Episode 422: 375°(Season Finale), Part Two

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Rina: Ohhhhh, dierma. They’ve activated the Stitches.
Joshua: Okay, Stitches are coming in. This is our cue.
Arden: To shoot them?
Nika: I’m gonna start the broadcast.

Nika thumbs her handset live and speaks into it.

Nika: Joseph. Are you out there listening? Watching from your shuttle? I know you’re out there watching. Like the coward that you are. Because you’ve sent all your little lackeys in here just to taunt. You haven’t bothered to come yourself and you certainly didn’t kill us when you had the chance. Personally I don’t think your brother meant anything to you. He was a pig, you know. And I killed him. With a smile.

Damn, but you can hear her smiling as she says it.

Nika: It was quite entertaining to watch little bits and pieces of him splatter all over the ground. Beautiful chunky salsa …

Below decks, we’re all taking this in via the wall comms and we’re all a bit wide-eyed at the vitriol pouring from them. Not that Nika didn’t have just cause …

Rina: Oh Christ.
Johsua: I know, but still …
Kiera: (to herself) … I’m so turned on ….

Nika continues.

Nika: Really, you should have killed us when you had the chance. Because now we’ve just made you look ridiculous. Nobody takes you seriously anymore. You’ve let all your little mindless Stitches come in here and tear us limb from limb and you claim that you took care of the problem. You know that no one in your underworld of your businesses believes that. They all snicker at you behind your back. Your brother made you a laughingstock. Your business is down the tubes most of the time. And quite frankly? You’re completely impotent in most of their eyes.

Okay. We think you’ve got his attention now, thanks. Joshua releases the two Chinese crewmen we’ve held captive. We hustle them to the opening they’d cut into our hull on the upper deck. It’s a short drop to the ground below now that we’re missing the height from our landing struts. They balk at the distance.

Arden: You can jump or you can be shot and thrown out.

Joshua: (in Chinese) I suggest to you that you start running. Fast.

They jump. After they take off, we use the debris on our girl to block the opening. It’s all about making the enemy go where we want them and keeping them from coming at us where we don’t. We all know from Nika’s taunting that she’s trying to draw Potemkin in. Assuming he comes on board, it means we’re staying until either we are finished killing him or he’s finished killing us. At least now we’re armed. With assault rifles and grenades against Stitches in a rage, it’s almost an even fight. We’ll see which side has the upper hand in a minute.

We need to guard the hatch to between decks zealously. Joshua knows Nika is a long way away from our mule and he wants to leave that hatch free and clear for her to evac out of. He tries to hail her on the wall comms.

Joshua: Nika, you are a long way away from us at the moment. We need you down here where you can actually get out.

She’s not talking to us. She’s busy. Nika’s voice rings through the ship.

Nika: How many times have you tried for us now and failed? While everyone else was watching you? How many times have we made a fool of you as you’ve tried for us and continued to fail?

Aft, the crew discusses evaccing Nika.

Kiera: Who is going to go and get the captain? She’s got that monologue …
Arden: It sounds like she’s having too much fun.
Joshua: I’m not using the gun. I want every gun we have—
Rina: Joshua.
Joshua: What?
Rina: She’s not going to want to go with you.
Joshua: I don’t care that she’s not going to want to go. I’ll take her.

Of course, Joshua doesn’t know Nika’s ultimate plan and Rina can’t tell him. If she did, there’d be no getting him off the ship with the others unless Nika’s with him and Rina has Nika’s overriding order to get everyone off, no matter what happens.

Nika: I handed him a bomb that killed him. And I smiled. He never saw it coming.

Beglan speaks up.

Beglan: I think we render this entrance useless. We can use their hot gun, the burn gel, on some of this junk to seal up that door and this door. (points) And then we control the entrances again.
Joshua: I need to go get Nika.
Rina: Walk fast.

Rina knows she’s not going to convince Joshua otherwise about Nika. He’s going to have to find out the hard way. She still has the others to take care of and their safety has to come first. She turns to Beglan.

Rina: All right. Give me the sticky.
Joshua: Seal everything up. Seal everything up, except for that one.

Kiera and Arden have meds between them, adrenaline and the requisite punch needles to get past the sternum … and trank patches. Kiera grabs Joshua’s arm and holds up one of the patches.

Kiera: If we have to, we’ll carry her out.
Joshua: Okay, okay. Will do. But I need to go.

Joshua grabs the patch and runs for the bridge. The second he’s out of earshot, Rina makes good on her promise to Nika.

Rina: Beglan. Go down to the flatbed. Get it ready. Warm her up. Arden. Go with Beglan. You’re both going down. You’re going to the flatbed. Now.
Arden: Ohh-kay.

He follows Beglan below decks.

Rina: Kiera. Give me cover while I get this up.
Kiera: Aye. I’ll cover you. Not a problem.

Kiera stands guard with her rifle as Rina starts welding the door barricades with the sticky. Kiera fingers the remote she’s got, the one that will trigger the jamming signal against the Stitches. She’ll have to wait til they’re a little closer before she can use it, though. On the bridge, Nika’s still taunting Potemkin.

Nika: And to top it all off, your brother was impotent, too. Couldn’t even get it up for any of the female members of the crew. Completely incompetent at running a vessel. At least three of the crew were stealing right from under his nose.

Below decks, Arden says to Beglan, Oleg, and Foreman as they warm the flatbed up:

Arden: Remind me to never get Nika mad at me.

Upstairs, Joshua runs right into the locked bridge door. He pounds on it.

Joshua: Wow, that was wonderful Captain. That was fantastic. Get out.

No response.

Joshua: All right, Nika. (pounds some more)

On the bridge, Nika mutes her channel and pivots back to unlock the door.

Joshua: All right. We have the flatbed. Ready to go.

Nika: (steely) Joshua. Get the rest of the crew off the ship. There’s no way you’re going to get me down these stairs and away. And Potemkin’s not going to come aboard unless I am here.

A beat. Then:

Joshua: You are not making me tell Shayla and Harry and all your people that you’re dead. That’s not happening.
Nika: I’m not gonna be. Rina rigged the window for me.
Joshua: (not liking it) All right.
Nika: Rina rigged the bridge.
Joshua: In Nika I trust. All right.

Because what else is he going to do? We have to get Potemkin on our ship and end him.

Joshua: If you don’t get out, I’m going to haunt you. Because I’ve already been told that’s possible.
Nika: Just make sure they come around front, cuz when I blow that window, I’m not gonna be able to see what I’m doing.
Joshua: Yes, yes. I got that.

He turns to go.

Nika: Joshua. Are you armed?
Joshua: I got a rifle.
Nika: Leave it with me. Just in case.
Joshua: Can do that. Here you go. It’s got grenades. This button right here.

He puts it in her hands and gently shows her finger the launch button for the grenades.

Nika: (warmly) Okay, we’re good.
Joshua: All right. Good enough.

He leaves her there, blind and in the dark, cradling the rifle. As ordered. But he doesn’t have to like it. He hears the clack of the bridge door locking behind him … and gets himself down below with the others. Arden and Beglan are waiting outside the flatbed’s container. Arden looks past him when he arrives.

Arden: And where’s Nika?
Joshua: She’s coming. Or rather, we’re going to pick her up. Who’s flying the flatbed? Does Oleg know how to use this thing?
Arden: We’re not taking Nika?
Joshua: She says Rina rigged the window on the bridge. We’re gonna swing the vehicle around and she’s gonna jump and we’re gonna—
Arden: She wasn’t being self-sacrificing, was she?
Joshua: Not that I’m aware of. She didn’t have that sort of ‘leave-me-be’ sort of thing going.
Arden: Yeah, but you’re mental capacities are numbed at the moment so … (trails off)
Joshua: Arden, I hate to tell you this but even without my Reading abilities, I’ve about sixteen thousand times the ability to read people than you do. She’s not going to self-sacrifice herself. As long as we are there with the flatbed—
Arden: You’re just saying that to make me feel better.
Joshua: (gives up) Sure, I am. but we’re gonna get her because, like I told her, there’s no way that I’m telling Harry that she’s dead.
Arden: Okay. Now that, I believe.

But Harry’s so little. And so far away. Not that it matters to Joshua.

Joshua: I fear her. She’ll find me.

The instant Rina’s done welding the doors shut, she’s down that hatch and joining the others, making sure everyone’s at the mule. Kiera’s hard on her heels down the hatch. She arrives at the tail end of this conversation and joins in.

Rina: ‘She’ll kill me with her pinkie’.
Joshua: And worse than that. I can’t really tell Nika’s sister. I can never never never go to a woman I don’t even know and …

He can’t say it. He can’t just go up to a woman who’s the spitting image of the woman he’s failed and tell her that her twin is dead because of him. And really there’s no more time for talk or recrimination—the Stitches are on our ship. Somehow, they’ve managed to find a way in, despite everything we’ve done. Rina runs toward the noise and peeks around the corner of the central container. She sees Potemkin’s Stitches in the portside corridor. They’re at the far end and moving for us.

Arden opens the door on the flatbed container to get everyone inside and aboard. Or at least tries to. It’s locked from the inside.

Arden: Really? (bangs on the damned door) Let us in!

Rina stands at the corner, fully intending to spend every bullet and grenade she’s got in her assault rifle to buy her crewmates time to get away. Kiera hauls her around by the scruff of her neck and takes her place. Seeing Kiera has the scrambler switch in her hand, Rina doesn’t argue but covers Kiera’s back. She leaves the menfolk to get the container door open. For now, it’s her and Kiera against the Stitches.

The Stitches are nearly every bit as frightening as the Reavers to the uninitiated. Rina’s faced Reavers before, as has Arden and Joshua. Kiera hasn’t though, but the redhead’s got gumption in spades and doesn’t falter.

On the bridge, Nika reopens her channel on the radio and continues taunting Potemkin.

Nika: I’m actually really glad you’re such a pussy, Joseph. At least then a real man will come and kill me to my face …

Joshua casts a horrified expression toward the bridge as the words ring down below decks.

Joshua: Good God
Beglan: (banging on door) We’re here, we’re here!

Up ahead, Rina mutters at the taunt even as the Stitches draw closer.

Rina: Damn.
Kiera: She’s bitter. Slightly.
Rina: Ya think?
Kiera: Just a bit.

Above their heads, Nika says on.

Nika: Just as impotent as your brother

Joshua calls to the engineer.

Joshua: Rina? Why are you not launching a grenade down that hallway? You get grenades, use them!

Nika’s not finished with Potemkin. Shoot, she’s just getting warmed up.

Nika: … cuz when I get to hell I will taunt Ivan for you. Just as I’m sitting here laughing at you and your tiny little limp penis…
Joshua: Woo. She just keeps on going.

Up ahead, Rina tries to get in a better position to launch that grenade without exposing herself to possible gunfire or hitting Kiera…

Nika: You let a mere woman best you and laugh at you on open airwaves. And the best part is, is that anyone picking up the wave that we sent out, they’re already hearing this. And they’ll pass it along. And it will become legend. How a beautiful woman bested this horrible horrible little man. Multiple times. Cuz how many times have you come at me now? And absolutely botched it?

Meanwhile, Joshua and Beglan and Arden are trying to get that damned door open.

Nika: You even spent time in jail because I turned you in. And I took your ship right out from under you and I’ve kept it for three years now. Made far more money than you ever did with it.

The Stitches have made it to our corner and Kiera tries dodge and fails. That’s when the first Stitch gets her. It’s armed with the short-handled halberd she’s seen them use before and slash! it gets her. It’s a glancing blow but it still wounds her. The Stitch draws back for another attack.

Nika: On second thought, I really don’t want you to come here and try. It would just be pathetic if you came and faced me down only to just curl up into a little ball of human misery. It’s just not even worth my time to have you come at me. Even disabled with one arm tied behind my back and blind, I could take you right out of my sky. Oh and by the way. All your little men in the hallway? Piles of ash.

A second Stitch skirts the one on Kiera and tries to grapple Rina. It’s too late to launch a grenade—Kiera and the Stitches are too close for her to use one. Instead, Rina steps to the side and shoots.

Nika: Your name will become synonymous with incompetence, Joseph. I’m so looking forward to that. ‘Oh, yes. He pulled a Potemkin. Poor man.’ (giggles)

Kiera tries to roll clear of the halberd. Rina’s in her way. Joshua takes this in and realizes Kiera’s got her hands full—literally. The woman is trying to hold a rifle and the transmitter switch, and is currently unable to use either one.

Joshua: (yells) You wanna toss me the transmitter?

Kiera throws him the transmitter. It sails in a beautiful arc and Joshua catches it. Kiera spins and rolls across the transverse corridor for the other side of the intersection, getting out of Rina’s way. Rina lays down more bullets and the three Stitches immediately on them are filled with the lead—including the one on her, thank goodness. One falls, but two are still up. The five remaining Stitches are apparently unfazed by her show of force and keep coming up the corridor. With Kiera protected by the far side of transverse and the immediate area ahead of her clear of Stitches, Rina can try to center herself in the intersection and launch a grenade down the corridor.

Joshua: Open the door!

He’s turned the remote on and now has to find the channel. At the intersection, now that Rina’s clear of her field of fire, Kiera shoots at the oncoming Stitches. Or tries to—her gun jams on her. Meanwhile, there’s a still a Stitch on Rina. The Stitch slashes at her with his halberd and she jumps out of the way. She launches a grenade over the Stitch’s head and the grenade lands on a point behind the Stitches in the corridor.

BOOM!

It barely slows them down.

At the container door, the men hear a muffled explosion from inside. Belgan gets a clue. Oleg or Foreman have blown the container wall early and are going to make off with the flatbed, stranding us.

Beglan: Try one of the other doors!

The container has doors at the end where they are standing, but there are also two doors to the container along the starboard corridor as well. The far end of the corridor was blocked, so no Stitches can come at them from that quarter. It should be safe to try one of the side doors.

Joshua: Go!

Arden rounds the corner, draws his pistol and aims carefully at the lock on the first door. At the intersection of the portside corridor, Rina lines up another shot as Kiera tries to unjam her rifle. There is a Stitch in front of her, however, and it’s swinging for her. Kiera scrambles up and shoves him back.

The Stitch swings. He hits. She bleeds. A lot. This is no glancing blow. She’s wounded badly in her side, a big mean slice, and she goes down. Rina has no time to go to her fallen friend but continues to spray the Stitches down with bullets. All of the first three are dead but the remaining five are still up and moving and will be on them in seconds.

At the side door to the container, Arden shoots but the bullet bounces off the lock. He lines up another shot. Joshua’s doing little better: in his haste to find the proper channel, he twists the tuning knob right off the remote. Oops.

Rina gets hit by the first Stitch of the five. Those short-handled halberds are wicked sharp and the Stitch is amazingly fast. He dodges her attempt to parry with her rifle and the blade slashes her side. The shock makes her stagger but she’s still up and firing. She launches another grenade into the Stitches. Fwoomp!

BOOM!

The Stitches take heavy damage but they’re made for it and keep coming. Rina switches to autofire and sends more bullets their way. The Stitch that wounded her just soaks the damned things up, advances, then staggers and finally falls. Kiera shakes off her stun and manages to get her second wind. She stays down on the deck, out of Rina’s line of fire, and tries again to unjam her rifle.

Beglan and Arden are trying their damnedest to get that container door open. Beglan tries finding something to lever the door open with something and Arden takes a little more care aiming for his next shot. Joshua tries the next door down. He’s not unaware what’s happening with Kiera and Rina but he has to trust them to do what they do best.

Which Rina is trying to do—namely kill everything that moves. Space is tight and though she’s taken care of the Stitch that slashed her, another takes its place. He swings, she dodges, but he’s just a hair faster. His halberd slashes her on her other flank and she manages to stay up. She’s impaired in her movements and aim but she keeps on fighting. She sprays the Stitches down with bullets and they all take the hit. Two of them fall, but there are still three of them left. She’s really hurting now, but she’s determined to get her crew off the Gift no matter the personal cost. Rina stands her ground and keeps firing.

On the bridge, Nika is still taunting Potemkin.

Nika: Oh by the way, Joseph, did you know that Christian put your name out to the Companion’s Guild as not worth taking your money, so the Companions won’t even service your requests any further? Cuz they already know you’re not worth their time and certainly you can’t afford them. And you know, Christian has let everyone know just how big of a chuckle your brother was. The Companions Guild thinks you’re a joke. And they have the professional courtesy not to pass that along, but … you know … it’s whispered in criminal circles.

Kiera gets her gun cleared and starts shooting. She’s on the deck, vulnerable to attack but she’s using auto-fire, hoping to take out the two Stitches that look the shakiest on their feet. One falls, the other two stay up.

Arden shoots, the lock gives, and he and Beglan get the door open. Joshua rushes in and sure enough, the flatbed is revving up to leave. He runs, he leaps, and he manages to land on the flatbed as it clears the container and takes off.

Back inside, Rina’s got a Stitch on her. She dodges, but her wounds slow her down. He hits her on her side, compounding the damage already done. The Stitch swings his blade at her again. She manages to dodge, barely, and finally falls as shock and blood loss catch up with her.

Another Stitch makes it past the one on Rina and advances quickly on Arden. He brings up his pistol and shoots. He hits! The Stitch has been wounded by the grenades and Arden’s bullet completes the job. The Stitch dies.

Now that Rina’s down, she’s out of Kiera’s line of fire and Kiera shoots at the last Stitch standing. She hits him for a glancing blow—no good. However, Arden is there with his gun and he hits it with a shot, killing it. The last of the stitches is dead. Everyone still conscious goes limp and breathes.

Meanwhile, outside, Joshua’s managed to climb onto the flatbed and finds Oleg at the wheel and Foreman tied up. Surprise!

Not!

And speaking of surprises, Arden runs to Rina to render first aid only to find no pulse. Triage is brutal and has no room for sentiment. There is no wasting medical supplies on those already dead. He doesn’t linger but goes on to Kiera who is still obviously alive.

As Arden is getting to his feet, Kiera looks down the portside corridor and sees two more people approaching. She recognizes them with no trouble: her hosts on the Exeter, Dr. Gordon and Joseph Potemkin have finally arrived. Not a problem. She’s got an assault rifle and she’s going to reach out and touch them with it.

Hard.

She’s flat on the deck and really shaky but levers herself onto her elbows and braces her rifle for the shot. Movement to the side catches her eye. It’s Arden. She tips her head toward the bow and mouths: Potemkin. Arden groks it immediately and braces himself at the corner of the container opposite her and takes aim at the approaching men.

On the flatbed, Joshua is facing off with Oleg. He yells at the man over the wind of their passage.

Joshua: You had a change of plan. Stupid gorram idiot.

Joshua’s on the cargo bed, hanging on to the boom when the idea hits him: shove off with the boom, swing the whole rig around and sweep Oleg off the mule entirely with it. Just like in the movies. Joshua plants his feet and kicks off. The boom is too heavy to push far and Joshua gets nowhere with it. Time for Plan B.

Kiera aims for Dr. Gordon, since he’s in front. Potemkin’s no dummy—he’s not walking aboard unarmed. He sees Kiera and Arden taking aim and draws his own pistol. Dr. Gordon doesn’t bother. The man is clearly a little bit crazy. He’s walking down the charnel house of our corridor as if he’s walking down the concourse at the neighborhood mall.

Kiera shoots. She misses. Potemkin shoots and he hits. Kiera’s really hurting now but she’s still conscious. Arden aims for Potemkin, shoots with burst fire, and hits Gordon. The bullets rip into the mad doctor. Kiera sees the blood fly and yells with considerable relish.

Kiera: That’s for the rabid frikkin’ dogs, you freak!

It’s the last thing she remembers as her injuries overpower her. She goes limp over her rifle, unconscious. Arden, however, is still perfectly awake and taking aim even as Kiera goes out for the count. Potemkin sizes up our firepower against his pistol … and cuts out on Gordon, leaving him to our tender mercies.

Gordon: Hey!

Potemkin’s already gone. Russian floats down the corridor to us.

Arden fires on Gordon. The bullets do their job and Gordon falls, reduced to hamburger. The coast is clear. Arden shoulders his rifle and rushes to Kiera to treat her. Beglan raises his head now that the bullets have stopped flying and goes to Rina. Somehow Beglan sees what Arden missed and he yells, excited.

Beglan: Arden! Rina’s alive!

Arden is busy working on Kiera and calls back without turning around.

Arden: No, she’s dead.

On the flatbed, Joshua gives up on the theatrical and employs the practical: he slams a full-on body check into Oleg and pitches him over the side. So long, chun zi huen dan! Joshua grabs the wheel and turns the flatbed back for Summer’s Gift.

Beglan starts rendering what aid he can to Rina. Arden notices what Beglan’s doing and finally sees what he’d missed the first time.

Beglan: I’ve actually a little medical training.
Arden: I’ll be right there as soon as I can.
Beglan: We gotta get’em outta here.
Arden: I agree but unfortunately our ride left.

And that’s all the time Arden has to talk. He has to save Kiera—she’s slipping away from him. Beglan doesn’t wait. He picks Rina up in a fireman’s carry and starts evaccing her out of there. Arden does what he can to stabilize Kiera and follows suit. The men stagger off the ship with their patients and hope Joshua’s successful in getting our flatbed back.

They’re in luck. Joshua’s coming down the rise right for them. Through the windshield of the flatbed he sees two men standing in the snow holding two women. The men look fine. The women look dead. Joshua pours on the speed and screams up to the side of the ship. Arden and Belgan get their patients aboard.

Thinking quickly, Arden uses the adrenaline doses Kiera scavved off the Exeter. There are two, just enough for each woman. He preps the adrenaline with the punch needles, and pushes them through flesh and bone to the faltering hearts beneath. Down go the plungers and in go the drugs. Rina and Kiera jerk, gasp, and come awake. Miracle save. And now to save Nika …

Joshua flies the flatbed under the bridge window and hails her via the flatbed comm.

Joshua: Nika!

Nika presses the button to blow the window free … and nothing happens. Oh shi! She still has the assault rifle Joshua gave her. She comms the flatbed.

Nika: I’m gonna blow it!

And getting as far from the bridge windows as possible, she aims from memory and launches a grenade into the starboard window.

BOOM!

Glass rains down on the crew below. Nika had precious little cover on the bridge, just the chairs—luckily for her they're bolted to the deck. They shield her from some of the blast but not all. She’s got some wounds from the debris and the glass and her ears are none too happy with her at the moment. However, she’s conscious and more than able to move. She gets herself to that window and calls out as Joshua flies the flatbed level with the windowsill.

Nika: Is Potemkin on board?
Arden: Yes!
Nika: Somebody get the transmitter off Rina and blow it.
Arden: Let’s get you on board here first.

Rina had kept it a secret from the others by implicit command. By some miracle, all three halberd slashes Rina suffered had missed cutting it in two. She fishes it out. Nika scrapes the glass clear of the window frame with the butt of her rifle and gets herself through it. She grabs blindly for Arden’s hand, connects, and she hauls aboard the flatbed.

Safe.

Time to blow this pop stand. We fly the hell out of there, putting some distance between us and our ship before we detonate the bomb with Rina’s remote.

Nika: Rina, blow the ship and kill that tāh māh lúzi!

We’ve got enough distance. It’s now or never. Rina presses that button.

The light hits us first, a brilliant flash that shoots out every jagged hole and tear in our baby’s hull. We think we see Potemkin silhouetted against the bridge windows for a split second—and then the shock wave of the bomb blows through our beloved ship, the roar of the explosion deafening. Summer’s Gift expands, bends, warps with the groan of tortured metal. She lifts off the ground and slams back down a mangled wreck. Smoking. Burning. Dying. Debris flies everywhere and Joshua has to dodge the larger pieces as we speed away leaving our home, our beloved ship, behind.

We have no time for regrets or farewells. Anyone Potemkin left with Lagniappe will have heard the explosion and will not be inclined to stick around once it’s clear Potemkin’s dead. We have to get to her before they fly off with her. Kiera points out the direction she saw it land and Joshua drives us for it.

We reach the clearing and luck is with us—Lagniappe is still on the ground. She’s not unmanned, however. She has guards who bring up their weapons to shoot. Arden brings up his rifle and shoots. Hell, everybody who has a weapon shoots. Nika’s blind but fires her rifle. Rina and Kiera are at death’s door, are hopped up on adrenaline, and are feeling no pain. They grab guns and shoot. We even manage to wing one the guards. And just in case Potemkin’s men fail to get the hint, Joshua flips the flatbed comm to loudspeaker.

Joshua: (yelling) We are a flying assault rifle platform. And the person who’s against killing is saying ‘open fire’. You might want to run. You might want to run.
Nika: Bank us!

Joshua banks our flatbed and comes abroad the guards and we fire all guns. It sounds spectacular but it’s not as easy as it sounds. We’re on a moving vehicle and we’re mostly wounded. That makes for some shaky hands and twitchy triggers. We fire again, a deadly volley of flying lead. The last of the guards go down. Joshua pulls us right up to Lagniappe’s airlock as it opens. A mountain of a man stands just inside.

Roskov.

Rina: Bozhe moi.

Kiera sees him and her heart starts beating a little faster—though it hardly seems possible, hopped up on adrenaline as she already is. Roskov seems pleased to see us. He holds his arms wide and motions us aboard, his gaze avid.

Roskov: Come. Come closer, my children.

Roskov unleashes the power of his charismatic voice on us. It’s like mountains moving, angels calling.

Roskov: You’ve done well. As I have planned and prophesized. Come to me. We will escape.

The crew is mesmerized. A small part of Kiera is wondering what kind of crazy talk is this even as the rest of her is in raptures over Roskov’s voice. We climb aboard and take our seats. Such is Roskov’s hold over us, we go willingly, gladly. Nika scales the ladder into the pilot’s seat—after all, she’s the pilot and the nice big man has told us we’re going to escape and who better to fly us out of here than she? Nika, of course. Who’s completely blind. Yes. Roskov is that convincing. Beglan is the last aboard and as he climbs on, he grasps his crucifix with religious fervor … And elbows Roskov in the ribs hard enough to send the man right out the airlock hatch. Beglan slams the hatch shut and screams at the top of his lungs.

Beglan: Fly!

Nika gets us aloft as easy as you please—blind or not, she can tell which way is up. Even so, she knows she needs help.

Nika: Uhhh, guys? We kinda need a navigator here. Joshua!
Joshua: I’m here, Captain. I’m here.

He climbs onto the cockpit platform and carefully swaps places with her. As we increase our distance from Roskov, the rest of the affected crew blink and come to. With Joshua’s hand on the yoke, Nika is free to handle the other details. Like where we’re going next.

Nika: Two questions. Do we want to attempt to dock with the Exeter? I don’t know what the crew of that bad boy looks like. Or are we just going to take the shuttle and go … somewhere?
Joshua: The shuttle’s not long range.
Rina: No, it’s not. It’s short range.
Arden: I say we take the Exeter.

Going over who Potemkin sent against us and based on Kiera’s intel on Exeter’s crew complement, we reckon there might be one more mercenary and a few Chinese crewmen left aboard.

Kiera: Potemkin’s ship is now not owned. The owner is dead.
Nika: Uh-huh.
Kiera: Let’s go take that ship.
Arden: He’s not dead til I see his body.
Kiera: It’s okay. No one could have survived that.
Joshua: (to Nika) So. To the Exeter?
Nika: That’s what I’m thinkin’. Get us there, Joshua.

Course decided, we fly. Arden gets to work doctoring Rina and Kiera. They’re still going strong on the adrenaline but that won’t help them heal their injuries.

The remaining crew surrenders the vessel without a shot fired when we get there. We don’t allow them time to change their minds but get the hell out of there. We dock Lagniappe in the shuttle bay on Exeter’s top hull, then backtrack briefly to retrieve our flatbed. There is no sign of Roskov or Potemkin. Arden goes back to the ruin of Summer’s Gift, looking for proof of Potemkin’s body. He finds body parts in the wreckage but there is no way to know for certain if they were once Potemkin’s. Without DNA records, there’s no way to identify them. A lot of people died today on and around the Gift. Potemkin could have perished with them or he could still be alive to come after us.

Rina: We’ll keep an eye out for him.
Nika: Oh, don’t worry. He’ll be keeping an eye out for us.
Arden: He’s still alive.
Rina: He has to be still alive. Besides, if we do manage to catch him again, I say we quarter him, chop his head off, stuff his mouth full of garlic, stake him through the heart, and bury him at a crossroads. Just to be sure. Seriously.

We don’t linger to look for him. We have enough fuel in our tanks to leave Novaya Rodina and we take advantage of it. Joshua takes the pilot’s chair on the spacious bridge and we burn atmo off the surface. Once aloft, we briefly discuss possible destinations. Christian is across the Verse in Kalidasa. There’s no going to Angel. Boros, however, is nearby and is the home of the Earhart ranch.

Nika: We could go to the ranch. My sister will let us land.
Arden: Okay. We could get familiar with the ship.
Kiera: Right now, I want to get very familiar with a bed ...

Joshua and Nika work out the course for Boros and thence, the ranch. Arden settles his patients in the Exeter’s medbay. Nika discovers the Captain’s cabin off the bridge and dosses down in it, leaving Joshua to man the pilot’s chair.

And so we fly. Over the several days’ journey to Boros we go over the ship. We discover a few things in the ship’s records. We find out that it was in fact the Exeter at one point in its career. The Exeter is somewhat famous as one of the blockade runners during the Battle of Athens, in the Unification War. It delivered troops during the War and we’re delighted to find the Exeter is still armored. It’s now called the Panteleimon.

Rina and Beglan explore the ship and discover glitches in the system everywhere—nothing in the critical systems, but still …. For instance, doors cannot stay opened but must be propped or jammed open. If allowed to close, they are extremely hard to open again. The controls don’t seem to work. Flushing the toilet appears to affect the laundry machines. Turning on a light over there affects something completely unrelated over here. There are little post-it notes all over the ship in Chinese, explaining how to operate one thing or another. It is very odd. There are four decks to Exeter and Rina and Beglan have a lot of ground to cover. Well, Beglan, mostly. Rina’s not able to do much given the extent of her injuries. The same holds true for Kiera. And of course, Nika can no longer see. Arden tries one treatment after another, using what supplies and equipment we have, but nothing he does improves her sight. Once we kiss dirt on Boros, Arden will search out eye specialists, as many as it takes, to help Nika.

Foreman doesn’t want to stick around with us or the ship. Because you guys have a lot of enemies, he says. He’d be delighted if we’d just drop him off someplace. Boros is fine. But as a reward for rescuing him, he is willing to help us to ‘touch up’ any ownership documents.

Excellent.

Arden avidly watches him work, hoping to pick up a skill or two in forgery. And of course, the topic of what to call our ship comes up.

Arden: I’d like to propose a name. The Thug Bunny.
Rina: No.
Joshua: I say we pass on that one.
Arden: It’s a good name!
Rina: Do you want me to hurt you?
Arden: (teasing now) Would you be my little thug bunny?
Rina: Hell no.
Joshua: We need something poetic.
Arden: The Pretty Thug Bunny.
Joshua: That’s not poetic.
Rina: No. Absolutely not.

And so it goes. We fly for Boros to patch our hurts, mend our fences, and quite possibly grab a second chance at a life as legitimate cargo haulers. There’s only one way to discover what the future holds for us …

Live it and see.






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