Episode 505: Stand and Deliver, Part Five

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Nika: What do we know about the terrain in this area?
Joshua: (entering bridge) It’s a hellhole.

Kiera scrambles down the tube to the crew deck and starts running for the passengers. Arden claws up into the copilot’s chair and buckles in while Joshua takes the one on helm. The XO pulls the topo schematic up on screen.

Joshua: Hilly.
Nika: From here?
Joshua: There’s a canyon.

Sure enough, Joshua zooms the view on screen to a canyon right by us.

Nika: Arden, tell everyone to strap down everything.
Arden: (keying comms) Hop in. It’s going to get bumpy.
Nika: I’m taking us down the canyon and get us the hell outa dodge. Evade the targeting computer.

The comm on the bridge is still live and Kiera hears this last. She hits the wall comm nearest and yells down it.

Kiera: It’s not airtight. They’ve cut the top.
Nika: Oh, shite!

Our hull integrity has been compromised but a whole lot more stands to be compromised if we let another missile hit us. Nika flies us the hell out of dodge, executes a sharp barrel roll and dives right into the canyon. Our artificial grav can’t keep up and the planet’s pull overcomes it. Loose objects on the bridge go flying for the ceiling, which is now the deck, and outside the bridge windows, the sky paints the canyon a vivid blue floor.

FWOOM!

A missile launches from La Tormenta’s gun and streaking faster than the eye can see, it follows sharp and sweet on our tail, its contrail a sinister curving line aimed right for our engines.

Arden: I’m so glad I’m strapped in. Can we get back rightside up now? Thank you.
Beglan: (from the engine room) Are you going to keep us in atmosphere?
Nika: For now, since I’ve been told our hull integrity has been compromised, yes.
Beglan: That’s a good reason to do it.
Nika: I’m going to keep us close to the ground and get us as far the hell away as I can through the canyons.

Flying nap of the earth is Nika’s specialty. She did a lot of it during the war, getting Harbinger in and out of places lesser pilots would have wiped out on. The adrenaline rush is like no other and it courses through Nika’s veins now as she twists and turns and threads us between the canyon walls with that missile hot on our tail. She makes it as hard as possible for that missile to find us. The tracking sensors on the bridge breep and yark, then fall silent, then breep and yark again as the missile reacquires its lock.

Aft, Beglan mans the engine room as Rina gathers what she needs to seal our hatch against the Black. It’s rough going. Nika jinking Equinox up and down and Rina’s thrown around a bit. Strapping the tank on her back, she makes it down the length of the ship to the hatch and with the hand torch in her teeth, she starts climbing up. Once in place, Rina clips her safety line to the ladder, braces herself, and turns her torch on.

Jiangyin is not Nika’s native Boros, but no matter the world they’re found canyons share the same characteristics: tight squeeze, steep walls, narrower at the bottom than at the top, and the winds are treacherous. All those factors come into play and Nika’s doing an incredible job of keeping us from running afoul of any of them. The missile following us isn’t so lucky and it finally wipes out on a canyon wall behind us.

Similarly, Arden is manning the copilot chair but knows he’s outclassed. He calls Kiera to the bridge to take his place. Kiera sees the passengers have already strapped in and so leaves for the bridge. They swap places. Nika flies on but spares a glance at Kiera.

Nika: (to Kiera) Holy shi.
Kiera: Oh, yeah.

For her part, Kiera’s got the best damn seat in the house—front and center-ish—on the biggest E-ticket ride in the Verse. An innate adrenaline junkie, there isn’t another place alive where Kiera would rather be. Nope. Balls to the wall and pedal to the metal. Whoo!

Rina, meanwhile, has managed to weld the hatch shut. No one’s going to be using that hatch for a while. It’s spaceworthy, but only just enough, and as much as she’d like to finick with it more, enough is all the time she has for. She shuts off her torch and starts the trip down. On the bridge, Kiera notices the warning light on the hatch go from red to green. The computer verifies it a second later.

Computer voice: Hull integrity has been restored. Hè ěr wánzhěng xìng yǐjīng huīfù. Hull integrity has been restored. Hè ěr wánzhěng xìng yǐjīng huīfù.

We’re keeping an eye on our sensors and we can’t tell if La Tormenta is chasing us. Even so, with our hull integrity restored, Nika starts pulling us up for the Black where we’ve got more room to maneuver. Within minutes we’re breaking atmo over Jiangying. Still nothing on our tail. Huh. Rina’s convinced that part of the noise on our hull dirtside was something more than just a shuttle landing on us.

Rina: They’re tracking us. It’s the only explanation for the ease of our escape.

Nika hears this over the comms and cuts an eyeroll—a little appreciation for her flying would be nice, thanks. That’s all the time she spares for the chatter. At the moment we need to plot a course out of here. Our plans had us going to Verbena. Are we still doing that? And are we going to plot a twisty course to it to shake off any pursuers? Joshua reminds Nika that we’ll have only about 10 hours of fuel left once we arrive and that’s only if we plot the straightest course there. But what about Agua-Negra behind us? Would they follow us?

Unsure. They aren’t tied to any one planet but are more like a mobile PMC working for hire. Usually for the highest bidder or the highest bounty. Hardly a recipe for integrity. Which makes them trickier to predict, since they may not play by the rules if it hurts them in the pocketbook.

All of which puts us in an uncertain position. We have fuel enough to get us to Verbena but only just. Vasquez and her crew might know where we’re going and follow us there and grab our passengers at the far end.

We fly on the straightaway for the nonce and gather on the bridge, out of earshot of the Dusquenes, to discuss it.

Joshua: Here’s my point, Nika. They really aren’t confined to a certain area. If they’re really interested in these guys, they’re gonna try and follow us.
Nika: Well, here’s the thing—if they track us from here to Verbena where we drop them off … ?
Joshua: It’s not hard to track us. But if we got shot as we arrive at Verbena, that does defeat the purpose.
Kiera: Well, they got a shuttle. We get into parking orbit, get them into their shuttle, drop them off, and then don’t land.
Joshua: We could. The other option is to make it a dual stop trip.
Arden: If we go to the other place first, that will give them time to get to Verbena and arrange a welcome for us.
Joshua: I don’t think they know … They didn’t even know who they are. (waves aft toward the passenger cabins) They were two people who they thought were fugitives.
Arden: Did we file a flight plan before we left?

Flight plan? What stinkin’ flight plan. We left in kinduva hurry. We had no time to file a flight plan. However, our ship is registered as carrying cargo and it wouldn’t take a genius to glean our destination from the lading records. That would point them to Rambha if they looked.

Arden: So are we setting course for Verbena?
Nika: We don’t have a whole lot of room to—
Joshua: Well, that’s the thing. If we make a two-stop trip, we can fuel up in-between instead of just going straight there.
Nika: And we can check and see if we are in fact being tracked.
Joshua: Maybe we can hide behind the moon, make it not so easy for them to figure out the direction we’re heading.
Nika: So you don’t want me to pulse until we’re on the backside of the moon?
Joshua: I’m hoping to confuse them.
Nika: (to Joshua) Pick a planet. I’ll go around the backside of the moon and take us over there.
Joshua: All right. (starts plotting)
Nika: At our fuel stop, Rina can check the top and see if we’ve been pegged with anything.
Kiera: I do think at this point we really need to renegotiate the fees.
Nika: Hell, yes.
Arden: I would like to schedule a crew meeting. Seriously.
Nika: In flight?
Arden: Yes.
Joshua: We can do that in just a minute.

Joshua pulls up the protocol for plugging in our destination and looking at the list of possibles within our range, Paquin is the likeliest. It’s seventeen days to Verbena. Paquin is about halfway, on the edge of Red Sun, orbiting Heinlein. We elect to get there on regular speed rather than hard burn. No telling what hard burn will shake loose on us due to the damage we’ve taken. Course determined, we plug it in and make it happen.

Next stop: Paquin.

During the flight, Arden patches us up, doctoring our various injuries, blessedly minor ones. We also get that crew meeting Arden wanted. We gather in the conference room just aft of the bridge and close the doors.

Arden: Despite me being lighthearted and joking around a lot, what the hell happened on the planet we just left? I thought we were putting the passengers off and therefore would not be having any conflict with the authorities on that planet. So why did we wind up in conflict with the authorities?
Joshua: (quietly) That’s a good question.

No one says anything for a moment.

Kiera: Well … technically—
Joshua: No, I don’t want a ‘technically’. What I want—.
Arden: Oh no. ‘Technically’ is fine. I just want to know why.
Kiera: Sheriff came on board and drew a gun and I kinda took offense and he was gonna arrest me, which I was okay with but Rina wasn’t.
Joshua: So, wait. Okay. Let me back up. (a beat) So. Sheriff came on board to search our ship.
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Joshua: And he drew a gun, like a lawman might do.
Kiera: Right. And I had my rifle.
Arden: He drew it after he came on board or he had it drawn when he came on board?
Kiera: He drew it after.
Joshua: So why was he arresting you?
Kiera: Cuz I wouldn’t lay down the rifle as fast as he wanted me to.
Arden: Ah.
Joshua: Now we’re getting at it.
Kiera: I did put it down but then he decided to—
Nika: Why did you have a rifle when you went to meet the cop that I’d already said could search our ship?
Kiera: I already had it I my hand. I didn’t lay it down as fast as he wanted but I did lay it down.
Rina: She did.
Kiera: I did but—
Joshua: Next step, next stage. So he tried arrest you and how did he do that?
Kiera: Oh, he was gonna cuff me and I was okay with that.
Joshua: And you were okay with that.

Joshua looks at her closely. Was she really okay with that? He does a surface read of her body language and voice. No, she’s not. Not entirely. He can tell she’s hiding something.

Joshua: (dryly) I’m shocked. So let’s move to the next party in this thing. (looks at Rina). So … You weren’t okay with this and when the Sheriff tried to arrest her, what did you do? No, wait. Let me see if I can reconstruct this. When I saw him the Sheriff didn’t have an arm. So I’m guessing you basically grabbed him by the arm and—krshhh!—went like that?

He mimes a twisting, snapping motion.

Arden: He also had a crater where his nose used to be.
Joshua: Thank you for that piece of evidence. So, is that roughly the gist of it.
Rina: (quietly) Roughly.
Joshua: And then at that point it was all pretty much downhill from there, I’m assuming?
Arden: I really have no problem with you defending the ship, defending yourself, defending anybody aboard the ship. The problem I have is we invited law people aboard and then they got attacked.
Kiera: I can see that being a problem.
Joshua: Yeah, this is a screw-up all around. (to Rina and Kiera) Not just you. Like, all around. Well, except for—
Arden: No, I’m sure I did something bad—
Nika: Guys!

All eyes swing to Nika.

Nika: This is my screw-up. Look. I’m the one who said we’d keep them out of the hands of the law. I’m the one who then said, ‘forget it, we’re gonna turn them over’. That’s a mixed message. It’s not appropriate. It’s my responsibility to deal with that. (nods to Kiera and Rina) For all those two knew, it was a ploy.

Silence.

Arden: The only comment, and it’s the last thing I’ll say about it, is this is the first and hopefully last incident that would make me want to leave this ship.

Silence.

Arden: (brightly) So what’s for dinner?
Joshua: I don’t know.

Arden starts to laugh.

Joshua: Yeah. All right.
Arden: What?
Joshua: I was actually curious. Were you leaving because of the sheer incompetence involved or are you leaving because of the—I’m pretty sure it’s the incompetence.
Arden: I didn’t say anybody was incompetent. I was saying I had no problem with any of the actions that were taken whatsoever.
Joshua: I guess I’m just trying to get a—I’m not saying anything was wrong or right, to have to say you want to leave, I—
Arden: None of us communicated well with one another.
Joshua: That’s what I was trying to figure out. Thank you. Because if we can’t clearly define the problem—
Arden: It was fairly obvious that this was the Sheriff and he wanted to search our ship. Which he has every right to do.
Joshua: Yeah. I know. You don’t have to argue with me on that. I’m in agreement. We’re not communicating particularly well or really at all.
Arden: And the minute the ship got landlocked, all choice is taken out of our hands. I’m glad it worked out the way it did. I don’t ever want to do it again.
Joshua: Fair enough.

The atmosphere in the room is tense. Time for an olive branch.

Arden: I’ll cook.
Nika: Don’t let him cook.
Joshua: Yes, Captain.
Kiera: (to Arden) I’ll help.
Joshua: (ditto) I’ll help you.
Arden: I’m not that bad.

From the end of the table, Beglan finally speaks up.

Beglan: I would like to say one thing, though.
Arden: Yes?
Beglan: I know you all have a deep and abiding respect for the law …
Joshua: Wow.
Beglan: You all have expressed in your actions and your words that … that whole thing. And it does seem to be somewhat circumstantial that a lawman brings your greater respect. Now I understand the value of law. I’m not sure if the Sheriff in this case was representing the value of law and order, so much as representing the interest of this mercenary group who either paid or cajoled him to do it.

Kiera feels the need to move her chair closer to Beglan.

Arden: I can see that side.
Beglan: And so, if we want to say we respect laws all the time, be they good or bad, then—
Nika: That is not his problem. His issue is that the conflicting orders, then … First of all, apparently I gave an order and they completely disobeyed it. I said ‘Let the Sheriff on board and they started a fight.’ That’s where his issue is.
Arden: Well you also said we’re not giving them up.
Nika: I did. I changed my mind and again, that’s on me. That’s entirely on me.
Joshua: I’m with you on the whole … representing the law.
Kiera: If the law’s paid off, is that the law?
Beglan: I think we don’t know who’s in the right in this.
Nika: No, we don’t. The Sheriff might have been with the PMC.
Beglan: We might have also saved some innocent people. Or … fairly innocent.
Joshua: Let’s not use the word ‘innocent’ here. But we may have saved some people and let’s just leave the word innocent off of it. But I have to agree with Arden that—wow, I just said that—
Arden: It actually happens every blue moon or two.
Joshua: Actually it’s been happening more than we have been.
Arden: We always have.
Joshua: Hm. That’s true. Okay.

Back on topic.

Nika: Look. I owe everyone on the crew an apology.
Joshua: No—
Arden: I just want to know: Am I going to get lucky?
Nika: No. You didn’t break the landlock.
Arden: I did, too. When I got the computer back up it was broken.
Joshua: No, our passenger broke the landlock.

Yes, Kiera watched him do it.

Kiera: And I apologise. I shouldn’t have taken offense at him comin’ aboard with … the way he did.
Joshua: We’re good.
Nika: There’s any number of what-ifs in this. It’s just not worth rehashing all of that except to say it went very far south.
Arden: And I also disobeyed orders.
Nika: What?
Joshua: I think we all disobeyed orders. As I’m fond of saying, we are rabid cats.
Nika: There is that.
Kiera: (to Arden) Disobeyed orders? What was it you did.
Arden: I unlocked the doors to the ship.
Kiera: You unlocked the doors to the ship? You’re the reason the—?

Everyone stops a beat to stare.

Joshua: I’m just going to ignore the fact that you just said that, because it would make—we were agreeing so much and you smoothly moved along and—
Kiera: You did an override and you unlocked them.
Nika: Why?
Arden: Because you were getting ready to do a suicide mission on the tower or something else silly and stupid and—
Nika: Which is precisely what got us off the ground.
Kiera: No, the original unlock. The one we thought they unlocked it, they didn’t. He did.
Nika: (sighing) Okay. In any case, I’m going to pretend that went over my head.
Arden: Just being honest.
Joshua: Okay, here’s the thing, Captain. We got to find a way to communicate better or you got to find a way to make us listen to orders better. I just want to say these are your options.
Arden: Notice, Kiera? I’m being honest.
Kiera: Yeah, and it gives me the same gut-wrenching pain that being honest in my normal life gives me.
Rina: Might I make a suggestion?

Her quiet request falls into the banter and everyone falls silent.

Nika: What?
Joshua: Sure, speak up. It’s an open house here.
Rina: (quietly) One thing that I noticed. We were split up, on different parts of the ship, all doing different tasks. We needed to coordinate changes in plan in real-time, and not find out about it by accident or mistake after the decision has been made. We need to have comms on us to link us together.
Arden: I was about to say something to put on our shopping list is ear comms.
Rina: (intense) Thank you. Ear comms. We need to be able to talk to each other when the plan is in action, so we’re all aboard the same boat when the plan’s changed. I’ve been saying this for years.
Arden: And if possible to spare the money, ear comms that will work away from the ship.
Rina: (less intense) If you don’t want us going armed, to a man, while we’re aboard, at least let us go armed with comms so we can keep each other apprised of the situation.
Nika: You’ll get no argument out of that.
Rina: Thank you.
Nika: But no, I don’t want you going armed, to a man, while we’re running passengers aboard, especially. It’s just not appropriate.
Arden: I don’t know. The next time we take pirates aboard, I think I want to be armed 100% of the time.
Nika: Yeah, okay.

We haven’t forgotten Lenore’s crew and what they did to us, nope. Nika drags us back on topic.

Nika: Again, situational awareness would be good.
Arden: I agree. (to Kiera) Have you heard that story?

Meaning the pirates and we’re back off topic again.

Kiera: Uh-uh. No. Regale me later. (a beat) I still can’t get my head around the fact that you opened the doors. You opened us to the enemy. Why?
Arden: It was the simplest way to short-circuit the suicide plans I was hearing.
Kiera: But you opened the door to the enemy, Arden.
Joshua: Okay.
Nika: His particular action, weighed in the balance versus some other people’s particular actions? Maybe not so much with the glass-house-stone-throwing thing.
Joshua: As I was about to say.
Kiera: Just—
Joshua: (to Kiera) No. Dih-dih-dih! No. Shh! No.
Nika: (backing her XO) Glass houses.
Arden: Why would you throw a stone at a glass house?
Joshua: Exactly.
Arden: I don’t understand the saying.
Joshua: (to Arden) Zip it.
Beglan: People who live in glass houses, shouldn’t.
Arden: Obviously.
Nika: She’s living in a glass house because her actions aren’t above reproach.
Arden: (lightbulb!) Oh! I got it. I understand.
Nika: Glass houses. Stones. Let’s just not go there.
Joshua: (continuing) All the blame and causes are now past. Going forward: Communication? Work on it. We’ll work on it. We all screwed up. Hi-ho, we’re alive.
Arden: To answer your question, I didn’t think the Sheriff was an enemy like the way Potemkin was an enemy.
Nika: Fair enough
Kiera: (to Arden) That was cold.
Arden: What?

Kiera’s doing her damnedest to atone for her turning us over to Potemkin. Everyone knows how much it pains her to have so misjudged that situation, how horrified she was to find out how badly it went for us. Rina says into the silence that follows.

Rina: Threat assessment is another thing we need to work on.
Arden: Potemkin was the enemy. I wasn’t talking anything about you. I really wasn’t. All I’m saying is Potemkin was the enemy.
Kiera: Fair enough. (weary) Fair enough.

A little light comes on on the computer display in the conference room. We check it and a voice says:

Computer: Ship’s system initialized.
Nika: Oh, shi.

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