Episode 515: Ithaca Rumble, Part Four

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Kiera’s eyes are glittering now—a warning to those in the know. She looks at Manse straight on and leans in.

Kiera: You didn’t tell me you were a fugitive.
Manse: I’m not a fugitive.
Kiera: Oh, I’m beginning to think you might be.
Manse: Perhaps you don’t know.
Kiera: What do I not know? Let’s pretend that I’m stupid and you inform me. Cuz I’m just a dumb space-freighter girl.
Manse: Tell you what. Let’s just leave it at this—we get to Aphrodite, we’ll walk off the ship, everybody’s happy. But it’s probably in your best interest to not be … forcing issues about paying and stuff like that, at that stage.
Kiera: Oh, really?
Manse: Really.
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Manse: Or maybe … passing on some information about your ship to certain people.
Kiera: You know, I’ve got a certain amount of time with you on this ship.
Manse: I’m hoping that your attitude is going to change so I will feel inclined to protect you rather than not so inclined—
Kiera: You know, I’m not so very safe right now.
Manse: Well. I would say we should all just … think of us as your VIPs and everything will be all right.
Kiera: So define treat right. Mr. Roger, feel free to join in with your companion.
Roger: I don’t know what’s going on.
Kiera: Please know that all aspects—
Manse: No, no, just that we get the preferential treatment. We get our complimentary ride to Aphrodite.
Kiera: (skeptical) Mm-hm.
Manse: That’s all we’re asking for. We don’t wanna—we’re not gonna hurt anybody. we’re not going to make them do anything they don’t wanna do.
Kiera: Mm-hm. So that infers that—
Manse: So in payment for this, we will not help those nefarious characters who may be interested in other passengers, in any way track them down. And you as well.
Kiera: Oh wait. Let me bend over and pick up that blackmail that you just dropped and hand it back to you. That you seemed to have lost it.
Manse: I don’t think this is blackmail so much as a business opportunity for us both.
Kiera: I don’t see it as a business opportunity.
Manse: Well call it what you like. If you like to call it blackmail, that’s fine.
Kiera: I’m much more comfortable with that.
Manse: Well, should we talk to the Marshals about it? Because that is a pretty serious charge.
Kiera: So’s rape.
Manse: I’m sure you all have stellar records.
Kiera: That we have what?
Manse: Stellar records. And won’t have any problem telling it to the—
Kiera: Oh I have an incredible record. The rest of the crew actually is very upright and upstanding.
Manse: Then we should have no problems with the Marshals. You know, it’s probably in everyone’s best interest that we should bring in the Marshals.
Kiera: Now that’s the other problem. You didn’t want to have trouble, did you? Cuz that makes us slow. So we might be circlin’ the planet a really damn long time knowing Marshals are gonna come for us. In which case I guess you won’t get there on time. Which means that the free ride that we’re gonna give you is gonna be free anyway. So I reckon we’ll just circle. (a beat) Hell, we can just turn back. Cuz if it’s a free ride, we haven’t gotten that far yet.
Manse: There again? Let’s not play that game. Want another drink?
Kiera: No. Not particularly. I guess you need to be goin’ to bed, don’cha?
Manse: Maybe your Captain would like to take a nap.
Kiera: Probably not.
Manse: Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should go back to bed. I think I have a few phone calls if I’m going to be late, to make.
Kiera: I don’t know. There seems to be a Cortex feed problem. Let me check with the Captain.

Kiera marches right over to a wall comm and punches through to the bridge.

Kiera: Are we having a Cortex feed problem, Captain? It seems to be.

On the bridge, Nika gives the comm an odd look that says: come again?

Kiera: I tried to use it and it doesn’t seem to be workin’.
Nika: (groks) I’ll have Rina check on it.

Kiera thumbs off the comm.

Kiera: Looks like we’re going to have to wait for some outgoing broadcasts. I do apologize, Mr. Roger. Would you like another drink?

She’s sweetness personified to the other passenger in the room. On the bridge, Nika flips to a private channel to her engineer.

Nika: (drawls) Marina. I believe the Cortex is having an issue. Perhaps you could look at it.
Rina: (carefully) Yes, ma’am. Does this mean you want to shut down? Or …?
Nika: It’s not having a problem? Okay, I know we’re having a problem with the passengers, so shut it down until I can figure out what’s going on.
Rina: Yes, ma’am.

Nika comms her XO on a private channel next.

Nika: Joshua. Could I speak with you on the bridge for a few minutes?
Joshua: (sing songs) I’m in trouble.

Over the bridge console speaker, Kiera’s voice cuts in.

Kiera: Captain. We have to talk.
Nika: (to Joshua) We’re having a crew meeting.

Joshua tells Rina to come with him. Arden is … occupied … and rather than drag him away from Giselle, the XO and the engineer leave him to it, get Beglan, and go on for the bridge. Kiera is already there and the three crew members is enough for a quorum. Nika shuts the bridge off and looks at her crew.

Nika: What is going on?
Joshua: I don’t know. What’s going on?
Nika: Kiera. You said the Cortex is having a problem. Rina tells me the Cortex is not having a problem. So what’s going on?

Beglan checks the Cortex.

Beglan: Somebody’s turned it off.

Rina nods with a two-fingered air salute. Kiera gives Nika a synopsis, finishing off with:

Kiera: Off. Leave it off. He’s broadcasting. He’s broadcasting on ahead that we’ve got criminals on board.
Nika: (Lightbulb!) He’s not broadcasting ahead, he’s broadcasting behind. I did catch a broadcast that went out and it went back to Ithaca.
Rina: And you didn’t tell me?
Nika: Why would I tell you? We have passengers on board who are going in-system. There’s no reason to tell you.
Kiera: For a small fee, like … free … we can buy his silence when we drop him—
Rina: Who him?
Kiera: Manse. When we drop him and Roger off and they don’t pay anything, they won’t call the authorities to tell them we got two fugitives aboard. And he wants preferential treatment, which I’m willing to do—in matter of fact, I will give them royal treatment. I would like to ream him royally, but—
Joshua: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Rina: No. That’s not going to work. If he’s already—
Nika: Once again, they’re not broadcasting ahead. They’re broadcasting behind.
Kiera: I know but they’ve warned people behind what ship the girl was on. So that maybe they can radio ahead saying, “This ship has fugitives from our planet.” And if you remember, the police are kinda on their side. I don’t know the Alliance planets have …

But Aphrodite is an Alliance world.

Kiera: So if another world radios ahead to an Alliance one to hold a ship with fugitives aboard, they would probably honor it.

If nothing else, the Port Authorities would have to take an interest in someone calling ahead to say the ship they’re on has fugitives aboard.

Kiera: So, Nika, we could circle, give them a free ride by being late. Or we could just ignore it. (a beat) I’ll give the girls my room and I’ll sleep down there.
Nika: Move the girls up anyway.

Giselle has already practically moved in with Arden. Racy declines Kiera’s cabin and says instead that she’ll sleep on the couch. We don’t pressure her out of her decision. If she wants the couch, fine.

That settled, we go back to the bridge to discuss our next move.

Nika: Frankly, they’re not paying us enough for me to feel like it’s an issue anyway but I don’t like to be blackmailed.
Kiera: Me, neither.
Rina: (steely) And I don’t like the idea of the passengers making free with our other passengers.
Nika: (to Kiera) Because you made it very clear from the start that the girls were not expected. Yes?
Kiera: Absolutely.
Rina: I remember hearing it.
Nika: Okay.
Kiera: Apparently I wasn’t speakin’ the language they were speakin’.
Rina: You see, you don’t speak Boot-Up-Ass very well.

Kiera goes on to say that Manse recognized Racy as a party girl from before and that she very very emphatically made it clear that it did not mean that she or the other girls were available to party with.

Kiera: Strangely enough, Roger didn’t seem to have a problem with it like Manse did.
Nika: I’m sure not. Manse is used to getting his way. (a beat) Thoughts?
Arden: I rarely have them but what are we talking about?

Arden joins us finally.

Joshua: Blackmail.
Kiera: Hi, Arden.
Rina: Welcome to the party.
Kiera: Glad to see you’re vertical.
Joshua: My thought I guess in the matter is … I spend a lot of time worrying about the principles of things, but this is one of those occasions when I’m less worried about the principle of the thing. Meaning that if it comes out to simple math that it’s worth the hundred credits to have them walk off and not cause trouble, then I’m okay with that. The trick is, a) how much trouble are they going to be until they actually arrive, and b) do we let them walk off free and then they pretty much turn on us and make trouble for us anyway.
Rina: (relieved) Thank you for mentioning that.
Arden: I’m sorry, I know I came in late, but could you tell me what’s going on?

Joshua tells him.

Arden: So they’re blackmailing us for free passage, since they’ve already radioed behind us—
Nika: One of them is blackmailing us.
Arden: But they’ve already radioed behind us, the blackmail is ….

Pretty much useless? Can we be sure? Joshua points out that we don’t know if Manse was broadcasting back to inform … or ask. If he’s already turned us in, the blackmail seems silly to pursue. So that suggests that maybe Manse’s hand isn’t as strong as paranoia would have us believe. But how can we be certain if we don’t know what was in the message radioed back? Our broadcast logs don’t record the content, only the time and occurrences of the messages themselves. But Rina points out that all downloads or uploads via the Cortex sit in our comms buffer before going out or coming in. She should be able to retrieve the broadcast provided it didn’t get overwritten in the meantime. Which she does, rather handily.

It’s heavily encrypted but she still manages to crack it. The message was sent to an individual named Skarn. She plays the message on the bridge comms and we all listen in. It’s Manse’s voice.

Manse: Skarn? I, ah … Are you interested in finding out about the girl? About Racy? Let me know how interested you are.

That’s all there is to it.

Nika: He’s already given it up.
Joshua: He’s not given it up. That’s just saying—
Nika: But when he lands, and this guy gets back to him, there’s going to be this whole …
Joshua: But that’s the whole point isn’t it? The point is, in theory, if we trust them—and we can debate whether we trust them or not—if we treat them the way they want and let them go free, then basically he’ll say I don’t really know anything blah-blah-blah.

Arden points out that Aphrodite is an Alliance planet and there will be customs to get ourselves through first.

Arden: So, if we really want to get them out of our hair, we could plant illegal substances in their luggage.
Kiera: What a brilliant idea. (grins) I am rubbing off on you.
Joshua: Do we have access to their luggage?

Not quite. The passengers’ luggage is in their rooms. How to get to them?

Beglan: You have access to a bunch of people with guns.
Rina: You have access to me.
Nika: And we have a steward who goes into and out of their rooms.
Arden: Like when they’re at dinner one night.
Joshua: But we don’t have much longer til we get there.
Kiera: Oh and I accidentally dropped my illegal substances into your coat.
Arden: Well, I think it needs to be concealed a little better than that.
Joshua: And here’s the issue, not that I really have that much objection to dropping illegal substances, but that’s escalating, right? And what that’s going to do, is that’s going to encourage them to—
Nika: Do something back.
Arden: Not if they’re in handcuffs and in jail.
Kiera: No, and but Arden that also catches up Mr. Roger, who hasn’t done anything.
Joshua: And you don’t think that informants aren’t already in handcuffs and in jail. All the best information comes from people looking for a way out of jail.
Arden: I’m more concerned about him talking to Skarn.
Joshua: I’m concerned about that but I’m also concerned about us getting arrested by the Alliance.
Nika: Go Read him and tell me whether or not he’s going to tell.

Arden toys with the idea of dropping the passengers off a mite short of reaching atmo. Rina jokingly backs him up on it.

Rina: Insert in Airlock. Boot out.
Kiera and Joshua at the same time: NO.
Kiera: Rina, Mr. Roger hasn’t done anything.
Rina: Yes. And I meant that facetiously, Captain.
Nika: Thank you. Yes, this poor other gentleman just has a putz for a friend.
Rina: Unfortunately for him.
Arden: We all make bad decisions in life.
Rina: I’m not about to kick him out the airlock.
Nika: The whole thing is I don’t feel like being blackmailed but however—however—the safety of Racy and Giselle is my primary goal.
Kiera: If we keep them on the crew deck, they’ll be fine.
Nika: That is part of their safety. The other part of their safety is that we don’t need whatever-the-hell-is Skarn coming after us to get her back or having the Federal Marshals pull her off our vessel.
Arden: Couldn’t information accidentally on purpose be left within the hearing of the scumbag that says we’re going to someplace else? And then he gets off the ship and tells Skarn that we’re going to that someplace-else while we continue going in the opposite direction?

Rina taps the console where she’d retrieved the message data.

Rina: What if I fake his voice in another message and say “Sorry for the crappiness of the connection but I have further information as to where they went. They went thataway.”
Arden: That would just cause more confusion.
Rina: Absolutely. Why don’t we do that? Draw him off. Gets us off the hook. Gets Racy off the hook.
Nika: And then whether he tells or not, it doesn’t matter.
Rina: (bingo!) It doesn’t matter.
Arden: I guess I have a prejudice against things being more complicated than necessary.
Joshua: Is that more or less complicated than dropping stuff in their luggage?

Everyone starts talking at once and again Nika cuts through the chatter.

Nika: I’d say it’s slightly more complicated but it’s less escalation. Which is what I want.
Arden: I say accidentally on purpose dropping off where we’re heading and then going in a different direction is the easiest.
Joshua: Well, yes, but the other half of that is they do know our ship. They know who it is.
Arden: It’s a big Verse.
Joshua: It is a big Verse, that is true.
Nika: I’m not worried about that part. I’m worried about the safety of the girl. I don’t want this man to track her across the Georgia system. And come and pick her up or have Federal Marshals or people on his payroll pick her up.
Arden: They’re a gang of forty people in a city. I don’t think they’re going to have much resources to travel to the other planets. Rina: No. They’ve bought the law and they have the extraplanetary network.
Arden: The law is way too expensive for them to buy interplanetary networking.
Rina: It only takes one with the Cortex.
Nika: No, it doesn’t. It takes a lot of money. A lot of money.

Arden echoes that caveat. Rina’s not convinced but she doesn’t press her argument about spies and moles inside the LEO network. She knows she’s already lost the crew. Kiera reiterates the plan to keep the girls on the crew deck for the remainder of the trip and drop the men off without making them pay for passage. Nika states she honestly could care less about their passage fee. She would rather have them out of her hair, thank you.

Nika: However, he better not cross paths with us again.
Kiera: I will be down there with him—
Nika: No. He better not cross paths with this ship again.
Kiera: I’ll let you have that conversation when he disembarks.
Rina: (quietly) Excuse me, Captain, but can’t we get him to just Read him? Are we still doing that?

Meaning having Joshua Read the man, as Nika herself suggested two rounds ago.

Nika: I don’t think it’s necessary but certainly if we have the moment to take a look and verify. It would be nice to know if he’s going to keep his mouth shut, but it ultimately makes no difference.
Joshua: In that case, how about you and I, as Captain and XO, tell him that we’re going to drop him off without paying—

Kiera knows blackmailers. She’s blackmailed people herself. She tells us that if we tell them we agree to the terms, it would only encourage the blackmailer to escalate in his demands.

Nika: So don’t tell him we’re giving into his terms until we’re in orbit and ready to go, is my thought. Just don’t tell him anything. Say “The Captain is dealing with the situation.”
Arden: I say we give him a parachute and let him jump from orbit.
Rina: I volunteer to pack the parachute.
Nika: I’m … kinda on board with that, but we’ll just leave that alone.

Her expression brightens and she grins a wicked grin.

Nika: Here’s a thought. “Sure. We’ll let you off. No charge. Just get us through customs in an hour.”
Kiera: Fair enough. I can make that deal.
Nika: So they get off my ship. Because if they have to give us something back for it, then it’s negotiation, not blackmail.
Joshua: It might not work out.
Nika: Well, if it doesn’t, you know what—?
Arden: Get us through Customs? I must be missing something. We’re giving them a ride to the planet in return for … ?
Nika: So we don’t have to wait. It’s an Alliance world. They can keep us and inspect us as long as they want.
Kiera: And we’re perfectly inclined to. It doesn’t cost us money, cuz we’re not making any profit, so we can be perfectly willing to wait. It’s up to them at that point.
Joshua: Can they actually get us through customs?
Kiera: Don’t know. Would you like to go find out?
Joshua: (quietly) Sure.
Kiera: Then I think we need to present it to them like that and you can help me carry my stuff down.
Joshua: Is this when we’re approaching the planet or when we’re a few hours out.
Nika: Wait until we’re six hours out.
Arden: I’m going back to bed now.
Joshua: More power to you.
Nika: I’m sure.
Arden: I’m going back to sleep. I hurt. Let me know if you need any medical intervention with him. Sedation. Poisoning. Stuff like that.

Kiera announces she’s grabbing her toothbrush and a few other necessary articles and going down to the passenger deck to ride out the rest of the trip in guest containment. Joshua goes below with her to get a Read on Manse. As they leave, Rina turns to Nika.

Rina: For the record, I’m staying awake and I’m keeping an eye on everything.
Nika: Well, good. You can take a watch and I can take a four-hour nap.
Rina: Yes, ma’am. I’ll see you in four hours.

Joshua’s Read is a two-pronged approach. He wants to get a feel for when he thinks Manse is lying and then Read his surface thoughts to see if the man is telling the truth or not. Joshua keeps his demeanor professional and doesn’t give away what he’s doing.

What he gets off Manse is this: he feels rejected by Racy and then mistreated by Kiera. So he’s feeling hostile toward the crew. Joshua can tell Manse intends to escalate the situation into more than just getting free passage, but he can’t tell just by looking at the man’s surface thoughts how far he means to go. However, he’s surely into negotiation. Joshua does a deeper Reading—he needs to know just how far Manse is going to go.

He manages to get a couple of things; Manse is a little nervous dealing with the gangs of Ithaca, but he also feels he can use this to his advantage. I’ll average it out. I’ll either get a lot of money from these guys on the ship or from the gang on Ithaca. If I get a little bit unethical, I can demand more.

Huh. That man doesn’t know how poor we are. Kiera even snorts and says so when we get together to go over what Joshua’s Read.

So here’s the thing. If we don’t want trouble, we need to have the man walk away thinking he’s won. What would it take to make him think he got a good deal? Joshua suggests extra cash. Which comment makes Kiera twitch.

Nika: I’m gonna leave this call to the XO, because—.
Kiera: Yeah, cuz you got the money.
Nika: Well, no. It’s his Read on the situation that we’ll count on. If he decides that money is the way to handle it, then fine. If he decides to find a way to make the man think he got the better of the crew, then that’s fine. My issue is the safety of Racy.

Joshua reviews what he Read and comes back to the fact that Manse is nervous about dealing with the gangs. For all anyone knows they have gangs on every planet in Georgia system, or they could just be based on Ithaca but have connections with other gangs on every planet in Georgia system. We don’t know how extensive the Rockets are. But neither does Manse. So the question is: is this something we can capitalize on?

Kiera points out that since he’s already nervous about dealing with the gangs, it doesn’t matter if we don’t know the extent of the gang’s power. We only have to pretend to know and let Manse’s fear of the gangs fill in the rest of the details.

Arden asks Nika for permission to turn the Cortex connection back on so he can research the extent of the gang’s territory and power. Nika tells Rina to bring the Cortex back online on the bridge only, so Arden can work without Manse taking advantage. Rina gets right on it and while she’s doing that, Joshua lays out his plan.

Joshua says that we should lead with the idea that we are small time people and Manse hasn’t any idea what he’s getting into with the gangs. BUT we would rather not get into any trouble and we would rather not see our passengers get into any trouble. Especially not Mr. Roger, who seems like a really nice guy. Manse is … well, special.

Joshua: So walk off free. Here’s an extra 40 credits for walk-away money.
Kiera: A little bit of pocket change.

It seems like the best plan we’ve got and it’s a good thing we’ve agreed to it—Arden comes back with the word that while the Rockets are just a local gang on Ithaca, their leader, Skarn, is a member of one of the Tongs and that he’d been sent out here in semi-retirement. He’s to take over a little gang on a Rim world while the heat dies down for something he did in the Core. A few years and he’d go back to the Core. But for now, he’s here and he’s going to pose a problem if we’re not careful. Especially since he’s got contacts throughout the system and he’s connected to the Core.

Arden: Can you come up with some story to drop the Tong’s name into your negotiations?
Joshua: Oh yes. I plan to drop it. Like I said, it’s a two-pronged thing.
Arden: Make him think we’re actually whatever.
Joshua: No, I don’t think it’s a good idea to make him think we’re part of the Tong. That’s bad. That’s a bad idea.
Nika: That’s bad juju.
Arden: That’s not what I meant.
Joshua: I think the idea is to basically say, “You’ve got no idea what you’re messing with. And we don’t want to mess with it.”

In fact, Joshua intends to use his crash injuries as proof of a curb stomping meted out by the Tong. Just to show how bad these people are and why we don’t want to mess with them. Plan decided, Joshua and Kiera go down to the passenger lounge to put it into action. Kiera serves drinks and they all gather on the sofas—a nice casual friendly chat. Joshua’s already decided that 25 credits is his low anchor point in the bargaining to follow. He expects Manse to come back with something higher and they’ll wrangle down to something in the middle. He lets Manse see some of it.

Joshua: I’d rather give you a little walking around money and enjoy Aphrodite since you didn’t enjoy our ship ride all that much. And you walk away and we walk away. Don’t have to drag the Tong into this. And you know, I’d prefer not to drag the Tong into this.

He points to his injuries. It doesn’t take much acting to look afraid of the Tong, because Joshua is afraid of what the Tong might do to the crew. He has a family with the crew. He has a fiancée. Joshua has plenty incentive to avoid Tong trouble, thanks.

For his part, Roger is just confused as to what’s going on. He tries to ask some questions but Manse shuts him up. Manse demands 25 credits apiece to buy his and Roger’s silence on this sordid matter and Joshua agrees. He was prepared to go as high as 50 apiece, so getting away with only paying out half the maximum amount is fine with him.

Joshua gets the feeling that Manse is happy to walk away with the money as well, relieved that he no longer has to enter into a risky venture with the Tong to get his satisfaction. Joshua’s injuries are intimidating.

The deal is struck, the money is handed over, and we part company. Once safe out of earshot on the upper decks, we discuss what to do next.

Arden: Remind me when they’re off our ship to send a message to Christian to get him blacklisted with the Companion Guild.
Nika: Niiiice!
Kiera: No whore for you. Anymore.
Rina: Mm-hmmm.
Nika: Nice. I like that.
Joshua: (verbal knucklebop!) That was well played.

Beglan opines that Manse didn’t seem the sort who would go to a Companion but even so …. Nicely played. Kiera sighs and crosses her arms and says to Joshua with a bit of asperity:

Kiera: All I can say is your women are costing me small fortunes.
Joshua: Why?
Arden: That’s what women do.
Kiera: (to Arden) I’m not gettin’ nothin’ out of it. You were. You owe me. Ijust don’t know if I wanna capitalize.
Arden: I owe you my heart and life, my dear.

The bickering goes back and forth for a few more rounds but there’s nothing of malice in it. Just relief that we managed to pull a fast one against a greedy letch who could have made a ton of trouble for us.

As to what to do with Racy, she has made it clear she doesn’t want to be dropped off at Aphrodite. We have no problem with her staying on until she decides what she wants to do and where to go.

We fly on toward Aphrodite and thanks to Nika’s excellent piloting and course plotting, she shaves off 8 hours off our flight time. If Manse had not gotten greedy, we would have beaten the clock without the monetary penalty. Even so, we don’t linger on Aphrodite once Manse and Roger disembark but pull stakes and head for New Hope. We’ve got a cargo to deliver and a payday waiting for us. Best we get going and make good on both.

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