Episode 502: Reacquisitions, Part Two

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Reacquisitions, Special Features

She takes a look herself.

Kiera: (walking up) What’cha lookin’ at?
Man #1: Sorry? You all right, miss? You need somethin’?
Kiera: Nah, I jus’ saw ya lookin’ up here an’ thought I’d look up here, too.
Man #1: This your ship?
Kiera: Yeah. Alternate Sundays, yeah.
Man #1: Alternate Sundays?
Arden: (walking up) It’s our ship.
Man #1: Stan’s sayin’ it looks like the Exeter. (hooks a thumb at Stan)
Kiera: (answering) No.
Man #1: No?
Kiera: No.
Man #1: (to Stan) Yeah, I told you it weren’t—
Arden: What’s the Exeter?
Man #1: Oh, it’s just a ship that has some history that’s important …
Arden: Really? What kind of history?
Kiera: Good or bad?
Arden: Yeah. Good or bad?
Man #1: (testy) If you don’t know, you might want to investigate it.
Arden: (testy right back) That’s why I’m asking you. I don’t know. And you do. And so therefore I’m asking you.

The man in the work clothes gets offended.

Man #1: Hey, I din’t do anything to you.
Kiera: (to Arden) Now, honey—
Man #1: Back off! Just back off, Mister.
Kiera: (to Arden) Now, honey, honey. Honey, stop fussin’. (to Man #1) As you can tell, we just bought it just recently and he bought me this outfit—what’s interestin’ about our ship?
Arden: (to self) Riight.
Man #1: Well, it’s too bad. Used to be more’n just a vacation vehicle or whatever it is you folks was lookin’ for.
Kiera: (interested) Really?
Man #1: (low) Yeah.
Kiera: (to Arden) Honey, we might be—
Man #1: This ship was flown by real-life heroes.
Kiera: Heroes. Oh!
Man #1: These people fed the people of Athens during the war.
Kiera: (wow) Are you serious?
Man #1: It’s a pity you don’t know the history and don’t care.

The man actually sounds bitter about it.

Arden: I don’t know but I do care. That’s why I’m asking!
Kiera: I care!
Man #1: (to the others) C’mon guys. These guys don’t know what they’re sittin’ on—
Kiera: Oh no, no no no no! Don’t leave!

The men storm off anyway. Kiera rounds on Arden.

Kiera: Now honey you done made’em mad an’ I could’a found a story. (running after the men) Wait, wait, wait. I’m interested—!

Arden leaves her to it and goes aboard Equinox to start hunting down Chu’s likely location on the Cortex. Kiera runs after the men.

Kiera: I’m interested. Tell me about our ship. I love her. She’s purty. She’s a present.

The man she’s chasing takes her aside into one of the dockside bars and points. Sure enough, on the wall of the bar is an old propaganda poster of Exeter. “Food for Freedom” it says in bold letters across the top, with Exeter valiantly running the blockade surrounding Verbena. It’s a very stirring poster. Kiera plays up being the impressed starry-eyed new owner. The man turns to her and says:

Man #1: Well, this boat oughta belong to its original captain, but he died before he could get back to it. It was stolen by the Alliance. I guess they sold it to you. (bitter) Damn shame.
Kiera: Oh … I—
Man #1: Now, no offense. You probably bought it fair and square.
Kiera: I did.
Man #1: It doesn’t belong in the hands of … you know, people who don’t know the history of her and don’t care.
Kiera: Well, I’m—I’m ashamed—who was the captain?

The man unbends a little and tells her what he knows of Exeter’s captain and her history. for her part, Kiera is intrigued and gratified to learn about the ship she’s fallen in love with. Exeter broke the blockade around Verbena during the war, bringing food and weapons and medical supplies. And not just here. Exeter did the same for other Independent worlds. She was captured during the Battle of Serenity Valley and when the Armistice was signed, the ship was mysteriously not returned to its owners but …

Man #1: (sips drink) … sold off to other concerns.
Kiera: (softly) I’m mighty impressed.
Man #1: For years, people tried to get her back but they were never able to. (drinks) Captain’s name was Murphy. Captain Murphy.
Kiera: So was it his crew that tried to get her back?
Man #1: Well the Captain tried to get her back. I don’t know the whole story about tryin’ to get her back, but I know that he died recently and that’s …
Kiera: Well that’s just tragic.
Man #1: Well, if it wasn’t for the war…
Kiera: I appreciate your time. I will have more respect for it. I will research it and see if this really is the Exeter. You’re pretty sure it is?
Man #1: Oh yeah. It’s got the stamp.
Kiera: The stamp?

He gestures, pinching air between fingers and thumb and drawing it out in a line.

Man #1: The engine stamp.
Kiera: Well, I … I’m honored. I will try to treat her with respect then. ‘Preciate your time.
Man #1: All right. Well. Good luck to you I guess.
Kiera: No …I really appreciate it.

Kiera puts down some credits and buys the Browncoats a round, in appreciation of their time. She goes back to our ship and announces that Equinox was famous as the Exeter.

Kiera: Exeter is written all over our ship.
Arden: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Kiera: Bad thing if it turns out it’s a wanted ship. It’s a good thing if it brings good memories and they’re all very pleased about it. But it does mean that people will know it.
Arden: I’m … more concerned about other things at this moment.

Well to be fair, it’s not glaringly obvious thanks to the angle, but if you know where to look, you can find her name if you’re doing hull repairs or refueling or docking in space.

Kiera: If you knew the story, which apparently everyone does ...
Joshua: (murmuring) Well, not everyone.
Arden: Unless you’re from the Core and then you don’t.

Arden goes back to searching hotels and such online and Joshua firmly drags the conversation back to the topic at hand. How did their attempt to find Chu’s trail go? Did they find out where he’d gone yet? Kiera looks at him askance.

Kiera: You know for a Reader, you really can’t hide an emotion from your face.
Joshua: I wasn’t trying.
Arden: You’re not mad are you?
Joshua: No, of course I’m not.
Arden: (of the search) I’m working on it.
Kiera: There has not been enough time and Joshua I am not tracking that man down. He has not had enough time to do the surgery. I’m just not doin’ it.
Joshua: Okay. And he’s going to track you down how? If you find him or find his location, how is he going to know you found him? If you don’t walk up to him in the middle of surgery and say ‘Excuse me, we need to borrow you…’—
Kiera: All right. Let’s say we give them his location—
Joshua: I didn’t want to give them his location. I just want to know where he is. It’s a piece of information that’s useful to have. Even if I don’t give it to them, knowing where he is gives us—
Arden: He’s somewhere on the planet.
Joshua: (heavily) Yeah. I had that figured out. (to Arden) So, you’re working on that? (points to the Cortex box)
Arden: I’m trying to.
Kiera: No, actually you pick a random room. They don’t need to know where he is. Cuz we don’t want them interrupting but he’s still here. He is not taking off on that ship.
Joshua: Well, how much longer has he got? To finish this?

Three hours, maybe four. Thing is, Kiera doesn’t know if he’s started yet. The fact that his coworker Li is taking off, we don’t actually know what that means. Is she taking off to meet him somewhere? Or is she ditching him? Did they come to a parting of ways? Kiera tries to explain it and says:

Kiera: One, I don’t know where his container is. One container is taking off. She’s getting ready to leave. She’s getting to leave fairly immediately. I don’t know where he is in the surgery.
Joshua: Let me ask you this. Where would he be in the procedure if he left the container behind? Would he be sending the ship back to get the container at some point?

Kiera thinks back on her stint working with him. Had Chu ever done that? Left a container somewhere to be picked up later? Had he ever had his assistant pick it up? After all, Chu would have several contingency plans in place. For instance, one of those plans was if they had a mob patient and they anticipated a need to pick up and run, Chu would have someone take the container someplace and then do the surgery in the container. The container would be put down somewhere close enough to access by land vehicle but far away enough that it’s not likely to be found in a foot search or something like that. That said, the container is probably only going to be about 100 km distant. It’s not too far but far enough away from the more populated areas.

Kiera: We’ll just watch and see which direction she takes off in because she’s gonna have to swing back or use Lagniappe and follow her.
Joshua: (sighing) Lagniappe following her is way too obvious. I’m with you on the not turning him over, to begin with. Although I will if it becomes necessary. But I’m definitely on board with you with not turning him over or even knowing where he is until he’s done with Nika. And following them in a ship is definitely like having somebody sending out a distress flag, a semaphore, like warning signs …. (sighs) … I’m beginning to think I should just consider him lost and be done with it. So. Assuming he’s gone, that we’re not going to be able to track him back, I need potential plans of action. What are your suggestions?
Kiera: Well … there’s the old fashioned assault-the-ship. We know that two of the guys are already wounded. They don’t look so hot, those we nailed, me and Arden.
Joshua: (shaking head) They don’t look that bad, they aren’t that bad off.
Kiera: No but at least they’re not 100%. If they’re 92%, even 90%— .
Arden: Well we know they’re bounty hunters.
Kiera: Oh really?
Joshua: Yeah. Yeah. I know. Since it was my job to figure out who they were.
Kiera: How many of them are there? Besides the two that we keep seein’ and the one guy that we talked to on the street?
Joshua: I didn’t actually get an idea. I don’t know any more than you do in that regard to ships seating to a certain maximum. Other than just seeing the two of them standing out and the guard that you saw, plus the leader, we should assume seven. The ship’s complement is seven. So we should assume seven and plan for the worst and hope for the best. The two standing guard were armed with pistols.

And let’s not forget the shotguns with the Chempliant rounds.

Kiera: Yeah but the nice thing is Chempliant doesn’t hurt him. (nods to Arden) It makes him faster.
Joshua: Something to keep in mind if we have to assault the ship. Which doesn’t strike me as the best option, since they’ve been together for a long time.
Arden: It has an unknown physical effect on me that seems to be beneficial to my speed.
Joshua: Right.
Arden: It may be less so, in the long run.

After all, Arden hasn’t actually made a scientific study of it.

Arden: Really big headaches.
Joshua: And they’ve got a single ship entryway with two guards.
Kiera: Well that and having a gun fight in the middle of—
Joshua: And I don’t want to get Rina killed in the middle of that.
Kiera: Well no, and it also will bring the police left, right, and upside down. The authorities would come and we’d be shootin’ in a space port.
Joshua: Well, that’s actually option number two to consider. Not that I particularly believe in calling the authorities since it’s worked so tremendously well for us in the past… But technically, they have kidnapped someone that they have not, as far as I’m aware—depending on how heavily they’ve drugged her—got a bounty on. Actually, is there a bounty on her head?
Arden: I have no idea.
Joshua: Yeah, I don’t actually know. That’s what I’m saying: it’s possible.
Kiera: If they found out who she was, there might be a bounty.

All this time Rina’s been twitchy and she might, in fact, actually have a reason to be? Huh. Wow. She did do stuff in the war, not that she’d ever been forthcoming at to what, exactly.

Kiera: The reason why I’m asking is if they’ve actually illegally kidnapped a person, this is the one time we might actually be able to do something and do a formal complaint.
Joshua: Yes, I agree, unless of course she has a bounty on her. In which case, they’re just collecting a bounty, and—
Kiera: What did you people do before I came aboard?!

While Kiera and Joshua kick this back and forth, Arden’s busy looking through the Cortex using every trick he’s got—investigation, streetwise, etc—to try to find Chu’s trail, or barring that, where he’s likely stashed Nika for the operation. He decides on using the 100km radius as a search parameter and plugs it in. Of course, the rendezvous point wouldn’t be anywhere near it, but still, it’s a start. He finds plenty of places where someone could land a ship without too much fuss—either to drop off a container or rendezvous to pick up Chu.

Kiera: But how many places can you easily drive a semi, though?

Maybe Chu is transporting his container off the back of a truck?

There’s a fair number. There are five or six at the edge of the 100 km range but we don’t know exactly where Chu’s going to want to go. Narrowing it down to places that also have hotels for the patient’s comfort … Hmmm …. High end apartments that can be rented by the day or the week, maybe? Places that tout privacy or security?

Kiera: I’d look for places that aren’t full. Because he doesn’t want a lot of people in there.
Arden: I’d be using my intuition to figure out which place is being used for his secret operating room.
Kiera: He usually operates inside his container.

But he’s currently occupied with another client besides Nika. He can’t do them both in the container—for confidentiality and space reasons.

Arden: But he leaves people behind once he operates on them. Where does he leave them behind.
Joshua: We don’t know.
Kiera: He leaves them in a hotel room. I mean, it’s the standard op. It’s easy to find a hotel room.

As for the type of hotel—sparsely populated or full—he’ll choose a hotel where bringing in an unconscious person won’t raise too many questions. Naturally. So… facilities where the rooms have their own private or side entrances would fit the requirements. Some way to bypass the desk clerk, the maids, the long hallways. While Arden and Kiera are poring over the search results, narrowing down to properties that offer cottages or bungalows, Joshua steps off our ship to see if we’ve acquired any surveillance teams from the Duster Brigade. He doesn’t see anything like bounty hunters but he does see a couple of people looking at our ship. They look like stevedores or ground crew. Joshua wanders to them, kinda quickly, feeling a mite twitchy.

Joshua: Hi. Help you?
Stevedore #1: Oh. We were told there was another crew that owned this ship. You the pilot or somethin’.
Joshua: Somethin’ like that, yeah. I’m crew.
Stevedore #1: Oh. All right.
Joshua: So. What’s … ?
Stevedore #2: Oh, just takin’ a look. We were both in the war. And so… you know, it’s just kinda nice to see the ship.
Joshua: (uh-huh) Right. Yeah, it’s got a history behind it, dun’t it?
Stevedore #1: You know about it?
Joshua: Yeah.
Stevedore #2: Yeah, well some people were sayin’ you don’t.
Joshua: Well, you know how the owners are. They’re not in touch with the ship the same way the people flyin’ it are.
Stevedore #1: So did they buy it after the … that whole business with Murphy?
Joshua: Yeah. Yeah.
Stevedore #1: Unnh. Yeah. I mean, I unnerstand that … well …
Joshua: From what I understand, it went through a couple different hands before they got a hold of it. But, yeah, I agree that it’s definitely unfortunate that—
Stevedore #2: She’s in good shape though.
Joshua: Yeah, we’re trying to keep her intact.
Stevedore #2: She’s got a couple’a scratches …
Joshua: I’m Joshua.

At which point, Joshua offers his handshake and gets their names: Adams and Wysocki.

Joshua: Were you in the war?
Wysocki: Well, we were workin’ ground crew durin’ the war but, you know … (shrugs) … that’s war, too.
Joshua: Yes. Absolutely.
Adams: Never worked on the Exeter at the time but we worked on other ships. Fighters and such.
Joshua: Well, it’s a pleasure to meet some veterans and—
Wysocki: You in the war?
Joshua: No, unfortunately not. Not by choice. And there’s a long story so don’t—too much to tell.
Wysocki: Everybody’s got a story. There’s no shame in not fightin’.
Joshua: And I appreciate those who did. And maybe I’ll come down at some point and if you guys are around, at some point, I’d like to buy you a drink.
Adams: All right.

Adams points over to a bar visible on the perimeter.

Joshua: All right. Maybe I’ll drop by.

They part company amicably enough and Joshua gets back aboard to tell the others what happened.

Joshua: I wonder if there’s a way to turn that to our advantage?

Meanwhile, Arden’s narrowed his search down to a number of places based on what we know of Chu’s personality and operational requirements. They are loosely categorized as resort-y places on the beach. Most are hard to get to and out of. However, there is a stretch along a bay that has decent access. There are less than ten resorts there but each resort will have many bungalows to search through. Kiera gives Arden some of the past aliases she and Chu had used in case Chu was in too much of a hurry to make up a new one when he checked in. Joshua’s watching this with half an eye as he mulls over the conversation he had outside.

Joshua: It seems like the local Browncoat population is fairly well aware of our ship’s history.
Kiera: (turning) Oh? Did they come back by again?
Joshua: (focusing) There was a they? And they came back by?
Kiera: Well there was a group of them and they were lookin’ at the back of our ship.
Arden: Surly ones.
Kiera: (miffed) They were not surly until you were mean to them. They were friendly. They were not surly.
Joshua: Yeah. They said the owners of this ship did not really know anything about the history.
Kiera: No, I played stupid and bought’em a drink in the bar.
Arden: I was stupid. I didn’t know what they were talking about.
Kiera: (annoyed) That’s cuz you are stupid.
Arden: I said that!
Joshua: Focus with me here for just a second.
Arden: I’d like to focus on finding where—
Joshua: Did I not ten minutes ago say we should give him up for lost and figure out other plans?
Arden: No.
Joshua: Actually, I’m pretty sure I did. But okay, unless you think you can absolutely narrow him down to a pinpoint location in the next two hours—
Arden: If I had the right size map, it would be a pinpoint.

The XO and the Doctor glare at each other. Kiera clears her throat.

Kiera: (to Joshua) Anyway, you had an idea about Browncoats and we’ll just skip over this … (to Arden) … and keep lookin’. You got all the aliases I know of.
Joshua: I’m wondering, and feel free to shoot this down, but if we were to go in and potentially try to free Rina with … some sorta thing … and she’s being held and she’s a former—well, say she’s a former Browncoat—and …
Kiera: And the ground crews have a lot of access to stuff. They’re not gonna question if we come up and say …
Joshua: …she’s held by …held by a group that’s licensed by the Alliance…
Kiera: The Alliance.

And she’s an engineer, a Browncoat engineer.

Kiera: That’s true. (playing ignorant new owner) The engineer of the ship, we just found out, is being held … against her will … by Fed lackeys.
Joshua: I’m going to go talk to them. I’m not going to feed them an actual story. I’m going to tell them pretty close to the truth.
Kiera: I was going to say you could pretty much be honest. Just say I was distressed and I don’t know what I’m saying. I told them I was one of the owners, I came to you in distress and I’d just given you a call. That they’re holdin’ our engineer hostage for money. And she’s a Browncoat and the Alliance bounty hunters has come in on us.
Joshua: I’d actually like to keep this much simpler than that. (a beat) They have our engineer. She’s a Browncoat. She’s being held by the Alliance or Alliance-related people at Berth 3119. Any way you could provide help … And let them tell us what they’re capable of.
Kiera: Either that or see if they’ve got stuff they can use to draw them away.
Joshua: I’m going to do what we should do more often of: let them give us some idea what they can do.
Kiera: Lemme go change clothes and you do what you’re going to do, cuz I can’t fight in what I got on.
Arden: (over his shoulder) That’s your third change today, isn’t it?

Actually, it is. She heads for her quarters and Joshua heads back out to the bar Adams pointed out to him. He seeks out Adams and Wysocki and sees them at a corner table in the back. They’re not alone and as Joshua approaches, Wysocki tags someone on the arm and nods in his direction.

Wysocki: …yeah, this is the guy I’m tellin’ you about. He’s .. He’s … What’d you say you were?
Joshua: My name’s Joshua. (hooks a thumb to the tarmac) I’m the XO on the ship.
Wysocki: The XO of the old Exeter. The Equinox, now.

Wysocki waves Joshua to sit down.

Wysocki: So, c’mon over.
Joshua: (Pulling up a chair) So I got a story for you guys. And I’m gonna try and see if you’re willing to lend me a hand. (sits) Our engineer … ah, she’s a former Browncoat. I’m not, but she is. She’s run afoul of some … bounty hunters—licensed by the Alliance, workin’ for the Alliance, I’m not sure. They got her. And not … and not in a … not in a good way. We … We’re kinda at a loss. They’re asking for something from us that we don’t have to provide. They’re tryin’ to … they are …

He’s having trouble putting this into words. Everyone at the table leans in.

Joshua: Seeking out somebody for a … for a bounty. We … we don’t even know the … The person that they’re seekin’, we don’t know where they are or who they are, where to find them or how to find them. And I’m … kinda … pullin’ my hair out right now and … I was wonderin’ if there’s …

It’s plain as day he’s got feelings for the gal. The group stirs.

Adams: You want us to go talk to ’em?
Joshua: Well, I would if I … if I wasn’t … like I said, I’m … They’re well armed. I mean, they, from what I can—besides the couple of small arms that they’re, that the, the two guys I’ve seen carrying, I know that they had at least a couple rifles with crowd control drugs in them.
Adams: Ah, hell.
Joshua: Yeah, I mean, they … These guys are not … slackers, for sure. Like, ahm, I know they’re in Berth 3119. And what I guess what I’m askin’ for is any ideas, like how … cuz ideally, I’d like to get my engineer back without … certainly without any bloodshed on my side—
Wysocki: Yes. You say they’re in Berth 3119?
Joshua: Yeah, I did.
Wysocki: That there’s the Garretson.
Adams: Aw hell, that’s an armored ship. An’ they got light arms on there, too.
Joshua: Yeah.
Adams: Fixed mounted, yeah … That would be a good trick to make’ya a frontal assault.
Joshua: Yeah.

The rest of the men at the table shift and stir and one of them pulls out a pen and starts scribbling on a napkin, working out a plan view of the ship and the berth and entrances and exits. Joshua sees this and grins at the man, indicating the drawing.

Joshua: My engineer is gonna love you when we get her outa there, let me tell you what.
Sketcher: (at the ketch) Huhhmmm …. (scribbles some more)

And there’s a moment where everyone else leans in and jabs fingers and advice at the sketch. What if you—nah, can’t do that. There’s this over here—No, you don’ wanna go over there cuz—and so it goes. Joshua lets them go on like this for a few minutes, firmly planting the hook, and speaks up again.

Joshua: The crew complement’s not more than seven. If there were some way we can—either my crew or your group—if there’s some way we can get a distraction going and pull some of them off, I’ll be willin’ to be that what’s left of my crew can get her out of that ship.

Joshua can tell he’s got them now and start reeling them in.

Joshua: She’s probably already startin’ to work on a way to get out of it. I’ve never seen her like—she just doesn’t handle imprisonment well. She’s … Like I said, she’s the best, the best engineer I know.

The men here have some military experience but this is mostly a civilian town and it’s unlikely they’ll have access to anything that would really help—like shoulder-launched missiles. Which makes the planning a bit tricky. They run up and discard several scenarios until Joshua has to remind them that he’s not interested in a frontal assault. He’s looking for a distraction factor to allow his team to sneak aboard. Because, well …

Joshua: (sincerely) She’s my love. I can’t let her—can’t let them take off with her.
Wysocki: How long we got to work on this?
Joshua: I don’t know. I don’t have any, like … Soon.

Joshua goes on to say that he can give them an hour to plan something. These men are ground crews, hired to service the ships that land at the spaceports. If anyone would know ships, outside of being engineers and pilots, it would be they.

Joshua: What do you know about the ship? The Garretson. Is there a way we can—
Adams: Well, we can disable it so it can’t fly.
Joshua: That’s a starting point. I think we might be able to—
Adams: But if they got guns out there, it’s gonna be a mite tricky. We might be able to have somebody hold them off, cover the others while we go in there and sever the fuel lines or somethin’ but …
Joshua: We can do that, we can do that.
Sketcher: And if they have crews on board, with other than those light arms on the ship, that can be very short trip. They could gun us down and to be honest, the law’ll be on their side cuz we were attackin’ their ship.
Joshua: Yeah, I know. And I thought briefly about pullin’ in the authorities, but I … I done thought better of it. Unless you—I’m not local. I mean, they got her without as far as I know any legitimate bounty. Like, um, it’s basically kidnapping. If we found some way to keep ’em on the ground and bring the authorities in …
Adams: (to Wysocki) What if get Orvis?
Wysocki: You know he don’t have no authority.
Adams: Well, they don’t know that. (to Joshua) We have an old buddy. He’s a … he’s been heard of collecting, ah, overdue … parkin’ fines. But he’s got a badge and a uniform.

Joshua doesn’t even blink.

Joshua: How good’s the badge?
Adams: He’s legit. He’s a deputized officer. They don’t give him a gun or nothin’, but we can give him one.
Joshua: So you’re thinkin’ of basically using him to pull off, like an inspection? So you can pull them off and away. A badge will only get you so far.
Adams: Here’s the thing: I think that … I wanna know what they’r gonna do. If he flashes a badge and says I wanna inspect your ship, I don’t know what they’re gonna do. They might call the authorities and if you’re right and they’re holdin’ her against her will—
Joshua: Oh, they’re holdin’ her against her will. They want, they want—they seem to think we, I don’t know why they seem to think we have the information, but they seem to think that we have the key to this person that they’re actually tryin’ to get a bounty on. And given that, they might not … they can’t shoot us all down, I mean they … If technically we’re their only clue to this client …
Wysocki: I say we try it.
Joshua: Okay. Let me get the rest of my crew together. Explain what’s going on.

He rises from the table and there’s nods all around. Joshua leaves and tells the rest of the crew what’s happened.

Arden: They gonna help?
Joshua: Yeah, actually. We’re gonna get a semi-local authority to flash his badge and get us close to form a ship inspection.
Arden: Well, whatever works.
Joshua: We’ll see how well that works.
Arden: It sounds like a better plan than we’ve come up with so far.
Joshua: I’m not arguing that with you, Arden. I’m saying I don’t know how well that’ll work, but it’s got some promise. So, question is … yeah, we’re gonna need … actually, I don’t … (sighs) … Strangely, I want to go armed. To be honest.

Everyone else gapes at him.

Joshua: No, look—no, no, no— think about this for a second, from a we’re-trying-to-pull-off-an-inspection sort of thing. Listen to me for a second. If we’re going to go in with basically the we-are-the-authorities-and-we-heard-you-kidnapped-one-of-the-members-of-our-ship, the two of you … (points to Kiera and Arden) … have unfortunately already established yourselves as the owners of the ship. So if you’re the owners of the ship, if you go in as the owners of the ship, unarmed. And at least me and Beggar go in armed—
Beglan: Now wait a second here—.
Joshua: (to Beglan) No, it’s just for show. It’s not for use—fine, you don’t have to go in.
Arden: Are you doing this hoping it’s going to be Stupid Night? He can use any gun he wants. I’m going to carry a gun.
Joshua: Oh, no you’re not.
Arden: Oh, yes I am.
Joshua: Not visible. You’re the owner of the ship.
Arden: So? You telling me that owners of ships can’t carry guns?
Joshua: As long as it isn’t a big gun.
Arden: I was going to carry a pistol.
Joshua: Okay. She’s not allowed to carry.

He points to Kiera.

Arden: She’s what?
Joshua: I don’t want her carrying.
Arden: Right. Like that’s gonna happen.
Joshua: I have to be able to pull this off. If everybody is fully armed with rifles going up, I don’t think that they’re going to buy the owners of the ship are coming looking for their kidnapped engineer. Roll with me here, folks. If you two are the owners, what level of armament can you go in with and pull it off?
Arden: I was just going to carry a pistol in my belt.
Kiera: A pistol in my belt and that would be it.
Joshua: Pistol will be fine.
Arden: I’ll hold the bazooka behind me.
Joshua: Focus, focus, focus please. (moving right along) So, Beggar, you stay on board because we still haven’t heard from Nika …

And Joshua gets on with the job. A couple of hours later, we are joined by the Browncoat ground crew and together we all go to Berth 3119. Orvis is with them. He has the look of a drinker about him, a little red-faced, but he seems well enough. He’s got a gut on him. He’s wearing a gun but not it like he’s used to it and he hitches his belt up as if trying to find a comfortable position for it. His voice is pure good ol’boy with a whiskey burr to it.

Orvis: Now, don’cha worry. We’ll get your engineer.

He hitches his belt up again and saunters over to the Garretson’s ramp. The two guards have already spied our posse and stand easily with their hands on their pistol butts, but haven’t made any move to draw. You have to hand it to Orvis, drinker or not, he carries off the role of an official well. He holds his badge up on approach, prompting one of the guards to talk to his collar and by the time Orvis draws even with the ramp, Henner and another man we don’t recognize are stepping down from the ship.

Orvis: Who’s the captain of this ship? Give me the captain.
Henner: Can I help you, sir? And who exactly are you?
Orvis: (inhales) Well, I’m Ruford Orvis. I’m the Magistrate here.
Henner: Oh. Well, we didn’t deal with you when we came down to verify our licenses.
Orvis: Yeah, well I got word that you might be holding somebody against her will on your ship.
Henner: Well, we’re not holding her against her will, sir. You talkin’ about our passenger? (to his man) Let’s see how she’s doing.

And while this exchange is going on, Henner cuts a look at Joshua over Orvis’ head. He is not pleased. This is not the plan we agreed to. What’s Joshua’s game? Henner’s Man walks back up the ramp into the ship.

Rina’s still sitting on the floor of her cell playing chess. She and her opponent are pretty evenly matched, having won a game apiece and Rina’s three moves away from checkmate when the airlock door opens and her clothes are dumped into the holding area. Henner’s Man follows them inside and Rina gets to her feet.

Henner’s Man: Get dressed. (to Reich) Well? Open it up!

Reich reluctantly leaves the game and opens Rina’s cell door. Rina watches everything narrowly and when her door opens, she comes forward, expecting some kind of trick. She leaves her cell and grabs her stuff off the deck. Nobody stops her. Huh. From the weight it feels like nothing’s missing from her coverall pockets. Amazingly enough, against all expectation, her shoulder rig and her combat knife are rolled up in her clothing as well. Basically, almost everything she wore when she was captured is sitting right there on the deck. She puts her back to a wall where she can watch both men and starts pulling on her gear.

Reich: Hey, can’t we just wait a little bit, Bob? We’re almost done with the game. (whispers) I’ve almost got her … (holds up fingers) … Like, in this many moves …

Rina shrugs into her clothes and pulls on her boots, hopping on one foot and not so coincidentally getting closer to the airlock door. Bob isn’t fooled one bit and keeps a sharp eye on her. Rina yanks her boot on and zips it up, checks the laces and tugs them tight.

Bob: You’re free to go.

Rina looks askance at the man—what the hell kind of kidnapping is this?—and Bob and Reich escort her out. When they walk out the airlock, Bob hands over her pistol.

Bob: Here you go. Thanks for staying. No hard feelings.

Rina takes her gun warily. Huh. Feels right. She pulls back the slide and checks the chamber—loaded—and she checks the clip: full. Again, not entirely certain what to make of this, Rina holds her pistol low, next to her leg … just in case she needs it.

Reich: (friendly) We’ll probably be here a couple’a days if you wanna come back and finish that game. I’ll take a picture of the board.
Rina: (blinks) V’seriozni?
Reich: Is that … uh … Chinese? My Chinese ain’t so good.
Rina: (wary) I’ll think about it.
Reich: All right.
Rina: (still wary) Nice meeting you …
Reich: Yeah.

She turns and walks the rest of the way down the ramp to the tarmac, thoroughly derailed over how civil everything is. Are these the same guys who drugged her with Chempliant, stripped her down to her skivvies, locked her up in a fishbowl and then played chess with her? And then gave her back her clothes and her gun with a ‘No hard feelings, come back again’? What the hell is wrong with these people?

The crew is puzzled as well at the sight of an apparently unharmed Rina walking down the ramp with her gun in hand. Kiera’s eyebrows are buried in her hairline at the sight—this doesn’t seem to jive with the spitty-kitty she knows.

Henner: Here she is. Magistrate if you want to see it, we have cameras on our ship. She walked in on her own volition. Nobody dragged her in or anything. You wanna see?
Orvis: Ma’am, are you all right?

Rina looks at the assembled crew, the strangers backing them up, then back at Henner and his mercenaries. Is it worth a firefight? Her answer is a measured one.

Rina: Nothing injured but my dignity. Let’s go.
Joshua: (evenly) As long as she is safe and sound, that is all I am concerned about.
Bob: Yeah, I found her out behind a bar. She looked kinda wasted. So I escorted her to the ship …
Joshua: Yeah.
Bob: And we let her, you know, finish it off.

Rina starts to cough: bullshit!

Joshua: I see.
Rina: (coughs) Wrong pipe.
Arden: Let’s get you back to the ship and give you a once over.
Rina: Yes, I’d like that.
Henner: Have a good night.

That’s our cue to leave. Joshua turns to Orvis.

Joshua: Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Thank you, Magistrate. (to Henner) Thank you, Captain Whatever-your-name-is.
Orvis: (to Henner) Don’t let it happen again or I’m going to have to come back here. And ah, I believe you guys are getting pretty close to leaving. I see you guys only got a day or two left on your port fees, so you guys keep those up to date.
Arden: We will.
Orvis, Joshua, and Kiera together: Not you.
Arden: But we will too.

There being nothing left to say, we leave.

Thursday, 09 Jan 2522

Nika wakes. It’s dark. Her eyes hurt with a steady throbbing ache that spikes through her skull. She feels a pain in her arm and then a soft voice. It’s a woman. Her accent is French.

Woman: Mademoiselle … Mademoiselle … Are you okay?

Nika tries to look around but her eyes are bandaged. Of course.

Nika: Where are we?
Woman: Ahh … I am not sure. Some sort of hotel room, perhaps?
Nika: Perhaps? Who are you?
Woman: My name is Jeanne-Christienne. I am Jeanne-Christienne D’Avignon.

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Reacquisitions, Special Features