Episode 405: Precipitate, Part Three
Nika hears the engine’s whine shoot upward to a scream and cuts the power before it blows or melts. The impact of the vehicles sends Rina off the roof of the van and slamming to the ground. She’s battered and stunned but still conscious. Miraculously, Kiera manages to stay put.
The doors at the back of the van open and two guards groan and stagger groggily out. Kiera inches back where she cannot be seen by them. The guards are wearing plated vests as well as PDF uniforms and cloth PDF caps. Assault rifles and pistols and grenades fill out their equipment. Kiera starts scheming to get her hands on one of those weapons, but refrains from making a move just yet.
Arden was thrown clear of the mule in the crash and he gets to his feet. He eyes the guards and sees that while they might have been expecting to be chased, they weren’t expecting anything like what just happened. Arden dismisses the guards for the moment and goes to the mule to check Nika. Nika’s mostly unharmed but can’t bail—her seatbelt is jammed. Furthermore, as she struggles to get the damned thing unlatched, she somehow hits the ignition button and the mule jerks forward against the van. The mule’s dashboard crumples as the van bears down on it, pinning Nika in her seat. She slaps the ignition button and the engine goes quiet. She’s escaped getting crushed but now she’s well and truly stuck.
Rina: Owww … my back …!
Rina’s crumpled on the ground. She struggles to sit and grips the gun in her rear waistband, groaning. Not that pain is anything she has to fake. Everyone hit the ground pretty hard. She keeps her body between the guards and her gun. Which is a good thing, since the senior guard has just ordered the junior to check her out. The guard walks toward Rina. She sees him coming.
She eyes the guards. They seem uncomfortable in their uniforms but very comfortable with their guns. The guard squints at her as if to say: who the hell are these people? Her hand tightens on her gun.
Guard: Just stay down. We’ll be there in a minute.
Rina: (groaning) Not a problem.
The senior guard has gone around to the mule and checking the situation out. He calls to the other guard.
Senior Guard: These ain’t PDF. (to us) Who are you?
Nobody answers. Kiera makes her move. She jumps off the van onto the back of the guard, going for his gun. She bounces off his armored shoulders and lands flat on her back in the salty dust. Rina sees this go down and throws a wrench at the guard Kiera bounded off of. Rina’s still shaken from the pounding she took and she fumbles her throw, actually tripping and lay herself out in the dirt. Face down this time and spitting sand.
Arden has better luck. He’s got a martial arts kick aimed at the senior guard when he rethinks, arrests the move and says instead:
Arden: We’re friends of Mike. I’m gonna guess you are too?
Rina’s wrench sails through the air and falls short at the feet of the guard.
Senior Guard: (muttering) Too many cooks in this kitchen.
Arden: That’s an affirmative, then?
Senior Guard: We were rescuing him.
Arden: That’s what we were going to do.
Senior Guard: Well. Good job.
Arden: Yeah. (a beat) Are you all hurt?
Senior Guard: Nah, just a couple of bumps and bruises. (looks around) We had a guy …
Arden: I think he flew off back that way.
Arden points back the way we came, toward Joshua and Volker’s landing spot.
Senior Guard: He was kinduva jerk, but he was really really useful.
Arden: Yeah, he took our kinda-useful jerk with him.
Kiera gets up very slowly, making it extremely clear that she’s not about to attack anyone. Arden gestures at her.
Arden: She’s with us.
Nika: Get me out of here.
Because, hello! Nika. Trapped. Ow.
Even so, it’s obvious Nika isn’t about to bleed out or go into shock. There might be people in the van who aren’t so lucky. Arden checks the back of the van first. Mike’s inside, unconscious. He appears to be in reasonable shape, being locked into his chair. Outside, the driver of the van is hauling out from behind the wheel.
Senior Guard: It’s okay. We think they’re with us.
Meaning us, of course.
Driver: Yeah. Maybe.
Because we did mess up his van. The fake PDF dudes look us over.
Senior Guard: So before we decide we’re all in bed together, who are you with?
Arden: We’re whoever’s spaceship— (points to Decatur in orbit)— Mike’s fiancée—(points to Rina).
Nika: Summer’s Gift.
Arden: (there you go!) Summer’s Gift.
Nika: Get me out!
Kiera gets over to the mule. Rina levers herself up and does the same. Rina eyes the men over and one of them looks familiar. A face from her brief stint in the Resistance comes back with a name: Possum Pete. The Senior Guard before is her is older now, but she’s pretty sure it’s him. By reputation he was one of the hangers-on at the end of the war, a Dust Devil engaged in petty annoyances against the Alliance. Rina’s not the only one who thinks she recognizes him. Harbinger had dealt with Dust Devils before and Pete’s face rings a bell with Nika too. She knows him as ….
Nika: Hunter, is that you?
Senior Guard: Who’s asking?
Nika: I used to pilot the Harbinger.
Hunter: Kramer’s boat?
Nika: Yeah.
Hunter: So you’re …
Nika: Earhart.
Hunter: With Kramer and her? Crew’d gone over to the PDF.
Nika: Nah. I had split off a little bit, a coupl’a years before she lost the Harbinger itself.
Hunter: And you’re flyin’ Summer’s Gift now? (a beat) Summer’s Gift that went to Miranda?
Nika: Yeah. That was my boat.
Hunter: Well. They’re probably okay.
Throughout this exchange, Kiera and Rina are going through the tools on the mule, looking for what they need to get Nika out.
Arden: Probably.
Hunter: Okay by us, anyway.
Arden: So can I examine Mike?
Hunter: Ahh…
Nika: He’s our doctor.
Hunter: And you know him?
Nika: Him? (nods at Arden) Yeah. He’s been with me since I got the ship.
Hunter: All right, then.
Arden: Or she’s been with me since we got the ship. Depending how you look at it.
Whatever. Hunter’s already moved on to the problem of getting Nika out.
Hunter: Huh. Wonder how we’re gonna get those things off there…
Nika: Real sorry.
Meaning our screw-up with the vehicles. Or maybe the botched rescue. Or maybe something else.
Hunter: Does that winch have its own engine? Maybe we can use it to pry ourselves out of this mess.
Rina: I’ll see what I can do.
Meanwhile, Arden’s in the truck and examining Mike. First off, Arden sees sign that Mike was in close proximity to a flash-bang. Also, Mike’s been tranqued. Assured after a moment’s examination that Mike is going to be okay, Arden quits the truck and starts the trudge to Joshua and Volker way the way back the way we came.
Nika asks Hunter to send a guard with Arden and Hunter dispatches a man to run escort. That done, Nika and Hunter continue their conversation. Kiera looks Nika over for injuries as they talk.
Nika: Who you guys workin’ for, anyway?
Hunter: I done plenty’a ops with Carter. I’m not gonna let him get hanged. If he’s gonna die, it’s gonna be in a firefight.
Nika: So y’all were workin’ on your own?
Hunter: Yeah.
Nika: Shii. Somehow I got the feeling that this is gonna bite every single one of us in the ass.
We’re making headway in getting Nika out and the two vehicles apart, Arden’s making good progress toward Joshua and Volker, and—hey look, a ship!
Like idiots we all track its course and so it’s kinda inevitable that we’re taken out by the flash bomb the ship lobs at us. Only Kiera’s reflexes and Arden’s distance from the truck save the two from any ill effects. The rest of us—Nika, Rina, Hunter and his crew—are struck by the flash. Mike sags unconscious in the van, oblivious to it all, as the ship screams out of there.
Looks like the ass-biting is about to ensue.
The flashy bomb-thingy wasn’t a flash bang, we discover an instant later, but an EMP device. Both the van and the mule’s electronic systems go dead. So does the winch we’re using to get Nika out.
Arden can’t do anything to help his friends at the van. He goes on toward the friend that got left behind. About 200 feet away, he can make out Joshua and Volker on the ground. They seem to be intact, if prone. He also sees the ship, what appears to be a shuttle, coming back for another pass.
The shuttle lands a couple hundred feet beyond the crashed vehicles, in the opposite direction Arden’s going. It settles in the dust of its arrival and out of the clouds and the heat shimmer walk four long-coated figures. Armed.
Well, damn. Everybody wants Mike. He’s just that good.
He’s our Loch-Nar.
Rina shakes her head clear and takes cover, drawing her gun. Kiera does the same, only without the gun.
Kiera: Um, can I have a weapon to defend myself other than my wit and charm?
Hunter hands her a pistol. Hunter gives Nika, who’s still pinned, a pistol as well.
Rina holds off from shooting, wanting to make every shot count. The newcomers are still too far out. We decide to keep Mike secure inside the van—after all it’s heavy, armored, and made to keep things safe. Kiera sneaks inside the van.
Nika thinks for a minute. Both the van and the mule are heavy industrial-grade vehicles. It’s highly possible that the EMP only temporarily knocked them out. If so, they should be recoverable and after making sure nothing crucial has been damaged or irreparably fritzed, we should be able to use them. Nika looks over at Rina crouching in the cover of the mule.
Nika: If you can get the van running can we get it off the top of our mule just by driving it?
Because she really wants to get the hell pried out of the mule. And if Rina fixes the van, we might be able to fly out on the mule—the mule’s engines are in the rear and uncrunched. Rina gives Nika her pistol, grabs some tools and starts fiddling with the workings of the van. The others work using the winch and get Nika out of the mule.
As for the other guards in the van, they’re not quite sure what to make of us despite Hunter knowing Nika. It’s more ‘What kinda crazy-assed party are these people?’ and “All right, all right, this is OUR rescue” thoughts running through their collective heads. But Hunter seems fine with us and oh, look—bad guys approaching on our nine o’clock. Let’s survive the next ten minutes first and then sort everyone out.
Which seems likely, since they’re armed with rifles, we only have a couple of pistols and the bad guys striding toward us through the salty dust have … we don’t know. Nika turns to Hunter.
Nika: If you leave me a rifle, I can cover you while you go see what the hell is going on. I’ll walk up there with you.
Rina: (from under the van) Great plan, Captain. So you’re gonna draw their fire, huh?
Nika gets a pistol. Since she’s already got Rina’s, she gives it to Kiera. Kiera stays behind to cover Nika and Hunter as they walk forward to parlay, a pistol in each hand. She braces against the mule and aims.
Nika’s eyeing the men as they draw closer. They aren’t wearing uniforms. They might be freelancers like us. Our comms are still down thanks to the EMP bomblet. And they are definitely not friendly—they lob a grenade at us and it blows. Nika and Hunter take most of the damage. Hunter goes down and Nika runs to him to drag him back behind the cover of the vehicles. Okay, so no parlay. We start firing back with our pistols and rifles.
The sun shines, the wind blows, the bullets fly. And grenades. The bastards have grenades and they are not stingy with them. The combination of the gunfire and grenades put a major hurting on us. In fact, the major portion of the damage done to us come from the grenades rather than the bullets and by the end of the firefight, nearly everyone’s taken damage from them.
Nika’s scrambling to drag Hunter back to cover and one of his men runs forward to help her. Rina scores a hit on one of the bogies with her pistol, and Kiera takes down another with a head shot. Nika gets Hunter under cover and takes his rifle, turning it on the bogies still approaching.
The man Rina shot before—his gun jams. Rina shoots another of the approaching hostiles and he goes down. Kiera wings another of the bogies and they start moving back. One of the men lays covering fire while the one remaining goes to check the one down who still might be alive. We all duck for cover.
Nika: Rina! I’m armed. Get going!
Meaning work on the van, woman!
Rina: I’m on it.
Rina scrambles under the van with her tools and starts in on it. The van gives her some measure of cover and the damned thing is armored—a bullet would have to work pretty hard to make it through to her. Hoping the bullets and the grenades don’t frag anything vital on it, Rina works on.
Kiera skewers the rescuer nearest her with a disgusted look and points at his rifle.
Kiera: If you ain’t gonna use that thing, then hell, give it to me and I’ll use it!
After all, she’s just got a bitty pistol and firing for all she’s worth and he hasn’t done much of anything. Mind, if her scorn makes the man cowboy up and start throwin’ bullets at the bogies, all to the good. If he hands her the rifle, ditto. Either way, bullets’ll get thrown and in the right direction.
Guard: Fine!
He pokes his head up to fire and takes a bullet through the skull. Not so fine.
Kiera: Sorry.
Kiera grabs his rifle. Better fine. She returns fire.
Nika pops up and takes a shot with her rifle and ducks back down again. The man laying down the covering fire goes down, his head disappearing in a cloud of red. That leaves the man with the jammed gun the last one still standing and, no dummy him, he falls back toward the shuttle parked a couple hundred yards away. Not that it saves him. One of Hunter’s men takes him out as he retreats.
When the dust settles the score tallies: Four bogies dead. Hunter and one of his men dead, and the rest of us battered by grenades.
Kiera keeps her assault rifle trained on the hostiles’ shuttle in case a revenge party comes pouring out of it. Nika turns around to look for Arden.
Meanwhile, Arden’s busy getting to his crewmate and possible adversary, with his guard escort bringing up the rear. Joshua and Volker are both still alive if unconscious and they’ve broken a few bones—that’s Arden’s initial assessment based on their awkward positions in the dirt. As long as they’re both unconscious, Arden sets the broken bones straight. Normally a nasty business with a conscious patient, it goes a mite smoother with both of them out cold. Hunter’s man watches, squicked, and lets Arden do the work.
Back at the van, we all see the shuttle take off and circle once to survey the scene below. We have nothing suitable to shoot it down and since the whole point is to get out of here, it would have served no purpose to take it down anyway. Rina crawls out from under to watch it. She notices two things. One, she believes the shuttle’s flying in an attitude of not just looking but reporting. Two, she sees the symbol painted on the fuselage and recognizes it: Lex Talionis.
Rina: Don’t tell me, no! Not those bastards again. Well I’m glad these guys are frakkin’ dead.
Nika: Get back to work.
Rina: Yes, ma’am.
She gets back to work, cussing a blue streak about their freakin’ bad luck that the Lex Talionis had to be involved.
Five minutes later another ship arrives—what is this, Grand Central Station? This time it’s the proper authroties, the PDF for-real. It’s an armored shuttle and their PA booms over the wash from their engines as they hover over us.
PA: Move away from the vehicles. Move away from the vehicles. We do not wish to use lethal force.
Our guns fall like rain on the ground as we disarm and crawl out from under. Two miles back, Arden tries vainly to raise us on his comm, asking what the hell’s going on, but the EMP wiped his comm out along with ours.
Nika tells us we are not going to fight the PDF on this one—they can bring in a lot more ships, and our team is down to three people with another half two miles away. And besides …
Nika: And right now—right now, it looks like we stopped them from taking Mike. It looks like we stopped a kidnapping.
Meaning us versus the Lex Talionis. So that makes us heroes.
The PDF disembark and ask us what’s all this then? We’re taken into custody and we don’t resist. A couple of skiffs show up and escort us back to civilization. They take us and Mike to an undisclosed location and hold us there. Mike revives halfway, looks around.
Mike: What’s going on?
Nika: The usual.
Mike: That bad, huh?
Nika: Yup.
Rina: We saved you from the Lex Talionis, but now we’re in the hands of the PDF.
We quickly decide to stick to that story. We’ve got four Lex Talionis bodies to back us up. The PDF officer in charge of taking our statements arrives a few minutes later, hears our explanation and asks us to clarify a few things.
Officer: The crash looks a little puzzling.
Rina: They threw an EMP grenade at us.
Kiera: And we lost control.
Officer: Who EMPd you?
Nika: The Lex Talionis.
Officer: From where?
Nika: They had a shuttle.
Arden: See, we stopped the van—
Officer: Why did you stop the van?
Oh cao ni mah, Arden! Shut up already! And we scramble to repair the blunder.
Nika: It was an accident. We were chasing the Lex Talionis because they had come after the van. So we were trying to stop them and wound up EMPd and ran into the van.
Kiera: Yes.
Yes, sir. That’s exactly what happened. We pull it off.
Joshua has nothing to add because he’s still unconscious. He’s actually been taken to a hospital for his injuries. We are taken to a holding cell and we’re actually kept together—a mercy. It helps to have your friends around you at a time like this, even though Kiera grouses that this will make her miss that pharmaceutical pick-up she’s obligated to. Getting thrown in jail does that. Eventually the door opens and we smell cigarette smoke. The smoker walks in a few seconds later.
It’s General Nguyen and he is not pleased. Nope. Not one bit. He looks us over, growling under his breath. We sit on our prison bench and let him look. Arden breaks the ice first.
Arden: So we’re free to go?
Nguyen: No.
Arden: No? Why not?
Nguyen: I don’t want you to leave here. When you’re free, you’re trouble. When you’re not, you’re not trouble. (eyes Arden) Not as much trouble. Obviously, some trouble.
Kiera: (quietly) I would’a thought we’d stopped trouble. And not our trouble.
Nika: (sighing) Oh, no. In this case I’m pretty sure we are trouble. (looks at Nguyen) We can be not-trouble. We can be less trouble.
Nguyen: (shakes head) You say this as though you are convinced of it yourself.
Nika: Absolutely.
Nguyen: And how would this happen?
Nika: We could just, you know, go our merry way, take our cargo and leave.
Nguyen: You went away before. And here you are.
Bloodied. Battered. Under arrest.
Okay, so our strategy still has a few kinks in it. Nika draws herself up with all the dignity she can muster.
Nika: I have not caused you trouble ever since.
Nguyen: You don’t think this is trouble?
Nika: (verbal shrug) Not really.
Nguyen: Okay. This is why you’re not really any help here. Your views about what qualifies as trouble and what isn’t trouble are wildly inaccurate.
Nika: Did you want him made off with?
Meaning Mike.
Rina: By the Lex Talionis? Was that your plan?
Nguyen: So, the Lex Talionis—let me see if I understand your story. They broke into the stadium, used a flashbang, took five of my people, hid them in the women’s room, got in the van to meet with the shuttle. You got wind of this somehow, you and a bunch of … ?
Nika: Actually we saw Carter getting shoved into the back of the van by guys whose uniforms didn’t fit.
Rina: Yeah.
Nguyen: The people who were dead were not wearing uniforms.
Nika: Yeah, well.
Nguyen: Who were they?
Kiera: We didn’t interview them, with all respect.
Nguyen: The people in the uniforms were with you, right?
Nika: Well, yeah. By the end of it all. They didn’t want him taken by the Lex Talionis.
Nguyen: So who are they?
Nika: I ain’t got no clue.
And that’s the truth.
Nguyen: Yeah. (a beat) So your story is kind of …
Nika: The bottom line was—we saw him being jammed into a van and we went and fetched him back.
Arden: And nearly killing some of us in the process.
Nguyen: Back? You tried to get to him but I wouldn’t say you got him back.
Nika: Fair enough. But we did make some level attempt to do so.
Rina: We kept him from being taken.
Nika: So we didn’t precisely cause trouble for you.
Rina: We were a delaying action.
Arden: And potentially saving you some embarrassment.
Kiera: Ym-hm!
Nguyen looks askance at us.
Nguyen: So you’re telling me that your plan was to bring him ba—
Nika: I didn’t really have a plan. I’ll be fair about that. We don’t have a plan. Swa him getting’ snatched. Reacted. And that was about it.
Nguyen: Well. You’ll be my guests for a little while. Until I can decide what can be done with you.
We look around our cell. Welcome to the PDF Hilton.
Nika: Okay.
Arden: And that’s going to take how long?
Nguyen: I don’t know. If there was a nice mine across the way, maybe I could send you to work there.
Arden: A nice … mine?
Nguyen: I think you’ve been there before. (a beat) That would be one option. Get you out of my hair. Teach you some discipline.
We all know what mine he’s referring to. He knows we know and he pauses and lets the prospect sink in. Then:
Nguyen: Tell me why I shouldn’t do something like that or worse? I imagine I could probably get some of my people back from the Alliance in exchange for you.
Nika: I doubt we’re worth all that much to them, either.
Nguyen: Perhaps.
Kiera: I personally don’t care if you sell me to the Alliance.
Nguyen: Yes. Well…
Nika: She’s a passenger.
Nguyen shakes his head over this.
Nguyen: As a courtesy, because of your relationship with Mr. Carter, I’ll bring in a vid screen for you.
Arden: A what? A vid screen?
Nguyen: So you can watch the rest of the trial.
Arden: Joy.
Nika: Thank you.
Arden: I want my memorial cup back.
Nika: (sweetly to Arden) If your mouth gets our privileges taken away, I’m ’onna take it out of your hide.
Rina: Get in line.
Arden: Okay, whatever.
Nguyen: I’m beginning to be inclined to think that perhaps you ought to stand with your friend. That might be a way to solve some of the lingering questions regarding how he could do this all by himself. And it would certainly get—.
Nika: And I’m sure they would lovvvvvvve to hear who was behind bombing of the factory. That should probably work out well. Yeah.
Arden: We still got that recording, right?
Nguyen: In fact, it’s looking all the more attractive now. Of course, he would only give up those names later, and they’d probably die in an attempt to escape. Right?
Nika puffs out an exasperated breath.
Nika: What do you want?
Nguyen: I haven’t decided. I want some assurance that you won’t be trouble and I don’t have that from your words.
Nika: Well, in general? I can’t promise you that. It seems to find us.
Nguyen: Well, you think about it for the night. We’ll see.
Nika: Is our guy in the hospital okay?
Joshua’s laid up there with some broken bones.
Nguyen: I believe so.
Nguyen leaves on that note and we are indeed given a vid screen to watch the trial on from our cell. The next day is spent on deliberations. Mike shows up, a little bruised and banged up looking. The court authorities take pains to assure everyone that the prisoner was not injured. Which might work in Carter’s favor—people would think “Hey, they beat him up in jail!” and not take too kindly to that.
Coming forward as the last witness is none other than MP Edward Gibbons.
Rina: This I have to hear.
We all straighten up and lean forward in our cell. On the screen, we see Gibbons take the platform and begin to speak.
Gibbons: It seems the evidence is clear. Now the question is where do we move forward from here? I’ve … burned a few bridges back home. I won’t be going there. I’m sure most everyone here is in a similar boat.
We look at each other and then at our cell walls. Huh. He got that right.
Gibbons: Some of you may think worse of me for what I did, or what I was accused of doing. Some of you may think I would have done the right thing. But … I think we’re all here looking for a fresh start. If that’s going to happen, we need to end this factionalism and begin to reconcile. The wounds Mr. Carter bears today appear to be inflicted by members of the Lex Talionis, an organization bent on stopping us before we go anywhere. Everyone who speaks here, including myself, has a target painted on them now. And we can … choose to fight amongst ourselves and do their job for them. Or make them come here and kill us if they want to do so.
He pauses to let that sink in.
Gibbons: I am not a warrior. (long beat) And I came here seeking to atone. I believe we should give everyone that chance. However we cannot simply ignore what has happened in the past, either. It’s for this reason that I propose … a compromise.
Another long pause.
Gibbons: in the olden days, they can put a man on a ship and send him away to a penal colony. A deserted desert island or a whole continent… that was unoccupied. We don’t have that. Not in this day of ships and all that. But I propose that we send Mr. Carter into exile and that he may not return for what he has done. But to keep him alive as best we can or at least to give him a fighting chance so that he dies as he lived…. I propose we send him to Miranda.
In the jail cell Rina murmurs to herself:
Rina: Please don’t throw me into the briar patch.
The crew chuckles over that one. On the screen, Gibbons continues his speech.
Gibbons: Some may say this is a fate worse than death.
In the jail cell, Nika quips:
Nika: They’ll be thinking that right up until he’s the fuckin’ governor.
Now the crew laughs outright in agreement and at least for one crewmember, affirmation. And thus the trial of Michael Cameron Carter ends.
Tuesday, 31 Jul 2521
0900hrs, local time
The third day from our arrest, our cell door opens to admit Major Tanner. He doesn’t waste any time with pleasantries.
Tanner: Well. We’re going to release you.
Nika: On what conditions?
Tanner: I don’t think we have any specific conditions at this stage. There has been a bit of an amnesty offered to the factions and since you clearly represent a faction of some sort—it’s unclear which faction you’re a part of but the amnesty is …
Nika: All encompassing?
Tanner: Well, it seems appropriate to apply to you. That said …
Here it comes.
Tanner: I encourage you to not interfere too much with what’s going on.
Arden: How are you getting Carter to Miranda?
Tanner: That’s classified. It’s already begun. He may not be here long.
Rina: (quietly) Has he left Highgate yet?
Tanner: I can’t tell you.
Kiera: That was your decision, that he gets … ?
Tanner: Yes, the people voted to spare his life. Well, of sorts. To send him into exile.
So Mike’s going to live. For however long Miranda lets him.
Arden: There is a sort of infrastructure on Miranda.
Tanner: What was that?
Arden: There’s an infrastructure on Miranda.
Tanner: We saw the vids.
Arden: I’m just saying … if by some chance he manages to fix a ship or someone picks him up or whatever, what happens if he comes back here?
Tanner: Ah. Well …
Arden: I’m asking what are the conditions of exile?
Tanner: We’ve arranged to make it more difficult for him to come back.
Arden: How?
Rina can think of one way, a way that’s certain and bloody, and refrains from saying it. She keeps her hand away from her scar, refusing to give that much away.
Nika: If something like that were to happen anyway and chooses not to come back here?
Tanner: Let me put it this way—if he leaves Miranda, he won’t survive.
Kiera: Cortex bomb.
Yes. Looks like Rina wasn’t the only one thinking it.
Arden: All right …
Nika: That’s fine. I just wanted to know. I’m hoping they made it clear to him that such an escape would be a bad plan.
Tanner: Oh yes. I believe he’s well informed about that.
Nika: Thank you.
Tanner: In fact, he seemed to insist upon it.
Nika: Okay.
What had Mike said to Rina? It was an all-in bet. Looks like he wasn’t kidding.
Tanner: You’re free to go.
Nika: (quietly) Thank you.
Arden: How is Joshua?
Tanner: He seems to be mending well.
Arden: Can we see him at the hospital?
Tanner: Actually, he’ll be waiting for you up at the gate.
Arden: Okay. In his full-body cast?
Kiera has to laugh out loud at that one. Nika quells Arden with a look and turns to the JAG officer.
Nika: Thank you, Tanner.
Tanner: The next three months are going to be make-or-break. We’ll see how it goes. So. Hopefully, things will work out.
Nika: Give the General our regards.
Tanner: Yes. You might want to steer clear of him.
Nika: Yeah. It generally works out that way.
Tanner breathes a laugh and looks at her.
Tanner: Let me rephrase that—
Nika: We seemed to piss him quite off a lot.
Tanner: You definitely want to avoid interfering. There is going to be a new structure to things around here.
Arden: (to self) Imagine!
Tanner: And he’s going to be … in charge of defense for the whole area. Which he effectively is, for now, anyway.
Rina: It’s now official, isn’t it?
Tanner: Yes.
Rina: For all of Blue Sun?
Tanner: Yes. The Navy and the Army. He’s head of the military now.
Rina: (quietly) And how long is he going to be satisfied with just that?
Tanner: Ah, well. This is the dream that he had, apparently.
Rina: I have one more question.
Tanner: Mm-hm?
Rina: (sighs) I don’t know if you’ll be able to answer it. So … it’s … it’s basically engineered that if Carter leaves Miranda, he’s not going to survive leaving. Right?
Tanner: If our people did their jobs correctly.
Arden: Now there’s an understatement.
Tanner: There’s enough of a reason for him not to want to leave that he shouldn’t try it.
Rina: So did you implant him with something that would blow his head off?
Okay, that’s it. Now you’re just antagonizing the opposition. And we’re not even out of jail yet!
Nika: Rina. Drop it. Just drop it.
Rina: He—
Nika: Just drop it.
Kiera: He was perfectly okay. He said he insisted. He is okay with it.
Nika: In part, has it occurred to you that he asked for such a thing because maybe he’s concerned about what else they might take from him? What other information he might have in his head that he doesn’t want to give to someone else? Just drop it.
We pack ourselves up and leave. On the way out, Arden asks Nika about Possum Pete Hunter. Was he one of Nguyen’s men, he asks. Back in the War? Nika says no. Back then, understand, the Independents had an army and Nguyen wasn’t in charge of it. Of course, Nguyen was a Colonel in the War and had a couple thousand people under him it, it might be possible Pete was one of those. But if the question is, was Pete one of Nguyen’s men now? Then no. Not after the War at any rate, not so much as Nika knows.
We get processed out and we are met at the gate of the holding facility by Joshua. We don’t linger but make our way back to Summer’s Gift and home.
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