Episode 714: Business as Usual, Part Two
Go to: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, Special Features
His head is shaved. It has a metal plate embedded in it. Several lines from somewhere inside his suit snake up to and into his neck. The Elect have really messed him up. He doesn't look quite right and yet … the look in his eye suggests that he recognizes his sister. Rina stands frozen at the sight of him, her bloodlust completely gone.
Beglan goes to Arden and attempts to revive him while Joshua continues to grapple with the last guard. Rina shakes off her shock, kneels in front of her brother, and gently cups his face. His eyes shift as if trying to remember something elusive, his movements almost drunken.
Rina: (softly) Kolya. Do you recognize me?
Joshua continues grappling with the guard. He starts picking up a vibe off the guard: the man is getting agitated.
Joshua: Just pass out, guy.
God, please. Pass out. Joshua gets a punch in.
Joshua: Just pass out and save yourself the trouble.
Joshua tries another punch but fails as the guard manages to get a lick in. Joshua wobbles but rallies and throws a solid punch. The guard crumples and Joshua's the last man standing.
FINALLY!
Joshua: Beggar. C'mon.
They strip the guard of his weapons and drag him into the cell, Nika comes back.
Nika: I think we have a way out.
Joshua: I need someone to look to Arden.
Cuz Arden's still unconscious on the deck. Nika's able to revive him. She throws a look at her engineer, who's still kneeling in front of the enemy and stroking his face.
Nika: (what the hell?) What are you doing? Rina, what are you doing?
Rina: (hard) He's my brother. This is Kolya. He's coming with us.
Nika: Oh … I … I ….
Damn, girl.
Shaking off his stun, Arden examines Kolya. Rina's impatient to go. Didn't our Captain just say she's found a way out? What are we waiting for? Let's go.
Rina: You can examine him while we walk.
Arden: No I can't.
Rina: Then hurry up.
Arden: In a minute.
Arden's cursory examination shows him that Kolya is clearly drugged up with something and that the tubes going into his neck are clearly stents to deliver whatever chemicals are getting pumped into him. His armor makes it hard to do a thorough examination but based on Kolya's reactions to testing, Arden doesn't think Kolya's legs are artificial. Arden also discovers Kolya has had biomechanical enhancements to his arms as well.
Arden: I don't know what we can do for him until he comes down from whatever chemicals he's on now, but if you want to take him with us, let's go.
Rina and Arden get Kolya up off the deck.
Kiera goes forward into the chamber. It's about forty by forty feet. Some steps go down and signage says she's just outside engineering. Elsewhere in the large chamber are signs announcing the location of med bay. The corridor continues and turns left.
Joshua goes back into the cell to remove a helmet off one of the guards. He examines the guard underneath it—oh good, he looks nothing like Kolya. No mindless marching clones to haunt his wife. Relieved, he takes both helmets with him to prevent the guards calling for help when they wake and shuts them in the cell. Arden hands Joshua the stun baton from Kolya's belt.
Arden: Can you use this?
Joshua: Yes. It's not a pointy thing. I can use it.
Nika: "It's not a pointy thing. I can use it."? I hate you. Let's get down the hallway.
Joshua: Excuse me. What did I just do?
Besides rush three armed guards and flip them over like turtles, winning the day? Besides that? Nika doesn't answer but hustles us toward Kiera's last known position. It's not long before catch up with her in the forty-by-forty chamber.
Kiera: Engineering and Med are probably dead ends, as much as I'd like to go there.
Rina: (sighs) That's true.
Arden: You hear anything on the helmet?
Because Rina's still carrying Kolya's. As a means to track the enemy's movements, it has possibilities. Unlike Engineering and Medical—there's only one way in or out of those and we dare not trap ourselves in them. Even so, their presence makes us pause and consider our options. If we use Engineering to access the ship's systems, we could sabotage the ship. Or take it and escape.
Nika: Are we trying to escape the Ark or just this ship?
Arden: If we're still attached to the Ark, I definitely want to take back the Ark.
Joshua: And that raises the question—are we still on the Ark? You know what we really need? We need to get access to computers. We need to find out if she's got access to more than however many of these guys she's got.
Joshua waves back the way we came—our guards, he means. No telling how many of those she's got. The answer should be somewhere in the records. Kiera asks Rina what we can access from Engineering. It would depend on the make and model of the ship in question but as a rule of thumb, engineering would have a status board that would show what's going on from the bridge and both sections of the ship would have a way to communicate with each other, both for communications and ship systems.
Rina: But I don't think Engineering is a secondary Bridge.
Joshua: Let's go find the Bridge. Does that make sense?
We can find out more there. Maybe we can find out where we're going.
Rina: And if we have time, disable this ship so they can't leave on it.
Joshua: They aren't worried about leaving. This Ark is going right where they want it.
Arden: On the other side, the Ark doesn't have the fuel to go anywhere except where we aimed it.
Nika: When we flipped the ship, how far out were we? Two days. If we've been out for more than two days, then we've already made port.
Joshua: Even better reason to figure out what's going on. Like where we are and what's going on.
Rina: Wait a minute. If we've made port, then … ?
What are we doing still in space? Are we still in space? Are we moving still? We can't tell. The Ark can't make landfall and we don't know if Anna's ship is in the Black or dirtside. We need more information. We cautiously make our way to the bridge, hoping to find what we need. We don't have to go far. The door to it is just off the chamber, leading toward the bow. It's got a biometric scanning lock on it.
Great.
Nika eyes Kolya, who Rina has refused to leave behind. He's authorized to be on Anna's ship. Maybe he's got some sort of built-in pass code or something?
Rina: Kolya, can you get this door open?
Arden: Just take his hand and put it on the panel.
Rina pulls Kolya's glove off and sees his right hand is no longer his but a mechanical one. It won't work with a biometric lock. At the crew's suggestion, she swallows her shock and bares her brother's other hand. His other hand is only half-mechanical, his fingertips and palm is still flesh and blood. It should be enough. Rina places his hand flat on the scanner and the device warbles and blinks. The door remains shut and the lock issues a statement in a flat robot voice.
Door: Recognized. Security lock.
Rina: Looks like we're going to have to hack it.
Nika: And they know where we are now, too.
Rina: They know where he is.
It was Kolya's hand on the door, not ours. Arden tries a hack past the lock. Rina assists. While they're busy doing that, Nika and Joshua are going over their other options. Medical? Probably locked against them. There are various small terminals throughout Anna's ship but they are also locked down. Just like anyone locking up the family car when they park it to go shopping, right? What if we left and tried to get back to Exeter? Would Anna have locked our own ship against us? And as for what's between us and our ship …
Nika: I wonder how many of them departed the vessel for the Ark? Even if they're hooked up to our ship, the airlock is most likely locked as well.
Kiera: More than likely.
Joshua: Then let's go check it. We won't know for sure unless we check.
Nika: I think our best option is still to get onto the bridge if we can possibly get through these doors.
Joshua: All right.
Nika: It might be the wrong call but …
Joshua: No, it's your call. All right.
Rina: We have so much more to work with than when Potemkin locked us up on the Gift.
Arden: That's for sure.
Joshua walks aft ten feet and examines the door into the medical section. It's not as heavy as the door to the bridge. Even the lock on it looks flimsier. Joshua gives the door an experimental kick. Yeah. Flimsier.
Joshua: I'd like to get into medical. Getting into medical would be good.
Nika: It's a place to hole up. With useful stuff.
Rina: Yeah. Knives and such.
Joshua: I'd like to see if I can get into medical. I'm not making any promises …
He tries to jimmy the lock on the door and is unsuccessful. He tries again. A red light comes on the door panel instead. There's a whine over the ship's intercom and the channel goes live.
Joshua: We're doomed.
Intercom: (timorously) Ah … We're going to need you to go back to your cell … If you want to live.
Nika: No.
Joshua: "If you want to live"?
Rina: You can bite me!
Nika: If you really think you could take us on, you'd show up in person. "Go back to your cell on your own if you want to live"? Yeah. You might be sittin' on the Bridge by yourself fool. (snorts) Keep goin', Arden.
Arden: I am.
Intercom: I'm going to open the airlocks. (pause) In one minute. If you're not back in your cell. I can see the camera. If it's not you.
Does this guy really think we're going to take him seriously? Really? We all start talking back.
Kiera: (eyeroll) If I'm dead, which apparently will be soon, I will haunt your every waking and sleeping moment.
Nika: Oh and she sucks. You really don't want that. (laughs)
Kiera: So please. (waves toward imagined airlock) So I can make this headache stop. Give me that power.
Nika: (undertone to Joshua) Get us into medbay if you can.
Joshua: All right.
Cuz right now, the medbay would be a safe place to wait out the airlock opening up. Arden's still working away on the lock, saying he can get us inside in minute. The rest of us distract our watcher with more back-talk.
Nika: Otherwise we're all dead. (laughs) It's okay.
Joshua: I did think that my dad wanted to talk to me in the living flesh, as opposed to the dead portion of it. If you kill me, it will be like, really hard for him to talk to me. Just FYI.
Rina: Anna's not through playing with us yet, either. (grim) Do you really want to take her toys away from her?
Nika: (whispers to Arden) Do it quickly!
Intercom: Thirty seconds …
Joshua gets the feeling that the speaker isn't sure of himself, that he's doing stuff above his paygrade. More than that he doesn't have time to assess. Beglan steps around Joshua and puts our rifle to the door controls and pulls the trigger.
BZZAP!
The door pops open.
Nika: (startled) Whoa! Good God, Beggar!
Arden: (from the bridge door) That works.
Beglan: I thought it might.
Joshua: Good work, Beggar.
Kiera: (at Beglan) I want him so bad now.
Joshua: And in we go.
Arden abandons the bridge door panel and everyone hustles inside. Rina leads her brother along with her. Once everyone's inside, we take a look around. It's a nice med bay. There are twelve beds with consoles. Scanning equipment. Nika talks as she takes it all in.
Nika: It's bad that it doesn't occur to me to just shoot things first anymore.
Joshua: What have I done to you?
Nika: Yeah, what have you done to me?! It didn't even occur to me to shoot the lock.
Joshua: My work here is done.
The exam tables are arranged in a circle around the scanner. Beyond the circle are lab stations with computers and pertinent equipment. It's a sweet set-up. The bay is roughly 120 feet across. Cubicles line the sides, exam rooms complete with privacy curtains. It's huge, really.
Arden tries to access the computers but they're all security-locked. There's only one other exit from the bay. Kiera finds someone huddled under a desk in one of the cubicles.
Kiera: (flat and weary) Come out. Or I'm hurting you. I'm in such a bad mood.
Man: Don't hurt me.
A man in a medical coat crawls slowly out. Nika takes the rifle back from Beglan and points it the man in the med coat, which nets her a white-eyed stare from him.
Kiera: (flatly) Where are we?
Man: We’re in med-medbay.
Nika: (terse) Where's the ship?
Kiera: Where's the ship? What ship is it?
Man: Um … LL-225. We're … attached to a big ship. The Ark.
Nika: Are we parked or are we still moving?
Man: I don't know.
Joshua steps up, grokking that maybe interrogating someone while aiming a rifle at him isn't exactly conducive to conversation. He addresses the man calmly, friendly. Definitely unthreateningly.
Joshua: Who are you? Let's start with that.
Man: Oh. I'm … I'm-I'm Doctor Sherman.
Joshua: Dr. Sherman. What's your job here? Other than being the general doctor. Do you have any other special duties?
Sherman: I'm not the general doctor. I'm just a … a nurse.
Kiera: You're a nurse with a doctorate?
Sherman: Well, I'm an assistant physician. I'm not the primary physician.
Kiera: What are you here for?
Sherman: I'm here for … medical duty.
Is this guy trying to be obtuse? On purpose? Or is he still too scared to think straight?
Arden: Can you unlock the computers?
Sherman: I don’t have the security codes to unlock the computers.
Arden: So why were you here?
Sherman: Because … I was stationed here.
Joshua: Okay, how many people are on board this ship?
Sherman: Oh. Most of the people moved onto the Ark. There's engineers. Pilots. Security. And me and … the … the galley crew.
Joshua: How many of the people like him—(points to Kolya)—How many like him are there?
Sherman: Total?
Again, is the guy being obtuse on purpose? At this point, even Joshua is starting to get impatient.
Joshua: Let's start with this ship. How many total on this ship?
Sherman: You mean on the ship right now?
Joshua: Yes.
Sherman: I don't know how many are left. Maybe half a dozen?
Rina: Okay. We've got four accounted for. Possibly four. Definitely three. There might be one or two on the bridge. (to Sherman) How many did Anna bring with her?
Sherman: How much did the Captain bring? Oh, um … I think we had, let's see … we've given the shots to … Twenty-eight.
Rina: Twenty-eight.
Sherman: Oh, wait. Are we counting the others—?
Joshua: What others?
Sherman: The BTs
Rina: Yes.
Nika groans. God, say it isn't so. Rina ignores the noise and homes in on Sherman.
Rina: How many BTs are there?
Sherman: There are four of those.
Joshua: That's four more than I'd like.
Rina: Four BTs. Plus twenty-four to twenty-eight like Kolya, here?
Sherman: Yes. Wait. What did you call him?
Rina: His name is Nikolai and he's my brother.
Sherman: Oh. I didn't know any of these had family.
The look Rina gives Sherman is murderous. Joshua takes his wife's arm before she can hurt him.
Joshua: Let's just stop that line of thinking right there. Stop.
Rina: (getting a grip) All right. Where is Anna now?
Sherman: I think she's on the big ship.
Rina: What are her plans?
Nika: He's a lowly nurse. He's not going to know squat.
Arden: What do you suspect?
Sherman: I think we're waiting for a fuel ship.
Nika: Oh, shi…
Rina: How long ago was that?
Sherman: How long ago was what?
Rina: You know there's a ship coming in, yes? How long have you known?
Arden: She's asking in a roundabout way when will the ship get here?
Sherman: Oh. I don't know. But she told us we were waiting … um … yesterday.
Nika: How long have we been aboard?
Rina: What day is it?
Sherman: How long have we—wait, have you been aboard?
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Sherman: Oh. Um … You were on the spaceship, right?
Nika: Uh-huh.
Sherman: That was three days ago. So I don't know how long you were on before then.
Nika: I’m not worried about that.
Arden's going through the med bay gathering what supplies he can scrounge while we interrogate Sherman. He finds a medical bag and starts filling it with first aid supplies. Just in case he has to patch up anyone on the crew. Rina follows suit, getting a couple scalpels for weapons. Kiera eyes what Arden's doing and poses a question to Sherman.
Kiera: You've done first aid work on … people like Kolya?
Sherman: Yes.
Kiera: What happens if we unplug these stents?
Sherman: Oh, uh … he'll probably go into a kind of seizure.
Kiera: Oookay.
Rina: What kind of drugs are these pumping into him?
Sherman: Well, there's a number of them. There's behavioral modification. There's adrenaline boost. There's pain killers. There's stimulants. It's a remarkable cocktail, actually. Um … I mean, a man on this stuff can survive being shot in the chest three times.
Nika: So glad you're admiring your butchery.
Sherman: I didn't do that. I'm just a … doctor, a technician here.
Rina: Okay, since you're a doctor or a technician or whatever, do you know what they did with the drugs they took off of us?
Meaning our Halcyon maintenance meds.
Sherman: I don't know about them.
Joshua: I'm not worried about that.
Rina: I am.
Joshua: Well, right now I'm more worried about getting us out of this.
Kiera: Who's on the bridge right now?
Sherman: I'm assuming just the pilot.
Kiera: So just the pilot.
Sherman: Or maybe the navigator. I think the navigator was going to go onto the big ship but I'm not sure.
Kiera: Where is your weapons locker?
Sherman: I don't have a weapons locker.
Kiera: On this ship it does. Where is it?
Sherman: Oh. Probably in one of the other bays.
Arden: (eyeing Sherman) Well, we have a hand now.
Nika: (groks it) You're right. (to Sherman) How long have you been on this ship?
Sherman: Um … five months?
Nika: And you don't know your way around yet?
Sherman: Well, I—
Nika: Are you mentally damaged?
Sherman: I mostly go here, there's my quarters, the galley. Occasionally I visit some other rooms, but I'm uncomfortable on the troops—it's not fun to be on the troops deck.
Joshua: Yeah I can imagine.
Sherman: It's kind of—
Joshua: Yeah, no. Don't even go there.
We can imagine it for ourselves, thanks.
Nika: Do you even have the ability to open up the bulkhead door?
Arden: Since it's been three days since I've truly had sleep, I would answer more clearly before we get irritated.
Sherman: How am I—I don't know what …
Nika: Do you have the ability to open up the bulkhead door? Are you on the scanner?
Arden: Can you get us to the bridge?
Sherman: I … yeah. The doors work for me.
Nika: Let's go.
Sherman: (hang on now!) I think. I've never been in a security lock down.
Joshua: We'll give it a shot.
Kiera: And find out.
Sherman: But I'm only a—
Joshua: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We start hustling Sherman out with us.
Sherman: I'm only a Lieutenant.
Kiera: But it's fine.
Sherman: Junior grade.
Nika: A Lieutenant in what?
Sherman: Well, the ship rank.
Nika: Yeah. (lighbulb!) Who does the ship work for?
Joshua: (sings) Blue Sun. Home of all the fantastic colas in the Verse.
Kiera: And you know what? I still have not had anything to drink yet.
Sherman: Would you like a Blue Sun cola? We also have Blue Sun cigarettes—
Arden: We want you to open the door.
Rina: Open the door.
Nika: Open the bulkhead door before I put this damn thing against your neck and pull the trigger.
Sherman: But we have nicotine-free—
Kiera: (off Nika's look) No, no.
Joshua: (ditto!) Breathe.
Nika: Because we can use his hand whether he's awake or not.
Or even alive, come to think of it.
Sherman: But that's not true.
Arden: Yeah, because then it wouldn't have a pulse.
Sherman: Well, no, because then it's just dead. But even unconscious they're designed to respond to—
Kiera: That's okay, cuz I can just pummel you senseless and—.
Joshua: Just stop talking to him.
Nika: Open. The. Bulkhead. Door.
Sherman: Okay.
Sherman puts his hand against the bridge door controls and the panel says:
Panel: Recognized. (hums, scans) Security Lock Down
Joshua: (sighs) So … no.
Arden: Yeah. So now we don't need him.
Joshua: We're not doing anything to him, for Godssakes.
Rina: Not yet.
Joshua: For Godsake, no. We're not.
Nika: Are we still off our game?
Cuz right now, we're batting gorram zero. We're injured, fatigued, and definitely rocky.
Sherman: You could get some rest. You'll be fine. Or you could get a few shots of adrenaline or something like that—
Nika: No. That wouldn't be wise given our situation …
Joshua: No, no adrenaline.
Arden: Are the drugs in med bay accessible?
Sherman: Yeah. Sure.
Nika: If he mouths off one more time I'm going to shoot him.
Rina: Don't.
Joshua: Don't shoot him.
Nika: No, he's just running his mouth and running his mouth—
Sherman: (running his mouth) What are you talkin' about?
Rina: Captain.
Nika: Yeah. If he opens his mouth and he doesn't give—
Rina: Captain.
Sherman: (surprised) Is she one of those escaped grunts that were beating people up and stuff? And not one of those happy people who love everybody?
Arden: Yes. That's correct. And I'm surprised at the fact that you're surprised that she wouldn't be that person.
Nika: (growling) Uh-huh.
Rina: Okay, I'm taking the toy now.
Nika has been without sleep for three days and is off her meds and is getting reckless. Not that Rina's in much better shape. She's running on no sleep and is off her meds and the Halcyon is making her bloodthirsty. Only for Rina, it's closer to her everyday state and she can operate under those conditions better. Rina takes the gun from Nika.
Kiera: I wanna know who's still up on the military deck.
Rina: Yeah, and I'm angry and I wanna bite something.
Kiera: I don't want to bite something. I want to go to the military deck and get something useful to shoot things with.
Sherman: Do you want to give your people some painkillers to—well, these are fatigue-based meds so there's adrenaline in—
Joshua: Yup.
Kiera: Yes, I'll take an adrenaline shot.
Rina: So will I.
Nika: Please.
Everyone gets a pharmaceutical jolt and we start feeling better. Encouraged by our lightening mood, Sherman starts pulling out more.
Sherman: I have some new tropics if you want to add a boost to your intelligence.
Rina: No.
Arden: Yeah no. (jokes) Should I shoot at the hallucination or the not-hallucination?
Rina: I've got a gun in both hands so I can shoot both of them at the same time.
Nika: (laughs) There you go.
Joshua: Let's dial back for a second. (sighs)
Kiera: I still wanna go get guns.
Joshua: I don't have a problem with getting guns. What I want to try to figure out is what we're trying to do. If there's that many people on the Ark, it's going to involve a really sneaky plan to sneak around and do something and then I don't know we hold it or—
Nika: Can we take the bridge and then blow the Ark?
Rina: No.
Joshua: We can't blow the Ark.
We're trying to save the Ark, remember?
Rina: No, we can't blow the Ark.
Arden: Is there another way we can control these … modified people?
Sherman: Do … I have a way to control …?
Arden: Is there a way to control them.
Rina: Control the Elect.
Sherman: Yeah. (sighs) Sort of.
Arden: How do you access it?
Sherman: Uh .. well I don't have the access to it. It would be in their squad leader's or their captain's hands.
Arden: Is it a portable device?
Sherman: Uh, yeah.
Rina: Is there one aboard?
Sherman: I don't know if there's one aboard.
Nika: (with feeling) I hate Butterbars.
Arden: Butter bars?
Rina: (points at Sherman's collar) Two gold bars. Lieutenant, Junior Grade.
Joshua: Not being a military person I don't think Arden—
Nika: Shush.
Arden: Look. I just want to know how you control the augmented people.
Sherman: They obey the orders from—
Arden: Is there a place you can shut them all down from?
Sherman: Shut them down?
Nika: Oh for God's sake, are you really that thick?!
Sherman: Oh, you think they're like, remote controlled or something? They're not remote controlled. They're soldiers.
Nika sighs and starts looking dangerous again.
Sherman: We can put them in a state where they're more suggestible.
Arden: From here?
Sherman: No, the Captain—I told you already. Their Captain or their Squadron Leader would have the—
Arden: Once again. Three days. No sleep. I'm a little slow.
Sherman: Okay. Yes. In their helmets, they can receive signals automatically that would introduce either drugs that will pump them up or …well, that's pretty much all there is, actually.
Rina: Signal, yes? Then that means I can hack it.
Nika: Radio signal?
Rina: It's a comm signal. I can get it.
Nika: Do it.
Rina: I just need to know what channel they're on.
Sherman: It's not really an off-button so much as just an on-button—
Rina: No, no, I know that.
Nika: And that gives us three of them that we can jam helmets on and give orders to.
Arden: So that if I walked up to one of these augmented people and said open the door for me, they'd open the door for me?
Rina and Sherman together: No.
Sherman: If you were their commander they would.
Rina: No. But what we can do is—
Sherman: They're conditioned to respond to certain behaviors...
Rina: What we can do—
Arden: To certain people.
Rina: (to Arden) Shut up for a minute. I have to ask that man a question and I can't talk over you. (to Sherman) All right, I need to ask you something. About those drugs administered via the stents. Are those also controlled by a remote control signal?
Sherman: It's … (off her look) … Yes. We can activate their … their aggression remotely.
Rina: Then all I need to do is—
Sherman: That's not all the drugs they get through the stents, but that—
Rina: But that's all I—
Sherman: That drug we can activate.
Rina: But I—
Arden: But the only thing they can do is make it higher, though. They can't make it lower.
Rina: I know that. I can hijack the signal and jack them all up so they start attacking everything that moves including Anna and her men on the Ark.
The crew stare at Rina as if she's grown a second head.
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