Episode 509: Joshua Drake, This Is NOT Your Life ... , Part Four

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Day Two, Monday, 06 Apr 2522

Well, we survive the night. No one wakes to find themselves in the brig. For the moment, the Commander of the ship seems willing to leave us alone to recover. We settle into a kind of holding pattern, a routine consisting of our 4-hourly med- and vitals checks by the staff, the scheduling of meals, the boredom of waiting around for our bodies to heal. Word gets around about our passengers and they prove to be rather popular with Aceso’s crew. For their part, the girls don’t mind the extra attention and some feel strong enough to wander off for a ‘tour’ of the place. No one is forced to do anything. It’s a choice freely made. We don’t stop them.

We also don’t complain about our situation. Despite Joshua’s warning to Wise and Rina’s own track record, she doesn’t make a bit of trouble. No palming the silverware to use as weapons or tools, no MacGyvering mustard gas out of floor cleaner and bleach. Kiera and Nika are playing yet another card game and Nika eyes her engineer warily. Rina catches it and answers the silent question:

Rina: I’m lulling them into a false sense of security. (off her look) It’s one of the Moscow Rules.
Arden: (eyeroll) I’m gonna complain.
Nika: I’m gonna sit on him.
Rina: He might enjoy it.
Arden: I’m bored. There’s no books. There’s no tv.
Nika: There are cards and everything in here.
Rina: You have a blonde woman willing to sit on your face. How can you be bored?
Arden: Um, the fact that she wouldn’t. And there’s no privacy here anyway.
Rina: We’d turn around.

Okay, now she’s just needling him. Kiera stares, twitches, and goes back to her card game. Having gotten the measure of her engineer—twitchy but stable, willing to go along, humor is a good sign—Nika gauges her other engineer, Beglan, next. His constitution is not as hardy as the rest of the crew but he seems to be getting better. Unlike Rina who routinely punishes herself with impatience as she heals, he’s sensibly taking it easy. Getting plenty of rest, taking in fluids, that sort of thing. Nika keeps an eye on him throughout the day, as she does on the ‘girls’. She sees they’re popular and the Aceso crew attentive and so far everything’s sailing smoothly. However, we have yet to see Joshua.

Rina: I don’t like that.
Nika: Get over it.
Arden: Welcome to life.
Kiera: They’re not going to do anything.

Rina growls a sigh and has them deal her into the next round of cards. The first round of bets are taken in tongue depressors and an officer comes to us in the ward. He has an analysis of our ship repairs and gives us a run-down.

Officer: (checking notes) … Ah, flush your cooling system and replace that so it … and ah, they gave you some fuel so when you’re ready, you should be able to get to Paquin at least…
Nika: (quietly) Thank you.
Officer: But they strongly recommend that you service your vehicle.
Rina: Where was the bottleneck in the coolant loop? I tried to find it.
Officer: I don’t know. One of the technicians could tell yo—
Rina: Could I see the report? Please?
Officer: I’ll see what I can do.
Rina: Thank you very much.

She gives him a polite smile and watches his back as he leaves. Then:

Rina: (low) The second we get back, I’m scanning our ship for bugs.
Nika: (to self) Where’s Joshua when I need him to herd rabid cats …?
Kiera: I’m being a good kitty.
Rina: Yes, you are.

Nika groans and the card game goes on.

Day Three, Tuesday, 07 Apr 2522

During breakfast, we have a visitor. An attractive woman in civilian clothes, mature, assured, has an inquiring and professional air about her. Rina sweeps her with a look. About five-nine, nice figure, red hair going to a golden ginger, cut short in a fetching gamine style. Skirted business suit in a feminine color. Light eyes. Wrinkles from smiling. Looking around at all of us.

What’s her game?

Woman: (friendly) Hi. I am looking for the Captain of the Equinox. Who would that be?
Nika: That would be me.
Woman: (smiles) Hi.

She steps forward. Her manner matches her tone and you get the sense that she’s a people person, used to walking in and setting them at ease. She reaches our table and we make room for her. She sits and shakes hands with Nika and though she doesn’t actually have a briefcase, you get the impression she’s set one on the table and has opened it and the meeting is about to begin. Nice, efficient, friendly.

No fuss.

Woman: I have been asked to ask you a few questions.
Nika: Sure.
Woman: Maybe get you set up. And we can work this out—if you comfortable doing that.

Her tone is inquiring rather than demanding, her statements ending on an uplift as if they’re questions. It solicits response, a gentle prompting to interact. Nika obliges.

Nika: Get me set up?
Woman: Well, yes. So we can figure out exactly if, you know, your ship is apparently ready to go. We just have a few questions.
Nika: That’s fine.
Woman: We’ll try to make this go smoothly. The Captain has asked me to talk to you and perhaps to the rest of your crew. That’s if you’re all right with that?
Nika: That’s fine.
Woman: (smiles) Oh, good, good. Is there anything … ?

Arden eyes the woman from his seat at the table. She comes off to him like a psychologist and there’s something a little off about her. He doesn’t trust her. Rina’s impression is the woman is coming off as false-friendly. She distrusts her. What a surprise. Kiera gauges Rina’s mood and kicks her under the table: Behave, you.

The woman takes Nika out of the recovery ward and they walk up and down the corridor beyond, nothing fast or strenuous, just taking a stroll. She talks as they go.

Woman: So, sounds like you had a rough time. The ship got overheated, everyone barely survived. Remarkable. So that’s stress on the Captain, I imagine.
Nika: Yeah. Not fun.
Woman: And how long has this crew been together?

Let’s see … Rina got hired on by Potemkin in May of 2518, Nika hired on as pilot soon after that. Our first voyage together was at the end of May. Arden walked aboard as a passenger on that trip. Joshua joined us in June of 2520, two years later, and Kiera came aboard the second week of April last year. Beglan’s only just joined us, relatively speaking this past September. It’s now 2522, so … she, Rina, and Arden have crewed together for 4 years, Joshua coming up on two, and Kiera’s coming up on her one-year mark with us. Nika adds it all up in her head and tells the woman beside her what she feels is relavant.

Nika: My engineer and I and my doctor have been together for about four years. Joshua—Rex—came on board about two years ago. And Beggar and Kiera came on board approximately a year.
Woman: So you assembled over time and you do mostly just sort of, ah, the work that goes on out here. Rim transport?
Nika: Pretty much.
Woman: (smiles) Yeah, it’s kinda romantic life. Traveling from planet to planet. Having who knows what kind of adventures. Of course, it probably didn’t feel so romantic when you had this sort of problem.
Nika: Yeah, no.

The woman pulls a card from her pocket and waves it at the panel next to the elevator. The elevator doors whisk open and they ride to the top deck and step out into what is obviously an observation area. Through the clear panoramic windows, Nika is surrounded by the starry Black and the field is filled with points of light and the ships of the fleet. And aft and a little below she can see our ship parked between Aceso’s nacelles, being worked on. Ambulance jockeys most likely.

As a view, it’s stunning. As a courtesy, much appreciated. As a means of manipulation …

Nika turns back to the woman interrogating her. And she makes no mistake: it may be soft, but it’s still an interrogation and Nika remains careful.

Woman: (sighs) Well, I don’t know how you’re feeling about this whole business but the Captain was very concerned. Obviously, he is very grateful that you were able to rescue his son from whatever was going on. It sounds like some pretty nasty business. (gently earnest) I’ll let you know that we’re aware that there are numerous, ah, how shall we say …? Schisms and factions in the old Alliance. And that some of the accusations made by your crewmates are interesting to say the least. But I guess … I just want to find out your feelings about this whole situation. It must be a shock to find out that he has this past life that you knew nothing about.
Nika: No.

We already knew that Joshua had a past that he couldn’t remember when we got him off Trafalgar.

Woman: It doesn’t shock you at all?
Nika: No.
Woman: You weren’t curious about this when you first brought him on?
Nika: Oh most assuredly curious. But unfortunately when Joshua came on board, the situation that he was in he was very up-front about. He didn’t know very much beyond the mission he’d undertaken at the time.

Nika leans a hip against the observation rail, crosses her arms, and gets comfortable.

Nika: And so anything of his past beyond that point was unaccessible to him. We had a couple of clues about his background that I offered numerous times to follow up on and ultimately he decided he wasn’t ready to do so.
Woman: Hm. Crazy story. But it’s a big Verse and I suppose stuff like that is possible.

She echoes Nika’s pose at the rail and looks out at the vista around them. Then:

Woman: So, what are your thoughts now?
Nika: About?
Woman: Well, I mean, apparently he’s been with you for two years. If, you know, he’s got his … homecoming, I suppose. I mean, are you okay with that?
Nika: Why wouldn’t I be?
Woman: Well, apparently, he’s not so sure. He thinks, that … well, from what I understand, he’s very concerned about you folks. That you might be mistreated or something. So have you been mistreated at all?
Nika: We’ve had several unfriendly run-ins over the years.
Woman: No, I mean here. Here on the Aceso.
Nika: Oh. No, not at all.
Woman: Okay, good. Good. I just want to be sure about that.

Silence and they both watch the stars and the ships outside.

Woman: So, you’re saying you never followed up on any of his … past?
Nika: He said he wasn’t ready to do it yet. I believe he had at one time a necklace that belonged—he thought—might have belonged to his mother.
Woman: Interesting …
Nika: I don’t honestly know if he still has it. We’ve lost a ship in the interim. It may have been aboard then.
Woman: Oh, okay. You’re old ship was the … ?
Nika: The Summer’s Gift.
Woman: (to self) Summer’s Gift … Summer’s Gift …
Nika: It’s a small tramp freighter.
Woman: Summer’s Gift … It sounds strangely familiar. I don’t know why the name Summer’s Gift …

And then it clicks. You can see it connect behind her eyes as they go wide.

Woman: Wasn’t there some sort of … televid? Summer’s Gift? Of that? They said that the … well, the nature guy. And the Miranda Wave. Did you hear about it? The Second Miranda Wave.

Yes, it’s coming back to her now. The Nature Guy—Rick Allen. The Miranda Wave …

Woman: Is that you? That was your ship?
Nika: Yes, am’am.
Woman: That is a remarkable coincidence, that not only that you should have this unusual character to your story but that also you were the ship that went to Miranda and returned to tell the tale. That is very interesting. Hmm! Well, I wonder what that was like?

Her surprise and admiration seems genuine. Nika hopes it is. The woman looks at her with something like respect.

Woman: Not much to say, I expect.
Nika: Terrifying. You know … it’s a dead planet. And we were there by ourselves and scavenging parts and trying to get off. It took us four months.

The woman nods sympathetically and sighs.

Woman: Well, the Captain is going to want, you know, a full report. So we’d like to keep you guys here for a little while, to find out what’s going on. Just to find out what happened … Cmdr Wise and his brain injuries, you know, the drug addiction and the mental business—did you know he was addicted to drugs?
Nika: (calmly) I knew he was taking a drug that could be addictive, yes.
Woman: Hmm. As Captain, you were okay with that?
Nika: From what I understood when he came onboard, it kept his condition in check and I wasn’t clear if that were actually the case or not, so … I know he’s been attempting to wean himself off of it for several months now.
Woman: Is that what he’s been telling you?
Nika: Yes.

The woman shifts and settles, becoming a hair more professional and a hair less chummy.

Woman: I don’t know how much experience you have with drug addicts saying they’re quitting drugs—(off her look)—probably not much, I’m guessing. Did you ever talk to him about it? Two years, right?
Nika: He’s been through two years of—
Woman: About his drugs? Never come up?
Nika: (careful) Why?
Woman: I don’t know, it just seems—well, I guess it would concern me if someone that I worked with was addicted to a drug like that. That he has to get illegally, presumably.

Either the woman is calling Nika negligent and stupid or she’s angling for something. Maybe it’s both. Nika tells her the truth.

Nika: I don’t know enough about the drug to be concerned.
Woman: Whatever you’re doing is of no concern to me. I’m not here to judge you at all.
Nika: That’s fine. He was on a drug that I understood to be required to control the situation he was in.
Woman: And there’s a doctor on board the ship and he verified that it was okay for you? He knows enough? Dr. Arden?
Nika: What Dr. Arden and Joshua talk about between themselves is doctor-patient confidentiality and I don’t get in the middle of it.
Woman: (easily) All right. That’s an interesting position.

The woman looks out the windows and speaks to the view outside.

Woman: I will need to … (long pause) … debrief a couple members of your crew for other issues as well. Is there anything you want to tell me about your activities before I leave?
Nika: Such as?
Woman: I don’t know. Something I might find out from them that you would rather be the one to tell me? I don’t know what sort of thing that could be. It sounds like you’ve got a colorful past. (a beat) It’s best to come clean with these things early rather than have it come out and have the suspicion that something untoward was going on.

Ah. Now the woman shows her true face. Iron hammer, velvet glove. Nika has to admit the woman played her hand well.

Woman: As I say, whatever you’re doing is of no concern to me. Whatever you did in the past is nothing to me. We’re just trying to make things right with Cmdr. Wise.
Nika: Well given that your concern—truthfully all our concern—is about Joshua, or Cmdr. Wise, presuming that, you know, presuming the man would know his own son. Does Joshua have any memory of this, actually?
Woman: I can give you clearance to his records if you like.
Nika: I’m actually more curious and concerned about whether Joshua has any memories of this.
Woman: Well, that’s the interesting thing. I understand—
Nika: I seem to think you have him locked in a room all by himself, where he is worried about all of us and worried about himself and doesn’t have a clue what’s going on.
Woman: (softly) Well, I don’t lock people up. (a beat) But I will tell you that I can understand that in certain occupations—we don’t ask what drugs people are doing and why they are doing it and if a doctor says hey, I’ll get it for them, why should we ask? And if there was some sort of unusual brain surgery done, it might make it difficult for someone to remember their past. Perhaps that’s not something that is relevant to the Captain of the ship—
Nika: Is the Lt. Cmdr. in the Alliance Navy or is he … how to phrase this for you? … or is he a contractor to military service?
Woman: He was a Lt. Cmdr. in the Navy. He’s been absent-without-leave for two years.
Nika: That’s interesting.
Woman: So he never asked you to take him off IAV Trafalgar?

Careful…

Nika: He did. But I understood him to be a—
Woman: He told you he had leave?
Nika: No, I understood him to be a contract agent.
Woman: Hm. I think I’ve heard this right, that he was a Blue Sun agent. Is that right?
Nika: He was an agent of some kind, that his identi—
Woman: I’m not denying that probability.
Nika: That his identity at that time was a Cmdr of the Alliance Navy, so I was not under the impression that he was actually in the Navy, no.
Woman: And a Blue Sun agent seems plausible, especially given that—why from your very lips, well not from your lips but from your very crewmen’s lips we’ve heard that Blue Sun was responsible for mind-altering drugs—of course, that’s all I’ve heard it from.
Nika: I’m sure.
Woman: So it’s a … interesting thing that you should tell me that he’s a Blue Sun agent and that you should—not you, yourself but you, your ship—
Nika: I actually didn’t say he was a Blue Sun agent. I said he was a contract agent to the military.
Woman: Contracted by whom?
Nika: I have no idea.
Woman: I see. I suppose that was because one of the other people said that was the case.
Nika: I think at the point we assumed it.
Woman: So there is some disagreement on your own crew as to who he was working for.
Nika: Yeah, I don’t think he quite knew who he was working for.
Woman: I see. But you all got your theories.
Nika: Pretty much.
Woman: Yours is that he was not a Blue Sun agent. Something else.
Nika: As I said, we—
Woman: He was with you for two years! You know him better than I do.

She’s exasperated. Or is it an act?

Woman: I’ve only read some reports, I’ve seen some family videos from when he was a child and such but I don’t know this person at all. But it’s an interesting story, this idea that there is a … an outside group infiltrating the highest levels of—
Nika: (near-drawl) I did not say that at all.
Woman: He was—
Nika: I love how you spin things out though. It’s really entertaining.
Woman: Let me put it this way. We believe that Lt. Cmdr. Wise was part of a fairly specialized science investigators, which would be—
Nika: Well that would tally with what he was doing.
Woman: Which is high ranking and difficult to infiltrate, we hope.
Nika: As I said, he may have just been an agent within that, doing something as Joshua Drake, the identity he took on at the time. He knew then, or presumed then, that that may not be his real name. So for example, to find now that just by sheer stupid accident that we’ve run into someone who knows him is not necessarily a terrible surprise to me. He was very up-front about the fact that he didn’t know about his own past.
Woman: And you offered, you said, to help him find his past but he, he refused?
Nika: He said he was not ready yet.

How many times does she have to say it?

Woman: And that’s your position on it?
Nika: Everyone has things in their past they don’t want to be reminded of or to have to acknowledge.
Woman: Wait til I show you my high school prom dress.
Nika: There you go.
Woman: All right. Since you don’t have any objections to us talking to the rest of your crew, I think I might have a few. Just to see their take on this whole story. If in either way, whatever the story is, if was some sort of contractor or some outside force infiltrating the military—
Nika: Or a contract agent.
Woman: That in itself would be a court-martialing offense, right there.
Nika: How do you know that—you’re telling me now that he was part of a top-secret agent in the military so … maybe that was the unit doing experiments on the Reavers, trying to figure out how to kill them.
Woman: I think I can safely say if that were the case then there should be no problems, but I can’t see why he would want to board your ship voluntarily at that stage. Which, so far, all of you have asserted.
Nika: Yes, he did, in fact. The situation with the Reavers was quite out of control.
Woman: and in his current condition with his … brain surgery and his drug addiction, he seems to corroborate your story.
Nika: I never knew he had brain surgery but either way in terms of boarding the vessel, he … ah …
Woman: Did you ever leave Dr. Arden alone with him? Under surgical conditions?
Nika: I don’t believe Dr. Arden has more than … (thinks) … He’s done surgery with Joshua, yeah.
Woman: So he’s performed surgery on him.
Nika: Yes. We’ve all been injured several times.
Woman: So it’s quite possible that Dr. Arden could have done the surgery.
Nika: No.
Woman: How do you know?
Nika: Because I see Joshua after the surgery’s done and I get a full report on what was done and I can certainly tell whether or not the man’s had his head cut into.
Woman: Can you?

Come again?

Nika: You don’t believe there would be stitches in such things?
Woman: Not necessarily. Depending on the tools he was using.
Nika: Oh, well. You would know better than I, wouldn’t you?
Woman: I’m not a doctor.
Nika: Well, my doctor has, you know, the basic tools of a normal doctor, so any surgery I’ve seen him do has required stitches in the end.

After all, Nika’s got the scars to prove it.

Woman: I do not believe it’s entirely correct that he’s only had those. I seem to recall that he had work done on Prion Disease. So obviously he’s had to work with people’s brains at some point, and at that stage it was on St. Albans and possibly on Highgate as well?
Nika: I don’t know what he did in the lab there but yes, he did do studies.
Woman: So he did have some access to some of these things.

Yes, but what she couldn’t know is, he couldn’t have had access to Joshua on St. Albans—that was before he joined our crew.

Nika: In labs? I assume so, yeah. Insofar as I’m aware, Joshua wasn’t with him at the time.
Woman: As far as you’re aware.
Nika: So, are you … ? (sighs) I’m unclear here. Are we under suspicion for having done something to Joshua?
Woman: I think that there is one concern that the Captain has. Put yourself in his shoes. He doesn’t see his son for three years. When he does, his son talks to him about having a new name, a new set of friends, that he’s fallen in love, that he didn’t see any reason to contact him. He didn’t remember his father or that he had a father. Until just now, when he saw him. It’s an odd story. And when the explanation for this is he was sort of agent who—
Nika: (gotcha) Ah-ah.
Woman: I’ve heard about—
Nika: There are theories about what he was doing but no one knows what precisely what Joshua was doing aside from Joshua himself.
Woman: So you’re saying—some of your crewmates have suggested otherwise—that he wasn’t doing anything like that.
Nika: We can only tell you for certain what he was doing at the time and what he as been able to tell us since then.
Woman: Well, actually you could make up all sorts of stories.
Nika: I certainly could.
Woman: So I don’t know exactly what’s for certain or not here. (shrugs, smiles) But, hey … I believe you. You seem like a trustworthy person, so I’m not going to challenge that one. But I think we will just do some formalities, get this out of the way, and then hopefully you’ll be on your way and everything will be all settled.
Nika: Mm-hm.

Nika will believe that when she sees it, but since the woman doesn’t seem to be in direct opposition to her, maybe there’s some room to bargain.

Nika: I would like, under your supervision if you would like, to see my XO.
Woman: You want to see Lt. Cmdr. Wise?
Nika: Yes. You’re more than welcome to supervise and to, you know, be in the room and keep tabs on everything. But I would like to verify for myself that he’s okay.

They look at each other, two women leaning on a railing with the stars overhead.

Woman: Hmm. That could be interesting. (grins) Oh, why not? Let’s give it a try.

The woman pushes off the railing and goes over to a comm panel, where she opens a line and says:

Woman: Captain, I’d like to see Lt. Cmdr. Wise.
Captain Wise: (over comm) Of course. I’ll send someone to lead you.
Woman: ’Preciate that.

And that is what happens. Whoever this woman is, she gets things done. They’re escorted down a few decks and down a few corridors and brought to a door, which their escort opens. It’s to a room and Joshua’s in it. He’s looking somewhat worse for the wear.

Joshua looks around as the door opens and he sees Nika and another woman he’s never seen before. The stranger smiles pleasantly and says:

Woman: You have a friend to visit you.
Joshua: (softly) Hi, Nika.
Nika: How are you feelin’?
Woman: Don’t mind me, I’ll just stand here.

She stands to the side, motions their escort to close the door. Nika has eyes only for Joshua. Joshua has eyes only for the stranger.

Joshua: Who are you?
Woman: Who I am’s not important.
Nika: Shrink. Interrogator. Whatever. I don’t know.

For a split second, Joshua considers Reading the stranger but remembers how much it hurt when he Read the nurse and lets the moment go.

Nika: How are you feeling?
Joshua: (with feeling) Like crap. They’re trying to take me completely off the drug, which is good, which is good. Unfortunately my brain is screaming at me in multiple different languages … some of which I don’t know.
Nika: Cold turkey was not something we wanted to do aboard the ship. If they’re equipped to handle it here, I suppose that’s fine.
Joshua: Yeah, it seems they’re pretty confident that he can get me off of it and so, you know, I … I want to get off the drugs … so that’s, you know, not necessarily a bad thing. (focuses) How’s everybody? How’s Rina?
Nika: Twitchy.
Joshua: Okay, so she’s good.
Nika: Yes.
Joshua: All right. They’re telling me it’s going to be 72 hours-plus, minimum, before the—for just the physical side effects or whatever. I think I’m going to be here for a while, I guess. Um, I have no idea what day it is. Are we …?
Nika: We’ve been here for several.
Joshua: Crap.

He’s thinking of our cargo. So is she.

Nika: Yeah. We’re well beyond schedule. It’s okay. We’ll deal with it. We’ll deal with it.
Joshua: All right … all right. Aye, Captain. Are they treating you okay?
Nika: Well, they’re concerned that we’ve … (thinks) … that the circumstances under which you came to be with the crew are not … good.
Joshua: Yeah … I’ve had the discussion with my dad and he seems very convinced I’m—that you’ve brainwashed me and … I tried to tell him and—
Nika: He has to prove to himself—
Joshua: Yeah, I get it. I get it. He loves me. You know, he and Mom love me and I-I … It’s nice to know everything is still … okay, I guess. I just … Oh, I’ll finally be honest, but … (gives up) … Yeah.
Nika: Have you been able to … Never mind. I’m more concerned right now about your condition. You don’t look like you’re feeling well and—
Joshua: Well that’s what happens when you go off drugs for—intensely go off the drugs. This is how I am when I’m … you know, I’ve been off the drugs for longer periods of time and you know how I get when I’m off the drugs.
Nika: Have you explained—have you spoken to anyone why you were on them? I didn’t want to inform the interrogator without your permission.
Joshua: Um, no. No … I hadn’t. Um … at the moment … not functioning particularly well. I’m … um … the heat stroke I guess, and I’m off the drugs, it’s … (sighs) … causing everything to be kinda funky up there.

He taps his head with his finger. Nika can see the tremor in it.

Nika: (softly) Okay.
Joshua: I mean, I’m okay. Well, other than my brain really hurts and I threw up a few times, and … and …
Nika: I think I won’t tell Rina those things.
Joshua: No I’d rather you didn’t … Cuz I want her to live and I don’t want her attacking the entire crew of this ship.
Nika: Yeahhhh, Rina in restraints is not pretty.
Joshua: I would like to see her at some point. My dad—totally convinced that I’m—
Nika: Yeah, considering what your father’s convinced of, that’s probably not gonna happen anytime soon. Maybe when you’re through detox. At this point, they’re not gonna let us leave anyway because …
Joshua: They won’t?
Nika: No.
Joshua: (pained, pissed) Dammit. We’ve got to get to Paquin. We’ve got to get to Paquin—we’ve got crew, cargo …
Nika: I might be able to speak to the Captain about sending a wave ahead of us and let them know we’ve—assuming our cargo’s still intact, which I’m not certain of—that we’ll be able to deliver it, it’ll just be late. And we’ll have to refund them.
Joshua: I guess. Repairs?
Nika: We’re gonna be needing some significant ones, yeah.
Joshua: We’ve got to com—
Nika: (soothing) I’ll take care of it.
Joshua: All right, all right.
Nika: I’ll take care of it, Joshua.
Joshua: Aye, Captain.
Nika: Rex. Joshua.
Joshua: Joshua.
Nika: Okay. You let me know which one you prefer, okay?
Joshua: That’s how you know me, that’s who I … I’m-I’m a little … confused.
Nika: It’s okay. I just wanted to make sure you’re all right.
Joshua: I’m good, it’s okay. I’m good. As long as Rina’s okay, as long as everybody’s okay, then I’m good.
Nika: Yeah. We’re good.
Joshua: Then I’m good. (a beat) All right.

Nika can see that he’s making the best of it.

Nika: Do I have your permission to speak to her and your father about it?
Joshua: Um … If you … think it needs to be said, then I’d rather be the one to say it.
Nika: Then I’ll leave you to it.
Joshua: Okay.
Nika: I’ll let Rina know you’re … as okay as it gets when you’re in cold turkey detox. All right?
Joshua: Okay.
Nika: I’ll try to get back to see you in a day or two.
Joshua: Yeah … okay. There isn’t anything … (gestures)
Nika: Yeah. I gathered. I can’t promise. They’ve got us under … supervision, at the moment.

Which reminds Joshua there is another person in the room. He looks past Nika at her.

Joshua: Hi.
Woman: Oh, hi.
Joshua: I’m Joshua.
Woman: Hi there, Joshua. Can I call you Rex?
Joshua: (sighs) Um …
Woman: Or Cmdr?
Joshua: Yeah, I guess?
Woman: It’s confusing, for everybody I imagine.
Joshua: (breathes laugh) Yeah. Confusing for me.
Woman: All I want is what everybody here wants: what’s best for you.
Joshua: See, I always worry when I hear that sort of expression, ‘I want what’s best for you’. I’m an adult. I should be able to know what is best for me. I’m not seventeen. In theory, what I’m told, depending on which version you want to believe, I’m either the XO of the Equinox—
Nika: Regardless of what your name is, you’re the XO of the Equinox.
Joshua: I’m the XO of the Equinox and in the other life I’m a Lt. Cmdr. in the Alliance Navy. I think that should count for something as far as being able to make my own decisions. (pulling together) Well, anyway.
Nika: Good rant.
Joshua: Thanks. (a beat) I haven’t had anybody to talk to.
Nika: Yeah. I think you might need to blow off some steam.
Joshua: That’s okay. All right. Um … Okay. Drop by again. (softly) If you can drag Rina along with you … like … drag her over if you can.
Nika: Okay. I’ll see you later.
Joshua: Yeah.

There’s nothing more to say. Nika leaves with the woman and Joshua’s alone again. Outside in the corridor, the woman turns to Nika.

Woman: Well, so you see he’s okay.
Nika: Yeah.
Woman: Confused.
Nika: Confused. Which is to be expected. I’ve seen off his meds before.
Woman: Calling these meds? It’s a bit of a stretch. But let’s just call it ‘off the drugs’. How about it?
Nika: As you like.
Woman: Would you say that a person who’s been using a lot of … you know, a drug of this form, would be in their right state of mind. I’m not a legal scholar so I don’t know all the technical things, but I think that we all agree that before we can consider him competent for his own self, he needs to be free of any … undue influence, right?
Nika: Certainly.

What else can Nika say?

Woman: And so we need some sort independent judge of that. That would be the best idea, right?
Nika: Aannnd, who would we consider independent?
Woman: I would say a civilian psychiatrist, back in the Core somewhere would probably be the best judge.
Nika: So … you’re proposing that he be remanded to psychiatric care until such a time as someone determines that he is telling the right story.

Apparently, a lot. At least enough to call her on her motives.

Woman: Well, not that he’s telling the right story, but that he’s willing to accept the correct story. Being rational involves not being delusional. I mean, if I thought I was the Queen of Londinium, it would put me in the loony bin, too.
Nika: Are you the Queen of Londinium?
Woman: Certainly not. So you would agree, as his commanding officer, that he ought to be evaluated. I’m sure that you’ve learned, since you came here, that he has brain damage.
Nika: You’ve informed me that there’s some evidence of surgical intervention, yes.
Woman: I don’t want to cast any aspersion on any judgments made by Cmdr. Wise, but if you knew now that he boarded your ship on the false claim that he was, say, a contract agent for some shadowy secret agency but not, in fact, and but then discover that he had brain damage and was under the influence of narcotic substances, you would not feel he was under any obligation to—nor would you be—under any obligation to follow through on contracts or anything made at that stage, right? That would be crazy, to think that somebody under those conditions could make good decisions for themselves.

Silence.

Woman: Or do you buy that story. You think there’s more—aren’t you concerned? About his brain damage?
Nika: (firmly) What I’m concerned about is my XO being railroaded. Because his father wants what’s best for him under his father’s definition of what’s best for him.
Woman: So you think what’s best for him is that he ought to—
Nika: I’m not going to say what’s best for him because that’s up to him.
Woman: Okay, so by your reasoning, if he thought that there were demons around, then you would want to encourage this belief because that’s what he thinks is best, to go slay demons.
Nika: Lady, I’ve been through a lot of things with this man.
Woman: And so far—
Nika: If he were delusional, I would have to say it’s a very … functional state of delusion.
Woman: So you don’t think he deserves to be free of those delusions.
Nika: I just don’t want to see him railroaded by people who think they know better than he does what he needs.

Nika and the woman stare at each other. Then:

Woman: I guess I see it like a man dying of thirst in the ocean thinking it a good idea to drink salt water, I would say discourage that. Or perhaps a drug addict thinking they need another hit of the drug. We’d discourage that.
Nika: Look. You heard him say himself that he is glad to be undergoing the removal of the drug.
Woman: I did hear that.
Nika: Which I am very happy for him.
Woman: It’s a good thing he found someone who was willing to do that. Because apparently for two years he was on your vessel, no one ever suggested this or followed through with this. Because of his autonomy to make choices of his own.
Nika: No, actually, it had more to do with the fact that in being uncertain what it would do for him to go cold turkey off of this medication, we were not equipped to actually—
Woman: Go to a hospital?
Nika: (continuing) Have him do it aboard. Given the concerns he had? No.
Woman: So he was afraid that he was to go to a hospital, they would remand him to a mental institution of some kind and you thought ‘that is true, we shouldn’t let him do it—’
Nika: No. That was not the concern. The concern that he was on the run from someone.
Woman: The shadowy secret …?
Nika: Someone. (a beat) I like the way that everyone, you know, twists his life around for him, but ...
Woman: Am I mistaken? Is there a non-shadowy secret organization that he was afraid of? Did he ever talk about hearing voices? Or, you know …? Did he speak of hearing them? Seeing things that weren’t there?

Nika agreed to tell the truth but she’s also not an idiot. She just looks at the woman.

Nika: I would like to see what happens when Joshua’s system is cleared of his drug addiction and see what he has to say then.
Woman: Well, you can certainly petition the Captain for that. I still need to talk to some of your crew. I figure if there really is a shadowy conspiracy, I think we ought to know about it.
Nika: (dry) Really.
Woman: Mm-hm.

There being nothing for it—the investigation is not going away but digging deeper—Nika has the woman take her back to her crew.

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