Episode 120. Part 3
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Sunday, 09 Apr 2519
Earhart Ranch, Larson City
Larson County, Boros
Georgia (Huang Long) system
12:37 hrs, local time
We pass Boros’ moon, Ares, on the way down to the dirt and are close enough to the Military Shipyard based in orbit there to see the ships under construction. As usual, there are at least 5 of the space cruiser class ships in production and Rina spends most of the time during our fly-by looking at them through the viewports. Even though seeing such visible symbols of the Alliance sends a twitch up her spine, she cannot ignore the fact that they are beautiful, even in their half-completed state, and the skeletal bulkheads give them a serenely gothic cathedral air. Then we pass beyond eyeball distance and Rina goes back to work.
Meanwhile, Christian waves word ahead to Boros, announcing his availability as a Companion. He’s fully reinstated and licensed, and the injuries he’d sustained during the rescue were slight. The rest he’d gained on the flight over from Perdido only helped on that score and there is no real reason he cannot go back to work.
Once on Boros, we prioritize—business first, then pleasure. We off-lade our cargo, netting us 374 credits. That done, we line up some contractors to repair our ship. We’ll send the bill on to Moskalenko at Perdido, so she can honor her bargain. The repair crews are busy, however, and it will take a couple of days for them to get to us.
Rather than sitting on our duffs and twiddling our thumbs til then, we wave Nika’s sister, Nala, to tell her we’re in the neighborhood and are coming by to visit. We prep the shuttle for the trip. It’s against Rina’s nature to leave the Gift in others’ hands when repairs are underway, but she’s also aware that there is a certain safety in numbers should the Lex Talionis make a move against her. She feels confident her friends would back her against the Talionis if it came down to a fight. She knows the most prudent course of action is to go with the crew but it smacks of cowardice nonetheless, and she forces herself to leave with the others when it’s time to go. We each pack enough personal effects for a week’s stay and Rina brings along her took kit. If nothing else, she can keep herself busy fixing things around the ranch.
When we arrive, we find everything is quiet. Too quiet. In fact, there’s no one at the ranch at all. We land the shuttle and find no one there, not woman or child or ranch hand. In fact, we don’t find any livestock either. No cows lowing to be milked, no dogs waiting to be fed, nor horses groomed. There are a few chickens scratching about the yard that scatter at our approach, but other than that the ranch is a ghost town.
It’s calving season and normally the ranch would be abuzz with activity as the new mothers are culled from the herds and their young ones are branded, castrated, and catalogued…but unless the herd is actually out to pasture in the back of beyond, they and the ranch hands that attend to them are nowhere to be seen. The grass in the pastures is high, uncropped by beast or mower, and the ground is clear of cow droppings.
Hinked, we go back to the shuttle and get our rifles. Now armed, we do a more thorough search of the property. Nika strides easily across the yard with her rifle, completely in her element, and hails the house.
There is no answer.
We cautiously enter the house. Inside, it is simple and tidy, well kept up, but it shows signs of life interrupted. A thin two day’s worth of dust coats everything. Food sits out, much to the flies’ delight. Chores like dishes and laundry are left undone. A child’s toy lies on the oval floor rug in the main room—a hand-carved horse, complete with saddle and tack still on it. A carved cowboy, his legs bowed to fit on the horse, lies some inches away. Nala’s Cortex box sits booted up and running and a quick check shows Nika’s message out of Perdido waiting unopened in the message queue. The beds have been slept in and made, offering further proof of occupancy, and Nika goes through the premises with increasing anxiety.
Where is Nala? Where is Kevin? What has happened to them?
Searching the attic, the root cellar and the loft in the barn fail to turn up her missing family. The barn itself holds a work mule, its metal body dented from typical hard use and in need of touching up. Of horses themselves, there is evidence they at one time used the barn but neither they or their gear are there now. Nika finally gives in and gets on the horn to the next ranch over, the Meads’ place. It’s a tense moment as she waits for the Meads to pick up the call, and the hiss from the CB sounds unnaturally loud in Nala’s front room.
The static sputters and a woman’s voice issues from the CB.
Mrs. Mead: (pleased) Is that Nika Gwendolyn? Girl, what are you doin’ back here?
Nika: Well, I came by to visit but Nala, Kevin and the hands aren’t here. What’s going on?
Mrs. Mead: Oh. Yeah, you might not have heard about that. There’s some issues over inoculations this year. The cost ran kinda high, so your sister had to sell off some of the herd, but then some of them disappeared in toward the back regions. So she and your nephew went out there lookin’ for them. They’re not back?
Nika: No, when did they go?
Mrs. Mead: A couple’a days ago, I guess. But you know, you got a lotta land. It’s possible they’re out there still lookin’.
Nika: Yes. Absolutely. Listen, they’ve taken most of the horses and… My ship’s crew came to visit, too. Would you mind if we came your way and picked up some horses and went to catch up with them.
Mrs. Mead: Ummmm…well. Possibly. We can hook you up but right now we’re in calving season so we need most of our horses for bringin’ in our stock and all.
Mrs. Mead sounds dubious. Worse, she sounds reluctant. The rest of us start suggesting alternatives.
Christian: Why don’t we just do a fly-over?
Rina: We could do a fly-over. We could use the mule in the barn.
Mrs. Mead cuts in over the CB.
Mrs. Mead: You…think somethin’s wrong?
Nika: You know, Mrs. Mead, I don’t know. It makes me a little nervous she didn’t leave a note, but I didn’t send her a wave I was comin’ til a couple’a days ago. I’ve never seen her just leave the entire homestead empty, though.
Mrs. Mead: Well, there’s been some issues over tryin’ to hire people. Your family’s ….I don’t know how to say this exactly, but…there’s been some pressure, economic pressure has been put on your family. Your sister ain’t tellin’ you ’bout that?
Nika: No, Ma’am. My sister ain’t told me nothin’.
Mrs. Mead: Well…maybe, sweetie, you folks would be more—I don’t feel real good talkin’ about it, but you remember the family your sister married? The Johansens…did you hear that they…uh…found some lithium on their property? Well, apparently it’s real important for fuel cells and stuff and they’ve been using that to…um…supplement their cattle money. They’re doin’ real well. They been buyin’ the planet all over the place an’ puttin’ pressure on who buys from whom and well, I think your sister’s been getting’ kinduva raw deal in that regard. She’s actually been workin’ deals with us and we’ve been actually sellin’ for her ourselves and then we pay her for ’em. It seems she’s been havin’ trouble dealin’ with them. (A puzzled beat) Why, I… she told me you knew about this. She said you been sendin’ her money and stuff. Is that not happenin’?
It takes Nika a few seconds to get past this bombshell and reply.
Nika: I’m gonna take a quick fly-over the back pasture and see if we can hook up with ’em. But if I can’t stop them, I’d be much obliged if you would send me even a couple’a horses to try to get out there.
Mrs. Mead: Oh, we’ll do what we can. If you think that there’s trouble.
Nika: Well, now that you’re tellin’ me that, that makes me a little bit more nervous. I’ll….I’ll get back in touch with ya in a couple’a more hours, all right?
Nika ends the call and while Christian admits he can’t ride a horse, Nika pulls up the ranch’s financial books. Nala didn’t come up with anything tricky for a password. She used Nika’s birthday and their father’s middle name. The numbers support Mrs. Mead’s story and it’s fairly bleak.
The ranch is down to about 20% of the cattle Nika remembers the ranch owning before. Most of the loss is due to the inoculation issues. Apparently the Feds had taken a sudden interest in the cattle and started insisting on mandatory inoculations, or penalties and fines would be levied. This complicated matters like getting the cattle sold off-planet, where health regulations are tighter. It’s as if all of a sudden rules that had previously been waived or unenforced were suddenly put into play, making it harder for Nala to do business as usual. It’s all very suspicious.
Nala’s expenses seem normal—groceries, farming and ranching expenses, etc. Deposits are also normal…or as normal as can be under the circumstances. Nowhere are there any deposits with money Nika sent home, as the Meads believed. That’s because Nika hadn’t been sending money home.
Rina: So how did they get the idea?
Nika: She lied. Either Nala told them that we were sending money, or Shyla and Brian knew something of what was going on and were helping out, too. And that may not be in the books. Shyla and Harry and Brian stop by every time they pass through here, too, so it wouldn’t shock me to find out that they were helping Nala on the down-low.
Further inspection of the books turn up other details. The cattle are running alarmingly low, too low to support the ranch out-of-pocket, and she finds that some of the land on the ranch has been sold to compensate. A little parcel here and another parcel there, nothing too big but alarming nonetheless. Without land, one can’t graze cattle, and without cattle, one can’t keep the land... It’s a vicious cycle.
Nika fires up the shuttle and flies a search pattern over the back pastures. We search the likely areas first, then the less likely. The lack of cattle overall is worrying. Christian asks Nika if we can call her sister to get her location. Nika replies Nala’s comm is at home: we’d used it to talk to the Meads. Christian is appalled that the Earharts don’t have comms on their person. What if someone got lost or injured while riding out there and—
Nika: Christian. This is not the city.
Christian: Then I would think that’s all the more reason to have a comm out here.
Nika: That’s just not how we live.
Christian: This isn’t the middle of nowhere. You have an Alliance Military Base hanging over your heads.
Arden: Then that means we don’t have to worry about some things.
Nika: Yeah!
Christian: (undeterred) Not even a radio?
Nika admits Nala could have taken the radio with her, and on the return trip to the ranch, she flies the radius a woman and a child can cover on horseback in two days. We find no sign of them. We fly back to the ranch and land the shuttle, and go back inside to check on that radio.
Nala had actually taken the portable radio with her, but trying to hail her on it nets us nothing. She must be out of range.
Nika searches the house more thoroughly, checking for the vital things: her father’s rifle, her sister’s jewelry, clothing and toiletries that might indicate a planned trip. Of jewelry, Nika’s few pieces are still where she left them, but of Nala’s some are missing. Yet there aren’t enough missing to tell us definitively if Nala is simply wearing them, or if they’d been sold or stolen.
The lack of evidence is maddening.
Christian and Rina jump on the Cortex and start looking for Nala’s cattle up for public auction. If Nala was away for an auction, she’ll likely be where her cattle are. Sure enough, the Earhart brand is one of those licensed to auction in the next town over for the following weekend. It’s a couple of days’ ride away for a woman and small child, fourteen hours if you’re willing to travel hard and alone.
Christian: So you have the cattle and a couple of representatives up there at the very least?
Nika: Based on what the neighbors said, I’d be a little concerned if Nala showed up at an auction on her own.
Arden: We don’t know the circumstances of what’s going on, though.
Nika: If the Johansens suddenly have money….
Arden: Why don’t we go to the auction? At least it’s a point of contact.
Christian: It’s a start. Maybe someone there would know more—
Nika: I know, I know…let’s go.
Nika leaves and starts locking up…and freezes, remembering. The door wasn’t locked when we first arrived and despite the rural nature of the community, she and her family always locked up the house whenever they left it. She mentions this to the crew.
Christian: Could someone come in, kidnap her and sell her herd? Which ranches adjoin yours? If anyone’s going to be stealing cattle, they’re going to need a place to steal them to.
And so it goes. We search the attic and the cellar one last time before going on to town to check out the auction and to determine if Nala and Kevin are there.
The stockyards are huge. Fencing, milling cattle, dust and noise anmanure all hit the senses. To those accustomed to the sterility of space and the cleanliness of the Core, it’s a chaotic mess. There is room near the train depot where the cattle are loaded to land our shuttle and we settle her next to the large mules and ground vehicles of the stereotypical stockyard. And disembarking our shuttle we run smack into another messy fact of stockyards: manure is everywhere and it’s difficult to walk without plowing right through it.
Rina rolls her eyes and bending over, rolls up the cuffs of her coveralls. Her boots are just going to have to rough it. Christian remarks his new workboots could use the workout and Arden opines this is SO not like Sophie. Nika dons a cowboy hat and pushes on, fully expecting someone to hail her as Nala.
The auction entry we found on the Cortex provided a lot number for Nala’s cattle and we make our way to it. Nala’s lot has ranch hands working it, caring for the cattle and everything seems on the up and up. Nika picks out the foreman and walks over to him. He’s taken aback to see her and looks her narrowly up and down.
Nika: Problems?
Foreman: Um.
Nika: (all right, already…) Why don’t you just tell me where to find my sister?
Foreman: (Lightbulb!) Oh, right. Your sister.
Christian sizes up the man and judges the foreman had mistaken Nika for Nala and wasn’t expecting to see Nala here. Why not? These are her cattle and he is her employee. What’s going on?
Foreman: You’re, ah…
Nika: Yeah, I am. Why don’t you tell me where I can find my sister?
Foreman: And your sister is….?
Nika: My sister would be the owner of the cattle with this brand. So far as I’m aware.
Foreman: Oh. Oh, okay. Yeah, I think I heard there was another sister involved. I guess you’ll be wantin’ to be goin’ inta town, then. But from what I understand, she’s in the hospital.
Nika: Excuse me?
Foreman: Yeah.
Nika: I just got back on-planet. What happened?
Foreman: Her boy. Tragic thing.
Nika: What’s wrong with him?
Foreman: I don’ know, but whatever it is, it’s costin’ her a bunch’a this stuff. (waves a gesture at the milling cattle)
Nika: Thank you.
And she pivots on her heel right back for then shuttle. God, Kevin—not even three years old and he’s in the hospital. She picks up her pace. She doesn’t even pause to scrape off her boots when she boards the shuttle but slams into the pilot’s chair and we take off. The closest place with a hospital is Cheyenne on the other side of the county, and Nika flies straight for it.
It’s a tense half-hour trip by air. It feels like forever before we finally touch down.
Cheyenne Hospital does indeed have an Earhart registered as a patient. It’s Kevin and when we catch up with Nala in the ICU waiting room, she’s hunched in a chair with her face buried in her hands, overwhelmed. She’s not alone. Lawrence Johansen is sitting with her.
Nika: Nala?
Lawrence looks up at Nika’s voice and turns around. He stands and pauses at Nika’s look—which quite simply tells him he’s a dead man if he gets between Nika and her sister. The man gives her some room. Nala gets up from her chair and hugs her sister hard in greeting.
Nika: Nala? What happened?
Nala: He’s got somethin’. I don’t know. The doctors don’t know what it is, yet, and we’re tryin’ to figure out if it’s some kinda….ahmmm…(pulls herself together) …if it’s some kinda epilepsy or somethin’. We don’t know exactly what, but he’s been havin’ seizures and…
Nika: Oh, God….Why didn’t you tell me?
The women sit back down.
Nika: Why didn’t you send me a wave? I talk to you and I keep asking you and you keep telling me that everything’s fine.
Nala: Well, at first we thought he was just a little slow or something. It’s hard to tell with a toddler. And I didn’t want you to worry and have to come racin’ back for something you can’t do anything about, anyway. You’re not a doctor.
Nika: No. But you know what? I got a friend who is.
Rina: Arden. Get your butt up here.
Arden: What? I’m standing right here.
Front and center, Arden. Let’s go. He starts forward for the nurses’ station—if anyone would have the records he’d need, it would be them.
Lawrence clears his throat.
Lawrence: Well, we’ve been tryin’ to help, but your sister, she’s been refusin’ our help.
Nika sizes up the man in front of her. Nika killed Trey in defense of her sister, the Johansens buried their son, and Nika was acquitted in the trial that followed. The Johansens knew Nala’s husband had been a wifebeating asshole and his death wasn’t a complete surprise. Though the Johansens might have hated Nika for what she’d done, they didn’t hate Nala and she escaped their censure by and large. And yet there is still a fair measure of unresolved feelings over the whole business and Nika is unsure just what to make of Lawrence’s statement. What kind of help is the man referring to? And why would Nala refuse it? Were there strings attached? And what was Lawrence doing here anyway?
Catching the undercurrent between Lawrence and Nika, Christian comes forward.
Christian: Ms. Earhart? My name is Christian Edge. I’m a friend of your sister’s.
Nala looks up.
Christian: More importantly, Dr. Arden over there is going to need you to tell the hospital staff to release your son’s medical records to him. He is a Core-trained doctor and very good at what he does.
After a little bit of territorial wrangling with the staff, we get the records in Arden’s hands and he goes through them. The facilities here are limited. The place still uses x-rays to examine patients internally, as we see right off when Arden holds them up to the light.
X-rays. Imagine that.
The hospital hasn’t been able to do any serious blood work or run any toxicology screens either. Arden does what he can with what he has.
Nika looks up at Lawrence.
Nika: So. You been tryin’ to help her out?
Lawrence: We’d be happy to pay for the boy’s treatment.
Nika: The way I hear it, you’re pretty happy to run her ranch out of business, too.
Christian: (sing-song murmur) This isn’t the time…
Nika: (continuing) Maybe that’s why she’s refusing your help.
Lawrence: Well. We all know what a big help you’ve been.
Ouch.
Nika: (evenly) That’s between me and you. This is your nephew. (turning around) Christian, stay out of it.
Christian: No, I’m not going to stay out of it. You are not going to cause a scene in a hospital.
Nika: Not your business. (Nope.) Not your business. Back off.
Nika turns to Lawrence and gets right in his face.
Nika: I don’t care what you do with me, you leave your nephew out of it.
Christian: (to Lawrence) I’m sorry, is she still talking?
Christian pulls Nika away from Lawrence Johansen.
Christian: (undertone) Look, a little later, not right now. Not right now. There’s a time and a place and this is not the time, or the place.
Nika shrugs free and goes to Nala.
Nika: Nala, can I go in and see him? Will they let me in?
Nala: Well, they’re a little worried about his immune system right now. Have you been—?
Meaning: inoculated?
Nika: Yeah, I just got up on it.
Nala: You can take a look through the glass.
And Nika goes to see her nephew. The glass starts at counter height and goes to the ceiling. Beyond it Kevin lies still and pale in a bed too big for him. Nika drinks in every detail, from his hair to his features to his toddler fingers twitching on the sheets. Nika puts her forehead to the glass, Nala joins her, and together they watch him sleep.
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