Episode 311: Suckered, Part Three
We find Iskariot. He didn’t go far. He’s in the vineyard, walking and talking to himself. Rick was scouting ahead of Rina and the others, so Rick catches up with the errant Shepherd first. They talk.
Iskariot: What is it that I can do for you, sir?
Rick tells him about the cure for the Prion disease.
Iskariot: Mmm-hm. I assumed it would be cured eventually. It only makes sense.
Rick: So…you just want to die from the Prion disease and you think that that would be your penance.
Iskariot: I did kill people with Prion disease. I did horrible things. I am a monster and need to be destroyed.
Rick: I’m not for or against you being destroyed, but don’t you think you should spend more time atoning for your sins?
Iskariot: Yes, I probably….if I am to be redeemed somehow through my actions, I would have to spend a considerable amount of time. More than my lifetime, it’s possible. Especially my now-shortened lifetime. But I’m sure that…(breathes a laugh) … that it’s impossible for me to be redeemed in this regard.
The others have caught up with them and Arden hears the last half of Iskariot’s statement.
Arden: It’s no reason not to try.
Joshua: (murmuring) You’re right, there.
Iskariot: My concern is that… being the monster that I am, that if I live much longer, I might decide that I ought to continue to live.
Rick: But do you think you ought to continue to live and return to the life of being a monster? Or…just continue to live because that’s what humans want to do?
Iskariot: You think I’m not a monster now? Do you know what I did to those people?
Rick: Do I know what you did to those people with the Prion disease?
Iskariot: Yes.
Rick: You told us about it, yes.
Iskariot: Isn’t that monstrous to you?
Rick: I….do think that it is monstrous, yes.
Iskariot: Yes, and these were innocent helpless victims. And I used them.
Rick: Why did you choose to do that?
Iskariot: I saw advantage to it. I saw potential weakness….and I decided it might be worth the effort, since they were going to die anyway. But it is a careless disregard of the value of human life. I’m clearly not redeemed in that regard.
Rick: So you haven’t really learned anything from the experience that brought you to become a Shepherd.
Iskariot: Uhnn.
Rick: Other than to turn your back to the death and destruction you were a part of before, but only for a new kind of death and destruction.
Iskariot: Were I to merely tend to the flock, as I did a little bit of while I was here, and suppose did that for the rest of my life, would I have paid off my debt.
Rick: No, but you don’t have to just tend to the flock. There are plenty of other things you can be a part of.
Iskariot: (skeptically) I could do what?
Despite Arden’s earlier comment, Iskariot just now becomes aware that the rest of us as Rick replies.
Rick: I mean, the Verse is in disarray at the moment. and there’s plenty of opportunity for good. So it wouldn’t simply be tending a flock, unless that’s what you wanted to do. You don’t have to be a Shepherd to do good. And many people atone for their sins through different means, other than to become a Shepherd.
Arden: Or sacrificing themselves.
Iskariot: You’re saying that my efforts are not the only way I might do some lasting good.
It’s not a question.
Rick: Yes. I mean, clearly you think that your efforts were not that good, if you feel that you’ve exploited people in a horrible way to gain some slight advantage against Reavers.
Iskariot: Oh. Well. That was nothing. My crimes go far beyond that.
Nothing? He fed incapacitated people, alive, to the Reavers. Is there a point more horrible, more criminal beyond that?
Iskariot: But I think you may be right, Rick Allen. You may have… shown me something. There might be something that I can do that might provide lasting good. I haven’t been a true believer in Providence. Perhaps, this late in my life, it’s not a coincidence….
Iskariot turns around and his eyes slide to Joshua. Recalling the accusations he’s thrown at Joshua’s head, everyone else tenses. Is he going to attack Joshua? Cue the creepy music….!
Joshua starts to laugh, either from droll amusement despite the situation or perhaps from the tension. Regardless, Rina slips into a ready stance. She’s packing and her arms are crossed, her right hand inside her coveralls gripping her gun for a quick draw. Iskariot’s gaze moves off Joshua and onto her and he regards her for a moment, as if sizing her up. She stares right back, refusing to back down.
Joshua: This just cracks me up, like….I’m sorry….(getting a grip)… To be honest….no, I’m not going to be honest in this situation….I’m sorry.
Rick tries to defuse the stand-off.
Rick: You can’t decide if someone can redeem themselves or not.
Joshua: (to Rick) You really haven’t been listening to him at all, have you? This man’s sin clearly was hubris. It was like, oh gosh, if I could only, like, if I could toil with the flock… like, I’ll never redeem myself. Like… (a beat)… Selfish bastard.
Strong words, coming from Joshua. Rick pushes on, fastening on something that Iskariot had said back at the Sanctuary.
Rick: You said ‘one of them’. You said one of them had already redeemed themselves and that’s what inspired you to change your ways. Why can’t another?
Iskariot: No, no. She escaped.
Rick: Yes, but she broke everything that she was supposed to be, did she not? That’s what you made it sound like. So…?
Iskariot: Perhaps better than I….all right…
Joshua’s kept his eye on Iskariot, reading all the subtle (and not so subtle) tells of body language and tone. He goes into total defensive mode, certain that Iskariot is going to try something against him. Joshua’s not entirely defenseless. He’s trained in Aikido.
Iskariot makes his move against Joshua. Joshua dodges. Iskariot misses. Meanwhile, Arden is going through his medical bag, loading up a sedative for injection. Rina draws her gun and brings it up, sighting on Iskariot.
Rina: (to Iskariot) Don’t move.
Standing behind Iskariot, Rick again tried to talk the man down out of combat, stating that the other Reader, River, managed to resist her conditioning and did not turn into the assassin he’s accused Joshua of being. If she could do it, then the chance exists that so could Joshua. Iskariot tilts an ear in Rick’s direction but keeps facing forward. There’s no real telling if Rick is making any headway against violence and stupidity, here.
Joshua moves backward and Iskariot’s mien changes.
Joshua: (to Iskariot) I don’t think you’re really interested in redemption at all. Selfish bastard.
Iskariot: That’s what I wanted—
And lightning fast, he grabs Rina’s gun. Snatch! And now he’s got her gun trained on Joshua.
Shit.
Rina steps in front of Joshua to give him cover. No, Joshua tells her and neatly dodges her, pulling her behind him and reversing their position. He won’t hide behind his friends, however well-meaning they may be. He maintains his defensive stance and addresses Iskariot.
Joshua: Still committing the sin of hubris, aren’t you? You assume that you’re right about me.
It’s a standoff. Iskariot has the gun but Joshua isn’t backing down. Arden has his hands full, busy loading that sedative. Rick is too far away still to tackle Iskariot and Rina cannot possibly shove Joshua out of range before the gun goes off.
Joshua: I thought you were worth saving but obviously you’re a selfish bastard. I’m kind of disappointed, honestly.
Iskariot twitches at this. The hand holding the gun shakes slightly, but Iskariot maintains his aim. Arden moves in with the syringe but Iskariot dodges out of the way. It breaks his aim on Joshua and Rick continues talking Iskariot down.
Rick: River changed. You can’t decide if people are good or bad without any interaction with them. Us killing you—isn’t that the easy way out?
Iskariot pauses as Rick’s words finally sink in. The gun comes up. The trigger is pulled and bang! Iskariot shoots himself through the head from below. Blood and bone and brain matter spray up and out, spattering the vines and us.
Iskariot crumples. Dead as a doornail. Choice made.
Thwarted, Arden curses Iskariot and calls him a coward. Joshua eyes the body narrowly.
Joshua: You really were a selfish bastard.
Using her handkerchief as a makeshift glove against the gore, Rina spears her pen through her gun’s trigger guard to carry it. No way is she touching it barehanded, nope.
Hu’s men arrive, drawn by the shot. We tell them what happened and frankly, they’re really not surprised. They’d suspected it would come to this, judging by the Shepherd’s condition, and we’re allowed to go on our way. We thank them and walk off with Iskariot’s gore still on us.
Squick-a-rama. Yuckadoo.
We clean up on the Gift and return to the Mission.
Arden: That was kind of….Yeah.
Joshua: I’m pissed at him.
Rina: So am I. If anybody was gonna use my gun to put a bullet through his head, I wanted it to be my finger, not his, that pulled the trigger. (grinds out a sigh) But he’s still dead. That’s good. And let that be a lesson to me.
Rick calls dibs on Iskariot’s sword and no one contests his claim. We find it on the altar, actually, and Rick inspects it. It’s a short sword, elegantly utilitarian and in good condition.
Iskariot’s body is matter-of-factly disposed of, the vines he’d spattered torn down. Nika rejoins us from having flown Hu’s Firefly, testing the ship for the oddities its pilot mentioned. We tell her that she’s missed out on all the fun—accusations, gunplay, blood and guts everywhere. Nika is not pleased to find out it was Rina’s gun responsible for all the excitement. Woman! I am going to throw you in the—! You took a gun to a—! It’s an old argument, more a knee-jerk reaction than anything serious, and Rina takes it in stride.
Faria is ready to go. As for Escobar, he’s staying behind at the Mission.
Rina: Who’s taking care of Escobar when we’re gone?
Faria and Arden simultaneously: The General.
Rina: He’s here to stay? He and his men?
Joshua: He owns the moon.
Hu: Until things can be set up and reestablished.
Rina: For what?
Hu: For its original purpose. Atonement. Transformation.
Rina: Oh. And by the way, before I go—I like your ship.
Hu: (puzzled) It’s one of the more common ships in the Verse.
Rina: It’s in better repair than mine, sir.
Hu: More than that. So keep your grubby paws off it.
And on that humorous note, we dock our shuttle back onto our ship, get Faria stowed comfortably aboard, and leave. The Gift flies a little better with the shuttle on her, the weight adding a stabilizing element, and we fly on, grateful for whatever advantage we can muster.
Day One:
Wednesday, 20 Nov 2520
La Grange point, Muir
Blue Sun (Qing Long) system
1900hrs, ship’s time
It’s about a day’s journey to the Orcus without pulse, but given the short hop in distance, it’s safer to fly without pulsing anyway. We approach the derelict and find nothing really amiss: no bodies floating nearby, no apparent damage, no radiation leaks. It was as it was before when we last saw it.
Rina takes stock of our EVA options, inspects our vacc suits to see that they work. We had gone through a fair many over the nearly two years as crew, most recently giving up Rina’s vacc suit to a Reaver attack. As that scar on her collarbone and should will attest. She finds the replacements in good repair and working as they should. Nika manages to dock our girl directly to Orcus using one of our topside hatches in lieu of our ruined main airlock. The two ships are docked, top hull to top hull, causing some weird gravity issues when boarding. We suit up and deal with it and get to work.
Rina’s parts list is fairly long, but we concentrate on the essentials first: Airlock door. Portside deflector/stabilizer vanes. ITCV. Forward sensor array along with a mass proximity detector. Airlock Staircase.
Rick thinks to prime our ship’s cannon up to the point of firing, loading it up with a round, just in case Reavers come knocking. The rounds we’re packing are defensive—chaff, that sort of thing—but it’s better than facing Reavers empty handed. Once he’s finished with the task, he joins the rest of the crew in salvage job.
First order of business is to turn on life support and repressurize the derelict. When we board to do that, we don’t find any evidence of bodies but we do see writing, in blood, on the walls and bulkhead of the Orcus. Rina’s immediately hinked—somebody’s been here. Upon closer examination, we see some distinct similarities between the writing here and Iskariot’s back at the Mission. It’s very abstract, however, and we try to suss it out. Is it geometry? A map?
No telling.
When the ship is pressurized and the atmo breathable, Arden doffs his suit gloves to scrape some samples off the walls to take back to his lab to analyze. As luck would have it, he cuts his finger on one of the sample slides. He takes the appropriate measures to protect himself and hies back to the Gift.
We inspect Orcus top to bottom. She’s undeniably creepy. Her emergency light fixtures have been deliberately shattered and glass and plastic litter the deck. There’s other damage too, and while our first encounter with Orcus presented us a ship that had obviously been decommissioned, now at ten months later, we’re presented with a decommissioned ship that has had what appears to have been gangs living aboard her.
We speculate who could have done the subsequent damage and why.
Rick: So….if Reavers wouldn’t act like this, how would Prion-infected Reavers act?
Joshua: (fed up) Could we just search this ship and get what we need? The sooner the better, I don’t like this place.
Joshua’s been stretching his meds for about a month now, and the vibe off Orcus is grating on his nerves. His agitation level has gone up. Joshua can hear odd sounds and starts sensing things just hiding past the nearest corner—like someone or something is hiding and ready to jump out at him. Basically, the psychic residues of Orcus are pretty much affecting Joshua’s senses. And that residue has spread to the Gift, until there’s no place Joshua can go to escape the ghostly effects.
Joshua: Could we please get this done? Now?
It’s going to take us days, necessitating EVAs to get the deflector panels and airlock door installed at the very least, along with tearing away panels on the interior and exterior to get at the parts we need.
As for Arden and his cut finger, Arden determines the blood sample is very old and chances are pretty good there were no active Prions to infect him with. If he actually is infected, he at least has the advantage of knowing how to cure the disease with a combination of surgery and pharmacology. We’d just have to find someone who can do the surgical procedure as well as he.
Rina: I know. Perform the procedure on someone with him standing next to you for at least ten minutes. (points to Joshua)
Arden: Okay. Come here and lie on the table.
Rina: Not without dinner and flowers first.
Joshua: (pained) Stop.
Rina:(Why?) What?
After a much needed laugh we get back to work. And the weird crap starts happening, above and beyond the jeebies the overall creepiness of the place engenders.
Rina’s in Orcus’s engine room, cutting away a panel to get at some much needed parts when there’s a flicker of the lights…and they all go dead on both ships. Growling at the inconvenience, Rina digs her flashlight out of her pocket, turns the thing on and threads it through the coverall strap on her shoulder and comms the crew.
Rina: Everybody. Check in.
Rick is in a vac suit dismantling the ruined outer airlock door off the Gift when this happens. Joshua’s suited up and helping him. Arden sees the lights go out and makes his way to the bridge, where Nika is sitting and thinking: this is strange. Arden checks engineering next.
Rina: Everybody check in. This is Rina.
The others comply.
Joshua: What the fuck?
Rina: (laughs) Nice call sign.
Rick: I second that.
Arden: I and Nika are okay.
With a stuttering hum, the lights on both ships flicker back on.
Arden: That’s odd.
Joshua: Okay…this ship….The Orcus is haunted.
Arden: I don’t think it’s haunted.
Joshua: It’s haunted.
Rick: What if it’s not haunted? Maybe there’s people living inside of it.
Joshua: We searched the whole thing.
Rick: Mnnnn, but not the parts that are covered by the metal to prevent us from getting to the other parts.
Joshua: Can they do that? Crap! We got to get behind them. Gimme a blow torch. Let’s go get behind the panels.
Easy mark much, Joshua?
Arden: No. Finish what we’re doing and let’s get out of here. Quickly. There’s nothing behind the panels. It’s just sealed up over the controls.
Rina’s still working on getting the ITC valve free, hears the chatter over her comm and sighs.
Rina: Ebani v’rot. I’ll get to them as soon as I can. What’s next on my fuckin’ list?
Arden: You have a fuckin’ list? Who’s at the top of the fuckin’ list?
Rina: (warning) It’s not you.
Arden: I didn’t think it would be.
Rick: Faria.
Rina: Oh, hell no.
As for Faria, he’s not of much use to us in salvage work, but he does what he can. At the moment, he’s making coffee. The comm chatter continues between us as we work to get what we need and get the hell out.
Arden: Is there any sort of electrical map of the Gift that would show where disruptions happened in the electrical system?
Rina: Oh, you mean like the wiring schematic for the entire ship? Of course! Let me pull it out of my ass.
There is a wiring schematic Rina can spin up via diagnostics but it doesn’t maintain a history of all damage. We’re not going to be able to see where the flare-up started and trace its path from beginning to end. We can only see the aftermath. Arden suggests checking the power coupling between our ships. Joshua mutters to himself about another possibility.
Joshua: Haunted….people in the walls….haunted….people in the walls….
Rina: (cutting in over the comm) And the third option: Joshua needs drugs.
Joshua: Haunted AND people in the walls.
Rick: (agreeing) People in the walls, man.
Joshua: It could be both. Maybe the people in the walls are haunting us. Maybe they’re like ghosts in the walls.
Rick: What if the Prion disease makes the Reavers more lucid? And then they’re planted to take our ship so they can then go to a major population center.
Joshua: That doesn’t make sense. I’m going with haunted.
Rick: I’m going with people in the walls.
Joshua: We’ll see.
Rick: Shoot first.
Joshua: I won’t shoot anything.
Meanwhile, Arden and Rina are checking the power coupling and power path between the two ships. They rule out a brownout. They’re able to see the fuse and tracing the power lines running between the two ships we think we can trace the anomaly to a point roughly where the two ships are connected. And it looks like a weird energy burst. We don’t have any sensors up and running but based on the pattern of the damage ….
And at that moment the grav field on our ship flickers…making people fall up ten inches and then slam on the deck. It’s sudden and unexpected and Rina lands on her ass…and the tools she’s got in her back pocket.
Ouch.
Rick picks himself up and goes to find Faria, to see if he’s all right and also to inquire if he does exorcisms. Or if this is an elaborate military psi-ops ruse to trick us into abandoning our ship. Faria mildly replies if a military unit could get aboard a ship to play haunted house tricks on the crew, why not just board the ship and openly take it over.
Arden picks himself up to check the forward hatch where the ships are coupled and something catches his eye. Something’s on the bridge…something not Nika? Arden changes course to investigate and finds Nika sprawled on the deck—unconscious.
She must have hit her head during the grav flux. She’s got a small head wound and is bleeding buckets, as even small head wounds are wont to do. Arden informs the crew via our comms what’s happened.
Arden: I’m taking her to med bay.
Rina: What did she hit and do I have to fix it?
Arden: She hit her head. I don’t know what else she hit. I’m a little more concerned with her and not the ship.
Rina: Then take care of her and then….never mind….
She might sound callous, but if Arden is a people-doctor, then Rina is a ship-doctor. And right now she’s got the Gift’s liver transplant in her hands—the ITCV—and the ship’s putative breastbone cracked wide open: our faulty airlock door has been removed and the airlock stands exposed to the vacuum of space. The eyes and ears of the Gift are getting replaced next—the sensor array is next on her list of operations. And the deflector vanes? God, don’t talk her about the deflector vanes. Even working in the weightless environment of space, it will take three people working on it to get those transferred and installed on the Gift.
Arden examines Nika and finds that she is indeed concussed. He bandages her up and prescribes a couple days’ bed rest and careful observation for her. Faria offers to watch over Nika when she revives, freeing Arden up to continue with repairs. Which Nika does in short order, so Faria steps in and Arden takes up his interrupted task: checking that forward hatch where we’re docked to Orcus.
Looking at the junction of the two ships, the seals appear to be good and the power couplings appear to be working properly. No scorch marks or energy burns or any signs of damage on the inside of the ship. The outside might be a different matter, but inside?
It’s a mystery.
Rick pulls Joshua aside to yank his chain even more with old war stories. In fact, there was this one time when…..
Rick: I was sent to infiltrate a group of Browncoats that had stolen Alliance military equipment that included a personal cloaking field item. And what if someone were to have that and couple it with small EM devices.
Does he think that would disrupt our ship’s systems? It’s interesting to note that Rick is careful to make sure Rina isn’t present to dispute him.
Joshua: Why would he do that? I don’t know….ghosts are much more, like….
Rick: Because that seems much more logical than ghosts.
Oh boy. Joshua’s already nervous but now he remembers a warning from his trainers about psychic residues. There’s not necessarily a spatial limit to the residues, but there is a flow to psychic energy and they taught him how to focus on the atmosphere around him, the better to sense those with hostile intent coming toward him. Or stepping onto ground where there’s been massive death. Or sensing things as they actually happen.
Rick: (relenting) Nah, I’m just messing with you. But I think that it seems more plausible than ghosts.
Joshua: Everything has psychic energy, man.
Rick: Yeah, but have you ever heard of anything that has psychic energy that has a physical manifestation from that energy?
Like anything that could be attracted to or affect our power and our grav and cause trouble for us there?
Arden stops by the bridge on his way back from the forward hatch to examine the scene of the crime, as it were. Something Rina had said earlier makes him wonder if Nika’s wound was accidental or deliberately inflicted by an unknown party. Searching the bridge for possible impact sites for her head, he sees what there and is fairly certain that her concussion was indeed an accident. It was bad luck, is all. Just bad luck.
As he turns to leave, the comm crackles to life and a voice stutters through the static.
Voice: *fsssssshhht* Is someone out there?
Arden grabs the mike and thumbs it live.
Arden: Um…
Voice: Respond. Is someone out there? *fsssssshht*
Arden: This is Summer’s Gift.
Voice: Is someone out there? *fsssssshht* Can you hear me? *fsssssshht*
Arden: Yes. This is Summer’s Gift. Can you identify yourself—
Voice: Is there anyone there?
They can’t hear Arden. Arden switches to all-ship and tells everyone he’s receiving some radio chatter.
Rina: Check for weird tachyon emissions.
Arden: Uh…(looks) We left that dial on the other ship.
Rick: Can they respond to..?
Arden: Yeah. They can’t hear me.
Rick: Um You are aware that Reavers will send out false calls to—
Arden: No.
Joshua: He does now.
Go to: Fais Do-Do | Forward to: Stealing Away Home
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