Episode 305: Blush Bismuth, Part 4
Meanwhile back at the mine, Rick climbs down from the water tower and stashes his rifle somewhere safe, then slips off to mingle with the miners. Jackson returns to his office. It’s not long before he gets a call from the Security. Jackson sees it’s on Escobar’s line and he answers it.
Security: Sir, the shuttle’s left.
Jackson: Um..Um…He, he….left. Like, uh…He got some sort of call. I didn’t actually—I was trying not to listen in but I think it was from Corone. From-from upper management…and they wanted to see him. In Lorngaard, right away—but I wasn’t listening in. So he-he commandeered, he commandeered the shuttle and-and left, like, uh, he commandeered their shuttle-thing. Like, uh,…uh, d’you, do you need anything else? ’Cause I kinda wanna go to sleep.
Security: (say what?) Uuhhhh……
Jackson: He said he’d be back but he didn’t say when. But I wasn’t listening in, so I don’t know. But I think I can handle security here, okay. ’Cause it’s not all that dangerous. He said so himself. Just keep doing whatever it is you do when you do the thing you do,…and then..and then everything will take care of itself and I’m sure he’ll be back in-in-in a day or two. Like, I mean I wouldn’t have to-I wouldn’t want to escalate this to management if there was any-any-any problems.
That call seems to satisfy Security and Jackson’s just bought us a couple of day’s worth of time.
We get the shuttle to Lorngaard without incident and contact Faria to tell him we have his package. Rina’s all for binding Escobar up, duct taping his mouth shut and dumping him on his ass at Faria’s feet. She doesn’t know the whole story behind Nika’s encounter with Escobar but she can guess—she can see that Nika’s really, really, really, really tense, and being twitchy, she suspects the worse. So of course she wants payback. The rest of the crew nix her delivery idea. No duct tape. No shaving his eyebrows off. No “rapist” sharpied across his forehead. Just tie him up, for pete’s sake, and be done with it. She pauses as she binds him up.
Rina: Is circulation a positive plus?
Arden: (adamant) Yes.
While we’re waiting for Faria’s reply, Arden does a little digging into the area news. He looks into General Nguyen and finds out that he is now in charge of the PDF. There is a Mayor for the city of Lorngaard but oddly enough there’s no current Governor of Highgate, now that the Alliance has pulled out of the system. The refugee camp we visited the last time we were here is still where we’d seen it, next to the Naval base outside Lorngaard. He also finds out that there is a group organizing into the civilian division of the PDF, and their name is the PCF—Planetary Cooperation Force.
Huh. It looks like Falkan’s dismissive remark about Blue Sun inhabitants fending for themselves is coming true.
Faria calls us back and gives us directions to his place. We take a taxi, hauling Escobar with us like a 26th century version of Weekend at Bernie’s. It’s in a not-so-nice neighborhood in Lorngaard. We manhandle Escobar up a flight of stairs in an apartment building and up to Faria’s door. Faria answers his door ensconced in his wheelchair. Inside is a sparsely furnished apartment, a table and a couple of chairs is all that’s visible in the front room. Faria directs us to deposit Escobar in one of the chairs and pulls out a little leather kit, in which lies a syringe.
Arden: (eyeing syringe) What are you planning to do?
Faria: Wake him up.
Arden offers to tell him what sort of sedatives were used on Escobar and Faria waves it off. Nika asks if the Shepherd needs us to restrain Escobar before Faria wakes him.
Faria: (calmly) No. I think we’re done.
Nika: Okay.
Arden: I take it you don’t want us around?
Faria: It’s probably best that…in case something goes wrong, you’re not around.
Arden: ….okay….
Nika: Shepherd. Feel free to let them know when you need a ride. I’m going back to check up on Rick.
Faria: You left Rick at the mine?
Nika: He’s covering Jackson.
Faria says nothing but draws a thick Bible from his robes and puts it on the table.
That’s our cue. We take the hint. We leave.
Nika rides back with us in the taxi and we debate the merits of splitting the party up. We decide to all go back in the shuttle with Nika once morning arrives. In her opinion, arriving in the middle of the night would look suspicious.
Meanwhile, back at the mine, Rick catches up with Jackson who runs up a miner’s ID card for him.
Jackson: New miner, this is a temp ID. Just came off the ship, some technical skills for someone to run the machinery…
Rick: The name is Herbert.
Jackson: Herbert. What an excellent name. My mother thought about naming me Herbert but she decided on Melvin, instead.
It should get him anywhere he needs to go. Rick does a little more scouting around and discovers that the stitches have their own dorm separate from the other miners. It’s the only dorm that has a guard. Rick finds a place to bed down for the night, just another miner in a camp full of them. The night passes uneventfully in the dorms.
In his office, Jackson spends the next several hours poring over the Corone employment forms for the personnel at the mine. He’s looking for some sort of cover for Escobar’s absence, trying to get enough intel to falsify orders from Corone’s chain of command terminating Escobar’s contract. As the mine’s manager, Jackson has the power to hire from within the mine’s personnel pool.
During our flight back to the mine the next morning, Nika gets on the horn to Rick.
Nika: How are we going to do this?
Rick: Do what?
Nika: How are we gonna free these people?
Rick: We may not have to free them.
Nika: Really? Why?
Rick: Because Jackson may be making some arrangements as to restructuring the mining facility.
Rina: (listening in) Sweet.
Nika flaps her hand at Rina: pipe down, woman!
Nika: What about the brain dead guys?
Rick: Good question.
Nika: What about the contact who wanted out?
Rick: He didn’t necessarily want out, he wanted to know what we were doing to fix the situation.
Nika: So really the main issue here is the brain dead guys and what happens to them.
Rick: Uhm-hm. And there’s a good chance that that information is revealed in Escobar’s ….confession.
Nika: (sighing) I knew there was a reason I didn’t take that kind of work.
The security team announces the shuttle’s arrival on the phone to Jackson.
Security: The shuttle’s landing.
Jackson: Because it would be s-so good to see him again…It’s been so rough, lik, running security for these 24 hours. I-I still don’t think I could do it full-time.
Security: The shuttle’s landed. Do you want us to check it out?
Jackson: No-no. I-I’m head of security for the moment. Like, I’m-I’ll-I’ll go check it out. Don’t wor-don’t worry. I’m-I’m sure that’s Escobar coming back, like…I’m sure that he was just…
Security: Usually he has a morning meeting but because he’s not here, we’re just going to go do our duty rosters.
Jackson: That…th-that would be good. You go…G-go right ahead, go right ahead.
He goes out to meet us next to the shuttle where we’re waiting. Nika speaks first.
Nika: Mr. Jackson.
Jackson: Yes..y-yes. Is Escobar with you?
Nika: No, he’s not.
Jackson: Oh, that’s not good, that-that’s not good. Like, uh…. we’ll-we’ll have to find—we can’t go—I can’t be head of security and, and, and Head of the Mine at the same time.
Jackson is slapping one hand into the other for emphasis, like a judge pounding his gavel.
Jackson: It’s j-just…too much job for-for one person, even as-as good as I am. Like, so, we’re gonna have to do something.
Arden: We can take you to the people in town and discuss it with them.
Jackson: We have to do something about—what? What? What….?
Arden: (slowly) We can take you back to town and you can discuss it with the proper people.
Jackson: Well, I-I-I…I’m certainly going to need t-to go into town and-and-and contact…and contact Corone, like, but…but…But I can find someone i-in-in..in the…in the mine t-to take my position while I’m-while I’m gone. Lika a temporary stand-in because… I-I-I’ll, I’ll search through the records and find someone who I think is the-the most appropriate, like….Why am I telling you all this?
Um…because we just happen to be standing here?
Jackson: It’s like, like I’m just gonna go do it.
Right on!
Nika: And you can find someone to temporarily take on for Escobar, too.
We follow Jackson as he goes back to the office and pulls up the employment records for the security department. It looks like all the current security personnel had been hired on after Escobar took office. Nobody we can completely trust there. Jackson goes outside the security department pool next, looking for someone with the ability to take over without being Escobar’s man. Jackson calls Jones aka Engels to his office—Rick has vouched for him and the fact that Engels has stuck his neck out for the workers’ welfare repeatedly is as good a character reference as we’re going to get. When Jones arrives, Jackson explains.
Jackson: I, uh, got to—I have to leave….uh, um…
Jones: Are you all right?
Jackson: Now…I, uh..I may be back, like, uh..but, uh…I’m not sure when exactly I’ll be back, cuz, …(whispers) like, my father, he’s called me in, to-to-to give me, uh…to give me a—I’m sure it’s going to be a promotion, but-but you never know.
There goes that hand gavel again, thumping the table.
Jackson: I, uh, I might be back,…But! But…in the meantime I need someone to watch over the facility, like, uh… and, uh, looking over your records, and-and-and talking with the appropriate personnel, I-I think, I think that you would be perfect.
Jones: I’m getting my old job back?
Jackson: Y-yes. Yes, exactly. Exactly. You would-you would be—.
Jones: We haven’t had a foreman here for…a year.
Jackson: Are-are you complaining?
Jones: No.
Jackson: Be-because if you’re complaining, I’m sure I could find someone else to do the job. I mean, filling my shoes would-would be, is-is-is huge. But-but-but I think you look like you might be qualified or at least marginally qualified to do it. So..and…and-and-and we got some issues with, with Escobar having taken off—not returned on the shuttle, and-and I-I thought he was going to be back but he’s not and so, what do you-what do you—you’d have to-to manage security and deal with the-the-the….(whispers) I hate calling them ‘stitches’, but-but-but you’d have to-to find, figure out some, to-to-to keep them, you know, dealt with. Securely and safely, because you know, it…ah…it-it-it wouldn’t be, like, good mine policy to, well…you know, uhm...
He stills his hand and leans forward over his desk.
Jackson: I trust you to do the right thing.
Jones: (non-plussed) Uhm. Okay. I think that they’re, you know, sick and probably should go to town to be looked at.
Jackson: That’ll-that’ll be your decision to make, I’m not a…uh….I-I-I don’t know if I’ll be back. I fully expect to be promoted to a better position—no offense to you, like, uh, cuz you seem like a nice individual. But you take care of it the way you see fit.
Jones: All right. I don’t know what made this change of heart…
Jackson: I got some information that…that-that-I…that-that-that…guided me, some-some information that—(whispers) you know what kind of information I’m talking about.
Jones: Okay. I’ll do what I can.
Jackson: Excellent.
Jones: Maybe you should be here til other people see that—
Jackson: Yes, I plan to-I plan to do that, I’ve-I’ve already filled out the paperwork. You’ll need to sign here, here, here and here. And then after you do that, we’ll make an announcement and we’ll let security know and-and-and then….
Jones: (plucking at his coveralls) I should probably change.
Jackson: That would be a good idea. I’ve got an extra set of clothes there in the, in the locker. Or if you have something that you prefer to wear, but….but…
Jones: I’ll find something.
Jackson: Okay…but it’s very fine clothing….
Jones acquiesces and Jackson continues.
Jackson: And since the shuttle’s here, I’ve-I’ve-I’ve not hired them, I’ve commandeered them, like uh, like uh, like….Corone will pay them and they’re gonna take me into Lorngaard.
Jones: Will you, um, pass on my appreciation?
Jackson: Of course. I wouldn’t want t—Of course, I will. And I trust that you’ll be fine. I”ll call security and we’ll let them know.
Jackson alerts security of the shuttle’s imminent departure. Meanwhile, we realize that someone’s going to have to split off from the party and drive the mule back separately. We comm Rick to fill him in on the regime change and tell him of our plans to leave. Rick asks us to pick him up outside the facility. We’ll use the mule to pick him up about half a klik down the road and take Rick back into town. That suits Rick fine, but first he’s going to swing by the security office. When he does, he sees Engels preparing to take up his new post, freshly changed into his new duds. Engels looks a mite stunned at the reversal of his fortune. Jackson’s standing to the side, beaming.
Jackson: It’s amazing how it works for you. Sometimes good things happen, like uh, when you least expect them.
Jones: I’m still not quite sure about this. When the shift change happens and we end up getting a new shipment of stitches, somebody’s going to be looking for the old ones.
Jackson: Y-you can’t…? I mean, you’re telling me you can fill out forms to—?
Jones: I can fill out forms, but these aren’t necessarily people that care that much about forms. Not that I’ve seen. But….we’ll figure out something.
Rick: Do we have copies of these forms that we can at least look at?
Jackson: The employment termination forms?
Rick: Yes.
Jackson: 147342-F?
Rick: Can I get a copy of one of those?
Jackson: (pulling form out) Here.
Rick looks it over. It says the stitches are shipped to Osiris but it looks like it’s just a transfer of skilled personnel, a waiver that removes them from their non-disclosure agreement. A basic inter-corporate agreement that allows transfer of personnel. As for the documentation that accompanies the new stitches when they arrive, it’s like an employment form but it also has a special voucher attached that authorizes special assistance for the mentally infirm. Rick asks for a copy of that too from Jackson.
Jackson hands it right over.
Rick: I’m gonna keep these two copies—
Jackson: Well they’re copies so of course you can keep them. If they weren’t copies they’d be the originals and they’d have to stay here.
Rick: (grinning) Well, thank you for giving me copies so I can keep them.
Jackson: Like,uh…It’s-It’s good to have you on board, so to speak. Like, uh…with the program.
Jackson turns to Engels, one hand gaveling into the other again.
Jackson: And you’ll’you’ll deal with security of course, like, if you-if you convince them that-that you got the-the stuff to handle the job, then they’ll be right behind you when, I’m sure, when…..
Engels: I’ll do my best. I don’t know what their loyalties are. We’ll see.
Jackson: I’m sure you’ll find ways around that.
Jackson agrees to call a few more security personnel and tell them of the changes in office, as it were, and hold a meeting to establish Engels as their new boss. When he leaves to go set things up and Rick is alone with Engels, Rick asks if Engels can handle everything.
Engels: If worst comes to worst, we can muscle the security guys out if we can catch them in the right—I mean, they’re not going to be organized enough to—.
Rick: Right.
Engels: But I am worried this whole thing about the stitches: how they got here, what’s going to happen when people come looking for the, whatever. I don’t know if it’s better for us to… I mean if we just stand our ground, we might just be replaced with the next batch of people.
Rick: I know nothing about the stitches but there’s a chance I might be looking into it.
Engels: The only thing I could think of would be some publicity might dissuade them from sending more.
Rick is a celebrity. He’s got a certain amount of pull in the publicity department.
Rick: We may be able to do something about that. I just need to talk to some other people. I’ll contact you if I find out anything before leaving this planet as to what you can expect.
And that done, Rick takes his leave.
After that, it’s all a matter of mopping up. Rick sneaks back out the fence the way he came and Rina picks him up in the mule a half-klik past the gate. Back at the mine, Jackson schedules an eleven o’clock meeting to establish Engels as the new head of security. Nika sticks around for the meeting—she’s still got Jackson to take with her when the op is finally over. Jackson makes his announcement, Engels steps up to accept his new position and deliver his speech about how things are going to be different from here on….no guards on the dormitories, the security fence is getting turned off. Symbolic gestures that make the security team look askance at him.
Engels: Assuming the management has no problem, I am giving a two-week vacation to all the security guards. I encourage you to take it.
Jackson jumps in with his enthusiastic approval, stating it’s fully endorsed by Corone. The mood of the security team changes as they take the hin and the miners gathered there for the hand-over are cautiously optimistic that their lot is starting to improve.
At meeting’s end, Jackson turns to Engel.
Jackson: If I come back, just, uh, understand that…but I won’t be back. I don’t think I’ll be back.
Engels: D’you think this will work? I know it’s a faceless organization but will they just….?”
Jackson: It has to work. Like, uh….it already happened. It’s not…. The alternative is worse, isn’t it?
Engels: Well, I mean, if nothing else, we’ve….these kinda moments are pretty—all right. Well. Can’t thank you enough.
Jackson: It’s the least I could do. I mean, Corone. So. You take care.
Engels: (girding himself) All right.
Jackson leaves.
He’s got a lot on his mind. At the top of the list is the big damned changes he’s made to the real Melvin Jackson’s life in changing the SOP at the mine, and making Jackson the instigator of them. Would Corone really take exception to those changes? Or is Engels’ correct in thinking that the ‘faceless organization’ of Corone would even care, must less notice, so long as the mine continued to churn out product at a profit?
Jackson’s not the only one thinking along these lines. When he and the rest of the crew fly back to Summer’s Gift, we all go into wrap-up mode. Rick makes his report to Faria. Arden immediately offers to change Jackson’s face back to Joshua’s. Nika inquires what Jackson is going to do about the changes he’s made to Jackson’s life. Jackson responds the only alternative is to stay on as Jackson for the next two months, which is entirely up to her. Jackson insists that he can, if he needs to. Nika turns that alternative down, for reasons that are obvious to everyone.
Shortly after our return, Faria stops by to give us a call.
Faria: I was hoping to head back to my old stateroom if that’s going to be available shortly.
Nika: It’s still open.
Faria: I assume everybody go t out safely.
Nika: Oh, yes.
Faria: do you have plans for the next few weeks?
Nika hears a noise from Jackson and they trade a look.
Nika: Nothing that can’t be juggled.
Faria: I was hoping you might b able to swing by Muir.
Arden: Is Mr. Escobar going to be joining us?
Faria: He might.
Arden: I don’t think that’s quite a good idea.
Faria: Well, this would be a one-way ticket for him.
Arden: I think having him aboard the ship is a bad idea.
Rina: We could keep him tranked the entire time.
Arden: No.
Faria: I was thinking that maybe perhaps I could arrange for him to be delivered in a container that would be self-contained for the journey.
Nika: So long as he’s confined, yes.
Rick: That’s fine. I don’t have a problem with that. A self contained container? A coffin?
Faria answers in the negative.
Faria: He’s quite alive.
Nika: (giving Rick a warning look) My assumption was the Shepherd didn’t do him in. But…you know…okay.
Faria: We’ve come to some agreement.
Nika: As long as he stays confined, Shepherd.
Faria: I believe he will be amenable to that. I was looking at the data you gave me about this operation. Do you have any thoughts about how to stop this or throw a wrench into the works?
Only one.
Arden: And it probably involves associating with some people we don’t want to associate with. We know somebody in the PDF.
Faria: I’m wondering about this Dr. Gordon.
Nika: (to Arden) We do?
Arden: Nguyen.
Rick: Yeah, but Nguyen’s the one who’s ordering this. This is coming from the base that he’s in charge of.
Arden: No, this is coming from a doctor on the base. At the camp. Which is not associated with the PDF. It’s with the PCF.
Rick: But it’s from the unit that he was in charge of before.
Arden: He wasn’t really in charge of it. He’s the military guy. These are non-military guys.
Rina: Speaking of the military….
Nika: We have an alternative. Possibly.
Arden: What’s the alternative?
Rina gets it, as does Nika. The rest need to have it explained.
Nika: Some folks from the Decatur were hoping to meet up with us on Highgate anyway. So far as I’m aware they are not part of the PDF. They may have enough pull or power to stop it.
Arden: But the Decatur was a PDF ship.
Rick: Hold on. Is it the whole Decatur or just some people on Decatur? Because we’re talking about the General in charge of the PDF.
Nika: I know that there are two factions, and that Nguyen and our people aren’t on the same side.
Because even here, things are factionalized.
Arden: We know who the doctor is who’s greasing the wheels on the paperwork for this whole transfer of prisoners. He could be squeezed for information about what’s going on.
Rick: And all of the stitches who were military, they were all Alliance. None of them were Browncoat, right?
There is no way of knowing from here. Joshua mutters something about having the solution and just needing to figure out a way to implement it. Nobody else seems to notice his statement.
Nika: Well, if the Cortex were up, publicity would be your best weapon in that regard.
Arden: I’m interested in where these prisoners are going to and what they’re doing with them.
Rick: Stop them at the source. Right?
Arden: Well…. at the end, yeah. The source is Gordon.
It’s pretty obvious that we need to pay Gordon a visit. He’s the key to all this…or at least, the only key we know of. The paperwork seems to be all signed by Gordon. The people affected were all brain surgery patients and Gordon is a surgeon. Gordon’s working at the camp. Jackson speaks up, tentatively.
Jackson: If, if…if I had to make a guess at it, I would say that, that, it could possibly be a Blue Sun operation from start to finish. Gordon on their payroll could be laundering, laundering so to speak, laundering…like, prion patients, giving them a clean, a-a-a shiny cover and when they die, they’re sent back to Blue Sun for research. And…and it’s like a complete loop without having to involve the PDF or anyone else.
Nice. And everyone calls Rina a conspiracy nut. Well done, sir.
Arden admits he brought up Nguyen because he’s an authority in the area and could be useful to shut the operation down, even though there is no evidence to support the assumption that Nguyen himself is behind anything of the sort. It could be as Jackson said—one doctor working with Blue Sun, no military involvement at all.
By now it’s pretty clear that our job here isn’t over. We have a hospital and a doctor to investigate. And the clock is ticking. The current 4-week shift at the mine is going to end soon and that means a new shipment of brain-altered souls is destined to arrive. What can we do to prevent that?
Jackson offers up a scenario: He’ll out himself to Corone. He could film something about the operation and send it via ship to the one or two Corone Mining executives on permanent residence on Pericles Station, ten days away. By the time they get it and interpret it, the shift should be done and something might have been done to resolve the issue and Corone will not be in control. Or they will already be in control and it could end badly for our people.
Jackson will have to be careful, because Joshua’s credo goes both ways— "You're just borrowing a life - never do anything knowingly that will permanently change a person's life, for the better or for the worse."—and exposing the shady operations at the mine would make some pretty significant changes. The trick is engineering it so Jackson comes up on the win side of the ledger. The alternative, of course, would be worse.
As evil as Corone Mining might be, they probably don’t want to be thought of as traffickers of human bodies. If it turns out that there were some ‘bad apples’ taking advantage of the isolation of the mine and if there were some good guys on the Corone payroll who could expose them….well, that’s a win for everyone, isn’t it?
All we need now is a plan to make that happen. The evidence we’ve got so far points to Dr. Gordon and the field hospital. With luck, we can arrange a visit and get the goods on him there.
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