Last Voyage of Delilah, Episode 215: The Little Engine That Could
Back to the synopsis format ... (Sees word count) ... Well, as much as I can manage, anyway.—Maer
Air Date: 19 Oct 2014
Present: Andy, Kim, Maer, Matt, and Terri
Tuesday, 09 Oct 2525
Buddhist Temple & Orphanage
Near Almsworthy, New Canaan
Blue Sun (Qing Long) system
Nuri says goodbye to the crew. She wants to stay on New Canaan and continue her training with the monks at the monastery. They've really helped her find the mental quiet essential to her recovery. She goes to each crew member individually to say goodbye.
She goes to Valentine first, makes her intentions known. She needs to stay behind, for her health and sanity … and for the crew's safety. She also says that Tian poses a possible danger to the crew and to please look after her. Valentine thanks her for her honesty, her candor, and her warning. He says he's sorry to see her go but wishes her well, assuring her that she's made the right choice and that he supports her decision. Will she be all right? Her health isn't perfect and her transplanted heart might still cause her problems. Nuri assures him that she feels she will be fine, that every day she got after the transplant operation is an extra, a lagniappe, in a life that was meant to end sooner.
Nuri goes to Vikki next. Nuri tells her that Vikki was her first real friend and that she'll always remember her for that. Vikki gets teary-eyed but hugs Nuri long and tight and wishes her well. Both promise to write. Vikki offers to make them both tea and when she runs off to put the kettle on, Nuri slips away to say goodbye to Rachel.
Nuri tells Rachel the monks would be good for her as her mind might be a danger to the crew otherwise. Rachel acknowledges that it's a good thing for Nuri to stay, that she'll miss the young'un but wants the best for her, wherever she may find it. Nuri reassures Rachel that no matter what, Rachel did the right thing by going after Valentine, because family trumps everything. Don't let the crew's anger and distress over it get her down. They're both agreed on that score. Rachel hugs her goodbye and in a grandmotherly gesture, wraps up apples and food for Nuri in a large handkerchief to take with her.
Poco gets the next goodbye. Of course, she finds him in the middle of some percussive maintenance and points out to him the correct thing to pound. Like Rachel, he takes the news well. He's glad she's leaving the roller coaster life behind and staying somewhere safe. And as with the others, Nuri gives him something to keep after she's gone: she tells him that she knows his sister didn't abandon him. That takes him aback: how would she know about that? Nuri tells him that she read his sister and that his sister loved him enough to give him up so he could have a chance to survive and make a better life than she could give him. Nuri also tells him that his sister is afraid. Of what? he asks. Of what he thinks of her, for what she did. Poco asks Nuri how she knows all this, commenting that she's what? distance reading now? Nuri only smiles and gives a noncommittal answer. Even so, they part on good terms and Poco's as warm and gruffly affectionate as he's ever gotten. Nuri kisses him on the cheek and leaves.
Nuri's saved Tian for last. She finds the doctor in the infirmary and hovers outside, as if unsure if she can come in. Tian invites her in and asks what's on her mind. Nuri tells her she's staying behind. She admits she's been having nightmares—Tian's nightmares—and Tian apologizes for that. Nuri thanks Tian for saving her life, for giving her her new heart, but she cannot remain with the crew. She needs a quiet mind to keep her sanity … and she also says that of everyone here, Tian might be the only one who can understand the Reavers' special brand of insanity.
Nuri tells her a little bit about what she'd witnessed aboard the Reaver ship, of what they did to Tian, of how they'd left Nuri alone. There is evidence to support the idea that the Reavers recognized something in Tian's make-up that made her special to them, that perhaps she could become one of them … or perhaps communicate with them or for them. There are a lot of tantalizing hints and suppositions, but the overall impression is that there's a connection between the Reavers and Tian, that they have something in common.
That commonality might be a danger to the crew but it also is an important key—perhapts the ultimate key—to unlock the puzzle that the Reavers represent. Nuri cannot say for certain but of one thing she is sure: she tells Tian that the doctor must give herself permission to feel the dreams and the voices in her head. To look on the Cortex for the stories, the stories of Reavers, of "the lost ones". Tian has a chance to understand the Reaver mind and to remain sane. When the time comes, she must get away from Valentine and Vikki and Rachel and Poco and feel.
On that note, Nuri hugs Tian goodbye and walks off the ship.
Wednesday, 10 Oct 2525
We carry a load of supplies (pharmaceuticals, food stuffs, and furniture) to Deadwood to our client, Beauregarde Garrett. It's a two day journey and we take off on the morning of the 10th to make the most of our time.
Friday, 12 Oct 2525
New Flagstaff, Deadwood
Blue Sun (Qing Long) system
Evening
New Flagstaff is a walled city perched on the rim of an enormous canyon bearing the name of … (wait for it) ... Devil's Canyon. Such a surprise. New Flagstaff is also prosperous enough to have a missile defense system against Reavers. We manage to run that gauntlet without getting shot down, though we are painted by its radar. Rachel gets us through it. Landing facilities are no-frills but they cover the bases: hard surface, hook ups, and capability to load and unload cargo.
We're met on the tarmac by our client, Beauregarde Garrett. He strides onto the landing pad like he owns the place, flanked by ground crew. He's an old wannabe-flame of Rachel's from way back and he's set himself up as a somewhat benevolent dictator.
He treats us upon landing to a steak and potatoes dinner at his own house, perched on the rim of the canyon with stunning views of the landscape. The food is as real as real gets and the crew tucks into it as Garrett regales them with tales of living in New Flagstaff. Tomorrow he will shuttle us down to the bauxite mining town of Blood River, far down below on the canyon floor. Once there he will pick up a load of finished aluminum and have it loaded aboard Delilah for shipment to Highgate.
Dinner, however, hits an awkward snag. Apparently Garrett had his hopes dashed in the past by Rachel's platonic reception and he is not above getting a little dig in against the current crew and Captain. Therefore, Garrett downplays Banfield as a businessman and makes some disparaging comments about Lazarus and his old crew. Conflicting loyalties cause some friction. Vikki tries defusing the tension with humor, Poco with prosaic sarcasm, and the results are mixed. Nothing serious erupts, thank goodness, and the evening proceeds more pleasantly (after the alcohol is offered around), with everyone agreeing to meet in the morning for the trip down to Blood River.
Saturday, 13 Oct 2525
Blood River Bauxite Mining Camp and Refinery
The only way in or out, up or down, from Blood River is Garrett's shuttle. It makes for a sweet deal for him, as he can dictate how the town lives and operates. The miners in Blood River pretty much live on Garrett's good graces. Bauxite gets mined out. Aluminum gets shuttled up. Garrett seems to be the only one who benefits by any measure. Without his shuttle runs, they'd starve. He's got them convinced that his way is the only way, even though they've got a broken funicular railway to the top. He's got them convinced that folk topside hate miners and would mistreat them if they fixed it, rode it to the top, and mingled with the townsfolk. He's got them so under his thumb that they don't even get current news: they had no idea that the IRP Mission even existed, so they were suspicious of Tian's offer to treat them for the plague, despite there being a good percentage of the town's 600 souls suffering from it.
Valentine dislikes Garrett but warns Vikki not to interfere with offers to fix anything: the political situation is a delicate one and he doesn't want to cause trouble. His impression of Garrett is only reinforced when he chats up the saloon keeper, Deeds, at the Cracked Cogwheel. As usual, the saloon keeper is a font of information about the town and its daily life. The picture painted is wretched and Valentine decides that Garrett is a dick and no amount of steak and potato dinners can redeem him. Garrett needs taking down a peg or two and Valentine is not averse to doing it.
Of course, the minute Vikki sees the railway and the engine half way up the track, she's got to investigate. Despite his earlier injunction against fixing anything without asking his permission, Valentine tells Vikki to look at the defunct railway engine and fix it if she can. As orders go, it's easy-peasy: Vikki's just dying to fix the poor thing.
Tian has a harder time convincing the miners to get treated for the plague or to take the vaccines. They can't believe she's doing this for free, that she's not here to trick them or poison them. They'd been tricked and poisoned before with cinnamon mice candy. In any event, Tian manages to convince the folk to let her at least treat the wounded from the most recent mine shaft collapse. No one died in that accident, but nevertheless, it's appalling that they took it as if the accident was merely their fate to bear. How many accidents occur in a given year and how did they treat the wounded those times? The impression is that they had no help at all.
Tian had her IRP clinic-in-a-can carried down in Garrett's shuttle for this excursion down, along with Vikki's Stirling Engine/mech shop container. While Vikki's off looking at the railway engine, Tian sets up her clinic. The canyon floor is narrow. The river, the mine, and the smelting facilities takes up most of the space but we manage to find room for the containers nevertheless.
Valentine accompanies Vikki to the engine halfway up the canyon walls. The winds and the updrafts are fierce and the grade is steep. Falls are frequent and though neither pitch off the track to their deaths far below, Valentine does come away with a twisted ankle. Vikki tapes it up (with duct tape) and they continue onward. Once there and inside, she sees that the engine is fixable but one of the two huge cogs that runs the train up the track is missing. They realize that the cog they saw at the saloon is the missing cog, which was cracked. Vikki needs to look at it to see if it can be repaired. She also needs a power coupling as well.
The rest of the day passes somewhat uneventfully, with Tian treating those who are willing to be treated. The night is spent in the only place with enough space to accommodate them: the town's flop house. To their chagrin, the crew finds they'll need to be deloused once they get topside. And so passes their first day in Blood River.
Sunday, 14 Oct 2525
Valentine hobbles to Tian to get his ankle properly treated. While Val, Vikki, and Tian have been down below, Poco and Rachel have elected to stay topside with Delilah. Valentine comms Poco to find a secondary cargo for us, illegal or otherwise, as well as a power coupling for Vikki. Poco finds both the power coupling and a job whereby we haul (shady?) pharmaceuticals for free, with the understanding our payment would be a map to illegal salvage in the Ship Graveyard at Highgate's LaGrange point. For the largesse of the map, the seller wants a percentage of our salvage proceeds. Which kinda means we're paying someone so we can take on all the risk for a slim chance to earn money … without getting paid to haul cargo to Highgate on our gas and dime.
Gee, thanks.
But it's a potential gold mine and Poco clinches the deal. Now all we need is to get the power coupling down below to Vikki without Beauregarde finding out about it. As the canyon is too narrow to allow Delilah to fly down, Rachel takes the (less familiar) aircar instead. It's a very dicey ride down for her, thanks to the vicious air currents and the fact that the aircar is less a flown vehicle and more a driven one. Nevertheless, Rachel manages to get there in one piece and hand the power coupling off.
Vikki meanwhile repairs everything she can on the engine and needs just the cogwheel and the coupler to get it running again. Valentine convinces Deeds to let him take the cogwheel to fix the engine. Vikki has to recast the entire thing—there is no welding the cog's huge crack closed. She can use it as a template to make a sand cast mold, then melt the cog down in the smelter, and pour it into the mold, making a new cog.
Getting the giant thing up the track is a major hassle, but there is a lot of junked equipment that was dumped in the river downstream. One of them is a crane. Vikki jerry rigs a winch using the crane parts and the cog gets winched up the slope. Once she's got the cog to the engine, she installs it and replaces the power coupling.
Just as everything's in place, a group of armed men walk down the track from up above and pretty much threaten to shoot the crew for fixing the engine. Valentine parlays, stalling them to give Vikki enough time to start the engine up. She fires it up and the engine starts traveling downhill. Valentine jumps on as the engine gains speed, leaving the thugs in the dust.
Poco, meanwhile, has Garrett's aluminum loaded aboard Delilah for shipment and once the crew makes a hasty exit topside in the aircar, the crew takes off for Highgate. In their haste, they've left behind the IRP container and Vikki's container with the Stirling Engines and tools … but it's a small price to pay to help out a poor town. Now with their railway running, with the extra meds and equipment below, perhaps the folk in Blood River can make life a little better for themselves.
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