman: They don't have them.
Rina: So there's no way that they can push a button and suddenly make us stop and walk somewhere else. Right?
Sherman: Right.
Joshua: Which takes us back to the question, which is: We put on the armor and disguise ourselves and then what are we doing? Are we looking for Anna and trying to take her control?
Nika: Find and control the bridge.
Joshua: The problem with the bridge is it doesn't do us any good, because we can't hold the bridge. There are too many people and things going on to hold the bridge. Anna's the weak link. She's the Captain.
Kiera: So do we have any gas weapons?
Rina: Tear gas. Sleeping gas. Pax gas …

There's Chempliant, along with the standard tactical gas options. Arden announces he's not using Chempliant unless it's a dire emergency. There's no telling what it will do to him now that he's been changed and screwed up by the Halcyon. He doesn't want to lose control at the worst possible moment.

Rina: Who has control of the robots on the Ark?
Joshua: They do.
Nika: They've had a couple of days to figure it out and take control the same way that we did.
Arden: But could they have changed our access level? Would they even have thought of it? They may still recognize us as the Admirals of the Japanese fleet.
Joshua: (grinning) I will always be an Admiral in the Japanese fleet of my heart.
Kiera: (laughs) And as he dies … (mimes dying) … "I was an Admiral….Kon'nichiwa … Arigatō …"
Rina: No, it's "'Sayonara'".
Nika: (chuckling) Yeah. It's "Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye, cuz this is the last one".
Joshua: Okay, so … Suits? I'm happy with the armored-suits plan and sneaking aboard. If we can listen in on the communications in the suits without actually communicating, we should get a rough idea where Anna is.
Nika: How loyal is the rest of the crew to Anna?
Sherman: Well … These are professionals.
Nika: Yes, but are they loyal to her or to Blue Sun?
Kiera: Or to the cash.
Nika: (yes) Or to the cash. Are the paid to be here?
Sherman: It's a professional crew. It's not a crew that's served together for very long. We've been together maybe three, four months.

Joshua catches the expression behind Nika's eyes.

Joshua: Talk to me. What are you thinking?
Nika: (slowly) I'm trying to decide if taking Anna out of the equation will net us any influence in kicking these people back off instead of having to fight them and kill more of them. I would really like not to have to take a bunch of people who really are just doing their jobs and thinking they're on the right side, and causing them to lose their lives.
Joshua: Agreed. I'm completely with you on that.
Nika: Just because they're idiots doesn't mean they deserve to die for it.
Joshua: So here's the thing. We know they're armed for bear, right? And that most of the population of the people on board are not soldiers, right?
Nika: (at Sherman) Most of them are scientists and doctors, yes?
Sherman: No, most of the people who are here are soldiers. The Elect.
Joshua: Right but the ones that are under control with Anna's command voice-modulation thing. Are there soldiers outside the Elect?
Sherman: I think the Squad Leader is. He's like a veteran from the Army or something like that.
Joshua: Look, we're talking about leverage.
Sherman: There's the Ark and then us regular people.
Nika: I don't want anyone to die if it's at all possible.
Joshua: So take this with an Ark-sized grain of salt but if I can get her control device, I might be able to—
Rina: (groks) Impersonate her.
Joshua: And get the modulation of her voice right to use it as a command thing. Because if there isn't a large amount of soldiers other than the Elect, then gaining control of the Elect gains us control of the Ark. And if they're professionals, they're not going to fight to the death with the Elect over this.
Nika: What is the full contingent of this ship?
Sherman: There's about a dozen regular people …
Rina: Twenty-eight Elect, four BTs and two of those are dead.
Joshua: There's two of them left. Maybe they'll be sensible. Or the Elect. Who knows?
Nika: Yeah, no. Not likely. So we're talking about, you know, twenty-eight of the Elect and about a dozen or so normal crew.
Sherman: Yes, a dozen or so.
Nika: (to Joshua) The normal crew is not going to fight if we take her out of the equation.
Joshua: Yeah. I know. So I think it's find Anna, get her control device, and … and remove her from the equation, then take the Ark back. It's come down to as simple as that, so to speak.
Rina: That sounds good. Let's do it.

Simple. Us? Right.

Go to: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, Special Features

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