Episode 403: Catalysts and Constraints - Part Three
Meanwhile downstairs, Kiera’s settling down to a tall card game. It’s similar to poker, only with six suits, slightly different face cards made up of mythical animals from Chinese folklore, and a separate set of fruit cards used to set the wild card for the hand. The cards run from one to eight and the animal cards. There is no nine or ten and the one card can be high or low like an ace. The tall card adheres to the suit printed on it and affects the rank of the wild cards in the hand. After the hand is dealt, the dealer selects the tall card at random and either claimed by the players or the dealer when the cards are exchanged, and the betting procedes until the players fold or the hand is called.
It’s fast, easy to learn, and at Kiera’s table, high stakes. There is a Shepherd, a twenty-something math geek, a big burly bruiser of a guy affliated with the Song Jen, and a small weasely man trying to make as much money as he can. Kiera’s the only woman at the table.
The first hand is dealt, the tall card is chosen by the dealer: banana. The dealer asks the player on his left, the bruiser, if he’d like to claim it? No? Bruiser takes three cards. The Shepherd declines the tall card and exchanges a new card for his apple card. Bad associations that one, Eve tempted by the apple... The math geek points out it’s thanks to Eve that we have free will. He gets shushed by the weasely Sergei and the Shepherd protests, let the boy talk. Sergei declines the tall card and exchanges for three cards. Geeky Wu takes the tall card, sparing the dealer from claiming it, and keeps his hand intact. Kiera exchanges for two, the dealer takes two and the betting starts.
Kiera tries reading the players around the table for tells and starts with the wild card taker, Wu the math geek. She gets the feeling that Wu might have a three of a kind with the tall card working. She reads the Song Jen bruiser and figures he’s got a crappy hand.
The Shepherd downs his drink and calls it mighty fine and Wu warns the man not to let it go to his head. The Shepherd replies it’s exactly where he wants it to go. The Shepherd says where he’s going there isn’t any liquor so he might as well enjoy it now. What, there’s no liquor in Heaven? Wu asks? That’s what he’s told, the Shepherd replies. How can it be Heaven without liquor? Sergei wants to know.
The bets are made and the hand is called. Wu wins the first round. The new hands are dealt and the game continues, a combination of cards and conversation, betting and watching the others for tells.
Kiera doesn’t do too badly for herself, despite a few losses, and it’s an amusing way to pass the time. She eventually finds herself low on funds and in a betting showdown with one of the other players. It’s Wu and he’s getting infusions of chips from his backer, one of the Song Jen bosses. They aren’t mafia or mob, per se, just a gang of criminals made wildly rich from their crimes.
She loses. She puts in for one more hand and the betting rounds advance beyond her last chip. It’s down to her and Wu and it’s either meet or fold. Byshek comes to Kiera’s rescue. He stakes her to keep her in the game. She sees the bet and raises two. The bet is seen and raised five. Hmm. Wu must have a really good hand. She meets and raises it two and calls. Wu has two pair, Dragons and Threes. Kiera has nothing to beat it.
Crap.
The score: Kiera hasn’t won hundreds of thousands of credits away from the Song Jen boss who would as lief kill her to get them back, but now she’s in debt to Byshek to the tune of 1300 credits. And luckily for her he’s willing to make a deal rather than insist on repayment.
Byshek: But surely you have means to get this money to me?
Kiera: Oh, of course. I can give you half now.
Byshek: Yes, and some security, of course.
Kiera: Sure.
Byshek: What you have for security?
Kiera: I can give you ownership of my container until I pay you back.
Byshek: Ownership of container …
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Byshek: And this container is what?
Kiera: It’s my medical container.
Byshek: You are doctor?
Kiera: Mm-hm. Or … I can give you part interest in my business until I pay you back.
Byshek: You licensed doctor? Medical doctor?
Kiera: Mm-hm.
She leans toward him conspiratorially.
Kiera: I am willing to do small plastic surgeries.
Byshek: (chuckles) Not for me, of course, but ...
Kiera: Oh no, but I understand sometimes people don’t want to look like what people want to look like.
Byshek: (ah, yes!) I don’t need what you’re offering.
Kiera: I’m sure you’re not.
Byshek: But I have … client.
Here we go.
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Byshek: You might be able to perform service for him. So you give me half now …
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Byshek: And then you get to Highgate, you go to pharmacy.
Kiera: Mm-hm.
Byshek: You use medical license to obtain certain pharmaceuticals.
Kiera: Ah.
Byshek: And deliver them to friend of mine.
Kiera: We could do that.
Byshek: That should do the trick. This is of course illegal.
Kiera: Is it?
Byshek: Just so you know.
Kiera: I would be stunned by that. I would assume, being a doctor, I can get things like that.
Byshek: You can get them but to prescribe them to person who doesn’t need them is … dangerous. But is Blue Sun. Is there even police in Blue Sun? Probably not. Last I heard they not even have Sheriff.
Kiera: Well, now, when I examined him, he needed them. There are such things as spontaneous miraculous … recoveries.
Byshek: I am not doctor. All I know is doctor can procure pharmaceuticals.
Kiera: See? You’re tryin’ to tell me that he may or may not need them before I even seen him.
Byshek: I give you the requisition, you obtain these. You will, um, need to spend money for these on your own. So you give me half, you’ll have to come up with the cash to obtain the others, transport them to my friend, and we’ll call it even.
Kiera: Okay. So 600 up front.
Byshek: Yes.
Kiera: Okay.
Byshek: And probably 300 for pharmaceuticals.
Kiera: Okay.
Byshek: You may have to tell story of how you need 300 worth of these pharmaceuticals, but ...
Kiera: That’s all right. I’ll see what I can get done.
Byshek gives her a card with the information she needs on it.
Byshek: Until this is repaid, you are mine to call, but we understand?
Kiera: We understand.
Byshek: If I not get word from my man on Meridian, then there will be consequences.
Of course.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew eats and takes their leave. Exiting the private dining room, Arden notices Kiera and Byshek deep in discussion over their deal. Arden’s too far away to actually hear anything, of course, but he does see them together. Kiera is normally very confident of herself but from his position on the floor, Arden thinks that at the moment she seems a touch chagrined and when Byshek walks away, the Russian seems rather satisfied with himself.
Hmm. Wonder what that’s all about?
Kiera joins our party and we leave the restaurant. As we hit the sidewalk, a standard Gibraltar police car pulls up with two people inside. One is a uniformed cop and the other is like one of the bodyguards we’ve seen on the restaurant floor. They are talking and it quickly turns into an altercation inside the car. The cop is getting slapped around in there. Arden and Joshua hustle us out of there for our ship.
Of course, Rina’s all about sussing out the shiny car, despite the argument going on inside it. At Kiera’s suggestion, Arden and Joshua take her arms and hustle her along. Nika takes point, Kiera takes the rear, and the crew has Rina neatly boxed and coming with. Because sometimes the engineer pays a little too much attention to the not-right sorts of things.
Walking, walking, just keep on walking. Nothing to see, move along. We make it to our ship without incident.
Thursday, 30 May 2521
We get the fuel and food. Fuel is at the normal prices. The food is in good variety. It looks like the food riots have been taken care of and recovered from. Kiera approaches Joshua during our reprovisioning and makes him an offer.
Joshua: Yes?
Kiera: I don’t need the first class food.
Joshua: Okay.
Kiera: So, can we negotiate a price drop? Cuz up until now I’ve been a passenger willin’ to throw in. But either my labor costs something or you can give me cheaper food.
Joshua: I’m happy not to be feeding you out of Botany Bay. That can go to our other first class passenger.
Kiera: Does he know how to gamble?
Joshua’s demeanor drops several degrees.
Joshua: (quietly) You’re not gambling with him.
Kiera: Yes, I am—
Joshua: (adamant) No, you’re not.
Kiera: Hell, he’s gonna be bored.
Joshua: If he comes to you and asks to gamble, that’s fine. Don’t go harassing him. Okay? Just like I wouldn’t have Arden going and harassing the girls, passenger rights—
Kiera: Now, see? Arden is crew and I’m still a passenger.
Joshua: I don’t care. I don’t really care. In this case the distinction between crew and passenger is no different to me. So. If he wants to gamble, he comes to you to ask, then feel free. Otherwise, leave him be.
Kiera: So I’m to pretend that he’s not here and I’m not—
Joshua: No, I’m not asking you to—Good Lord, how difficult is this? (angry now) I’m asking you not to shark him!
Kiera: You think that I would shark somebody?
Joshua: (sadly, yes) Yeah. I do.
Kiera: (miffed) You impugn my integrity.
Joshua: Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. So. Are you going to not shark him?
Kiera: Not where you can find out, no!
Joshua: Fair enough! But if I catch you we’ll put you back on the first class rates. Don’t shark him. I’m not dealing with that.
They both take a breath.
Kiera: So. What discount are we talkin’, now?
Joshua: If you don’t want the first class food and you don’t want the first class service, we’ll drop you down to second class rates. That’ll be basically what you’re doing.
Kiera: Well, yeah, because you’re treatin’ me like a second-class person now.
Joshua: Yeah. Pretty much. Are you trying to make me feel bad? Cuz it’s not working.
Kiera looks at Joshua narrowly and her accent drops away.
Kiera: Joshua. Let’s deal the deal. I don’t have to pay for it anymore, you don’t have to kiss my ass, and we’re going to be even. How does that hit you?
Joshua: Works fine with me.
Kiera: All righty. Drop that price down.
Joshua: We’ll drop it down to whatever we can afford, which is at this point … (consults his clipboard) … Let’s see here …
Kiera: You’re a little bit more interesting than I thought you were just a minute ago, Joshua. You know that?
Joshua: (to the clipboard) I have hidden talents. It sounds much nicer and politer that way. (finds what he’s looking for) We’ll drop you … 10 credits a week off, that’ll drop you down to 40—
Kiera: 10!
Joshua: (to Kiera) To be honest, up to this point? Food has been actually free for us to give to you because it’s coming from the botany bay.
Kiera: So you’ve undervalued your service to me, then.
Joshua: Not exactly. Point being is that regardless whether you’re first class or second class, we have to feed you. Now unless you don’t want to be fed, in that case we can drop the rate a little more.
Kiera: There is the possibility of bringing my own food on.
Joshua: If you want to bring your own food on, then feel free. Bring your own food on, make your own food, feel free and we’ll charge you a little bit less. At ten less a week, you’re actually paying160 instead of 200 for 4 weeks. That’s not insubstantial. We’re not ungrateful for the stuff you’ve done, but on the other hand we gotta eat. We gotta pay bills, fly from place to place and I just can’t give you a freebie—.
Kiera slaps her money on the table. It’s 160 credits. Joshua takes it up.
Kiera: (chuckling) You end up talkin’ too damn much, boy.
Joshua: Don’t get it wrong, I like you. I’m just not going to let you shark him. I like him.
Kiera: One of these days your warm and fuzzy heart is gonna do you in, you know that?
Joshua: Oh I know it. You can talk to the Captain about that but the thing about it is, I’ve actually done all right for myself. I’ve gotten shot a lot less than they have.
Kiera laughs again, shakes his hand with a smile and wanders off, her business concluded. Meanwhile, Rina’s seeing to the delivery and lading of the cargo. The delivery man takes her aside for a word.
Cargo Foreman: So, just so you don’t get worried. We’re tweaking the sensors on these containers a little bit so it’ll look like there’s a potential leak. There won’t be. But this will discourage casual inspections. But they’re fine. We’re just tweaking the sensors.
Rina: Explain to me how a potential leak in flammable explosive cargo is going to deter people from inspecting?
After all, they’ll take one look at it and write us up for safety infractions and demand to go over the cargo to secure the leak. Right?
Cargo Foreman: Well, would you go lighting matches around the—
Rina: No, but I would certainly impound the ship.
Cargo Foreman: On your own ship?
Rina: No-no-no, I—(thinks better of it)—Never mind. Tweak away.
Either the Border inspectors will take one look at it and not wanting to deal with it will pass us through or take a bribe to pass us through despite. Either way, we’re expedited past the Border. Problem solved. The sensors are tweaked, the cargo is secured, and we’re good to go.
After Kiera leaves Joshua, Arden buttonholes her and demands to know what that little tête-a- tête she’d had with Byshek was all about.
Arden: Is that something we should be aware of?
Kiera: No.
Arden: Then what was that all about?
Kiera: Do you usually stick your nose in private conversations?
Arden: Yes.
Kiera: Ah. All right. Under what circumstances would you consider it messin’ up your well being?
Arden: Committing us to do something, go someplace, find someone—
Kiera: Well, if it’s me and not y’all, how does this become your business?
Arden: Because it’s our ship.
Kiera: If I’m not on the ship when I do it, again this is inconvenient to you?
Arden: If you commit us or our ship or anything in our travels to something we didn’t agree to of our own free will, that would be an inconvenience.
Kiera: All right. If I commit you to fly to a place you’re already flying to and then to a place that I’m willin’ to pay you for, none of which will happen on the ship, then you aren’t committed.
Arden: Did you?
Kiera: Pardon?
Arden: Did you?
Kiera: Yes.
Arden: May I ask what you committed us to?
Kiera: Oh gosh, no.
Arden: Why not?
Kiera says nothing. Nope.
Arden: I’m still waiting for my answer.
Kiera: Let’s think about it this way, Doctor. I am still a passenger. Therefore whatever I do does not reflect upon this ship.
Arden: You might come down with some hideous disease and you’d have to be left here.
Kiera: (easily) I know. I might.
Arden: Yuh-huh.
Kiera: But I think I might recognize what you’re doin’.
Arden: What do you mean? I just want to know what the deal is. That’s all. What have you committed us to?
Kiera: I haven’t committed you to anything.
Arden: What did you tell him you would do?
Kiera: (exasperated) I somehow thought I’d left my Daddy twenty years ago.
Arden: You may have. I don’t know. I don’t care, either. But still—.
Kiera: Come with me.
She goes. Arden comes. Kiera finds Nika.
Kiera: Captain.
Nika: What’cha need?
Kiera: I would like to—
Arden: “I would like to complain.”
Kiera: No. I don’t want to complain at all. I just wanted to come clear, since it’s important to Arden that I come clear or end up with a virulent disease.
Nika: (say what now?) Uh, excuse me?
Arden: I don’t know what she’s talking about now.
Kiera: Well, somehow I might get a virulent disease were I not to come truthful—which is something my Mom tried on me when I was five, but whatever—
Nika’s expression is eloquent: Oh, no.
Arden: She’s made some arrangement with our contact. I want to know what that arrangement is.
Kiera: Okay, the current thing I would like for us to do is fly to the same place that we’re flyin’—
Nika: Highgate.
Kiera: (nodding) Where I will buy some pharmaceuticals. And then I would like to take them and pay you to take me to Meridian where I can deliver them.
Nika: Sure.
Nika’s thinking: All that fuss? For this?
Kiera: (to Arden) Wow. That was horrible, wasn’t it?
Arden: I hadn’t heard her agree yet.
Kiera: Do I get a common cold or are you going to give me the pox?
Arden: What kind of pharmaceuticals?
Nika: (to Arden) Why is that our business?
Arden: It’s our ship!
Nika: (Yes) And she’s a passenger.
Arden: Carrying illegal substances?
Some days it’s just not worth it to chew through the restraints.
Nika: (to Kiera) Are you picking up illegal drugs or are you picking up pharmaceutical drugs?
Kiera: I’m buying pharmaceuticals.
Arden: That’s not an answer.
Seriously. Not. Worth. It.
Nika: Arden.
Arden: Yes?
Nika’s expression = Daggers. Poisoned ones.
Arden’s = Uh oh…
Kiera’s = Sunny.
Kiera: See now I feel very comfortable that instead of virulent influenza and/or other life threatening diseases, that he’ll just merely give me a common cold now. Are we okay?
Kiera pats Arden’s hand.
Arden: No.
Kiera: The common cold okay?
Arden: No. I wasn’t going to give you anything.
Kiera: See? Empty threats. You’d never make it in my world.
Arden: I want to know if you’re picking up illegal pharmaceuticals or not.
Kiera: I will tell you what pharmaceuticals. I am picking up legal pharmaceuti—
Arden: Illegal?
Kiera: Legal. And I have been asked to deliver them.
Nika: That’s fine. That’s not our business.
Arden: Okay. As long as it’s not illegal.
Kiera: Mm-hm!
Arden: I just wanted t—
Nika’s had enough of this. She turns on her heel to Arden.
Nika: You come with me. (To Kiera) See you later.
Kiera leaves chuckling for her container. She’s had secret compartments built into it for the occasional smuggling she does and now would be a good time to inspect them. Nika drags Arden to the bridge and shuts the hatch.
Nika: What is your problem?
Arden: She was having a conversation with our contact. I wanted to know what it was about. Whether or not it committed our ship or put us in danger.
Nika: And you couldn’t come right out and ask her?
Arden: I did!
Nika: You d—? Arden, did you say to her, does whatever you were talking about to Byshek in any way endanger our crew?
Arden: Yes.
Nika: You asked her that straight out.
Arden: Yes.
Nika: And what did she say?
Arden: None of my business.
Nika: I sincerely doubt that.
Arden: I’m sorry you sincerely doubt that.
Nika: I think if you’d asked her that straight out she probably would have told you no, which still might have put it in doubt, but I don’t think she would have said to you it was none of your business if you asked her exactly that way.
Arden: I can confidently say you’re wrong. Because that’s what she said.
Nika: All right. Whatever arrangements she wants to make on her own time, between herself and whatever contact we might meet—
Arden: Okay.
Nika: Is her business.
Arden: I know that.
Nika: If she’s going to pay us to take her to an extra spot after paying us to take her to Highgate, which she really didn’t want to go to in the first place potentially, I don’t care.
Arden: Fine.
Nika: And as far as illegal cargo goes, how many cargos have we pulled that are actually legal, recently?
Arden: That’s beside the point.
Nika: Do you have any interest in eating in the next month?
Ohhhh, Nika is fit to be tied.
Arden: The only concern I had was not knowing the full facts of what was going on.
Nika: Not our business.
Arden: Even if it affects our ship and us.
Nika: Seriously. Do you have any interest in eatin’ in the next month? Cuz just about now, she’s the only regular income we got.
Arden: Okay. What’s your point?
Nika: Arden, am I seriously having a conversation that you are not comprehending?
Arden: I understand everything you say.
Nika: Okay. Where are we speaking at cross purposes?
Arden: We’re not.
Nika: Somehow we are.
Arden: No. You’re saying that you’re satisfied with not knowing the full details surrounding our… whatever.
Nika: I’m saying it wasn’t your place to ask.
Arden: It’s our ship!
Nika: That has nothing—! You know what? We run a service. We are taking passengers as a service. We don’t have the luxury or the right to ask a passenger what their personal business is. It is our job to take them from Point A to Point B. Period. End of story.
Arden: Fine. But if a passenger is taking a substance that shouldn’t be taken to Point B, I want extra.
Nika glares at him for a minute.
Nika: That I can’t argue.
Arden: Okay. That’s all I was after.
Nika: However. You can’t confront a perfectly legitimate passenger who up to this point as far as I am aware has done absolutely nothing illegal.
Arden: Exactly.
Nika: With that kind of question without proof that we can do some kind of legal charge extra for. You better have proof in your hand.
Arden: But I wanted to know if she was and—.
Nika: No. That’s not the way people work because if she’s doing something illegal she’s going to lie to your face anyway.
Arden: Why?
Nika just stares at him. Then:
Nika: (steely) Because it’s a new rule.
Arden: To lie? We have to lie?
Nika: No. It’s a new rule for you that you’re not allowed to ask that unless you run it by me first.
Arden: What’s that?
Nika: You know. Those kinds of questions? The ones you don’t have any proof in your hands and you’re gonna confront someone about something? You gotta come run it past me first.
Arden: I’ll do my best.
Nika: Okay. (A beat) Some days I love you and some days I’m gonna rip your head off and shove it up your ass. Go.
Arden: And what’s today?
Nika: I haven’t decided yet.
Nika stalks off the bridge, leaving Arden standing there on the deck. She’s got that face on, the face that says: I’m gonna pummel something really hard. Joshua sees her coming his way and thinks better of stopping her. Nika sees him and stops.
Nika: (brusque) What do you need? (a beat) I’m going to the gym. What do you need? Come with me if you want to talk.
Joshua: I’ll come. I’ll come with you.
Nika: Good.
Nika goes down to the gym and proceeds to kickbox the go se out of the punching bag. After a minute she asks between kicks and punches her question to Joshua.
Nika: What is it that you want?
Wham! Slam! Wham!
Joshua: I thought I’d share a piece of information with you. I worked out the numbers. When we get to Blue Sun after paying for fuel at Blue Sun and for maintenance and for canned food, we will end up at 303 credits. So we will have lost 18 credits.
Wham! Slam!
Joshua: Plus the transponder. That’s a positive profit. Otherwise we’re running this ship like we’ve pretty much always run this ship.
Nika stops kicking the bag.
Nika: So… Okay, we can eat. We’re good.
Joshua: Yes.
Nika: Okay. At this point, that’s the only thing I’m worried about: do we have enough air, fuel and food to get us from Point A to Point B because—Holy Mother of God, Joshua!
She drags the exclamation all the way up from her toes.
Joshua: I know. You might want to start at some point thinking, and I don’t want to know about—wait, maybe I do want to know— what pissed you off?
Nika: I’m sorry?
Joshua: (quietly) What pissed you off?
Nika: Arden.
Joshua: Oh. Anything in particular or should I be concerned?
Nika: (sighing) Same old, same old, Joshua.
Joshua: Okay. I’ll leave it be. But I will say, before I leave you to kickbox that thing into dust, that we may want to think at some point about expanding our horizons beyond staying even and try to give ourselves more than a margin of error to go on.
Nika’s words stop him on the threshold.
Nika: Every gorram time we try to do that—
Joshua: (turning around) I know.
Nika: Do you know what happens?
Joshua: I know.
Nika: It lands in the toilet.
Joshua: I know. I understand that. That’s no reason not to think ahead.
Nika: I don’t like this job, okay? I am flunking miserably, I’m failing miserably and—
Joshua: The hell you are. The hell you are. You may think you are. You’re good. The person at the core is usually the person who knows the least well how they’re doing. You’re doing fine. I wouldn’t want to be the captain—
Nika stalks over to the bench and plants herself on it.
Nika: We need shore leave. I need shore leave. You find me a way on Highgate to get 12 hours off this ship.
Joshua: Yes, ma’am. Will do. You ask and you shall receive.
Joshua joins her on the bench, giving her some room.
Joshua: Captain. You’ll be okay. I’ll find you something. You’ll get off-ship and it will be more than 12 hours.
Nika: You get me 12 hours.
Joshua: (shakes head) More than 12 hours.
Nika: No. You get me 12 hours. That’s what I need. I just need 12 hours off this ship.
Joshua: You need a little more than that. We’ll find it. We’ll get you something. It’s fine. It’s all shiny. Like you said, we’re eatin’. We’re breathin’. We’re flying. And it’s actually, surprisingly, relatively calm. It’s all good. You gotta, like, … I know Arden does that thing, cuz I just cut him off before it gets to that point with me.
Nika: Normally I do, too. Normally I cut him off before he gets there too.
Joshua: And I had harsh words with the other passenger, with Kiera, so… sort of harsh words …
He trails off. Nika sighs and tells Joshua what happened with Arden and Kiera and by the time she’s done, his expression is grim.
Joshua: (evenly) Really. He said that?
Nika: Mm.
Joshua: He did that?
Nika: Mm.
Joshua: Do you want me to talk to Arden for you? Or are you good?
Nika: 12 hours.
Joshua: I know what you want. I’ll get you that.
Nika: 12 hours. That’s all I want. I just want 12 hours off the ship.
Joshua: That’s okay.
Nika: I don’t have my usual outlets and they don’t work anymore. So, you know what? I need 12 hours away from you people.
Joshua: And I’m fair with that.
Nika: All of you.
Joshua: And I understand that, too. (quietly) Can I do anything for you while you’re on the ship?
Nika snorts an amused little snort and slides a look at him.
Nika: If you were Christian, I’d say yes.
Joshua: Technically, I’m open but …
Nika: If you give a good massage, then we’ll talk.
Joshua: Actually, I do.
Nika: Then let’s talk.
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