Episode 1. Bat Out of Hell
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Tuesday, 01 Jun 2518
Kuiper Class Ship MakeMake
Outbound for the Rim
11:12 hours, ships time
We're a few days' hard burn out of Bernadette when our Captain, Ivan the Terrible, emerges from his bunk and orders us off course. Nika doesn't like it but she does it. We drop our of hard burn and stop somewhere off the beaten path. Ivan tells us to hold our position with our beacon pinging at full volume. When asked why, he just says he's looking to meet someone for business. Oookaay.....he's the boss. Nika waits til he's left the bridge to message Josef Potemkin back on Bernadette, telling him of this new development and asking what he wants her to do. Meanwhile, Rina's noticed the change in speed (Hard to miss, she's in the engine room listening to the engines...) and goes up to the bridge to ask what's going on. Nika shrugs and fills her in.
Rina: Christ, you don't have the beacon going full blast, do you?
Nika: Hell no. Damn thing isn't even on. I'm not touching it til I get word back from Potemkin.
Rina: What's the SOL delay?
Nika: About an hour.
At which point Ivan returns to the bridge.
Ivan: Have we made contact yet?
Nika: No.
Ivan: Why is beacon not on?
We look. The light for the beacon is off. Shit.
Rina: The bulb must be burnt out. I'll fix it.
And she gets right down on the deck, opens up the console and starts tinkering. Apparently satisfied, Ivan wanders off the bridge with orders to call him if anyone tries to hail us. Nika tells Rina to fix it to look like the beacon's pinging away when it's actually turned off. Rina does it easily, rigging it so the light glows on. An hour passes and Potemkin's reply returns. It simply says: Stand By.
Nika: "Stand By"? What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Stumped, she decides to continue with the ruse.
15:47 hrs, ships time
Meanwhile the rest of the crew has already figured out we're sidelined yet again for a clandestine deal and they start grumbling--not so much over the illegality of the activity, but that such delays make them LATE, incurring penalties when they finally arrive at their destination and reducing their cut of the profits. Maven, Grimes, and the others are getting torqued off and the new-hires (Nika, Rina, Christian, and Arden) are getting increasingly anxious about possible mutiny. The fact that all the crew had to surrender their weapons to be kept under lock and key in the gun locker is small comfort--should mutiny arise, Grimes would have instant access to the firepower, since he's the only one with the key. If the shit hits the fan, there's no telling what the man will do. Rina's of the opinion that the plan has always been to sell the passengers to slavers, kill off the new hires and sell the cargo--out in the deep of space, off the regular traffic lanes, who's to say any different? As an explanation for why we're parked in the middle of nowhere, it's as good as any other.
The others dismiss her idea as paranoia. Together, Nika, Christian and Arden figure out a way to drug the regular crew to avert mutiny, allowing Nika to fly us back on course til the Captain emerges from his current drunken stupor. He will have lost out on his clandestine meet, but at least the MakeMake will arrive pretty much on schedule with passengers and cargo intact--just as Nika had been hired by Josef to do. The passengers, segregated from the crew, won't notice a thing. It was a simple plan, no one would get hurt and by the time they wake up, everything will be over without a shot fired.
Pity it didn't happen that way.
Ivan keeps tabs on the bridge, popping in every 40 minutes or so to mutter "where are they, where are they?"
Ivan: Are the sensors working properly?
Nika: Yes, Rina's checked them. What are we supposed to be looking for anyway?
Ivan: Ship.
Nika: No, really?
The sarcasm goes right over his head.
Ivan: A mid-sized freighter, but if any ship shows up--any ship--tell me.
He goes back to his cabin to drink and wait.
Christian serves the passengers and sees them settled, then carefully drugs the regular crew's dessert. Working under Arden's direction, he tailors the dosage to each recipient based on body weight and metabolism. The vehicle is hot cocoa, made with real cooking chocolate to disguise any taste of the drugs. Things go awry when Grimes refuses his portion. Harvey Ellis immediately asks to have it and Grimes gives it over. Within minutes, Ellis is looking quite sleepy, having had over 2 doses' worth of the drug. JJ starts looking ill-ish, muttering something about the food not agreeing with him—too much damn paste. Then JJ clutches his heart and hits the deck, struggling to breathe. Rina gets on the deck with JJ, checking his airway. Rina yells down the hallway for the doctor—"Get your ass down here, there's a man dying!"
Not the most discreet thing to be yelling within earshot of the passengers and crew, nope…but it's too late to take back the words. Ellis starts blinking and asking if his friend is gonna be okay? Rina runs flat out for the doctor in the passenger lounge. Nika yells at Rina to tell the doc to bring an Epi-pen, and then elevates JJ's head to help him breathe. She occupies an increasingly-upset Ellis with this task and by the time Arden arrives with his bag, the big man has JJ cradled in his arms. Arden throws Nika a sour look over the plan going south and she shoots him a `shut your mouth' look back at him. Grimes stands by and starts connecting the dots—the food's been poisoned.
Back in the passenger lounge, Christian tells the passengers that everything's all right, the doctor is on it, it might be best if they all returned to their quarters for now, give the man room to work. Rina hangs out in the passenger lounge, her message delivered, staying out of Arden's way. Christian sees Grimes pass through the lounge for the gangway belowdecks.
Where the guns are. And he has the only key.
Shit.
Christian tells the passengers that everything's under control, he's just going to check on things and come back….and follows after Grimes. Hinked, Rina follows Christian.
She gains the landing at the bottom of the stairs and steps out into the passageway for the lower level. Directly opposite is a set of doors leading to the gun locker. Christian is already at the outer door and swings it shut, intending to trap Grimes inside. The door operates via keycard. Rina says she can hack the panel and bypass any commands Grimes might punch in from the inside. Christian puts his weight against the door and tells her to just make sure they can open it again after she's done. Rina shoots back that she if fails, there's always the blowtorch.
Being it's a complex action, it's going to take more finesse than simply monkey-wrenching the control panel. And the longer it takes, the greater the chance Grimes can overpower Christian's weight and get out. Christian tells her to hurry.
Grimes pushes off the bulkhead inside and rams the door, forcing it open a crack. The door's hinges are opposite Rina and the opening is inches away from her. She draws her knife from her left boot, ready to stab Grimes if he goes for her.
Grimes lashes out with his gun, using it as a club as he tries to push the door open. Rina dodges. Christian tries to shut the door on Grimes' hand, but Grimes snatches it back in time and is shut in again. Rina gets back to work on the controls, trying to jam the locks. Grimes shoves against the door and Christian turns the tables on him, yanking the door open to throw Grimes off balance.
Grimes rushes out and Rina slashes at him with her knife as he passes her. Only fair, since he tried hitting her with his gun. She draws blood. Grimes keeps on going and hits the far wall of the passage. He manages to stay on his feet…and keep his gun. Christian catches the door to the gun locker before it can bounce shut and ducks inside, leaving Rina stuck outside with a wounded Grimes not three feet away. Grimes raises his gun and shoots. She takes a hit in her arm, a graze.
That's it. All bets are off. Rina closes in on Grimes and slashes him with her knife again.
In the locker, Christian goes for his rifle, only to find that it is locked in a gun rack. He looks around for anything not locked down and finds pistols and a stun baton. He grabs a pistol and runs back to the passageway.
He emerges with his pistol up and ready and he orders Grimes: "Please surrender now."
Meanwhile, back upstairs…
Nika's managed to tell Arden that JJ is suffering an allergic reaction and Arden's only just started on the man when a shot echoes up from belowdecks. Nika does a quick head count—who's sleepy and who's not. Mavis is wavering on her feet, lists wildly once, twice, and hits the deck. Ellis is still awake and goes over to sit down in a chair…and passes out. That leaves just Nika, JJ, and Arden in the crew lounge.
And back downstairs Christian has his pistol on Grimes, who has his on Christian…
It's a Mexican stand-off. No one moves. Everyone breathes.
Christian: (to Grimes) Please surrender now and I promise to have the doctor tend to you and you won't be further harmed.
Grimes: All right…—Like hell!
Grimes tries to shoot Christian. Rina strikes out with one hard fist, connects, and sends Grimes flying back into the bulkhead. There is a wet crunch and the back of his head paints a bloody smear all the way down to the deck.
Christian: (shocked and angry) You realize he could have been innocent.
Rina: (shocked and angry right back) Tell that to my arm.
Christian: Yes, yes I'm sure his broken spine and your arm are equals.
Rina: Let's pitch his body out the airlock. We can tell them he fell down the stairs.
Christian: Throw him out the airlock? Oh, that's a very convincing story. He fell down the stairs, rolled into the airlock, hit the airlock release button and then went out into space? No. We leave him here, and hope he was going to get a weapon to take over the ship…and not to defend it from a perceived mutiny.
Rina sighs and shakes her head.
Rina: Everyone on this crew is culpable.
Meanwhile, back upstairs…
When aother gunshot rings out below decks. Nika orders Arden to check on the Captain. Arden argues he's only just gotten JJ stabilized and as for the Captain—
Arden: What am I supposed to do with him?
Nika: If he's not out already, sedate him.
Christian hits the stairs for the upper deck, emptying the chamber of his pistol, ejecting the clip and tossing the gun. He doesn't need it. Rina wastes no time getting the key clip from Grimes' belt and goes inside the gun locker to get her gun and don her shoulder holster. She gets Nika's gun. And three extra clips. She takes Grimes' gun into the locker and locks everything in there down tight. Rina picks up the clip and the gun that Christian discarded, reloads the pistol and tucks it on her person as a back-up piece. She zips her coveralls over her holster and makes sure none of the other weapons she's carrying are visible, zips the key clip in an interior pocket, then goes up to find Nika. Nika is their only pilot and she's their only ticket out of there—she'll need a bodyguard.
In the crew lounge, Arden is arguing with Nika.
Arden: I don't want to sedate anybody else until I know what we're going to do with them.
Nika: Then just monitor them. God help us, I think there's at least one other guy running around here…
Nika takes off for the foredeck, wondering what the hell she's going to do next and encounters Christian coming the other way.
Nika: Our doctor's keeping track of the sick people.
Christian: Our non-lethal distraction—
Nika: What happened?
Christian: (sighs) We weren't able to keep him in the weapons locker, which was our initial plan. He came out and …Rina decided that lethal force was necessary for the situation.
Nika cuts loose with something very very vulgar in Chinese.
Christian: He did shoot first. But only after she brought out the knife. He tried to pistol-whip her first. It was not fun. He's dead at the bottom of the stairs.
Nika: I'm going to the bridge and I'm going to get us back on course.
Christian: I'll go and make sure the Captain is still sleeping.
Christian hears snoring through the Captain's door. Yup. He's out for the count.
A blessing.
Nika gains the bridge and realizes that there really is a man still unaccounted for—the other repair engineer. She hears Christian's tread on the deck aft of the bridge and calls out to him.
Nika: I think we're missing one of the crew members.
Christian: The other engineer wasn't at dinner.
They pause and take stock.
18:55 hrs, ships time
So the situation as it stands:
- We've successfully taken the vessel—
- Minus the extra engineering guy.
- But at the moment we still have power.
- Though we don't know how long that will last.
- We have drugged the crew.
- Induced an allergic reaction in one of them…
- And killed another.
Christian: This seemed like a good idea at the time.
Nika: We had better hope we were right. `Cuz otherwise we're gonna be in deep deep—.
Christian: Well, for now we should find out where the other engineer is and secure him, making sure he's not a problem—
Nika: —<Chinese obscenity: Explosive diarrhea of an elephant>
Christian:—and make sure the Captain doesn't wake up, which I don't think he's going to do anytime soon. And I'm thinking we should secure the other crewmates and I would actually like to go through Grimes'—
A blinking light on the bridge console distracts Christian. It's the proximity alert. Something's coming.
Rina joins the others on the bridge, tying a handkerchief around her arm wound with her teeth. They fill her in on what they've discussed. Rina grimaces and mutters she should have just kept on walking on Bernadette and not taken Potemkin up on his offer…. Dammit. She checks her handkerchief, sees it's holding up fine. She makes a fist: she can use her arm. Good. At least something's going right.
Christian checks out the proximity alert.
Christian: That doesn't look like a good thing…
We're picking up a very faint pulse beacon. It's faint, but it's pretty close. And we don't exactly know what that means.
Nika: Great.
Christian: Maybe this is why we were told to stand by. Or it would be good to leave.
Nika: Are they transmitting?
No.
Christian: A very good thing to leave now.
Rina looks the data over. It's moving at a slow speed, practically drifting, and it's only a kilometer away. She squints out the bridge windows.
Rina: Do we see any red paint?
Nika: Oh,frack!
Christian: That's a big assumption to make.
Nika: Not necessarily, not out here.
Christian: I have no idea. I'm not from out here.
Nika: I'm staying on course. It's not my job to worry why that other ship's drifting.
Christian: So we're going to ignore it?
Rina: If we only had guns, I'd say we shoot it.
Christian: So it's drifting? It's possible it's a ship in distress.
Rina: Then they'd be sending a May-Day.
Christian: Assuming their equipment was working.
Nika: And if it's something uglier? Do you really want to chance that when we've just incapacitated the entire crew?
Rina: Our running lights are off. We're not transmitting on the beacon. And our emissions…(she checks the status boards) …how hot are they…?
There's some signature: we're running life support, so we're a little more noticeable than the other ship. What we're getting from them is a very faint signal. And they don't appear to be moving toward us, they appear to be drifting. They could easily have flown right up to us, nonetheless.
Rina: My instincts are telling me keep your foot on the gas pedal and your foot on the brake, and rabbit if we have to.
Nika: Okay.
Christian: Perhaps we should try to hail them.
Rina: (looking askance) Always with the talking, this guy. Always with the talking.
Christian: It's amazing what happens when you don't break people's necks—
Nika: My instinct says let's just rabbit.
Rina: Majority rules. We're rabbiting.
Nika rabbits but does a fly-by to check out the other ship. Rina grouses the MakeMake isn't outfitted with external cameras and she doesn't have a camera herself. Damn.
We see what looks like a medium-sized freighter, just taking up space, listing. There are no skeletons strapped to its hull or any red paint.
Nika: Do you want to salvage it?
Rina: I say we just get the hell out of here. I mean, how are we going to salvage it? We need you to fly the ship. Everybody we could have ordered on the crew to salvage it are sleeping—.
Christian: Could we at least do one scan? To try to find out if someone's alive aboard that ship?
Rina: All right. If it'll shut him up. Sure.
Rina paints the other ship with a scan, checking for signatures on the vessel. It comes back showing there's emergency power only on the ship, which would include the beacon. That explains why it's so faint. Also, this a large ship, larger than ours though not that much larger. There are no obvious signs of habitable life support. There could be conceivably be someone aboard in a spacesuit, but it's not likely anyone would be alive aboard because it's going to be very cold inside. It looks like the life support's been off for a couple of days. The ship also sports her name: The Danton.
Rina relays all of this to Christian and Nika.
Christian: All right, now I'm agreeing with you because there's no one alive aboard that ship.
Nika: Why not? Because if this is the ship that's supposed to meet us, why not?
Christian: Either something happened inside the ship or something happened outside the ship, and if something happened outside the ship—
Rina: It could be plague or pirates. Let's get out of here.
There's no sign of weapons damage to the outside of the ship. Pirates may not be the reason she's drifting.
Nika: We're going anyway. Make a note of it in the star charts of where it is. When we come back, maybe we'll come back and look.
Christian: Agreed.
Nika: Make a note of the location on the star charts, approximate drift pattern, and what ship it is so that when we get back we can figure out what the heck's going on.
Christian: I'm going to go back and check on everyone else.
He finds Arden.
Arden: I don't know about the other engineer, but the pilot's probably going to wake up in an hour and I have no clue about the big guy because…he's…I'm surprised he's still out. Maybe he had a bigger dose than I realized.
Christian: Well, we're not going to worry about them for the moment.<ve>
Arden: I still think we should put them someplace where they can't get out.
Christian: There was another ship we were passing. Apparently dead in the water and we are now back on our destination. I want to check on—.
Arden: Is that blood on you?
Christian: Yes. There was an…unpleasantness downstairs.
Arden: I heard the gunfire, the gunshots.
Christian: We attempted to confine the Bosun to the weapons locker and he took exception to it. Violently.
Arden: Does anyone need help?
Christian: No. No one needs help.
Christian heads back to engineering. The hatch to the engineering compartment is locked. Christian taps on the door's window.
Tap. Tap.
No answer.
Christian: (buzzing via intercom) Excuse me.
Engineer: Who's there?
Christian: It's Christian.
Engineer: What's going on?
Christian: We're going to our destination.
Engineer: Is there some kinda disease? Saw some people on the floor.
Christian: No. No. It's a very long story. (Pause) How do you feel about the stop we were making?
Engineer: Don't much care. We're still working. Easier to work in space than on land, sometimes.
Christian: It seemed as if other members of the crew were agitated and looking to take their fair share of what they thought the Captain owed them. And we took preventative steps. They should be all right in a few hours.
Nice spin!
Engineer: All right then. Just keep it at that, I guess.
Christian: And meanwhile, while we're on our way to our destination, if you wish to stay in there that's fine. I promise no one's going to harm you.
Engineer: I guess I'll just stay in here.
Christian: All right.
Engineer: If you don't try to get in here, everything should be fine.
Christian: Um, as long as there's nothing in there, I'm sure we won't.
Engineer: As long as you're not trying to get in here, there won't be anything wrong in here.
Christian: Agreed. If you need anything, please let us know. I don't know how much longer it will take us to get there, but you can't stay in there forever. It's more than a few days. You will need food. I will be glad to leave it here, step beyond the other door, so you can come out, grab it and go back in.
Engineer: I saw what happened to the other people who liked the food.
Christian: Indeed. And that's the risk you'll have to take. I can give you sealed packets.
Engineer: You might want to do that.
Christian: All right.
The engineer seems twitchy but willing to stay put and deal for now. Christian goes back to the bridge.
Christian: Are we on course?
Nika: Yep.
Christian: Good.
Rina: Oh. Here's your gun. (She hands Nika her gun.) And extra clips.
Nika: Excellent.
Rina: I couldn't find your holster.
Christian: That's probably because they wouldn't take your holster from you. Would you please come with me and help me take our extra crew members to a place somewhere where they wouldn't be a bother?
Rina: Sure.
Christian: Which I think it's going to take the three of us to take care of the big guy. But before we do anything else, since they aren't going to wake up in a while and we can tell the doc to keep an eye on them, I want to search rooms. I would like evidence, maybe someone wrote something down, about the theoretic mutiny—.
Rina: I have hacking.
Christian: That's possible. On the other hand, they may have a Cortex link in their rooms, the Cortex may have information….
19:30 hrs, ships time
We search the rooms. In the Bosun's quarters, we find a small pistol and a combat knife.
Rina: He was going for the big guns, even though he was closer to his own.
Christian: True. That's interesting. I wonder if there was something else in the locker.
Rina: We could check it out, but we should do it now.
Christian: If I wanted to keep something from prying eyes, that would be the place I'd put it. For now, as for the crew, why don't we lock them up in each room, keep them apart.
Rina: If you're going to lock them up, put them somewhere where they can't use anything to MacGyver their way out.
Christian: Forget the rooms. We're going to lock them up in the seeds container. Since we don't have an infirmary, we should put the doc and his patient in one of the staterooms and keep the door locked. That done, I want to check out the weapons locker.
Rina: What do you want to do with the body? You're gonna trip over it in a second. It's at the bottom of the stairs.
Rina: What about the airlock?
Christian: We'll put him in the airlock but we won't—
Rina: Right. We can bleed out the atmo and let the cold take care of the rest.
And that's what we do.
Rina goes through Grimes' pockets, looking for anything incriminating. She avoids everything below the belt. Ew. She finds nothing useful.
She checks out the locker with Christian. Christian takes his time, looking for anything that's not a weapon because it would be suspicious. Rina looks for any kind of communications device that Grimes could have used to call up reinforcements on the sly, any kind of data management or data access equipment. Also, we're looking for anything that in general doesn't belong in a weapons locker. Basically, we're both looking for anything that would suggest why someone with a gun within five feet of him would go all the way down here, other than the fact that he could pretend he was going to see the Captain.
Rina finds an unusual item in one of the ammo boxes.
It looks like a computer board of some kind. She's seen something like this before, but where she's seen it eludes her. This is the only thing out of place they've found. Rina takes two more extra clips for her gun and a ballistic mesh vest for herself. Christian takes a mesh vest for himself as well. Rina will take the board to her quarters where her tools are, to try to figure out what the board really is, but for now she and Christian go back to the bridge and fills Nika in on what they've found out so far.
20:45 hrs, ships time
Christian: The Bosun had a gun in his room, about fifteen feet away from where he was at the time. So rather than go to his room, he went all the way down to the locker. We got suspicious so we headed to the weapons locker. And found that. Also, the engineer has locked himself up in the engine room and I promised that as long as he didn't interfere with the ship, we wouldn't interfere with him. Because otherwise, we'd have to find a way to get in and it would get messy and bloody and I don't want to kill anyone else. If we don't have to.
Nika: Fair enough.
Christian: We've locked two of the crew in one of the cargo containers. The third one, the one that was having heart troubles is with the doctor in one of the staterooms.
Nika: Well, bear in mind that the Bosun may have in fact been in cahoots with the Captain, so when the Captain rouses from his stupor, we could have some serious problems.
Rina: Can't we just pitch in a gas canister in there and seal him up and make him go to sleep some more?
Christian: The Captain?
Rina: Yes.
Christian: Do you have a gas canister?
Rina: No. But I'm sure I can find some chorine bleach and some ammonia windex—
Christian: Do you want to deal with him now or do you want to deal with him when he's awake?
Rina: (angry) I don't want to deal with him at all, so why don't we just… (deflates)… see what I can figure out about this thing.
She holds up the board they've found.
Rina: Call me when you need me. I'll be in my quarters.
She stomps out.
Christian: (asks Nika) All right. How long til we get there? The Prairie Paradise?
Nika: About a week.
20:47 hrs, ships time
Back in her quarters, Rina looks over her tools. She's got her hacking kit, a data book, a data reader, some chips, a portable Cortex 'box the size of a tablet, and a few hand tools of the sort that one can normally carry in your pockets: swiss army knife, a Leatherman, slide calipers….that sort of thing.
She decides to utilize one of the Cortex 'boxes in one of the passenger staterooms to hack into the board they've found. It may end up destroying the 'box, but better that than her own. Besides, the stateroom 'box has a beefier processor than her data book, anyway. If this thing is what she thinks it is, she's going to need that extra processing capacity.
It takes her an hour or so, but it appears to be part of the pulse beacon, the part that is normally buried deep in the ship. Its purpose is to transmit the owner's name and the ship's name and registration information. It's synonymous to an extra (illegal) license plate for a car and Rina sees it originally came from another vessel. The information coded onto the board states it is for: The Tsin Jyu, and it says it's owned by Grimes.
We have plausible evidence the Bosun, at least, was waiting to take over the MakeMake, slap a false transponder on her, and take her for his own. Christian will be pleased when she tells him what she's found. The Captain won't be, when he finds out.
Rina stabilizes everything she's found and puts as much of her findings (either as a typed report or the actual data) as she can on a chip as back-up. She goes to Nika and Christian to tell them what she's found.
21:53 hrs, ships time
They debate what to do next. The options are limited. It's going to be a week before landfall and payday. Meanwhile, we will have the incarcerated crewmen to take care of—meds, food, water and somehow a way they can eliminate waste without making themselves sick. (Rina opines they could just use a spare corner for all she cares. Nika remarks it wouldn't be good for the cargo in the container with them.)
Consensus: Keeping everyone in the dark as to the whereabouts of the crew is logistically untenable. We decide go wake up the Captain and tell him. If the Captain was in on the Bosun's scheme, or so Christian thinks, the board wouldn't have the Bosun's name on it. Rina asks how long it would take to get Josef's opinion on this and Nika says it will take hours before the message makes the round trip. Furthermore, the captives will be waking up any minute now and the passengers likewise will be venturing from their quarters. We had better tell the Captain now.
As a backup plan, we agree to send a report in to Josef Potemkin so as to keep him in the loop. If nothing else, we will have a trail of evidence showing we tried to do the right thing, should it come to trial.
21:55 hrs, ships time
Christian goes belowdecks to check on Maven and Harvey, still locked up in the seed container. They are awake, confused and not a little bit anxious over the current state of affairs. They demand to know what the hell is going on. He fills them in via handcomm.
Christian: It looks like the Bosun was about to commit mutiny and we're not sure—.
Maven: So why are we in here?
Christian: At this point, we're not sure…We're waiting for the Captain to wake up and decide what to do with everyone. Until this point, everyone that was on this ship at the same time working with the Bosun—
Maven: —'Cause you gotta let us out. He's gonna think that we're a part of this if you keep us back here.
Christian: But we don't know you're not a part of it. (Pause) You see our dilemma.
Harvey: This is….What's going on?
Christian: We'll deal with it then. If it takes too long, I promise you'll have food and water. I'm sorry.
Christian cuts his handcomm channel and goes to check on Arden and his patient.
Arden: We need to get him to a hospital. I don't know what happened, but somehow he appears to have had something a bit past a normal allergic reaction. I don't know what it was exactly, but…
Christian: Perhaps he was allergic to chocolate and the—.
Arden: You'd think he'd know not to drink it.
Christian: You'd think. He may not have thought it was real. If it eases your conscience at all, if any, the Bosun was planning on committing mutiny. We found documents and transponder-electronic things that would transfer the ship, seemingly, to his name.
Christian leaves Arden with that information and joins the others to roust the Captain. He's reluctant to leave the crew locked up in a container that may not have enough air to keep them alive for however long it would take for the Captain to wake up on his own. Nika puts the ship on autopilot. Rina locks the bridge door when they leave. Having secured the ship as best as we're able, we go the Captain's quarters to wake him up.
22:17 hrs, ships time
We enter the Captain's quarters via the Bosun's skeleton key. Ivan is snoring away.
Christian: Captain.
He's going to need more than a simple call to wake up.
Rina: We could pour water on his face.
Christian: Hold on. I've dealt with this with clients quite a few times.
Christian draws back and slaps the Captain hard: Slam!
Nika: Jesus!
Christian: Captain…
Rina: And I was just going to pour water on his face. (To Nika, pointing to Christian) And he calls me bloodthirsty.
Christian: (pointing at Ivan) No blood.
Ivan snorts and coughs.
Ivan: Uhnn…What are you doing…? Did we make contact?
Nika: Captain. Captain….We need you… You're hurt, sir
Christian: No, sir. Your contact is dead, sir.
Ivan: (blinking)…What?
Christian: (firmly) It's a very long story and we need you alert and awake. I'm going to go make you…do you have coffee reserves, somewhere hidden, please?
Ivan: Uhn…Yes.
Ivan starts pulling himself together, straightening his uniform into some semblance of order. When everything's settled, we begin.
Christian: Where to start?
Nika: A medium freighter came into the proximity of our vessel—
Ivan: Yes?
Nika: There was no one on it. No one alive, anyway.
Christian: It was dead in the water, so to speak.
Nika: It appeared to be.
Christian: All lights off.
Ivan: Well, we should probably investigate—
Nika: (overriding everyone) In addition, part of the crew—
Ivan: —Of the freighter?
Christian: —No, your—
Nika: (Shut up, Christian) —No. Of our crew. Was getting rather agitated over the fact that we were hving missions they were not getting part of the take for. So. We took it upon ourselves to contain most of them. The Bosun decided he was going to hit the weapons locker and in the process of subduing him, an accident occurred. He is no longer with us.
Christian: Well, parts of him are.
Nika: He is not—.
Christian: —Before you say anything, I think you should look at this.
Christian holds a hand out to Rina and she produces the board. Christian passes it to him.
Ivan: What is that?
Rina explains it to him.
Ivan: (scoffs) Grimes doesn't own a boat.
Christian: No.
Rina: This allows him to own one—.
Nika: Not unless he owns your boat.
Silence.
Nika: Which is where he was heading when we incapacitated the rest of the crew.
Ivan: Where is, currently?
Christian: Currently in the airlock.
Ivan: I should talk to him.
Christian: You're not going to be able to.
Rina: He's achieved room temperature, sir.
Ivan: (putting it together) Grimes tried to stage a mutiny and you stopped him.
Christian: Yes.
Rina: Yes, sir.
Christian: We're not sure who else is in on it.
Nika makes a face, almost, and shuts the hell up. Her loyalty is to the company that hired her, not necessarily the ship and its captain. Harsh, but practical.
Nika: We have not determined the culpability of the rest of the crew.
Ivan: And the passengers are…?
Christian: The passengers are currently in their quarters.
Ivan: Fine. Assemble everyone in the forward lounge. The other mutineers?
Christian: We don't know.
Nika: The engineer seems to be in the clear.
Christian: We weren't sure who was involved, so we took Harvey and Maven—they are in the cargo—and unfortunately, JJ had a bad reaction to the sedative and he's with the doctor. And your mechanic has locked himself in the engine room. We don't know who is involved and until you were able to take charge of the situation, sir, we weren't comfortable risking any lives.
Ivan rises from his bunk.
Ivan: All right. Everyone is incapacitated. Someone else is… the mechanic is in the …?
Christian: Your mechanic is in the engine room. He hasn't done anything to hinder the ship's progress.
Ivan hails the engine room via ships intercom.
Ivan: You. In the engine room. Go to the forward lounge. This is the Captain speaking.
Mechanic: You okay?
Ivan: (snarls) Yes, I'm okay. Get to the forward lounge.
Mechanic: (meekly) Okay.
Ivan eyes the rest of us standing there and points to the forward lounge. We all go.
22:26 hrs, ships time
Once everyone is assembled, Ivan speaks.
Ivan: Some people think because I'm not paying attention to every detail that I do not know what goes on on this ship. That I tolerate insubordination and mutiny. Killing…
He looks at everyone. Rina suppresses a twitch when his eye lands on her and keeps her chin up. As with a junkyard dog, never back down, never show fear, never surrender.
Ivan: …These things are not okay.
Christian: Yes, sir.
Ivan: The next time there is problem…
Ivan walks over to the status board on the wall and hits the controls for the cargo container the crew is in. The lights for the container hatches go red.
Rina and Christian lunge for Ivan's hand, but it's too late. Maven and Harvey are gone.
Christian: (Horrified) Holy Crap!
Rina: Yebani v'rot! ["Holy FUCK!" in Russian (Lit. tr.: Shit in mouth!)—Maer]
Nika: Captain!
Ivan turns and stares us down.
Ivan: I will not tolerate mutiny on my ship.
Nika: We don't know if they were even involved.
Ivan: Next one who tries…
He leaves the threat hanging.
Christian: Aren't we losing valuable cargo right now?
Rina: (angry and shaken) Fuck the cargo!
Christian: I am trying to appeal to—
Ivan: It will come out of crew's pay.
Christian: True. There will be less crew to pay.
Rina: (undertone) Fuck the pay…
Nika: Considering everything else that comes out of the crew's pay…
Ivan: All weapons on table. All keys on table. I have them only now.
Rina sighs and puts her gun on the table. And her extra clip. And her second clip. And her third clip. She's not telling anyone that she still has her knife. If Ivan wants it, the bastard's gonna have to strip search her for it. Neither does anyone know about the Leatherman in her pocket. Or her slide calipers. Or her 10 mm combo wrench… As long as she has her tools, her wits and her hands, she'll get out of this. She will. She has to.
Nika hasn't moved to surrender her gun as yet.
Ivan: Who has key?
Rina slaps the damned keys on the table next to her gun.
Nika looks at the Captain.
Nika: We are currently on course for Jiang Yin.
Ivan: We will go back to spacecraft.
Nika: You're gonna have to give me a better explanation than that before I turn the ship around.
Ivan gives her one. At the top of his lungs.
Ivan: I have business on spacecraft! Is my ship!
Nika doesn't even blink.
Nika: It's half your brother's ship and your brother hired me. Because you're skimming off the top. So unless you give me a better reason, I'm not turning this ship around. I'm taking it to Jiang Yin.
Ivan: There can be only one Captain on ship.
Nika: I will happily follow your orders until you get us where you're supposed to be. After that, you can get up with your brother.
Ivan glowers but says nothing. Rina and Christian stay quiet, out of the line of fire.
Nika: I have marked where that vessel is sitting. If you and your brother come to terms, I will give you the information, you can go back for it.
Ivan: (with quiet menace) Put weapon on table. If you wish to be mutineer?
Nika: I'm not a mutineer.
Ivan: You get to Jiang Yin, what happens?
Nika: I walk off your boat and go away.
Ivan: (not buying it) Oh, yes. And then what?
Nika: There are always people who need pilots.
Ivan: My family is widespread.
Nika: I couldn't care less. Your brother put me on this vessel to get your ship where it's supposed to go on time. I'm going to get you where you're supposed to be on time, sir.
Ivan: Very good. You will get me where I wish to be. Put your gun on table.
All eyes being on Nika and the Captain, Christian takes the opportunity to slip quietly away to the Bosun's quarters.
Nika gives up her gun.
Nika: I'm not going to mutiny against you. Your brother hired me to look out for you. To get you where you're supposed to be on time.
Ivan: All right.
Nika: You take the rest of that up with him. I'll give you the coordinates where that vessel sits. No one else is going to find it before you get back to it.
Ivan nods and picks up the guns, ceding the argument. Nika hands him her extra clip.
Rina mutters she should just name her gun Yo-yo.
Ivan turns to the ships mechanic.
Ivan: You will be engineer now. If any change in our systems happen, you tell me.
He turns to Nika.
Ivan: If you fly us to Jiang Yin, you will leave boat then.
In other words, she's fired.
Nika: That's between you and your brother.
Ivan: (sourly) Yes. My brother.
Nika: (not really meaning it) Sorry. You're late all the time. Whaddya want from hkm?
Ivan: You are very close to sharing airlock with Bosun.
Nika: (Cut it out, you're scarin' me…) Oohh…
Ivan: Pilot not Captain of ship. I Captain of ship.
Nika: (mimicking syntax) Can Captain pilot ship?
Ivan: I pilot fine, if necessary.
Nika looks askance.
Ivan: (waving it off) Ship fly itself.
Ivan takes a deep breath and lets out a stream of invective that is as original and thorough as it is loud. Then:
Ivan: Everyone to bunks. To quarters. Except engineer and pilot. Everyone else—.
He waves them to get the hell out. Rina leans in and murmurs to Ivan re: his swearing.
Rina: You forgot govniuk, sir.
Ivan: What?
Rina: Govniuk. [Russian for shithead and reputedly Stalin's favorite—Maer]
Ivan: Yes. That, too. (A beat) Ship on course for Jiang Yin?
Nika: Yes.
Ivan: You take care of body in airlock.
Nika: Yes, sir.
Rina: I'll go help. Since I think I've just been demoted…
22:35 hrs, ships time
Meanwhile, Christian makes it to the Bosun's quarters unhindered and once there, takes the dead man's gun. He shoves it in his sock, since it is now the only free gun on the ship. He pulls his pants leg over the weapon, concealing it. Rina arrives and strips the Bosun's beds of its sheets.
Christian: Why…?
Rina: Shroud.
They're in the middle of wrapping the Bosun when Ivan breaks in via the intercom.
Ivan: That body off ship yet?
Rina growls at the interruption and gives up, ties the sheet ends down tight with double knots and gets to her feet. Once she's safe in the corridor, they seal the airlock and vent the body. Rina crosses herself: head, chest, right shoulder, left. Russian Orthodox, of course.
So long, Grimes.
Over the remainder of the trip, we don't have much opportunity to conspire: Ivan's alcohol consumption goes down and his periods of drunken stupor decrease as a result. He carries on suspiciously—eyeing the food Christian puts in front of him, watching everyone as they go about duties…
You know, suspicious.
Unfortunately, though his drinking has moderated, his temper has not. He's carrying on like a bigger dick than usual, being hung over and in a foul mood over the entire business.
Such is the face he shows to the crew.
To the passengers he shows a different face: giving his apologies; how these days, the crew, you find them and they are scum of the earth, so it is best when you are not eating you confine yourself to your quarters; he has everything under control, the crew is attending to their duties, they will not be harassing you anymore or bother you.
We watch our step, follow his orders and do what we can to stay out of his way, even as we try to prove to him we have nothing to hide and he has nothing to fear. Christian keeps to the galley cooking, or swabs the decks. Rina scrubs toilets and spit polishes the equipment in the engine room. Nika follows orders. We eat our meals in the crew lounge with the Captain, the better for him to keep an eye on us. No talking, keep eating, you have twenty minutes, he says. Rina chokes down the tofu and the protein paste as best she can, aware she's being watched and any refusal on her part will hink the Captain more than he already is. Christian helps her where possible, but there aren't many options available to him in the galley. We get through it.
When the Captain sleeps, he locks down the bridge before turning in, shutting off access to it and his quarters immediately aft.
It's when he sleeps we can get together to plan what we're going to do next.
Christian is keeping tabs on the Captain's pattern of activity and after some observation, he nails it. That night at dinner, he carefully writes in a thin line of sauce on our plates—hidden from the Captain's line of sight by piles of food—N/R's room. 1 AM.
Thursday, 03 Jun 2518
Nika and Rina's quarters
01:03 hrs, ships time
Christian knocks on the door. Nika lets him in. Door closed, everyone settles on the two bunks available. Christian draws his gun and puts within easy reach.
Nika: (Of the gun) What's that?
Christian: Bosun's gun. In case.
Rina: (grim smile) Awesome.
Nika: (not pleased) You don't think the Captain's pissed off enough?
Christian: I'm at this point wondering if we're going to reach the planet alive.
Nika: We're gonna reach the planet alive.
Rina: And there's any number of places we can stash that gun.
Nika: He might be royally, royally pissed off right now, but the fact of the matter is, we went to him and we in essence saved his cargo. And potentially saved his life, because if the Bosun had taken over, he probably would've just taken the Captain out. So, pissed off or not, we're gonna make it where we're goin'.
Christian: He's also a murderer. Not that we're not that particularly innocent either, except he killed two of them—
Nika: Exactly.
Christian: Except he wasn't doing it directly in self-defense.
Nika: Yeah, sort of.
Christian: They had no choice.
Nika: The only regret I have is not knowing if the other two were even involved with the Bosun. The engineer obviously wasn't. There's no real way to say… So if Potemkin's skimming off the top, his brother doesn't know about that. If the Bosun's skimming behind the Captain and planning to basically kill the guy…
Christian: I wonder if he could pilot the boat…No, it doesn't matter. It's all speculation and it's in the past. You just want to ride it out?
Nika: It's our only option.
Rina: We'll just keep our eyes open.
Nika: My contract, at least, was—
Rina: I mean, look—where are we going to go?
Nika: —to the company. I did sorta promise the owner that—
Rina: —It's not like we can step outside and hitch a ride out of here—.
Nika: —I could follow orders from the Captain. Which, you know, is actually what I did, except for the fact that the Captain wasn't involved in that part. So as of yet, I haven't actually disobeyed any order except for turn around and take us to that vessel.
Christian: Uh-uh. I fairly certain that, not in front of the Captain, to drug the entire crew is disobeying—
Nika: I did not disobey an order.
Christian: —a non-implicit order.
Nika: There's no such thing as an implicit order.
Christian: Anyway. All right. (Pointing at the gun) It's here in case we need it. He's probably not sleeping much. He's still drinking a little—
Nika: I highly recommend you don't hide that in here.
Christian: I—
Nika: Or in the galley. Or in your room.
Christian: What would you have us to do with it? Or let her decide what to do with it, since she likes them so much.
He stares pointedly at Rina. She stares right back.
Rina: (velvet over steel) There are any number of places we could stash it in the public areas where it will be hidden, but we could get to it.
Nika: That would be the only prudent course of action, as far as I'm concerned. Because if the Captain takes it upon himself to decide it's time to search our quarters and make sure we're following orders, he finds that here, he's gonna space the lot of us.
Rina: Exactly.
Christian: (not liking it) True.
Rina: Of course, true.
Christian: I'll put it back in the Bosun's quarters. I'm assuming he's already searched them. And taken any personal effects he can keep them for himself.
The women disagree with that assessment. The bead they've drawn is that now that the Captain's made a sufficient show of manly force, we are all cowed by him and will do what we're supposed to. He had to make an example to us scurvy lot.
Nika: I'm actually sorta fine with the example he's set so far. Aside from the whole, you know…
Christian: Spacing?
Nika: Well, technically he was in the right, Christian.
Christian: I am aware that—.
Nika: Technically he was in the right. We couldn't prove one way or the other whether they were and we had already done all the searching the Captain would've done. So the options are: take the chance they were in fact mutineers—
Christian: Actually, we never searched their quarters. But, anyway….I don't disagree completely and I don't agree completely. The whole situation is—
Nika: —is nothing I'm happy about, mind you—
Christian: —a nasty horrible mess and I agree we probably should just wait until we reach there (pointing rearward, at the derelict). At least he's not going back and exposing us to whatever killed those people, that ship full of people.
Rina: (morosely) Well of course, if this ever comes to trial, we are now accessories to the crime of murdering those two people.
Christian: It won't come to trial because it's just—
Nika: —Even if it came to trial—
Christian: —his word—
Nika: —in space, the Captain's best judgement rules.
Christian: She's right.
Rina: I'm not arguing that. But I also agree with you. That this doesn't sit well with me, either.
Christian: (agreeing) No.
Nika: I didn't say I was happy. I'm just saying that in space the Captain's best judgement rules. That it's highly probable that even if we went to trial for this, the court would find he did what would be required. Because he had no real way to…it's not like we have a real brig to throw them into. We couldn't keep them secure.
Christian picks up the gun.
Christian: The Captain has his own head, right? I say we duct tape this to back of the toilet in the crew head.
Rina: (pained disbelief) Could you think of any more obvious place?
Christian: He has his own bathroom. He doesn't go in there. You got a better place, tell me now.
Nika: If he doesn't go in there, it's probably safe enough….
Rina: Oh, god. Where do I start? There's any number of hatches for access to conduits, electronics—.
Christian: That's why I gave you the gun in the first place. Go.
Nika: Why don't you put it in cold storage
Christian: Because that's the reason I didn't put it in the galley, because I'm the only person who goes in there. And therefore I'm immediately culpable.
Nika: I see.
Rina: It should be someplace any three of us could it if we needed it.
Christian: Or anybody in the crew. Just if they discovered it… Put it somewhere we can get to it easily and go about our purposes.
Rina: Great. I'm figuring there's an atmo vent, about yea-high, put the gun in there, duct tape it so it doesn't rattle, snap the vent back in place.
Nike: Real good.
Christian: Okay.
The gun's a six-shooter. Rina checks to see if it's fully loaded. It is.
Rina: Six shots.
Nika: Here's hoping we don't need 'em.
Christian: Yes.
01: 25 hrs, ships time
Rina makes good on her plan, popping the panel off an atmo vent in the corridor midway between the crew and the passenger lounges, portside and just aft of the heads. She stashes the gun as planned without anyone seeing her do it. She pats the panel for luck and walks away.
WSaturday, 05 Jun 2518
Crew lounge
09:03 hrs, ships time
The Captain has us all pursuing tasks that keep us apart, ostensibly to prevent us fomenting another mutiny. He has Rina cleaning out the bilge filters, greasing the ball bearings on the grav rotors, and basically slaving over the machinery. As if telling Rina to go play with the engines and the workings is a problem. Dude, she's on it like white on rice. Arden is closeted with JJ and Christian's busy fulfilling his steward's duties.
Pursuant to those duties, over the next two days Christian works at bringing the Captain subtly to a calmer frame of mind. Christian does this by being a little flattering, using all the lovely little tricks he'd learned growing up as a Companion, trying to get the Captain to the point where he won't be ready for us to act.
After all, Christian relates to us later when we're out from under Potemkin's eye, tense Captains are shoot-y Captains.
Nika: `Shoot-y Captains'?
Rina: (laughs) Oh, I like that. Shoot-y Captains. "Now, don't get all shoot-y, now…".
Christian: Well, other than that I guess we're riding it out. Unless he does something stupid. Other than, you know…his existence.
Bridge of the MakeMake
13:12 hrs, ships time
Nika is alone when a signal comes in while standing bridge duty, a coded message sent directly to the bridge comm. It's from Potemkin Colonial Services HQ. Josef. Nika checks behind her for the Captain, sees the coast is clear, and opens it up. Looking at the time stamp on the message, Nika sees there's now a three-hour SOL delay.
Message: Status report. Send back your situation. Tell me what is going on.
Nika quickly fires off a reply.
Reply: MakeMake on course for Jiang Yin. ETA (gives estimate). Problems encountered en route but resolved. More information on arrival.
Nika opts not to reveal anything about the attempted mutiny, going for discretion over honesty. She hits send, thinking on what will happen on arrival: Big talk of mutiny. Big talk of shooting all of us….It's going to be ugly. Yeah. So much for discretion.
(After which Nika fires off a message to Josef as to current conditions on board...)
Passenger Lounge
18:35 hrs, ships time
Christian serves the passengers, the Robinson family, their dinner and after a leisurely meal Mr. Robinson approaches Christian to make some inquiries.
Robinson: Does it seem like there's fewer crew members than there used to be?
Great. The man's done a head count. We're humped. Christian keeps his expression guileless.
Robinson: I mean, it's not that big a ship. It's been a couple of days since we've seen that guy from Dyton and I haven't seen the regular pilot…
It's apparent to Christian that Robinson is the parental figure trying to maintain an aura of calm leadership, but the situation is making him unsettled.
Christian: I think that might be a question you'd best ask the Captain, sir.
Robinson: That's probably a good idea. Um, okay. We don't want to cause any trouble.
Christian: I understand.
Robinson: We thought we'd heard gunfire.
Christian: You should mention that to the Captain as well. And perhaps ask what he's done to secure your safety.
Robinson: So…he talked about discipline and all that. Is he suggesting that there's some sort of punitive measures and the crew is confined to quarters or something? It seemed an awful long time—.
Christian is torn. He could direct Robinson on the Captain and thus reduce his chances of letting anything slip, but Robinson's family is bunking in one of the cargo modules….and the Captain has already shown no scruple in venting them.
Faced with revealing the facts as his conscience dictates and playing it smart as his experience demands, he does what any intelligent person would do.
He shaves the truth.
Christian: They are in a place where they won't bother anyone, yes. Quite honestly, sir, I don't think you have much more to worry about. We're only a few days out from your destination.
Robinson: Okay…
Christian knows his job is keeping the passengers happy and content and unafraid. So he stresses to Robinson that if he has any questions, he should take them to the Captain. If he wishes to speak to the Captain, Christian would be happy to arrange it.
(And privately thinks that it would be best if Robinson did this when his family was out for their meal and not sitting-duck targets in their container unit. Which thought he wisely keeps behind his teeth, thank you very much…)
Christian: (concluding) I think you'll find the Captain most approachable during that period.
Robinson seems a little overwhelmed by this but agrees and goes back to his family. When the man is out of sight, Christian risks calling the others immediately for a quick conference.
Christian: I might be a little paranoid here, but I don't think it's the worst thing in the world: Is there a way to make sure that the Captain can't do to the colonists' module what he did to the seed module?
Rina: (getting it) I'm sure I can find a way to fritz that circuit from the inside where he can't see it.
Nika: You've got to be kidding.
Christian: The colonists are suspicious. If the Captain thinks they're a threat to his continued survival—
Rina: —He'll space them.
Christian: He will. With no problems.
Nika: I can see him spacing any one of us, okay? I can't see him spacing innocent colonists.
Christian: Why? They've already paid their fees.
Nika: That's beyond the pale. That's bad business.
Christian: I'm going to let you think about that for a while. This is just a precaution.
Nika: He'd have to explain that [spacing the passengers] when we got where we're going.
Christian: No, because you know what he'd do after he did that to them? He would do it to us.
Nika: (Yeah, right.) And land the ship himself.
Christian: I don't know if he can. I don't know if can't. He could always say—
Rina: He could send out a distress signal and make up any story he liked to whoever picked him up.
Christian: Or send for a shuttle from the planet with a pilot to pick him up.
Nika: (She can't believe this rot) I am trapped with the Paranoid Twins.
Rina: Two heads work better than one.
Christian: Would you rather find out now that we're right, would you rather take that precaution? Or find out later?
Nika: All right…all right—.
Rina: —I'm on it.
Christian: Wait til he falls asleep first. And keep in mind he has the engineer looking for power fluctuations.
Rina thinks fast. She knows that hacking the door circuit in a way that it doesn't show and still give them control over it is long and complex, and doing it without being seen carries a high probability of discovery. In engineering and on the bridge, the status boards for the doors would give her away. OR she could ruin it so the doors cannot open once they're closed, or fix it so they cannot close once they're opened. The best she could hope for would be to damage the controls just enough to warrant constant tinkering in search of a fix, yet not damaging the controls enough that they'd haywire and either vent the occupants or obey a remote command to vent from the bridge or engineering.
Shit. Faking a reactor failure with steam and strobe lights and sirens would be easier than pulling this job off…
She decides to work on the controls from inside the modules. The module power systems are outside the ship's power systems, so the power fluctuations from her tinkering won't register in engineering or on the bridge. She could futz the controls in such a way as to register with the module programming as a malfunction—one that would not endanger the occupants yet activate the failsafe systems, making detaching the module a five-minute process instead of a five-second one. This way, the occupants could still make their way in or out, no matter how twitchy the Captain's finger was on the vent button.
Rina: (to Christian) If nothing else, in five minutes we can run to get the gun and shoot him in the head before he kills those people. Sucks to be him, but those people would be saved.
Or she could just hit him, Rina admits. She's already demonstrated on Grimes how lethal her punches can be. Nika thinks this mighty funny and even Christian can see the humor in it.
Christian: We could have a Russian versus Russian brawl.
Rina: Guy on Girl. Russian versus Russian. Anybody want to take bets?
Christian: No. No, no, I don't want to go on and think about that.
Rina finds a time when she's not actually assigned to a duty that the Captain would know about and enters the module with a story about checking the module portals against the danger of accidental decompression. And then accomplishes her task under their very noses. It takes her about an hour to complete and the Robinsons are happy to let her have at it.
And the Universe smiles on her for once—the Captain didn't notice a thing.
Later, that same evening, Mrs. Robinson buttonholes the Captain. Christian catches up with her en route, hoping to head off a confrontation—he's seen her expression and knows that look.
Christian: Ma'am, is there something you need?
Mrs. Robinson: I just want to talk to the Captain. There's some strange things on this ship. And I want some answers.
Christian: Well, all right.
Mrs. Robinson: My husband's talked to you. You with your ….long hair and your…yes, we all know about that.
Christian: (unperturbed) My long hair. Yes. I don't try to hide it.
Mrs. Robinson: I know. I've seen it.
Christian has already foreseen where this is going and he's way ahead of her. The Robinsons have a teenaged daughter and Christian hadn't missed how the girl has been looking at him…and making transparent excuses to be in the same room with him whenever possible. Yes, he knows where this is going and has taken pains to give the girl no openings whatsoever to make a fool of herself with him.
Convincing her mother of that, however, is another matter entirely.
Joyous.
Mrs. Robinson turns on her heel and leaves Christian in her dust. He follows discreetly to monitor what she tells the Captain. She finds Potemkin and Christian pulls a fade.
He listens in.
Mrs. Robinson: Captain. Don't think we don't know that something's going on on this ship. There are some obvious questions that need to be answered. What has happened to the crew? Why is this journey taking so long?
Since we'd gone two days off course one way and took another two days to get back on course, four days is a noticeable delay.
Ivan: (clears throat) Space travel. Is complicated thing. There are hazards in space that must be navigated around. I assure you everything is fine. Crew is doing what they are supposed to be doing.
Mrs. Robinson: So. I'm not going to get an answer from you? A straight answer? Are they—are they even on the ship, anymore?
Ivan: There is nowhere to leave. You cannot leave ship in space. You would die. So certainly, they did not leave. Not of their own will.
Christian nearly chokes. He's lived all his life amongst people trained to be the ultimate diplomats, the utmost polite and suave and personable people in the Universe. And hearing the Captain now, Christian is just flabbergasted.
Just. Flabbergasted.
Luckily, Mrs. Robinson misses the implications of the Captain's last sentence. Instead she bulls on.
Mrs. Robinson: Be assured that when we get to Jiang Yin we will be alerting the authorities about this.
Ivan: Of course. You are free to do whatever you wish when you leave here. I think flight would be more pleasant for you if you don't think about these things for the next few days. When we get to Jiang Yin, when you see your new home, you will be excited. The children are looking forward to playing in the fresh air…so…I have many things to attend to here, so if you will excuse me, I am sure our steward will—.
Christian shows himself to head off any more disastrous slips the Captain might make.
Ivan: Ah! There you are.
Christian: Yes, Captain.
Ivan: (to Mrs. Robinson) Mr. Edge will be happy to provide you with some amusements. Mr. Edge, if you would escort Mrs. Robinson back to the passenger area.
Christian: Yes, of course, Captain.
Ivan: And in future, bridge area is for crew only.
Christian: Yes, Captain.
Ivan has already forgotten her. Mrs. Robinson isn't quite ready to be fobbed off so easily, however, and bends Christian's ear.
Mrs. Robinson: I've dealt with people like this before. You won't hear the last of this. I've been in space before. I know people who know the Alliance shipways, and the Navy…
Christian: Yes, Ma'am.
Christian gently escorts her to her quarters, thinking as he does so it's time for another strategy session with his fellow crewmen.
Nika and Rina's quarters
23:19 hrs, ships time
Christian knocks quietly on their door.
Tap-tap.
Rina: That better not be a candy-gram.
Christian slips inside. He wastes no time but gets right to it.
Christian: Mrs. Robinson had a little conversation with the Captain today. She's threatened to report him to the authorities. And then later threatened his license.
Rina: For what?
Christian: Well, she and her husband have noticed the sudden lack of crew on the ship.
Rina: What if she reports him to the authorities? Do we care, so long as we're not aboard when it happens?
Christian: In general, honestly no.
Nika: Is there any reason no one's answered her questions?
Christian: I don't know why the Captain hasn't seen fit to answer her questions. That is a good question.
Nika: Assuming you're the first line of defense, why didn't you answer her questions?
Christian: The Captain's job is to answer her questions.
Nika: (Right!) 'Way to pass the money….
Christian: I am still technically under his orders.
Nika: Were you under orders not to tell her anything?
Christian: Was I given orders not to tell her anything?
Rina: (shrugging) What could she do? If you told her, what could she do?
Nika: It depends on what questions she's asking.
Rina: I wouldn't know.
Christian: "Where are the crew?", "Why is the ship taking so long?"
Nika: The trip is taking so long because we had to—
Christian: Hazards of space, blah-blah-blah—
Nika: —take a detour around something. And?
Christian: Hopefully nothing will come of it.
Nika: You couldn't answer that convincingly?
Christian: (A beat)… She said something about my long hair and walked very quickly in the other direction.
Silence.
Rina: For some people it's snakes. For others, it's hair.
Nika: Okay. Whatever.
Christian: Honestly, at this point should it come up again…I don't know. I didn't want to a) alarm them and b) give them more worried and make the Captain upset. Or more cause.
Nika: It's a valid concern…
Christian: It is a valid concern, that they go about asking about how he's a murderer and they are going to report him to the authorities—.
Nika: You could have just told her that some of the crew were confined to their quarters.
Christian: We did tell them they were in a place where they wouldn't bother anyone. (heartfelt) Ever, ever again.
Nika looks at him, incredulous.
Nika: (please tell me you didn't) And you answered her in that particular tone?
Christian: (annoyed) No. You know I know how to deal with people. At the moment, there's not much we can do, either. I recognize when some are so irate that nothing you can say will affect them and they are getting to this point. Hopefully, we will get there soon and this will all end. Pleasantly.
Rina: Couldn't you just slip kortine in his coffee or something?
Nika: (swatting her) Oh, stop.
Rina: Couldn't you slip kortine in my coffee?
Christian: You don't want to know what's in your coffee in the morning. Here's a hint: it's not "coff" and it's not "ee".
Christian stands.
Christian: Well. I'm going back to my quarters.
When he's gone, Rina looks over at Nika.
Rina: Tell you what. I'm making sure that everything of mine is packed and close to me as possible, like a rat leaving a sinking ship.
Nika: So much for signing on with this ship.
Rina: Um-hm.
We reach the Prairie Paradise of Jiang Yin without further incident.
Tuesday, 08 Jun 2518
Juniper Springs Settlement
Jiang Yin, Red Sun(Zhu Que)System
07:28 hrs, local time
We find the coordinates for the colonial seat easily and when we land there we find it's a mite more…fortress-y…than expected.
It's like a scene out of the pre-Exodus movie, The Road Warrior. Buildings huddle together closely, bristling with parapets, watch towers and barbed wire. No doubt the area around the fortified town is mined to hell and back.
Wonderful.
When we land, it's no real surprise nobody comes out to meet us initially. The fact that there was a beacon to guide us down, instead of an official port authority, is starting to make sense, now. Our LZ happens to be on one of the more rural continents and coupled with lack of port oversight, a ship could shake-n-bake to the surface anywhere it wants. Scuttlebutt for such places is that while it's been inhabited for a while, people have just found places where they want to live and have gone off into the wild, some have even gone native.
Perhaps this is what's happened to this outpost?
And here we are, landing into the middle of an armed camp…without our guns. The Captain still has them.
So, there being nothing for it, we start off-loading our cargo. In doing so, we find out that contrary to our belief, the Captain hadn't spaced the contents of the seed container. He had merely opened the hatches just long enough to vent the bodies and quickly shut them again, leaving the contents secured inside. Minus a few bags, the seeds made it to their final destination intact. At least we won't incur cargo-loss fees.
Christian tells the Captain he's leaving.
Christian: You can off-load all you want. I'll be packing my bags and going off, too.
Ivan: You'll be leaving?
Christian: Um-hm.
Rina is nearby and speaks up.
Rina: You really want to live here? Look at this place.
She throws her hands wide.
Christian: Are you planning on getting back on this ship?
Caught on the spot with the Captain looking on, Rina daren't say anything. Damn you, Christian. Nika stops and speaks for herself.
Nika: It could be months before another ship comes this way.
Christian: (to Nika) Are you planning on getting back on this ship?
Nika: I was, actually.
A group of colonists approach from the fortified …um, fortress…forestalling anything the Captain would say to this near-mutinous conversation. They want to book passage on our ship, amazingly enough.
Ivan wants to know what is going on. They fill us in on the skinny. It's short and sweet.
To wit: They don't want to be here any more. They want to leave.
Rina: (muttering) Mrs. Robinson is not going to be pleased to hear that.
Nika: It would make up for the profits you lost.
Colonists: We will have money when we get to wherever you take us.
Christian: What's wrong with the planet?
Nika: (continuing) Were you planning on an actual cargo returning, at all? Pure profit, if not.
Ivan: I have place to go.
Christian: Yes, remember he has to go salvage a—.
Nika: Yeah but they don't have a timetable.
Ivan: We have adequate food for more?
Christian: We wouldn't have, but granted that we're several mouths short...
Nika: I realize this isn't a regular spaceport, but we shouldn't have too much trouble to get provisions enough, wouldn't you think?
Christian: You would think, yes.
Nika: Fuel would be my primary concern, more so than food.
Christian: (to the colonists) Which one of you is the leader?
A man steps forward.
Leader: We've been dealing with bandits of some kind. They've made it impossible to live outside the walls. We had to build the walls to deal with the bandits. We haven't gotten any farming done. I can't live like this. This isn't what we've signed up for.
Christian: How many people are we looking at, right now?
Leader: About three dozen.
Christian: I don't think that a ship like this is going to be able to take that many people, sir.
Leader: It's a big ship. You can fit thirty people on that ship, no problem.
Christian: You could. But you're not going to have the food. Or the oxygen or the water to get them anywhere. If you want to take thirty people out and have half of them die on the way…
Leader: All right. We gotta do some kinda system like….(whispers) I got some money, I can buy my way on. (louder) Most of the people don't have any money, but they might say they do back home. They'd take anything.
Christian: Well, that's up to the Captain.
Ivan: We shall see. You have interesting idea.
Nika: Our primary concern will be consumables, both fuel, air…water….
Ivan: (thinking it through) We have one way back to spot. Four days from there to Burnadette…so, if each person can bring eleven days food…you can keep engines running to produce adequate oxygen, I assume?
It's possible. The oxy on board is primarily recycled before the incremental loss is renewed via the off-gassing from the algae tanks.
Nika: And we'll need to check the fuel.
Rina: (backing Nika) Yeah, definitely.
Nika: Fuel and water are my primary worries.
Ivan: There should be adequate fuel.
Nika: Even with the additional weight?
Ivan: One…two…three…four bursts…I don't think we have enough fuel. We'll have to stop on the way.
We'll have to stop at one of the Heinlein moons or St. Albans, maybe at Dandelion Station, to refuel. Now that's settled, Nika gets down to business.
Nika: So for the people who want to get on board, they'll have to pay at least half up front—.
Ivan: No. They pay full.
Nika: As you like, Captain. And the timetable is four days longer than it should be so we that we can detour back.
Christian: I'm curious, Captain. When you get to the …midpoint…
Ivan: Da.
Christian: How do you plan on getting what's there onto your ship?
Ivan: We talk and check to see if there's anyone.
Christian: Who?
Nika: Before we do that—.
Christian: No-no-no. Who?
Ivan: With crew.
Christian: Um…she's not crew. (He points to Rina.) And it's not in either of our contracts.
Ivan: You crew on ship. You do what I tell you. You wish to stay here with these people, you stay with these people. Are you continuing mutiny, too?
Christian: (drawing it out)…I'm thinking…That… it would be wise if you're taking on passengers, to go directly to where you're going. Without that…well. You do what you wish, sir.
Ivan: I'm not sure what you mean. It be wise for me to do what?
Christian: Well. You're going to take a bunch of people. You're going to stop and they're going to wonder why you're stopping in the middle of nowhere—
Ivan: We will leave them on one of those other planets we mentioned.
Nika: We can leave them at St. Albans.
Christian: True. I suppose that's true. We could do that.
Ivan: Or at station.
Nika: We could just tell them that "That's as far as we'll take you. You'll have to pick other passage from there.".
Ivan: They'll have to pay us first.
Nika: That will actually make the return trip profitable.
Christian: You might want to consider a trade in goods. The entire population of this city is…I'm sure…that there's nothing, that anything here that would be theirs to trade has been taken.
Ivan: Yes, but. What's here. Plows…
Christian: Well for one thing, they didn't get out the farm…all their seeds.
Nika: What kind of bandits are we talking about, anyway.
Rina: Yeah. How many?
Good old fashioned sorts. About a dozen or so. On horseback.
Rina: A dozen? They've got them outnumbered (meaning the colonists).
Yes, but they don't have very many guns and they aren't warriors. Remember, this is the Alliance. They've been dropped off with a shovel and a few tents. What few guns they have are used on animals for hunting and protection.
Rina: And are we taking the Robinsons back if they take one look outside this door and say `this isn't what we signed on for'?
She nods toward the Robinsons in a group huddle by the cargo bay doors, obviously having a family discussion about that very issue.
Rina: You may have to deal with them all the way back.
Nika: You have two options here, Captain. We can make the return trip somewhat profitable. If we were traveling back with an empty ship, anyway, there's pure bonus there. Bearing in mind, we will have to drop them off somewhere along the way because your little illegal salvage operation—.
Ivan: There is nothing illegal about it.
Nika: (not buying it) Mm-hm.
Christian: Really. I didn't realize you worked for United Salvage.
Ivan: I am not talking about any salvaging. I have business—.
Christian: With a bunch of dead people.
Ivan: Well, if they are dead—
Christian: —then it would be salvage—
Ivan: —but if they have goods I have already purchased, then it won't.
Christian: Well. I'm not a lawyer.
Nika: In any case, the derelict vessel sitting out there that might have your goods on it—
Ivan: Yes.
Nika: That's between you and…whatever….when we get back. The other option you have here is to be potentially make a little money, help out the colonists and figure out what the heck the stupid bandits are doing and get them off this planet.
Ivan: We aren't at war, here.
Nika: Meh! We have a ship.
Ivan: An unarmed ship.
Christian: I'm certain if you land this ship on top of a bandit, he'll go squish.
Nika: There you go.
Christian: I'm fairly certain a rifle won't penetrate the hull.
Ivan: If we did this….don't like sound of it. We take paying customers with us, if they wish to come, and we go about our own business. Make this profitable. You help me, may get some profit from this yourselves. You play ball. But then, it is between me and you.
Nika: In the future, however, when we schedule such jaunts, if you have stoppage along the way, we schedule it in…so your brother stops climbing people's backs trying to figure out what you're doing.
Ivan: (sighing) My brother thinks he knows much of what goes on. He thinks we not know of transmissions and responses to transmissions.
Nika: You saw them. They're in the public logs. I told you your brother hired me to watch out for you.
Ivan: Yes, I remember this. So…you are interested in helping out the colonists. You talk to them, find out who can pay the most, we bring on, what? twelve? We can manage twelve?
Nika: So long as they bring nothing but clothing and food, yes.
Ivan: All right…we bring in twelve, maybe fifteen if they pay more….we can take as far as…we have to check charts to see if either Dandelion Station or if one of the Heinlein moons is closer…whichever one is closer, and it is likely going to be Dandelion Station, since it's stationed in apogee…
Nika: We'll just haul them as far as we can take them and drop them off there. Go about the rest of the business from there and…
Ivan: Is very good. So you handle that?
Nika: All right.
Ivan: I suppose we not off-load compartments until we are there… unless they need space for sleeping and such…(to Christian) to you, I will hand off them.
Christian: Actually, unless you take them all, I'm taking my rifle and staying here.
Ivan: Take all of them. And where do you suppose we put all of them?
Christian: I don't. That's the problem. But I'm not going to leave these people here totally defenseless. If I can help I will. You're free to go.
Ivan: Well, that's one more space.
Nika: How many can we fit in a cargo compartment. We put up a family of five in one of them.
Ivan: We can put hundreds of people on ship.
Nika: But air consumption becomes a problem. Water consumption becomes a problem.
Ivan: We stay few days. You figure out all kinds of plan. figure out way to get more oxygen, whatever we need…
Nika: We'll see. If we absolutely can't—
Ivan: There are settlements on Jiang Yin. Perhaps we can drop them off at another city.
Nika: There's an idea.
Ivan: For a small fee.
Nika: A little transport fee as opposed to a big ticket fee.
Christian: That's actually a good question. Do they have a radio? Have they tried to contact the other settlements?
Nika: If it's broken, could they?
They have, but the response has been unfavorable. They've even appealed to the Alliance military and the response has been the standard "We'll get to you on the return trip in our rounds…"
Nika: Let's see if any of the other settlements are willing to take them and if the colonists are willing to go. That may cut our numbers, too.
Ivan: You will burn much fuel through atmo. So you figure out what you need to do. You have two days.
Rina: Yeah, and I figure you can offer not only mouths to feed, but equipment they can bring with them and supplies—
Nika: And we have our cargo hold full of stuff that—
Ivan: But if there are bandits, the airlock stays closed, so none of them on board.
Rina: Well of course, no going off the ship to take a piss and let the aliens on board behind your back. Yes, definitely. We'll have them pee in a can.
All right. We're agreed. We've got two days of hauling ass. We will call around, shuffle the settlers and their supplies to the whatever settlements will take them in and burn atmo with the rest to dump elsewhere. All for cashy money, making the return trip pure profit.
Under a possibly unstable Captain and unruly load of passengers.
Oh yeah. This is going to go well.
EPISODES
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