Episode 214 Part 3

Thursday, 13 Jun 2520
Spaceport, Whittier
Kalidasa (Xuan Wu) system

Meanwhile back at the cabin, Rina confronts Mike

Rina: "Okay, why don't you tell me what is really going on.
Mike: You mean with the assassin.
Rina: Everything. Oh come on, you have people coming in from the Abbey here. You can't tell me that all they were doing is building your house. I know you, I know you, you never have just the surface.
Mike: Alright. Alright! Let's go back to bed..

He leads Rina back to the bedroom, and he pushes the bed aside, rolls up a carpet and reveals a trap door. He lifts it up and reveals what appeals to be a hull door.

Rina: Mike, look at me. Can you lie?
Mike: If I say 'no' and I am lying, I've had some practice. But I haven't lied to you. I may have omitted some things.
Rina: Well I know all about shaving the truth. What is under there?
Mike: Look for yourself. Let me unlock it first.

He types in a code, it opens up, in inside is an airlock.

Rina: Is there gorram ship under here?
Mike: Could be.
Rina: I want to see it.
Mike: Go ahead.
Rina: You first.
Mike: What do you think I am going to do?

They go down and look around. She finds herself in a light freighter, operating on battery power. It is stuffed to the gills with munitions, weapons of all sorts.

Rina: Where are these things going? Miranda.
Mike: I hope so.
Rina: Brothers, come home if you are able. The wheat is ready to harvest.
Mike: There is a planet that is just waiting for us.
Rina: Tell me about that planet. The PAX isn't gone. It's still there.
Mike: You were there for months.
Rina: How would you know that? I haven't told you that yet.

Um. Christmas wave?

Rina: Ugh, that horrible wave. I hate that thing.
Mike: You are not the only source of information.
Rina: Nguyen, has he been in talking to you?
Mike: He is not part of this. He wants to reunite the independent factions.
Rina: I've gathered that, he has a base on High Gate. He's been gathering forces and placing his men for I don't know how long.
Mike: We plan on conquering a potentially Reaver invested planet.
Rina: You and whose army? A handful of soldiers up at the Abbey is not enough.
Mike: There may be a few more here and there.
Rina: How are you getting people to agree to such a scheme. What do you want out of Miranda?
Mike: Independence.
Rina: You're going to have to kill all the Reavers first.
Mike: You didn't. And from what intelligence we have, there aren't a lot of Reavers there, if any. Rina: Well I definitely do not recommend breathing the air there.
Mike: It is a risk these people are willing to take.
Rina: And you're going there?
Mike: Well I haven't decided that yet.
Rina: How long have you had this in the works?
Mike: This care package has been here since the war. I am hoping it will restart. Had you been here for a year and a half, I am sure it would start.
Rina: Oh… I hate you. You just went and … God Damn!

Rina storms around the ship banging on the hull.

Mike: The Abbey has been getting intel from Blue Sun on the fighting techniques of the Reavers. They are most deadly because of fear and surprise, but people have been learning how to fight back. He's been training the brothers on how to fight Reavers. It is not impossible.
Rina: No. It's not. Headshots work best.
Mike: Well. We've actually been learning more melee combat, because you can't be sure you will be able to put them down with a few shots, especially in groups, and the Reavers tend to attack from surprise and not line up for shots. The point is, it won't be easy, but it is a chance. A chance to find a place that is wholly theirs, no one has claim to it.
Rina: Whose people?
Mike: These people. The people who want to be independent, who want to be free of the Alliance.
Rina: So you are giving these rebels their own Palestine?
Mike: Except this Palestine is on a planet with its own infrastructure, suitable life and all that.
Rina: And an atmosphere that comes in waves and will erase your memory and make you forget everything.
Mike: They've been looking at that. First of all, it's been a while. Who knows how long it will last.
Rina: What are you going to do when the Alliance comes to kick you out?
Mike: By the time they do that, it will be more difficult. If they do, which if what you've said about cruisers being knocked out, may never happen.

The rest of the crew show up armed for bear, and sees the ship.

Christian: So, you've got a ship full of supplies, where is it going?
Rina: Miranda.

What?!

Christian: There's still PAX there.
Rina: I've told him.
Rick: I think it sounds like a perfectly reasonable plan.
Rina: It ruined half of the Harbinger crew!
Christian: That is true.
Mike: The PAX did?
Christian: Yes.
Rick: Well, they didn't want to leave, we don't know that was the PAX.
Nika: They stayed on an island with no ambition, no impetus.
Rick: It was their paradise.
Rina: Land of the Lotus Eaters.
Mike: So, there were people living on the planet?
Nika: Yeah. That part didn't make the Christmas Wave.
Rina: We promised not to tell.
Rick: So much for that.
Christian: There's an island that is very well protected, and people living there, and unless you have a natural immunity, there will be literally days if not weeks where you will be unable to do anything.
Mike: That is part of the plan.
Rina: Part of the plan is to waste away.
Mike: No no... Christian: Letting the..
Rick: Let's let finish what he was trying to say.

Yes, please.

Mike: Again, I am on the periphery of this, it is not my brain child. What I understand is that there are months without the PAX effect. That is what intelligence told them. And that the plan is to scatter people...
Nika: I wonder where they got that intelligence?
Christian: There is two sources, we're one, Shyla and Harry.
Mike: As months go by, what will happen is that there will be teams designed to respond to the first sign of PAX outbreaks. RBC suits…
Christian: Think of something else, what is it one in a hundred, one in a thousand that go Reaver?
Mike: That is something that they've been planning for as well.
Rick: "They didn't have any Reaver outbreaks on the island. they said they didn't have any outbreaks, just a little calming, no Reaverization.
Arden: Also, a good percentage of the people were my people.
Christian: This is their deal, if they want to do it, they can try.
Rick: I think it is a great idea. A high tech planet, in the middle of all those rim planets.
Rina: I'm not denying that it is ripe for the picking.
Christian: Ignoring the PAX, ignoring the Reavers, eventually this quarantine is going to end, and Parliament is going to get word of this. They are going to fix their ships, and...
Rina: They are going to want back what you took.
Christian: They are not going to just let you go.
Rina: The idea that anybody could just pick up and settle on any world they wanted.
Nika: If the Abbot wanted us to transport something to take over Trafalgar, maybe he had a plan for that..
Rick: I totally doubt that they could capture the Trafalgar even with only a skeleton crew. no offense.
Mike: History is full of successful revolutions.
Arden: It is even more full of unsuccessful ones.
Christian: And places like Shadow.

He dismisses the plan with incredulity.

Christian: I'm just sorry he didn't think he could tell you the truth.
Rick: "Well, I don't blame him for that.
Arden: Neither do I.
Christian: All I've got to say, is every time you make a decision, you don't pick her, and I think that is wrong.

Snap? But is this accurate?

Mike: She could have stayed here. She chose not to.
Christian: You were lying to her then too.
Rina: If you had told me you were planning this.
Mike: I didn't know I was doing this. I couldn't have known about it then. I wouldn't know now if it weren't for what you have done.
Arden: He didn't say no to her, she said no to him.
Mike: I had a ship underground. A ship that I didn't know would fly, I still don't know. I didn't have a plan when I asked you to marry me. It wasn't like I had a plan to go to Miranda and do this. I was like everyone else, Miranda was a dead planet surrounded by Reavers. The Miranda plan came well after you decided.
Rina: The challenge presented by an inoperative ship, and you couldn't tell me that, instead of that lame assed excuse of a proposal you did give me?

Mike looks hurt. Apparently life with him was not enough without a proper bride price.

Mike: I was nice. I was sincere. I was also sick and recovering from torture and brain altering chemicals.
Rina: Oh come on. You asked me to raise goats with you for pete's sake!
Mike: I said horses!
Rina: They're still animals.

Actually he said cows and sheep, but it was in the context of doing anything, there was no plan.

Mike: Before you get to optimistic about what I am really planning. I am planning on going to Miranda, and basically just live. I'm not planning on fighting a war. That life is over for me.
Nika: And there's not a damn thing wrong with that.
Arden: No, there isn't.
Christian: Were you going to tell her if you were going to go?
Mike: I don't know. That is a good question.
Christian: And that is the entire problem. If he would have told you. If he would have invited you to go with him.
Arden: Once again, she said no to marriage, no to a quiet life. And she left.

The crew begins to fight over who is in the right and such. Mike eventually raises his voice.

Mike: Alright, off my ship. I don't like leaving it exposed like this for to long, you never know who might be out there.
Rick: Indigo knows something is going on, but he doesn't know what is going on.
Mike: That might be a reason to accelerate my plans.
Rick: He's definitely been watching for a while.
Rina: You need someone to fix this baby so she can fly.
Mike: It's almost fixed. I could always use a good crew… But, I don't think I will make that offer. You don't seem on board with the plan. Anyway, let's leave the ship, I don't want to drain the batteries, I don't have a lot of hydrogen. Getting munitions in here is not so hard, but lugging hydrogen is a bitch.

The crew exits Mike's ship.

Arden: How did they ever get names the fairer sex?

The moral of the story, if you want to keep a character (Mike) mysterious, don't keep talking to him.

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