Episode 420: GULag, Part Three

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Okay, is it creepy enough for you, yet?

Joshua: Really.
Roskov: But I’m interested in stories, so …
Joshua: I’m not sure I know where I was from, to be honest.
Roskov: But you were always a … listener.
Joshua: Yes.
Roskov: Always?
Joshua: Yes. (a beat) Or … not always, but just as long as I’ve known.
Roskov: But do you remember it as a child?
Joshua: No.
Roskov: Yes. That is not unusual.
Joshua: And how do you know this?
Roskov: I didn’t spend my entire life in GULag. You must do things to come here.
Joshua: Well, yes. But then I’m sure there are many people in this GULag who don’t have this kind of knowledge, who don’t know these kinds of things.

Silence.

Joshua: I’m sure the prison director … Our prison director is not here by choice either and …
Roskov: Well, whoever he insulted to get this job, I don’t know. He occasionally tries to tell me his story but he is an uninteresting person to me. I keep him around because he has … some utility left. I am not like your friend Potemkin. I am not a fan of torture.
Joshua: Oh, that’s a plus.
Roskov: And since I can simply order him to do things, I allow him a measure of control.
Joshua: So, we’re here. Did you want something from me? Or are you just interested in…?
Roskov: You are going to tell me your story.
Joshua: We covered this already.
Roskov: No.
Joshua: Yes, I’m a listener, like you would say.
Roskov: Yes, but you must be a speaker, as well.
Joshua: I … actually …

Joshua’s not sure what the man wants.

Joshua: I don’t know if my story is all that interesting, to be honest. I find my life on board ship to be much more interesting. I’ve had plenty of adventures there. Would you like to hear those?
Roskov: No.
Joshua: I didn’t think so. Cuz you’re not being very straightforward about what you’re looking for from me, anyway.
Roskov: You must trust me.
Joshua: Why? I have no reason to trust you. Other than yes, you saved us from the cold, but it’s clear you had your reasons for that as well.
Roskov: This would be much easier if you simply obey me.
Joshua: Wait. Did you just—I’m sorry, what did you say?
Roskov: This would be much easier if you simply obey me.
Joshua: I’m sure there would be a lot of things simply easier if I obeyed you. Like—.
Roskov: Joshua.
Joshua: What are you going to do to me?
Roskov: You understand.
Joshua: I do understand.
Roskov: Do you?
Joshua: I think I’ve worked for your kind before. And I’m not interested in doing it now.
Roskov: It would be more pleasant for us both if you would be….cooperative. I’m not going to torture you. That’s not what—
Joshua: You could torture them.
Roskov: What’s that?
Joshua: You’ll torture them?
Roskov: No. I am not a sadist.
Joshua: No?
Roskov: No. You will serve my purposes. They will be the same as yours. But I would rather that you … do so of your own volition.
Joshua: Yeah.
Roskov: We can be friends in this.
Joshua: I don’t know you well enough to be your friend.
Roskov: But your choices are to … you could be my friend and do this …
Joshua: Or?
Roskov: Or you will stop being who you are and you will do this. (a beat) You are … ah, in love, yes?

Silence.

Roskov: For yourself, perhaps you would not do it. But certainly you would not wish to … harm your lover. Right? And your disappearance would no doubt harm your lover. (a beat) She doesn’t know—or does she know your story? What you might be capable of?
Joshua: I don’t know what I’m capable of.
Roskov: See? That is why God brought you to me. (leans in) I can help you.
Joshua: God is a twisty bastard, is all I can say. Every time I reach out for Him, He throws something a little more sadistic my way.
Roskov: I don’t know your whole story. Which is why you must tell me.
Joshua: See, I just—.
Roskov: And when you serve me, I can assure that your service is, ah, toward your own end as well. (a beat) That is what friends do.

Isn’t that what the Serpent told Eve? Aside from Biblical parallels, Joshua is not unaware of the pull Roskov has on the people in this place. Nor is he blind to how many ways things could go badly for his friends while they are here.

Joshua: I … you have me between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
Roskov: Perhaps you should go back and talk with your friends. They will of course tell you that I am wrong and I am not to be trusted. It is good for you to be skeptical.
Joshua: Yeah, I’m fairly skeptical. The whole bit about … getting food from the village and those who survived leaving does make me a little bit …
Roskov: I will say if the circumstances were reversed and the villagers were going hungry and they knew food was here, do you think they would hesitate?
Joshua: I am not saying that it would be any different but I’m not saying I like the circumstances either way.
Roskov: The men here are very bad.
Joshua: What’s that?
Roskov: The men in here are very bad. I am the only thing standing between them and … becoming wild animals.
Joshua: Why don’t I go back and talk to my friends?
Roskov: You should.

Joshua retraces his steps back to the infirmary. He finds that that the ward room has been set up as a bunk room for us, giving us a more private place to sleep. And talk. We’re grateful for it and Arden has already let the prison know that he is willing to offer his service as a doctor to anyone who needs it. Right now, however, we’re alone and we take the opportunity to discuss just what the hell is going on.

Nika: What exactly do these people want from us? Besides slavery, cuz … (sketches a wave at the mine) … that’s kinda what they do.
Joshua: It’s not what they want from us. It’s what he wants from me.
Arden: Oh really? What’s that?
Joshua: I don’t know exactly. But—
Arden: Then how do you know he wants something?
Joshua: Because he told me he wants it.
Arden: Did he tell you what it was?
Joshua: Nope.
Arden: (off Joshua’s mood) Then how do you know you wouldn’t want to do it?
Joshua: Cuz it involves what I am and where I come from and …
Arden: Okay, I know what you are. Sorta.
Joshua: Which is about as much as I know, so you’re on board.
Arden: Where you come from? What do you mean by that?
Nika: Presumably the training facility that he comes from.
Joshua: Yeah. I’m just trying to not … (looks around) I don’t know how much privacy we have here.
Rina: (quietly) Do they want you to impersonate Foreman?

It would be a challenge—Foreman has dark skin.

Joshua: I don’t know exactly what he wants.
Rina: What else could they want?
Arden: Why don’t you just ask?
Joshua: He is … Blue Sun…. not literally but he might as well be.
Rina: Well fine. Here’s the thing. I’m trying to figure out why this injured man who is Alliance and obviously a representative of the government that put them here, why is it so important that he live?
Joshua: I don’t know.
Arden: It’s not really important, I got the idea.
Nika: Actually that’s not true.
Joshua: No, he wants him alive.
Nika: The specific thing he said to you was that if he dies, there would be more trouble.
Arden: Yeah, that’s true. He did say that.
Joshua: And he asked me to make sure that he stayed alive.
Nika: So, are there two factions of people? Do they have, for example, the rest of that guy’s men locked up somewhere and they’re causing trouble?
Joshua: This guy is … this guy is bad news.
Rina: This guy is sick.
Nika: This guy is slick, too.
Joshua: He’s got power and I don’t … I don’t know, I … I don’t know. He’s just— I don’t know.
Nika: At best guess, he’s someone like you.
Joshua: What?
Nika: At best guess, he’s someone like you.
Joshua: I don’t—
Nika: How did he know Arden was a doctor?
Rina: Mm-hm.
Joshua: I don’t know how he … he …
Rina: I’m assuming you didn’t spill your guts when you were riding to our ship.
Nika: He could have spilled his guts, but you know, he spills his guts to everyone.
Joshua: Who are you talking to? Arden spills his guts to the automated weather robot.
Arden: I don’t know whether to be insulted or not.
Joshua: It’s the truth.
Nika: (to Arden) Did you tell them you were a doctor?
Arden: I don’t recall telling them I was a doctor.
Rina: See there?
Nika: So, again…
Arden: I don’t recall telling them I was a doctor.
Nika: Okay then let me rephrase myself and say I don’t recall you telling them you were a doctor so unless you told them—

Arden looks peeved.

Arden: You were in a snowbank!
Nika: So unless you told them while I was in that snowbank, that would be the only time you could have told them that I would’ve not heard.
Arden: (to the rest of us) Did you hear about the snowbank?
Nika: Stop.
Arden: Well, it’s funny.
Rina: We can laugh later.
Joshua: Or we can laugh now.
Rina: I’d rather say laugh later, because that implies we’ll still be alive. So. (turns to Joshua) He wants you for something.
Nika: And I thought I was the idealist.
Joshua: I wish I could articulate how much he disturbs me at … at… I’ve said before. He may not literally be Blue Sun, but he is Blue Sun.
Arden: No. You’ve never met my brother, right?
Nika: It disturbs me at base level that he says “Jump” and you snap to “How high?”
Joshua: He wants me for some purpose.
Arden: So does Rina, but that’s beside the point.
Joshua: Well, no—
Nika: Arden.
Arden: What?
Rina: (eyeroll) He only wants me to fix the generator. Any mechanic can do that.
Arden: No. Anyway, never mind.
Joshua: He wants me for something. He … he senses … I don’t know if he knows exactly what I am, but he senses—
Nika: There. You just said it.
Joshua: What? That he … knows what I am?
Nika, Rina, and Arden at once: He senses.
Joshua: Yeah. I’m … I’m afraid to… (starts over) … I can feel him. I can feel him coming.
Nika: Okay. That, see? That right there, that’s making me wonder if he is one of the people who trained the same general vicinity as you’ve trained.
Joshua: I can’t do … If he can do what he’s implied he can do. He wants me to do something for him. I don’t know what it is. But he’s implied that he can make me do it. But that who I will be, I will be lost if I do that. He said, I wouldn’t want to hurt the one I love. Cuz if I disappear ...
Nika: So basically he’s telling you that he can subvert you and turn you into what he wants, but he’d rather you do it voluntarily because he doesn’t want to wipe you.
Arden: He’s actually implying it, attempting to turn him with the threat rather than with the actual doing it.
Nika: Why don’t you just tell him that you want to know exactly what it is he wants you to do?
Joshua: I think I’ve asked him that a couple times.

Okay, we’re talking in circles here. As Nika, Arden and Joshua go round with it again, Rina thinks back on the generator. She’s already inspected it. She saw right off that it can be fixed, it’s not a complicated model, and that it’s not that complicated a repair. It would take only rudimentary effort to fix it. However, given the mostly white collar criminals incarcerated here, she can understand why no one’s been able to fix it. Still … this is a mining facility and it wouldn’t be without people with some mechanical skill. It looks like the repair would be childishly simple to effect. Why has it gone undone all this time? What role does it play in all of this? Rina pipes up.

Rina: This Roskov guy has something staged. It’s leverage. I’ll say this Captain, it wouldn’t take much to repair the generator. At first I thought maybe it was damaged in the prison riot. I don’t think so.
Joshua: So what are you saying?
Nika: What do you mean?
Joshua: I’m not sure I’m following your line of thought here.
Rina: I’m not entirely certain I can articulate it, any more than you can articulate exactly what bothers you about this Roskov character, but … there’s nothing really wrong with the generator that I couldn’t fix. Probably with duct tape and spit and a bit of chewing gum. But the thing is there’s nothing really wrong with it that could not be put back together like lego blocks. It’s not complicated. And yet you have—
Arden: Can I fix it?
Rina: Shut up. So you have people with technical know-how to mine things, to operate complicated machinery and yet they cannot fix a simple repair on a generator? Which they would need to run their equipment, the heat, possibly the stoves, the autochefs or whatever it is they cook on here—the computers, the communications. I—if there’s—it has the quality of something that was staged. The way a con man would stage something. And given how charismatic this man is, he’s leading people to something.
Arden: Can you tell how long ago it was taken apart?
Rina: Only a couple of months.

With a second’s further reflection, Rina reassesses the damage she saw. It’s not exactly like someone yanking a couple of wires and claiming the generator’s broken. There’s real damage there. But it’s more in line with someone doing something quickly to sabotage the generator—like Agamemnon at Troy burning his men’s boats to prevent them from turning back. Or, more in keeping with the setting, Fletcher Christian burning the boats once his party landed on Pitcairn Island.

Whatever—the generator is damaged and it while it looked to be deliberate damage, it also wouldn’t be that hard to fix. So why wasn’t it repaired? Especially in an environment where light and heat are critically needed? Is the damage and/or the lack of repair significant to what’s going on?

Joshua: (overload!) I don’t know what to do.
Rina: I’m not entirely sure either but I’m thinking our chances are probably better if I fix that generator.
Arden: (to Joshua)You don’t want to do that, though.
Joshua: Agree with him?
Arden: Yeah.
Joshua: I’ve thought about it. I’ve thought about it multiple times. I’m just not sure what will happen.
Nika: Here’s the thing. If he knows we have an engineer and he’s asked our engineer to fix a generator—
Joshua: Posen. The Prison Director, I gather—and correct me if I’m wrong—but I gather he basically has limited independence where he doesn’t interfere with—
Rina: Limited? Joshua, I don’t think that man takes a dump without asking Roskov’s permission first.
Joshua: That’s possible. But when I say limited independence, I mean he can do what he wants until he crosses Roskov’s path. And then it’s ‘back in line’.
Nika: So, here’s the question: Is it something that the Director is attempting to get past Roskov?
Rina: Why don’t I fix the generator and find out?

There’s a thought. Arden has another.

Arden: Why don’t you go drink with Posen and get him drunk and pump him for information?
Rina: (annoyed) You know I suck at that. (gestures) With this face?
Nika: Rina.
Rina: What?
Nika: You’re only, as far as I can tell, one of only two women in this place. I don’t think they much care.
Rina: (hiding her face) All right, I’ll do it.
Arden: It’s just an idea.
Joshua: Nobody’s saying you have to do it. I don’t—
Nika: Besides, they probably would—wait. Lemme think about that for just a moment.

She goes quiet for a beat. Then:

Nika: I was going to say that you are Russian and therefore understand the consequences of what’s going on around us better than I. However, that said, you are so not a nuanced person and therefore it could be you who’d be problematic.
Rina: Exactly!
Arden: She’s very nuanced. It’s just the nuances are very big.
Rina: Like a Russian tank driving through your front porch.
Nika: Yes!
Arden: If you say so.
Rina: Yes I do.
Nika: But then again, they’re used to forthright Russian women I would imagine.
Joshua: Why are we talking about this?
Arden: Talking about what?
Rina: Do you want the information or not?
Joshua: (frustrated) I don’t know what I want!
Rina: I know what I want. I want more information.
Arden: Why don’t we table this and talk about it in the morning?
Joshua: That’s probably a good idea. That’s probably a good idea. I’m gonna go lay down.

Everyone breathes. Then:

Rina: So, Captain? Fix the generator?
Nika: Yeah. Fix it and see what happens.
Rina: All right.

Discussion tabled, we hit the rack. Joshua is restless, despite his comment about lying down, and leaves to find Roskov. He finds him outside the dome, apparently communing with nature in the twilight. Outside the GULag, there certainly is a whole lot of it. Joshua approaches him carefully.

Roskov: Joshua.
Joshua: You’ve implied you can do things.
Roskov: Do things?
Joshua: Well you’ve implied that … I need a demonstration of your power.
Roskov: Do you need one? Or do you want one? I don’t need to do one.
Joshua: No, I guess that’s true. (sighs) I’m … As I’ve said before, I’m stuck between a rock and a hard palce and that’s all based on your implied threat that you can—
Roskov: Have you ever done something very challenging and difficult? Physically?
Joshua: Yes, I have.
Roskov: But it was something you felt you ought to do.
Joshua: Yeah.
Roskov: And it was not unpleasant, was it.
Joshua: No.
Roskov: You see? That is what life of purpose is. So yes—
Joshua: (sighing) Wasn’t asking you for the sales pitch.
Roskov: No, but it is true that when you are doing something that is right, it is easy. Not easy in the sense of without difficulties, easy in that it does not cause you distress.
Joshua: (cautiously) Right.
Roskov: Well that is what I am offering you.

More vagueness. Joshua mutters a curse in Chinese.

Roskov: You probably don’t remember it. You may not ever have had it before. You see, but you can tell I am someone who can give this to you.
Joshua: I can tell you creep me out, honestly. I’ve never, I’ve—never met anyone quite like you. Take that for what you want.
Roskov: I may be unique. God may have put only one of me here. And perhaps only one of you. There may be others like you. But.
Joshua: Well, we’re all unique and special snowflakes.
Roskov: Ahh, how will I say it—if you think of … ah … your engineer lover and her…ah … tool sets. To a layman, one wrench looks the same as the next wrench,right? But you can’t use it even if it’s a millimeter too big or too small. Not to do the job properly. So, unique? Perhaps. But the correct tool for the right job.
Joshua: So I’m your correct tool?
Roskov: Everyone is a tool. What you have, is a person who knows what to do with it. So many people wander the Verse looking for that purpose. And here, God has brought us together.

He says it fervently, reverently, with conviction. One has to wonder if he talks to God on a regular basis. His expression and his eyes light up as he says:

Roskov: You don’t have to look anymore.
Joshua: I swore I would never be used again.
Roskov: You are always being used.
Joshua: Of my own choice.
Roskov: It’s better to be used by Potemkin? Better to be used by … the Alliance? Or by some ... What is your ship? A freighter?
Joshua: I make my own choices now.
Roskov: Mm. This is where you are wrong. There is no making your own choices. Even I. I make no choice.
Joshua: Really.

It’s not a question.

Roskov: Yes.
Joshua: You don’t strike me as the type.
Roskov: It is … We all serve God. One way or another.
Joshua: Okay.
Roskov: I have the privilege and honor perhaps of getting greater insight to what I am doing than most others have.
Joshua: You’re a prophet?
Roskov: And I have … ah … taken ownership of that purpose. That is what you need to do.
Joshua: (here we go again!) What I want to know is … you’ve danced around this so much that—
Roskov: What are you good at, Joshua?

Joshua takes a deep breath but doesn’t answer.

Roskov: What was your job on ship? You’re not engineer.
Joshua: I was the steward. I was the cook. I was the XO.
Roskov: And you were good at this?
Joshua: Yes. I was. I dealt with people. The passengers. I organized things.
Roskov: The passengers were served well.
Joshua: Yes.
Roskov: Did you have passengers on your last journey? Or was this one special?
Joshua: Until that whole torture thing, yeah.
Roskov: Yes. Not so good.
Joshua: Yeah.
Roskov: Don’t put that one on your resume.

It’s too much. Joshua has to laugh.

Joshua:(delighted) I can’t help but like you. And yet be creeped out by you. (scrubs his face) Good Gahhhhghh….. (takes a breath) I don’t know what you are, and it—it …
Roskov: I am your complement.
Joshua: I don’t want to know what you want me to do. There are some things I won’t do.
Roskov: You will do them. But the question is—will you do it knowingly and willingly? Or will you do it haphazardly and—
Joshua: I’m not going to kill anyone.
Roskov: I am not asking you to kill anyone. I haven’t asked you to kill anyone.
Joshua: You haven’t told me what you’re going to do! If you don’t rule out anything, then anything’s possible.
Roskov: The Universe is a dangerous place. People die all the time. If through my actions that is accelerated, then it is God’s will. (a beat) I will confess. Perhaps I am coming off more mysterious than I intend. I don’t know exactly what we shall do together. But I do know it is not happenstance that you should come here.
Joshua: God? God told you?
Roskov: If you do not believe in God, it is—
Joshua: I don’t know what I believe in. But go on.
Roskov: Do you not sense that… ah … Let me give you—you asked for display. (a beat) Take snow. Crush it in hands. Make ball. Feel the ball in your hand.

Joshua looks down and he’s holding a ball of snow in his hand. He has absolutely no memory of making it.

Roskov: Did you … you feel the cold now in your hand, right?
Joshua: Yes.
Roskov: But when you did as I asked, was it not an exhilaration of purpose?

Joshua says anything.

Roskov: If I had you kill, it would be a, a feeling of … sublime activity, knowing you were doing exactly what you were meant to do. If I were to ask to save a life, you would know it was precisely what you should do. Every moment’s that way, Joshua. Every moment.
Joshua: Thank you.
Roskov: And I would do it. Because it is you. Not using you for some end. I’m using you so that, you can—
Joshua: Become what I’m supposed to be?
Roskov: Flourish, yes. The old philosophers said—Eudemon: what is a happy man? The one who does what he is built for.
Joshua: I think I’m going to do my own meditations.
Roskov: You think about it.
Joshua: Thank you.
Roskov: But also think … about who else has tried. Who else have you served. Perhaps against your will.
Joshua: I’ve served a few. At least one.
Roskov: Are they dead?
Joshua: No.
Roskov: You think on it.
Joshua: Okay.

Joshua dumps the snowball and leaves. And still, Roskov hasn’t given him any real information as to what he intends to do with him. Joshua goes back to the infirmary wardroom. Rina’s still awake and waiting up for him. She looks up as he enters.

Rina: And?
Joshua: And what?
Rina: Still nothing?
Joshua: Still.
Rina: I don’t trust him.

Arden sits up in his bed and joins in.

Arden: I don’t know why. He’s just the biggest thug in prison and you don’t trust him?
Rina: Does he have tattoos?
Arden: Does it matter?
Rina: Depends on the tattoo.
Arden: Okay I’m not up on my prison tattoos. I wouldn’t know.
Joshua: He wants to use me. It’s as simple as that. And he can make me, it seems.

Rina sighs. Nobody picks up on her tangents. Grahhh.

Rina: Did he or did he not say he was with the Brotherhood? Yeah. So how many of the Vor actually let their people go? He’s in prison, for Pete’s sake.

They’re looking at her like she’s grown a second head. She rakes her hands through her hair and prays for patience.

Rina: And Potemkin aimed us at a Mafiya stronghold. So I’m just trying to put the pieces together and make them fit.
Arden: They could be unrelated.
Rina: Uhnnn. I hate that word.
Joshua: What word?
Rina: Unrelated. (accent thickening) Because he’s sooo beeg eento predestination. We were brought heer for a purpose. To follow God’s law—!
Arden: That doesn’t mean it’s true.
Rina: I was wondering if we could play to that and get us out of here.

Nika drawls from her bunk.

Nika: Now that you’ve got us spinning our wheels in circles here…
Rina: That’s what comes of—
Joshua: I’m going to sleep. I need to think.

Rina shakes her head, too frustrated to say anything further. The others settle down for the night, putting off any action til morning, and Rina is left with her own conspiracy theories for company.

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