Episode 404: Crucible, Part Two
We fall silent at her statement. Then:
Rina: (low) I know what my allegiance is but I don’t think it’s his flavor.
Kramer: What’s your allegiance?
Nika: I think what’s going on out here is ultimately to the better. It is always what we said we wanted. I’m not sure it’s the way we wanted it, but then again we were all relatively stupid and young and is anything ever actually the way you want it when you get it? And I don’t know enough about Nguyen and his particular situation to be able to say out-and-out, “Yes, I have allegiance to the PDF and Blue Sun and to hell with the rest of the Verse.”
Joshua: (to Kramer) Can I borrow her for a minute? (points to Nika)
Kramer: Sure. I’ll go see how dinner’s going.
Nika: Thanks, Shyla.
Rina: Thank you.
Kramer: Sorry, we seem to always meet under these unusual circumstances.
Joshua: Yeah. Me, too.
Kramer: But perhaps one way or the other when this gets resolved things will settle down. Eventually. Or at least it will be easier to know what’s going on.
Joshua: That’s for sure.
Kramer rounds the bar and Rina stops her with a request.
Rina: Can I ask one more question?
Kramer:' You can ask.
Rina: Yeah, hopefully you’ll have the answer to this one. (deep breath) Who gets to claim the body after the execution?
Kramer: I … don’t know if that’s been decided.
Rina: I claim first dibs.
Kramer:' You can certainly petition for it. He hasn’t been found guilty
Nika: I’m sure his parents might wish to have a say in that as well.
Rina: I was thinking of bringing him home. Just covering all the options. (to Kramer) Thank you.
And now it’s Nika’s turn to ask something of Kramer.
Nika: Well, answer me one question?
Kramer:' Yeah?
Nika: Where did Connelly reassign to?
Kramer: He’s gone to special ops with the PDF, so he’s off-ship. I don’t know exactly where he is but I’ve been keeping some track of him. He was in a mission on Deadwood a ways back. Apparently there were some poser-Reavers. Pirates pretending to be Reavers and they sent special ops against them.
Rina looks up sharply at this news and opens her mouth to speak, but Nika cuts her off.
Nika: Rina. Don’t give me The Face. I don’t want to hear The Face. I really don’t. Okay, I can hear The Face without even looking at you. I don’t want to hear The Face.
The Face being Rina’s conspiracy theory about Reavers being co-opted as a deliberate disguise and terror weapon by the Alliance, pirates and brigands. Rina scowls and shuts up. Kramer looks bemused but picks up where she left off.
'Kramer: I think it was the right decision for him to do so. He wasn’t happy here. And … we were not making him happier.
Nika:' I just wondered.
Kramer: If he gets killed in one of these things, I’ll feel probably that maybe I should have thought about it more but … What can I say?
Nika: No, I just … I just wondered, that’s all.
Kramer: As far as I know he’s still alive. I keep track, but … it’s a tough Verse. I mean another thing we having to deal with now—gosh, of all things—Well, you know how we met. Stealing an Alliance ship. Well, guess what I’ve been up to when I wasn’t babysitting trials. We’ve been chasing privateers… who have been basically supplied by the Alliance—
Nika: Stealing your ships.
Kramer: Not so much stealing our ships but interfering with our trade. They’ve been dropping caches of weapons. Sort of privateers funded by—we think—the Alliance, have been suppying weapons to real pirates and who knows, those pirates get attacked by Reavers. The Reavers get the weapons …
Kiera: Gosh darned Letters of Marque.
Rina: Yes, I was just about to say that.
Kramer: I didn’t think we’d be ever telling people they can’t arm themselves, but we’re getting to the stage now that we’re literally pulling up ships and asking to see their weapons, because sometimes we come across these ones that are just loaded to the gills with munitions and they’re not for personal protection.
Nika:' Out of curiosity, have you heard any rumors about pulse torpedoes?
'Rina: (murmuring) God. Those.
Rina well remembers their one encounter with them and remembers too the aftereffect it had on Nika. Kramer takes a couple of beats to reply.
'Kramer: Not since the War.
Nika: Now you have.
Kramer: What’s the rumor? Have you encountered them?
Nika: Yeah.
Nika gives Kramer the heading where we’d encountered that torpedo from memory. Kramer recognizes the location immediately.
Kramer: On the Blockade during the Quarantine.
Nika: Yeah.
Kramer: It’s ironic now that the Blockade serves us more than it does the Alliance.
Nika: (grim) I’m sure it does. You might want to keep it in your head that we might have some rogue pulse torpedoes running loose. That was not my idea of a good time. Just so you know.
Kramer: Captain Hu of Pericles Station has been doing a good job of keeping things in pretty good shape, some would say.
'Nika: Lemme tell you what—that would be one of the many many many times I wished I was not flying Summer’s Gift and was in fact flying Harbinger. Cuz … yeah. Outrunning a pulse torpedo? In a brick? With wings? Not so much fun.
Rina: (feigning insult) You had a couple of rockets strapped onto the brick, Captain.
Nika growls and stifles what she’d really like to say. Rina doesn’t gainsay her any further. Nika goes on, still worked up about the incident.
Rina: (agreeing) Yeah.
Nika: And it was this close. (holds up two fingertips a centimeter apart)
Rina: Yes.
Nika: And when it detonated it was this close. (a cat’s whisker apart) And I don’t like that, okay?
Rina: We didn’t escape that unscathed. I had to repair that damage. I know. And if we had anyone else as our pilot, we’d’ve been screwed.
'Nika: (to Kramer) Just so you know, there maybe a couple of rogue pulse torpedoes floating around in the Blockade area.
Kramer: Okay. We’ll look out for those. Crazy.
Nika: (coming down from rant) Hey, for all I know they could be left over from the War. That’s why I asked if you knew anything.
Kramer: There would be no reason for them to be just hanging out there, the mine field was definitely set. Using them as part of a mine field is a rat-bastard thing to do but if you’re having a mine field, you’re having a mine field for a purpose, it’s not to…
Well, you know. Be all nice and welcoming and friendly-like.
Rina: So who made them? The Feds?
Kramer: Almost certainly the Feds.
Nika: (brightly) So, anyway. Now you’ve heard the rumors.
Kramer: That’s also good to know.
Rina: Any day now we’re gonna hear from the Feds that they lost a cache of those damned torpedoes, I’m sure.
Joshua: Thank you, Captain.
Just a freakin’ ray of sunshine, is Rina. Kramer leaves the bar open and exits to check on dinner. We have the private lounge to ourselves and time before dinner to handle some crew business. Joshua turns to Rina.
Joshua: I need to know. Do you want to see him? (off Rina’s look) No, don’t. Don’t give me that. Do you want to see him?
'Rina: (very softly) You know I do.
Joshua:' (turns to Nika) Then don’t give me that bullshit about Nguyen and picking sides and shit. If she wants to see him, then she’s going to see him. Or else I don’t want to hear about that crap about—
Nika: Did I say no? Did I say no?!
Joshua: (not backing down) You were headed that way.
Nika: No, I haven’t headed in any way, which is the whole point of the matter.
Joshua: ’kay, Captain.
Joshua’s clearly not convinced. Nika crosses her arms and goes on to convince him.
Nika: If the man should get … decided to be guilty, there’s no way in hell we’re leaving here without letting her see him.
Joshua: (still not backing down) Yeah, but the point being—
Nika: Let me rephrase myself and say there’s no way in hell she’s not going to get to see
him before the verdict comes in, just in case the verdict doesn’t go his way. There you go.
Joshua: (satisfied) Thank you.
Nika: (eyeroll to Heaven) I don’t know why he distrusts me such.
Joshua: It’s not that I distrust you.
Nika: Mm-hm.
Joshua: It’s not.
Kiera: Captain I think he distrusts the fact that you’re imminently practical. And that you care for your crew.
Joshua: Got that part right.
Rina: (softly) That’s what Captains do.
Nika: (sighing) I’m a sucker when it comes to love.
Rina looks at Nika.
Rina: (softly) I have to say, in terms of Brian I’m sorry I was right. (off Nika’s look) He said during the Cassandra lockdown that he was hunting down pirates, hunting down Reavers, and so when Kramer said he was on special ops, I went “Oh, more of the same.” Probably with more of an agenda, so he’s hunting down pirates who are pretending to be Reavers which is another scenario that posited several times Reavers are like the perfect cover for nasty shit. If it looks like Reavers did it, no one’s going to investigate further. They’ll say, “Oh. Reavers.” And they’ll leave. They won’t delve any further. You can do any number of nast—
Rina’s lost it again. Dear God, somebody rein her in.
Joshua: I love you. I really do. I love the fact that we have a basically the equivalent of a grain of sand and within five minutes she’s built it into a beach.
Nika: Oh, really? Rina’s at it again?
'Kiera: Now, see, Joshua? This why I don’t quite understand your need to worry about me gettin’ to the passengers as much as her.
Joshua: Oh, I worry about her getting to the passengers. I worry about everybody getting to the passengers.
Kiera:' See, mine is a kinder benevolent teaching of them not to trust redheaded little girls.
Joshua: No. See the thing is the line between you and the crew right now is a very fuzzy one. If you were a passenger coming aboard our ship, I don’t think they would be able to tell right off the top whether you were crew or whether you were a passenger. They might work it out but the last thing I want is somebody coming on board our ship and getting sharked by you and getting off the ship and saying, “You know that Summer’s Gift? Their crew is pretty good at taking advantage of their passengers”. And then there goes any income, any money, any reputation—
Nika: Dang, Joshua.
Kiera: There, now, I still consider myself a passenger.
Joshua: You still are a passenger.
Kiera: See?
Joshua: I’m not saying you’re not. You’re technically a passenger. You look like crew. I don’t want anyone getting confused.
Kiera: Okay, so what kind of clothes do I need to wear so I’m not confusing me with the crew?
Nicer ones, Rina suggests. Kiera protests hers are nice enough already, thank you, and Joshua backs her up. Nika demands just what the problem is. Joshua assures her there isn’t one and Rina explains that they’re discussing the line between passenger and crew.
Kiera: Yeah, I am paying like I am a passenger although I am treated like I am crew. This is a very strange line for me to be honest.
'Nika:' Well, you volunteer a lot.
Kiera: I know. Well, I get bored. There’s only so much cosmetics one can do and besides, y’all always look like you need somebody.
'Nika: (laughing) See? And that’s how Rick came on board, too. So. You know.
Rina: You fill her in on Rick. I’m hitting the can.
Rina gets up and leaves on that errand. The matter about crew and sharking erupts.
Nika: (to Joshua) All I can say is, I don’t know what you’re complaining about. That’s how we got you.
Joshua: I’m not complaining about it. That’s just it. I’m not complaining about her potentially becoming crew. I’m complaining about the fact that because she’s not crew right now. In fact, if she was crew we could lay the law down more thoroughly right now about not sharking the passengers.
Nika: I haven’t seen her shark anybody yet.
Joshua: Unnnn-nnnnn.
Nika: You’ve been nagging the crap out of the woman and she hasn’t tried anything.
Joshua: She doesn’t mind.
Nika: (crisply) Kiera. Would you do me a favor?
Kiera: Sure.
Nika: If you’re going to shark somebody, do it groundside.
Kiera: I will do that.
Nika: Thank you. I so appreciate that.
Kiera: I can do it. So if I can get somebody in a bar with me, it’s okay.
Nika: (turns on Joshua) Are you finished now?
Joshua: But we were having fun. But you helped me.
Kiera: Now see he’s infinitely better at it than Arden.
Nika: (livid now) 12 hours. You promised me 12 hours.
Joshua: Yes.
Nika: Groundside.
Joshua: You’ll get it.
Nika: On Highgate.
Joshua: You’ll get it.
Nika: I order it.
Joshua: You’ll get it.
Nika: Swear it.
Joshua: I swear to you, Captain. You’ll get it.
Kiera: Now see, he’s more like a fatherly figure type. At least he treats me forthright like a person instead of Arden who instead’a just walkin’ up and goin’ “You wanna?”, tries 57 different ways to try’n’do it, including blackmail. Which you’d think he’d just give up. I mean he said “you wanna?”—
Joshua: (facepalm!) I have got to have a conversation with that boy before all’s said and done. Good Lord.
Kiera: See, I’d just respect him if he just said “You wanna?” But he dunn’t ever say that.
Joshua: Yes, ma’am.
Kiera: Oh, now you’ve take all the fun out it. I’m just tryin’ to have fun, tryin’ to see how many different ways I can—
Joshua: I’m not saying anything.
Nika: Actually I’m kinda shocked he hasn’t asked you if you wanna.
Kiera: No actually he ain’t never got around to the “you wanna”.
Joshua: He must like you.
Kiera: I’m actually surprised he hasn’t gotten around to the “you wanna”. He’s tried intimidation, he’s tried blackmail, he’s tried professionalism. He just hasn’t tried the old-fashioned “you wanna?”
She’s really quite perplexed and not a little bit miffed over it.
Nika:' It worked for me.
Kiera: See? I figured.
'Nika: Just, if he does that? Be nice.
Kiera: Oh, now I never mix anything like that. There’s enough people I can pay to do that. Why would I wanna do that here for free?
Joshua coughs on his drink. Nika looks aghast at Kiera’s statement.
Kiera: See, y’all got ties that bind. A cash transaction is a—
Rina walks back in, sees the look on Nika’s face and goes silent.
Nika: 12 hours.
Joshua: Yes. I swear to you Captain.
Nika: 12 hours. In a bar. Where there are lots of spacers I don’t have to see again. We’ll be good.
Joshua: Yes. I know who I’m going to ask. Don’t worry.
Nika: (off Rina’s look) WHAT!?
Rina: (softly) I sympathise.
Dinner is a quiet affair. Lots of clinking of china and silverware and Kiera avidly watching all the silent expressions flying around the Captain’s table. Then:
Nika: Shyla. You said you could get us in touch with the people in charge of holding Mr. Carter?
Kramer: Sure.
Nika: Rina would like to see him. Just in case the verdict goes south.
Kramer: Okay. (a beat) How would you like to explain the connection? Random citizen wishes to speak with assassin?
Nika: Rina.
Rina: (quietly) I could simply tell them the truth. He saved my life during the war. I heard what had happened and I had to see him.
Nika: If you’re gonna tell them the truth, you might as well just tell them you’re his girlfriend.
Rina: I’m willing to do it.
Nika: Tell them his parents sent you. To find out what he wanted once he’s gone.
Kramer: Unless they’ve already been there.
Joshua: Let’s not make this too complicated.
Nika: I wasn’t serious.
Joshua: I don’t know anymore who’s serious and who’s not when it comes to this sort of thing.
Kiera: As a person who has been inferred that she shysters people, sometimes the blatant honest truth works really well.
Rina: Especially when they’re not expecting it.
Joshua: Inferred? Inferred? I said right out.
Kiera: Okay fine. Since you’re blatantly honesty you don’t trust me any further than you can throw me, I can tell you sometimes that cold hard truth works real well.
Joshua: I’m on board with that.
Nika: (dragging back to topic) It’s not like it’s going to shine any bigger a spotlight on us than you going in general is. As far as I can tell.
Kiera: Can we do it with your face not on camera?
Rina: (morose) Maybe if I go as staff. Giving him his dinner.
Nika vetoes this right sharply.
'Nika:' No. There’s not going to be any sneaking in on this one.
Joshua: I was about to say. It’s not going to happen that way. And to be honest, I’m not sure even before this, if there’s really this much attention around Mike and there is—and I’m assuming there is—and there’s any sort of news media floating around that’s paying any sort of attention whatsoever and they’re digging, they’ll eventually make the connection. In theory. Now, how long it will take them to figure out that we have some sort of connection…
That’s anyone’s guess. Point being it will take some time before the connection’s made.
Kramer': Well, there’s a no-fly zone around his holding area, so if you flew in it would take some pretty good journalistic work to track you back. You’ve got fuel in your Kuiper II and your shuttle.
We have the Gift docked to Decatur, yes, but we don’t have a shuttle anymore.
Kramer: Or I could send you down in a military shuttle. Assuming they’ll accept you. That won’t raise suspicions.
Nika: You wouldn’t mind stepping in on that level? We don’t want to drag you into it if they start glaring in our direction, like “What the hell’re they doing here?”
Kramer: No, I’ve been awful quiet. I have to ask for a few things or else they’ll think I’m plotting or something.
Nika laughs at that.
'Nika:' Aren’t you?
Joshua:' Everybody’s plotting. It’s just a question of what.
Kramer: No, I’m sitting this one out.
Nika: (soflty) You’re mellowing in your old age, Shyla.
Nika gives Harry a worried grimace and receives a serene look in return. That’s Harry for you: Chinese inscrutable.
Kramer: (wryly) Strange, because you seem to be taking greater risks in your old age.
Nika: Am I?
Kramer: Yes.
Nika: I don’t know. The nap of the earth ain’t for the faint of heart.
Kramer: I want to see what comes out of all this. It could be good. You never know.
Nika: (to crew) See? She never could resist a good mystery. She’s gotta always get to the end of it.
In the end Kramer sends an official transmission, saying a personal contact of Mr. Carter wishes to speak with him, if he’s interested and if it’s permitted, and that she’ll provide transport. Surprisingly enough, an hour later the answer comes back: With security protocols in place, Mr. Carter has accepted to have [Rina’s name as given] over. Kramer rejoins us to tell us the good news.
Kramer: Now, while you’re on my ship, I will protect you. While technically the shuttle is still my ship, my ability to protect you is dramatically reduced. Once the shuttle is on the ground if people want you to stay there, there is very little I can do. I’m not going to bomb Highgate to get you back.
Rina: (agreeing) No.
Nika: And a second note: Rina, the translation is—Don’t start nuthin’, there won’t be nuthin’.
Kramer: I’m not actually saying you’re going to be responsible for this.
Nika: Okay.
Kramer: (to Rina) Your name is not unknown to Nguyen. Nor yours, Nika.
Nika: I know.
Joshua: (to Kiera) Then I’m free and in the clear.
Kiera: Woo-hoo!
Joshua: (quieter) Well, for now.
Kramer actually looks amused at that impromptu exchange.
Kramer: Suffice to say, you may find—
Nika: Just out of curiosity, are we on the “We’re peeved at you” list or simply on the “Watch because we’re not sure of” list?
Kramer: (sighs) I don’t have access to those. You’re not on any official lists, let’s just put it that way. In that regard.
Nika: Which is probably a good thing.
Kramer: However, your associations, your actions are known, and your reticence to be part of the bigger program is also well known. Now that said, you should be flattered that they should care.
Nika: Really?
Kramer: Well, you’re a pilot on a crappy little freighter—no offense. That they should care at all what side you are on is impressive.
Nika: I would far prefer they didn’t give a flying hoot.
Kramer: But also I should say that you are not a—
Nika: I’m not a nobody anymore. That so sucks.
Kramer: But you have to realize, you’ve also done things throughout the Verse which are … ah, known.
Rina: (aw, hell) Those Waves.
Nika: Known good, or known bad?
Kramer: Known. As I say, it’s … if a tornado comes through and destroys your next door neighbor’s house that you hate, you like the tornado, but that doesn’t mean you want the tornado to come to your house.
Nika: Thank you, Shyla, for that analogy.
Joshua: I pretty much refer to all of you as forces of nature anyway. That’s nothing new.
Hurricane Nika. Hurricane Rina. Yup. Has a certain ring of truth to it.
Kramer: What I’m saying is you’ll be met with some caution on their part.
Nika: (to Rina, hard) No weapons.
Rina: Sure. Why not?
Joshua: You say we’re going to be met with caution. Is there any advice involved with that, other than be careful?
Kramer: I think that if you are respectful …
Joshua: Okay, that’s one.
Nika: You know Arden’s not going, right. He can’t lie to save his soul.
Kramer: I would recommend that you just do what they say.
Nika: (to Rina) Just behave like you’re a guest, okay?
Joshua: It’s just going to be her? We’re not going? What are they allowing?
Nika: I don’t know. We were just given clearance.
Shyla?
Kramer: I don’t see why you can’t all go. Whether they all talk to Mr. Carter…?
She lets the question hang.
Joshua: I’d rather be there.
Nika: All right. Ms. Sullivan would you like to…?
Kiera: For curiosity’s sake alone, sure. I finally get to see this person. Besides, you all need to learn to—you tell the truth when a lie would do. There’s all this amazin’ honesty.
Joshua: Honesty is good.
Kramer: A believable falsehood is preferable to an unbelievable truth.
Kiera: See? Exactly. You tell the truth when a lie will do. Just blows my mind.
Joshua: Tell truth and it can’t be a lie.
Rina: Well it certainly gives you less to keep straight.
It takes a little while for that shuttle to be made ready and as we wait, Joshua gets a few to see Harry. He returns in plenty of time to join the rest of us on the shuttle down to the Lorngaard. It flies without interference and it lands on a spot that’s familiar to Nika, Rina and Joshua.
As we’d thought, the facility where Mike Carter is being held is the same bunker Dr. Gordon had his stitches operation and walking up to the entrance we see two armed military guards on the gatehouse and two more at the bunker doors. The guards are in PDF uniforms and shiny boots. Kiera looks them over to see if they are the mystery men she’d seen in Lorngaard. They are cleanshaven and look very different from the men she’d followed through the market. There’s no way for her to tell conclusively one way or the other.
The doors are new and the gouges we’d made on the entrance ramp have been paved over and the ramp down is brightly lit—in contrast to our last visit there.
Rina: (whisper to Nika) They’ve made some improvements since we were last here.
Nika: Hm. I wonder why?
We’re led to the bottom of the ramp to the right-hand turn, then we enter the vast hangar-like room of our previous visit. On the walk down, we noticed the gallery entrance halfway down the ramp was blocked by chainlink fence and there are cameras at depressingly regular intervals mounted to the walls and ceiling. We walk the length of the ramp under escort and follow the dogleg turn to the right. On our left is a closed set of doors, to the right the entrance into the large bay from our previous visit.
A desk with a computer and a chair and a guard are stationed just outside the entrance. There is also a bank of monitors from the security camera array and looking at the screens it’s obvious this is where all those surveillance cameras fed into.
Guard: The visitors are here. I’ll tell the Major.
He speaks quietly into a comm and we can’t quite make out his words or the reply.
We check in and are cleared and as we’re patted down for weapons. True to her word, Rina walked in without her usual suspects, carrying not so much as a nail clipper. Nika and Joshua are patted down and Kiera is too. She’s got patches from Arden’s med lab on her and a tranq syringe for good measure. The syringe is found but the patches she’s tucked into her brassiere are overlooked. We’re declared clean and cleared to see the prisoner. As a pat down, it’s not so invasive as a cavity search nor so light as a sensor wanding but the need for all the precautions is sitting in clear sight and we see it the second we walk through the door way into the bay.
All the medical equipment and curtained cubicles have been removed. There is nothing but a bare empty room with guards armed with rifles on the gallery above and more on the floor below. A plexiglass cage on a raised platform sits in the middle of the bay. In it are a bunk, a table and chair and a toilet. On the bunk is Mike. Everything is mercilessly lit by floodlights. Nothing is hidden from view. No doubt there are cameras mounted to surveil the prisoner 24/7 but Rina’s got eyes only for the man in the cage.
Boot ring on the hard tiled floor of the bay and turning to look, we see someone familiar approaching. It’s Major Tanner from our last visit ...
Major Tanner from Naval Intelligence.
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