Episode 108. Part 1

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Present: Mary, Terri, Bobby, Jay and Adam
Air Date: 03 Feb 2009


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Sunday, 11 Sep 2518
Kuiper II Class Summer’s Gift
En Route to Blue Sun System

We get out from under the Alliance in our trip to Blue Sun and as the days pass Mike comes out from under the Chempliance. Four days after leaving Hera, he’s no longer catatonic when awake, he recognizes the crew, and his violent episodes grow milder and it’s easier to talk him down from them. As time passes, however, it becomes obvious the drug has affected his ability to resist a direct order, or to withhold an answer to any direct question. He also has trouble, once he starts talking, in keeping himself from rambling. Mike isn’t incognizant of what’s happened to him and the knowledge that he’s severely compromised and cannot return to the life he’s led for over a decade is taking an emotional toll. Frustration, depression, the overwhelming need to be alone, they all affect him. All this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the rest of the crew, either, and we all gather around the table with Mike to discuss it.

The discussion isn’t helped by the fact that, aside from the tin foil hat conspiracy blogs ranting on the subject, the Cortex has been scoured clean of any medical reference/data about Chempliance or Pax or their derivatives. To find anything good enough to use would require some serious hacking and since we’re trying to maintain a low profile with respect to the Fed radar, Arden leaves off any further digging. Instead, he keeps detailed notes on Mike’s physical condition and his progress, hoping to extrapolate the drug’s functions as it wears off. Anything we decide pharmaceutically will have to be based on what we’ve managed to suss out for ourselves.

Arden: (to Mike) At least you have your health.
Christian: (chiming in) I’ve been there. Trust me.

Rina whaps Arden on the arm for the patronizing platitude and since Christian is too far away to slap, throws a quelling look in his direction.

Mike: That’s true. I do have my health. That is something, and I should look on the positive side. That is a good idea.

Nika catches Rina’s eye at this statement and her meaning is clear: Oh, my God, he’s seriously messed up. Had Mike been his normal self, his response would have been somewhat less… accommodating.

Nika and Rina aren’t alone in their assessment. Christian has been making observations of his own on Mike and can sense a great deal of concern coming off the man—a need for answers and someone who can provide them.

We decide to keep Mike occupied as a way to distract him from dwelling on his condition, and also to give him something constructive to do.

Mike: Like what? Swabbing the decks? Pulling out the circuits one by one and putting them back in a different order?
Arden: How about cleaning up and upgrading the armory?
Nika: (jumping on that one) No.
Christian: Oh, no. No putting the potentially suicidal guy near the guns.
Arden: We’ve got knives. We’re on a ship. He can walk out the airlock if he’s suicidal—.
Nika: Arden.
Arden: What?
Nika: He’s an assassin. You will not put him anywhere near the friggin’ armory, okay?
Christian: Speaking of which, we’re locking up our guns in the friggin’ armory.
Nika: Yes. You will. All weapons. Except for possibly the personal knife you carry on you which I prefer you didn’t do around him.
Christian: (Dragging things back on-topic) Yes, cleaning.
Mike: Okay.
Arden: (to Nika) Aren’t you overreacting?
Mike: (to Arden) No. She’s not overreacting.
Christian: (Still dragging back to the topic….) We can put him in a suit and have him clean the outside of the ship.
Mike:(to Christian) It’s understandable, and—
Nika: (to Arden) He’s a hard-core spy in the Resistance, and has been for more than a decade.
Arden: There’s no such a thing as the Resistance movement. Haven’t you been paying attention to the Cortex?
Mike: Actually, there is a Resistance movement and there’s actually multiple strands there. It’s loosely organized in such a way that it’s not really—It’s a decentralized organization without any head or hierarchy, but there are a number cells that operate independently and sometimes cooperate—
Christian: Stop.

Mike shuts right the hell up.

Christian: Go.
Mike: Go where?
Christian: (‘Nuff said!) …Okay…

Nika again trades a look with Rina: Are you getting this?

Nika: Arden—.
Christian: And besides which, I’m sure the Alliance calls it ‘the insurgency’
Arden: All I’m saying is that according to the Cortex, it is all—.
Christian: A small group of malcontents.
Arden: Exactly.
Rina: (rolling her eyes) Arden, you don’t believe everything you read, do you?
Mike: (rolls his own) He doesn’t believe what he’s saying, he’s just being sarcastic. After all these years in space, you still haven’t learned that?
Rina: With a face like his, it’s hard to tell.
Arden: (to Rina) If you got your head out of the engine and paid attention to the people around it, you would know.
Mike: Actually, there’s some truth in that…
Arden: At least I’m seeing some emotion now. (gesturing at Mike) Which is more than what we’ve seen before.
Nika: Oh, yeah. He’s all likeable and agreeable.
Arden: Who? Mike or me?
Nika: Mike.

Before the conversation can devolve further, we all feel the Gift go bump! as if we’ve run over something in the family car…and then the Gift is tumbling in space as the competing grav shields on our ship directly conflict with each other or outright fail. Nika hauls ass for the bridge and manages to bring our ship under control and drops out of pulse. Rina EVAs and inspects the damage: the hit we’d taken from the Reavers and the subsequent burn-through on the shake-n-bake at Beaumonde has killed our ability to maintain consistent grav shielding across the hull of our ship. The master router for our external grav shields is completely shot.

Christian offers to don a suit and assist in the repairs. Nika looks askance at Christian when he speaks up.

Christian: Believe it or not, I have a small amount of training in this.
Nika: For the kink factor? All right then, that’s a little more than I wanted to know, thank you very much.
Christian: Some people are curious.
Arden: But the whole opposite and equal reaction laws of motion—
Mike: It sounds like it could be a good idea, but one that’ll go horribly awry…
Rina: Yeah, the return stroke has you going in the opposite direction—
Arden: It puts a whole new spin to the term ‘bumping uglies’.
Nika: (to everyone) Okay, that’s it. You’ve just crossed my line in the sand. That’s going just a bit too far.

Gallows humor, to be sure. But still…

Mike has some skills in zero-g and offers to help in the repairs as well. Rina takes him out with her and tethers him to the hull for his safety. With his help, she manages to disconnect the router for the internal grav fields and patch it in as a replacement for the external, but it comes at the cost of sacrificing artificial gravity inside the living areas of our ship. We’ll be in zero-gee til we reach the refueling station or until we can make repairs.

Nika fires off a short message Harbinger’s way, telling them of our breakdown. If Harbinger can meet us with the part we need, that would be best. If not, meet us at the fuel stop. If that’s not an option, let us know.

It’s going to be an eight-hour round trip for the message and its reply, so we spend the time making adjustments to living in zero-g. From finding a way to prepare meals that don’t involve cooking to figuring out a way to contain waste. Old-timey space travel all the way.

The Harbinger’s reply comes in: We can’t leave immediately to meet you but we will try to head in your direction and do our best to get to the station and meet you there. Would you like us to alert the ships in the area you need an assist?

Nika sends back her reply: A negative on the assist. We’ve jiggered a fix. We’ll be zero-g all the way to the station and if you could meet us at the station, we’ll be able to meet you there.

We cannot travel too fast to our destination—the strain of maintaining the grav shields at higher speeds is a bit much for a router geared for the lighter load of the ship’s interior spaces. Rina slaps a few more resistors on the damned thing, says a prayer over it, and keeps her fingers crossed. It’s going to be dicey…but for now, we’re flying.


Sunday, 18 Sep 2518
Kuiper II Class Summer’s Gift
Sampson Array
En route to Blue Sun System

Seven days later we dock at Samson Array, a collection of several big ships joined together to make a space platform—an old style tanker, a salvage ship and a cargo ship, with smaller craft grafted onto the edges. The effect is rather like a cobbled-together boat city in the port of old Hong Kong of Pre-Exodus Earth. It’s got repair facilities for repairing ships, it’s got fuel tanks for refueling ships, it’s got cargo spaces for cargo. It may be an out-of-the-way gathering spot for all kinds and some have likened it to a hive of scum and villainy, but it is a welcome port of call for those traveling the Black and we dock gratefully.

Also docked at the Array is a Firefly, a courier, and no sign of the Feds.

We have to reprovision, and while Rina and Christian look into repairs, Arden is sent out with Christian to look into resupplying us. There is some worry as to what to do with Mike. It’s not like we can duct tape him to the ceiling of the crew lounge while we’re out.

Christian: We’re going to keep him with us. We’re not going to leave him alone on the ship.
Mike: (protesting) I’m not handicapped
Arden: Yeah.
Mike: I’m perfectly capable of killing a man in ten different ways. I’m not going to worry about—
Nika: (Exactly her point!) I’m very well aware of that. You will remain with one of our crew at all times.
Arden: He can be with me, keep me out of trouble.
Mike: My killing skills are not that great. I don’t know about that.... I think they’re exaggerated. I’m just an above-average killer.
Nika: (gives up) ….Okay, fine….
Arden: He can go with me and keep me out of trouble.
Christian: So, in assassin school you were pulling a what? a solid B-average?
Mike: What’s this about being an assassin? (Points to Nika) She was totally exaggerating.
Nika: Yes, I was.
Mike: I would say the people I’d killed were hardly assassinated. Under the conditions under which they were killed were hardly—
Nika: Okay, too much information.
Arden: (taking up the theme) But they were all bad.
Mike: Well, at least….they were all on the wrong side of the war or something…I don’t know if they were all b—
Nika: Yes. They were all bad.

Geez, can we drop this already? Christian provides the distraction.

Christian: I’ve got the cargo manifest.
Mike: Okay.
Nika: All right. Yes, see if you can find the whoozit-whatsis we need.
Christian: Yes, and I will get a precise listing what parts she needs (points to Rina), and I’ll look for the parts in the manifests on the ships docked and as well as the station’s, and et cetera, et cetera. Basically, I’m going shopping. For what we need. And I’ll probably be buying food and a few other things.
Arden: I will also be looking for the latest issue of the Core Times or whatever they use for news in these areas. See what’s going on.

Mike is assigned to the resupply run to keep him occupied and also within Arden’s reach, in case Mike has an episode that only Arden can treat. There’s some disagreement on this point.

Rina: Why does it make sense to put the most battle-hardened person among us with the greenest one? Explain to me how this works?
Christian: Wow. It’s scary that I’m not the greenest one. (Not!) I’m going shopping now.
Rina: (to Christian) Knock yourself out.
Nika: (heading Rina off at the pass) I’ll go with Arden, you go with Christian to get what we need for the ship.
Arden: I feel vaguely insulted you said that.
Nika: Why are you insulted by the truth? We’re working on your skills. You’ll be up to par soon.
Mike: It seems to me you should give me to somebody who’s least likely to get involved in a fight.
Christian: That’s a good point.
Mike: That’s who I’d assign me to.
Christian: So…(points to Mike and himself) …Me.
Arden: Unless they start to fight over you.
Mike: Just you know, keep in mind, remember, you know, that…

Arden starts to laugh.

Mike: (as Arden’s comment sinks in)…you don’t think there’s going to be any of that, will there?
Christian: Actually, there’s— (he stops abruptly)
Nika: (to Christian) So you’re gonna take another one for the team, is that what I’m hearin’?
Christian: No, no, no. I’m starting to think that … he talks a lot.
Arden: Who?
Mike: I noticed that, too…
Nika: Arden? Christian?
Arden: Mike.
Mike: He’s talking about me.
Christian: Yes.
Mike: Yeah. I seem to talk more than I used to talk. I’ve noticed that. Have you noticed that? That’s not a good sign. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to drug me to, like, keep me from talking…
Nika: I think you should censor what you say.
Arden: The chances are that whatever’s been done to him rewired the way his brain works so now he’s talking more than he used to.
Mike: That seems quite possible.
Christian: That would make it very useful in interrogation. (lightbulb!) Mike, I want you to lie to me. Okay?
Mike: I’m not much of a liar.
Christian: I realize that.
Mike: I hardly ever lie.
Christian: (points to Rina) What’s her name?
Nika: (laughing) Christian. He just lied to you, straight-faced.
Christian: I realize that. Point being, I wasn’t specifically asking him a question. (points to Rina again) What’s her name?
Mike: Her?
Christian: Yes.

Rina keeps her mouth shut and her eyes on Mike: Will he tell them the truth? Or lie?

Mike: (quietly) Rina.
Christian: Okay.
Arden: (getting it now) Now, lie. What’s her name?
Christian: What’s her name?
Mike: (even more quietly) Rina.

Rina relaxes. Thank God.

Christian: There you go.
Nika: Sonuva-fuckin’-bitch.
Mike: Now, what was I supposed to do?
Arden: Lie when we asked you her name.
Mike: Was this a lie to—?
Nika: They asked you her name, you said ‘Rina’ and then they said ‘Okay, lie to us. What’s her name?’
Mike: What’s the answer you want me to give you?
Arden: Martha Washington.
Mike: Well, that would be a lie.
Arden: So. What’s her name?
Mike: Rina.
Arden: …Okay….

Nika starts to swear a streak in Chinese.

Mike: Why do you keep asking me her name?
Nika: We want you to tell us a lie.
Arden: We want you to tell us her name is Martha Washington.
Mike: Oh. Her name is Martha Washington.
Arden: What’s her name?
Mike: Rina.

More Chinese from Nika, then:

Nika: If other people ask you a question, do not answer.
Mike: Okay.
Nika: You have direct orders: Do not answer anyone who asks you questions.
Mike: You don’t give me orders—.
Nika: I’m giving you a direct order. You’re flyin’ on my ship, I’m the Captain, you follow orders.

At the mention of the rank, Arden does a double take.

Arden: What?
Christian: Now’s not the time to argue.
Mike: Actually, I feel kinda—
Nika: Direct orders, Carter. You’re a soldier.
Mike: (showing some steel, now…) I’m not a soldier. The war’s over.
Nika: (Not buying that one) Mm-hm.

Thus duly ordered and assigned our field-trip buddies we go out and investigate our prospects. Rina and Christian look into getting us repaired. The bill tallies at over four thousand credits.

Holy frakkin’ shit.

Christian immediately starts bargaining, offering our shuttle toward the cost of repairs. After some hemming and hawing, the repair shop agrees to take us up on it, but it’s a drop in the bucket: Even by selling our shuttle, we’d still be about two thousand credits short. The repair shop will take the balance as a lien against the ship. If we default for any reason… We thank the nice repairmen and go find the others to break the news.

As we walk away, Rina says to Christian in a voice low enough not to carry:

Rina: There is one option we haven’t discussed yet and I hate to be the one to bring it up, but…how much does a Companion charge for his services?
Christian: Around 350 for a night, 450 if you want a whole day…assuming nothing abnormal is desired. But a) I don’t have my papers. I’m not registered with the Guild anymore and b) it’s very very very illegal.

Rina does the math in her head and illegality aside, the amount of work Christian would need to do to raise the money appalls her.

Rina: I’m…I’m sorry I even mentioned it. I’m sorry.
Christian: No, no, it’s…I fully…It’s not the worst idea in the world.

We trudge on.

Four thousand.

God help us.



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