Confrontation on Deck
Wednesday, 11 Jul 2525 -- day we drop off Tian and land in the forest
Trans U, Polaris class Delilah
Middle of Nowhere, Whitefall
Morning, local time
Poco came storming up the ramp into Delilah, throwing down the twisted remnants of the port stabilizer onto the deck. He wrestled a rag from his back pocket and mopped the sweat off his forehead. He hated forests. Terrorist-ridden forests doubly so. As he was furiously lighting up a cigarette, he glanced up to see the Boss hurrying down the stairs, buckling on Black Rose.
"Ah!" Poco exclaimed, exhaling a cloud of smoke, "So we're off to rescue the dames, eh? I suppose that we can put off fixing the ship a little longer. I mean, it's just on the verge of blowing up the next time we get hit. But we get shot at so rarely that why worry about that? You know," and he paused thoughtfully to puff on his cigarette, "I wish I could find the húndàn that ordered us into the air damaged and then sent our pilot out to investigate a shipwreck full of gun smugglers while we're effectively grounded with a kid that could die at any minute." Poco looks levelly at the Boss and spits, "Like to give that guy an award for shitty decision making, yeah?"
Looks like Poco was looking for another fight. Val raised his hand and started to argue, but then caught himself. What was he doing? A good boss listened to complaints and didn't always assume himself in the right. Val used to be a good manager, but considering he had just asked Tian to keep an eye on him, he couldn't be sure that was right anymore. Was Poco right?
Ordered us into the air damaged. Yes, he had done that, but that was what Tian had needed in order to help her son. But he argued with himself, couldn't he have convinced Mary Crow Dog to give them some time to fix the ship? Was he weighing one person's immediate needs over the rest of the crew?
Sent our pilot out to investigate a shipwreck full of gun smugglers. There was no immediate evidence that they were gun smugglers for sure. And they almost certainly needed help. But since when had he turned into the white knight, rescuing strangers at the expense of the people he was responsible for?
Effectively grounded with a kid that could die any minute. He hadn't even thought to ask Tian for guidelines and a plan for what would happen if she was out of touch and/or unavailable to do her job. Hell, he hadn't asked any of the crew that. Basically creating single points of failure across the ship.
Val was gallivanting around the 'Verse, rescuing random people for no money and not paying attention to the people who he was supposed to be caring for. Now who did that remind him of?
All of that had run through his head in a second and he dropped his hand to his side, looking a little poleaxed. "My mother was right, Poco. What the hell is it with this gorram cursed ship?"
Poco blinked. He certainly hadn't expected a rational reaction. His hand crept up to gingerly rub his swollen nose, "You ain't gonna go weird again, are you? Last time your mom came up...?" Poco winced and shook his head. "I don't know what's gotten into you. Could be for a while there that you didn't rush off headlong without at least makin' sure that the ship was in good shape and that none of us were at risk of dyin'. Recently.....? Maybe it's the radiation?"
It was a good question. And one Val was going to give a lot of thought to. But the more immediate question in Val's mind was, "Now what?" First was an apology and then figuring out how to rescue the rest of the crew. Assuming that Nuri's almost psychic intuition was right. She had been acting strange, but if you assumed that the impossible was merely improbable, then a lot of the odd pieces seemed to fit into place. And honestly, it felt right. He hadn't just screwed up. It felt like a screwup of monumental proportions. The buck stops here.
"Poco, I was wrong and you were right and when we get our crew back, I will put my captaincy up for grabs if you want that to happen. But in the moment, I've got to correct my mistake." He looked at the twisted hunk of metal lying on the ground nearby and then looked back at Poco. "Is she fixable and if so, where do you think you'll best serve? In here, fixing Delilah for a potential emergency take off? Or with me to provide an extra weapon as I go look for Rachel and Vikki?" Val kept his tone even keel, trying not to imply that he preferred one over the other.
Poco reached into his pocket and sloshed his flask. Nope, he thought to himself, haven't drunk it all yet. Confident that he wasn't hallucinating. Poco replied, "Madre always said you should start shoveling wherever the shit's deepest. Seems like good advice here. 'lilah can take off if she absolutely needs to, but I think Mama Bear's the only one who has a prayer of gettin' her off the ground. We need our pilot, Boss. Also, with the amount of repairs we're lookin' at here, it wouldn't hurt to have Tink." Poco took another long drag off his cigarette. "But if it comes down to it Boss...you don't want to be blasting out of here under a hail of bullets. Not unless you like exploding. Seems like I should come with you. Lowers our chances of us gettin' shot at."
"Your Madre was a wise woman." That was the mistake he made with Poco. Poco generally knew what he was doing. But Val had to constantly filter that through the lens of Poco self-interest to figure out what was worth paying attention to. And that gets tiring, he thought. But when he stopped doing it, he lost one anchor on the way things needed to be done out in space. Not his only anchor, heaven forbid. But of course, his other anchor was currently conversing with a "terrorist".
"Why don't you get the Baron? I've got Black Rose. We can approach them quietly, see if Nuri's instinct is right. Maybe we won't even need to use the guns." Also, maybe while Val was dreaming the impossible, they would find Rachel and Vikki sitting on top of a pile of gold in the crashed ship.
Poco patted the holster at his hip. "You think I'd go out into a jungle crawling with terrorists unarmed? I'm guessing we just lock the girl up in here and hope she don't die on us. And Boss?"
"Yes?" replied Val.
"You can have your fancy meeting if you'd like, but there's no way in hell I want to try to wrangle this herd of cats. Feel free to offer the spot to someone else, but I doubt anyone is crazy enough to want it. Now, let's see if we can do this without getting us, or our pilot, killed."
Nuri was another rough decision to make. He really ought to leave her behind, but if she had some sort of supernatural sense, it could make the difference between getting everyone out alive and having them all dead on the forest floor. Then again, not having someone along that was suffering blinding headaches could also make the same difference. Val guessed this kind of decision is exactly why Poco wanted no part of being captain. What sane person would? But...
"Maybe not, Poco, but when you screw up this bad, you have to give people the option to change management. Only fair."
He pulled Rose out and checked to make sure she was loaded. "But that can wait. Let's go make sure Rachel and Vikki come back safe."
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