Episode 506: Mortal/Coils, Part Two

Air Date: 15 Feb 2011
Present: Kim, Maer, Terri, Andy, and Bobby

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Meanwhile the others are trying to get a feel for the town. They don't see any sign of prostitution at any of the basic bars and grills. Rina looks for a church in town.

Nika: "Where you going Rina?"
Rina: "A church might have records."
Nika: "You mean people just walk in there and tell all their stuff?"
Rina: "What I mean is if someone is missing their child…"
Nika: "People are going to walk in there and tell some stranger everything?"
Rina: "I see your point. I am just saying, as source of information, I think it is way."
Nika: "As a source of information like a birth record. Sure. It might be a prudent place to go."
Arden: "But I thought she was kidnapped and brought here. In which case, there wouldn't be a birth record here."
Nika: "But maybe if she were dropped here, she'd come here seeking solace."
Arden: (Unconvinced) "Maybe, in that case maybe the confessional is the place to look, but how? We could send Joshua in to ‘’read’’ the priest"
Rina: "That would be up to the priest. We can ask, but we can't make him. You can't make him say yes"
Nika: "I'm thinking we go to this priest, and tell him this girl has come into some money."
Arden: "If there is a way to offend God, Nika will find it."
Nika: "Who said anything about there being a god?"

They debate whether they can draw any conclusions about the list of girls, from the few they've investigated.

Nika: “I wasn’t sure about letting Rina go in there.”

Eventually the whole team hooks up at the bar to make their plans.

Joshua: “Are you going to the church? If so you should probably figure a way to get along with it. If not, you can ask the bar.”
Nika: “No”
Rina: “We’re not?”
Nika: “We’re discussing the merits of doing it.”
Joshua: “If the pattern holds, then we’d expect Lanie to be a drop off here.”
Nika: “We were discussing whether it possible Lanie might have gone to the church seeking solace.”
Joshua: “It’s a possibility”
Kiera: “I bet it would amuse God something ferocious to have those two walk into the church.”

Joshua does not look amused.

Nika: “Joshua why are you making that face?”
Kiera: “What I am thinking, and this is only a guess based on my medical experience, and you can argue with me Arden, but Joshua, is that migraine headache starting right about there” She points to her temple “Like a nail with lightning coming in through it? Is that about right?”
Nika: (Looking abashed at Joshua) “Is it the lying to the preacher man part?”
Kiera: “Yeah, it’s the lying to the preacherman part, he seems to have a thing about shepherds. Last time someone said something about a shepherd he started twitching too.”
Arden: “You have a thing about shepherds?”
Joshua: “I’m not answering that question. There is no way I can answer it that will work out well for me.”
Kiera: “I can go in, as bad as I’ve been, I will not be turned to stone or set on fire.”
Arden: “I am not even going there.”
Joshua: “I want to get back to the Baron.”
Arden: “Who’s the Baron?”
Kiera: “Are you serious? You’re interested in him?”
Joshua: “He’s the guy that runs this town.”
Kiera: “They’ve got nobility here…”
Nika: “Oh, that’s just bad news, anytime they’ve got nobility anywhere you know that’s just bad news.”
Joshua: “From what the sheriff said, he ‘’was’’ nobility, but not he is really just a guy, but more of a title than anything else. I couldn’t get whether it was something they elect, or just pick someone to be Baron”
Nika: “I have some concerns, if this guy is kind of landed gentry with family.”
Joshua: “I think it started like that, but I think he’s associated with the mill. They are basically the same, from what I gather anywhere, close enough for our purposes to be true. The sheriff said as bluntly as he could ‘Don’t any of your strangers go messing about with the Mill or the Baron, because I’ll get pissed, or they’ll get pissed. Which strikes me that, if there is a a Baron and Guards who might get pissed, there must be something they would get pissed about.”
Kiera: “But he did as much say that he was going to turn a blind eye.”
Arden: “Sounds to me like the Sheriff was just telling one of those general rules that everyone should know, like ‘you must be this tall to ride the ride.’ I wouldn’t read anything suspicious in there“

(Laughter)

Kiera: “But Arden, he basically said we couldn’t make him angry, we could make them angry.”
Nika: “He said you can’t make me angry, and you see that as a challenge Kiera?’
kiera: “He seemed to say this line of questioning might piss off the other two, but not him. In my little mind that was tacit approval. But, I always look for people to yes ‘yes’ ”
Arden: “Maybe we should go back to the ship, get a cargo and move on.”
Kiera: “You still want to go back and get those toys” (Referring to the job that took them to Miranda).

Rina and Joshua head off to the church, the rest stay at the bar. Kiera separates from the group and wanders up to the bar. Eventually a couple young men approach to check her out. They offer to buy her drinks. There is some idle chit chat. She learns that most of the people here have been here, Pottersville or Verbena, their whole lives. Some move around a bit, but most are native to the planet.

Yokel: “So what are you doing in town?”
Kiera: “I’m just following my friends, they’ve got this cockamany thing that there’s this girl their looking for in town, she goes by the nickname ‘Lanie.’”
Yokel: “You say she goes by ‘Lanie’?”
Kiera: “Yeah.”

The guys at the bar exchange some knowing glances, and start laughing a bit at some secret joke.

Kiera: “What’s so funny?”
Yokel: “Oh nothing, you’re looking for a ‘’special girl’’ named ‘Lanie’?” Kiera nods. “I think you are at the wrong establishment then.”
Kiera: “Pardon?”
Yokel: “You need to go to the Baron’s”
Kiera: “I need to go to the Baron’s”
Yokel: “If you want to find a ‘’girl’’ like that.”
Kiera: “Oh so if I had proclivities such a way, that’s where I might find what I am looking for?”
Yokel: “That’s a place where people who can afford, find such things they are looking for. But, since you’re here, there is no need for that.”
Kiera: “Well you have spent some money on my drinks.”
Yokel: “Course, if you are looking for someone like Lanie, that ain’t gonna work.” (Laughter) “Course, maybe you ain’t never been with a ‘’real’’ man.”
Kiera: “What you misunderstood is that I wasn’t looking for Lanie, my friends are looking for Lanie. They’re just dragging me along with em”
Yokel: “I think your friends are going to be unlucky in that department. But, what about you?”
Kiera: “I don’t know about…”
Yokel: “Cuz, you ain’t with your friends now.”
Kiera: “I know, but you ain’t got enough drink in me yet. And I’m starting to see things in a different way.”

Nika sees the tension rising near Kiera and keep an eye out for her. Kiera continues to drink with the boys, but lets them drink more, and she controls herself. She glances over at her crewmates.

Kiera: “Oh, they’re given me the signal, let me see what they are on about. I need to tell them I might be spending the night elsewhere. Hold on.”

Kiera wanders back over to the crew. Meanwhile at the church. The church isn’t open at the moment, but they bang on the door. A cleaning woman opens up, the smell of wood soap fills the doorway.

Woman: “What do you need?”
Joshua: “We were hoping to…”
Woman: “Interrupting, services are at 9:15.”
Joshua: “We weren’t here for the services, we were hoping to speak to the shepherd. We’re looking for someone, and hoping maybe he knows something about it. I’ll see if he’s available.”

She ducks back behind the door for a few minutes then returns.

Woman: “I’m sorry, the shepherd isn’t in the church right now, he is tending to a congregant.”
Joshua: “Will he be in later?”
Woman: “If you want to leave a note, I will get it to him. Are you staying in town.”
Joshua: “Yes, but we’ll be on our ship.”
Woman: “Perhaps then, the name of your ship. Or he should be here tomorrow.”
Joshua: “We’ll just stop buy tomorrow, if we are still in town.”
Woman: “During the day please, we usually don’t open the door during the evening there have been some concerns about safety. Some of the officials have come and said our town might be a target for the rebels.”

They thank the woman and promise to return in the morning.

Rina: “So much for my great idea.”
Joshua: “It was a good idea, and it is a start.”
Rina: “Are they really likely to be attacked here?”
Joshua: “My impression was that the local military is giving that impression. They probably have some reasons to make people feel that the military is needed. Maybe they are right, I don’t know. I haven’t seen any obvious signs a war is going on.”

Meanwhile back at the bar, Kiera returns to the bar and her covey of young men in waiting. As she readies to leave she whispers to Arden.

Kiera: “When I look at you, shake your head and mouth the word ‘no’. Try to look impatient.”

Arden gives a pained if quizzical look. She kicks him in the shin eliciting and angry scowl. She turns to the boys at the bar.

Kiera: “Sorry boys, looks like my escort won’t let me go play.”

Around this time, Joshua and Rina return to the bar. They exit the bar and head to Langiappe.

Kiera: “Baron's is interesting”
Joshua: “Baron's?”
Kiera: “Yes, I will assume it's the wealthy person's in town "party". The guy said he couldn't afford it.”

Kiera recounts what she learned. Nika swears in Chinese under her breath.On their way back to the Langiappe, they ask about the Baron's House, also called the "Comfort House", the Baron's estate, which turns out to be a brothel. Mystery solved.

Nika: “I bet that's where we'll find her, if that 'Lanie' is the same girl, if she still goes by that name.”
Joshua: “Remember, it would have been the name they (JJB) had given her, when they dropped her off.”
Kiera: “When I said you were looking for Lanie, the guys both grinned like monkeys.”
Nika: “All I meant was, it may not be the same Lanie”

Of course, it is a pretty small town.

Joshua: “If we are going there, we ought to have a story.”
Rina: “I can go, say I haven't grappled in too long, and don't care who it is with.”
Kiera: “Why you?”
Rina: “Didn't they say Lanie didn't go for guys?”
Kiera: “I didn't say that!”
Nika: “Maybe we should send Beggar, he isn't as much a threat as we.”
Kiera: “I think his head would explode, if he walked in there.”
Joshua: “No he's a normal guy.”
Nika: “I'm sure he has't been celibate the whole time he's been with us, just more discrete than the rest of us that's all.”
Joshua: “Can we focus on what a good story might be?”
Kiera: “I'm still stuck imagining Rina and a prostitute”
Kiera: “Arden can't go in!”
Nika: “Me neither”
Joshua: “I need to know who can go in, without beating the people in the brothel senseless.” Pointing at Nika "You're out." Pointing at Rina "You're out." Pointing at Kiera his hand pauses "Maybe you're out."
Kiera: “I haven't' got emotional problems with a brothel”
Arden: “Neither do I, as long as girls are healthy.”
Rina: (Quietly) “I'll go”
Nika: “I suppose it would look a little odd for women to go into a brothel looking for women. It is relatively unusual.”
Kiera: “You don't think they have boy-whores?”

While possible, it is statistically unlikely.

Kiera: “I could go in and apply for a job?”
Arden: “That would be one way to get a woman in.”
Kiera: “They'd never take me”
Joshua: “Okay stop!. Stop before I kill everyone.”
Arden: “You're a pacifist, you can't kill anyone”
Joshua: “If I've reached that point, that should tell you something. So (pointing to Arden) you and I are going, and our story is…?”
Kiera: “Been in space a long time?”
Arden: “Simpler is better.”
Joshua: “I agree, I just need an excuse to ask for Lanie, and I don't even know what she looks like.”

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