Episode 515: Ithaca Rumble, Part Three

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The last of the cargo is loaded. The passengers wonder where the rest of the crew are. From their standpoint, Kiera’s the only one they’ve consistently seen and then there’s Beglan but … where are the others.

Roger: Where’s the rest of the crew?
Kiera: They are so quiet you’ll never notice them.

The wall comms crackle on all-ship:

Beglan: I’m in the engine room, spinning up for ya.
Kiera: (via comm) Thanks, Beggar.

Perfect timing, little Irishman! Kiera gives the passengers a see-there? look and hustles for the bridge. Kiera’s flown space craft before and she manages to get Equinox airborne with little difficulty. Once out in the Black, she holds the ship steady as Nika approaches and docks Lagniappe in the hangar bay.

Home.

Nika: (to the bridge) Good job. (to the rest of us) Every single one of you to the med bay.

Kiera peels out of the bridge for the hangar. She meets the rest of us coming down. The next little while is taken up with medical matters and at the end of it, the girls are on the mend. Joshua’s actually hurt worse than the others and Arden has Kiera assist in patching him up, before getting patched up himself. That task fininished, Arden starts pulling together the inoculation doses our passengers will need for their destination on the morrow. Kiera buttonholes Joshua on his way out the door with the question of what’s for dinner.

Steak and asparagus. We’ve stocked up, we’ve passengers to impress, and dammit, we’ve earned a semi-fancy meal. Rina offers to help him in the galley and Joshua accepts.

Our passengers settle in, though they seem a touch disappointed in what our ship has to offer. Clearly they are accustomed to better accommodations, better entertainment, better food. Better everything. Roger keeps his opinion to himself. Manse seems more willing to share his.

For her part, Racy is not enthused to be on our ship. She recognizes the ship from its Jing Jing Bei days.

Racy: This is just like the ship I was taken in.
Joshua: It is the ship. It is. That’s the reason why we came to rescue you.
Racy: And I can go anywhere I want on the ship?

At that, she seems genuinely interested in Equinox.

Racy: They kept us in this one small area.
Joshua: The bridge and the engine room? And the engine room—probably if you talk to the engineer, she might give you the tour.
Racy: But I want to see it.
Joshua: Like I said, I think, those areas, you can see. You just have to have somebody there with you. Just ask the Captain or me or the engineer or somebody.
Racy: (disappointed) All right.
Joshua: I know, I know, I’m sorry—
Racy: If you’ve got somebody there …

It’s clear she wanted to look around for herself without interference from the crew. Nika lays it out for her.

Nika: The bridge is the Captain’s personal space. Engineering is the engineer’s personal space.
Racy: You care a lot about personal space except other peoples’s.
Nika: You’ve got your personal space.
Racy: No I don’t.
Arden: Yes you do.
Racy: This is your ship. You can go anywhere on the ship, right?
Arden: If you are in residence in a room, I’m not going to go in there without knocking—
Racy: A whole knock? Wow, thanks.
Arden: Without getting your permission.
Nika: Wow.

The Captain’s taken aback by the attitude we’re getting from our latest rescue.

Joshua: Your room is your room. It’s locked to you. The only reason why we would ever enter your—
Racy: Whatever. Whatever. Do your thing. Last time was pretty much the same deal.
Nika: Wow.

Did she just say we were like the Jing Jing Bei? Really?

Racy: I’ll go take a shower. Am I allowed to take a shower?
Joshua: Yup. Go for it.
Kiera: I’ll escort you around if you’d like to have an escort.
Racy: Hey, a guard. Great.
Joshua: Kiera. (quietly gesturing: back off) Kiera …
Arden: (to Kiera) What? You didn’t see that coming? Maybe Giselle can show her around.
Nika: Just stay out of her way. Let her do what she wants, so long as she’s not hurtin’ anybody.

Joshua goes aft to the engine room to warn Rina of this new development.

Joshua: Basically, just make sure you lock down the spaces like you would normally anyway, since we’ve got passengers on board. Generally. And let the girls have as much free rein as the passengers do.
Rina: ’Kay.

Like she hasn’t been all along?

Kiera: Oh, and Joshua? Remind the girls that they are in no way obliged to the male passengers. Just in case the males get a bad idea.
Nika: Mm-hm.
Joshua: Go right ahead. You’re the steward.

And Kiera does just that, telling them they are not obliged to do anything for the male passengers. As for the male passengers, Kiera makes no mention of the girls’ former professions, but stresses they are passengers as well.

Kiera: They’re passengers.
Manse: You gonna introduce them?

It’s not that big a ship and the passengers are all on the same passenger deck. Once the girls are cleaned up, Kiera Misses and Misters everyone when she makes the introductions.

For her part, Rina’s a bit suspicious of Racy’s attitude and her insistence to go without escort, that she doesn’t care if it’s engineering, that Racy wants to go where and when she wants to go, touch what she wants to touch. To Rina, that makes Racy a shill. Racy’s going to sabotage our ship, strand us in space, whistle up her friends, and cut us all to pieces. But you know, that’s Rina and she isn’t the resident twitch for nothing. She decides to watch Racy to determine if her suspicions are right. Joshua knows what’s going through his fiancée’s mind and warns her off bird-dogging our latest rescue. Just keep engineering locked down tight, he says. Do that and everything should be fine.

A short review of our security measures ensue. Arden has already put his drugs in med bay into locked storage, though the counters sport the usual self-serve supplies like bandages, anti-biotic ointments, aspirin, swabs and the like. He’s also set it up for ship to notify him via his comm if anyone goes into med bay, in case there’s a medical emergency that he’s unaware of. Of course our money is locked up in the safe. Nika has long had the bridge locked to crew-only status. And though we don’t actually have a bona fide weapons locker, we decide on making one. We’re keeping the doors between the decks locked. Our hangar bay is under lockdown, too.

Rina: If we’ve slacked off, I’m tightening it up. At least as far as engineering is concerned. I don’t like her attitude or her background or the guys she had to hang with. I’m just wondering …

That night at dinner, we all eat with our passengers. Our wounded crew are getting some looks from our passengers.

Nika: It was a car accident.
Joshua: Car accident. I’d be happy to give you more details if you want to know the whole story.
Roger: Seem like a bad break for you.
Joshua: (shrugging) It happens. Sometimes. I’m okay. I’m fine. The wounds will heal.

One of our male passengers looks at the girls from across the table and whispers something to the other.

Arden: (softly) This is going to bad.
Rina: (softly back) Aw, geez.

Kiera just smiles and eats and gives the crew the eye to do the same.

Manse: So, ah, why are you girls going to Aphrodite?
Giselle: I’m staying on the ship for longer than that.
Racy: Yeah, I don’t know if I’m stopping at Aphrodite or not. I just wanted to see it.
Manse: It’s not much to look at.
Roger: You won’t see farms and such.
Arden: It’s named for the Greek Goddess of Love.
Kiera: (smiling and eating) Mm-hm!
Racy: Who were the Greeks?
Arden: It was a small place back on Earth.
Joshua: So what do you gentlemen do?
Manse: I’m primarily involved in hydraulic control systems, mostly on vessels larger than these.
Joshua: Sure. Are we talking Alliance cruiser-sized vessels? Or …?
Manse: I’ve worked on cruisers, but the fact is there’s not a whole lot of interest in cruisers cuz they don’t do really the kind of maneuvers that mess up your hydraulics. I focus more on smaller ships. Usually from cutters and maybe fast destroyers for critical systems.
Kiera: That’s interesting.

Rina stays quiet, wondering if she should add Manse to her list of possible suspects—he knows ships. His fellow passenger speaks up next.

Roger: Yeah, me, I do volatile liquids.
Kiera: So what’s got you boys going to Aphrodite?
Roger: Oh, there’s new stuff being worked in there with biologically created fluids for better weapons systems.
Kiera: Interesting.
Roger: Despite that it’s a dump, they got some pretty good gene-tech going on over there.
Kiera: That’s pretty fascinating. So what are they deriving it from?
Roger: Some trees or somthing.
Kiera: Well, that’s even more fascinating.

Even Rina is interested despite her suspicions.

Rina: So, you’re mixing biologically engineered fluids for .. trees?
Roger: From trees.
Rina: Ah. From trees.
Roger: So are you. Half of the fluids you use on the ship are derived from genetically modified organisms.
Joshua: Hm! I didn’t know that.
Kiera: I did not know that either.
Roger: You can synthesize some of them but it’s much more efficient to use bio-engineering for most of these things.
Joshua: It makes a certain amount of sense.
Rina: You get a purer product. You can tailor the properties that way.
Joshua: How long are you going to be on Aphrodite, this job you’re taking?
Manse: Oh, it’s going to be a stopover. We’re gonna check in there and then head back to Boros. Iskellian has its base at Boros. On Ares.

Ares is one of Boros’s moons. Talk and dinner continues without incident. When the dishes are cleared, Manse pronounces judgment on the meal.

Manse: That wasn’t so bad. So you guys expecting smooth sailing to Aphrodite?
Kiera: I’m hoping we should. I don’t know why we wouldn’t. You guys aren’t hidin’ anything are ya?
Arden: We’re not sailing.
Rina: (whispers) Shut up, Arden.
Manse: It seems kinda like sailing. You know, in outer space.
Arden: I’ve never been sailing.
Rina: Then how would you know it’s not like sailing? Shut up, Arden.

Kiera laughs.

Manse: Well, if you think of gravity as the currents, it’s actually very similar.
Kiera: Actually, that’s very poetic. It’s very very similar. It’s poetic, what you just said. I like it. Arden is very unimaginative. He’s very scientific. Had a paper published.
Arden: More than one.
Kiera: And he’s very proud of it, too. As you can tell.

There’s more laughter from the crew and the Iskellian engineers chuckle.

Joshua: Scientists. They’re the same no matter where you are.
Kiera: So is there a movie that you guys wanted to see tonight? Card game or anything?
Manse: Oh I don’t know.
Kiera: We’re poor. You’re already cheatin’ me outa everything so it would be best if we can do just some piddlin’ gamblin’.

Our male passengers trade a look.

Manse: I don’t know. I think I’ll just go shower and relax, since it’s just a day trip.
Joshua: Sure.
Kiera: Mm-hm. Anything you like.
Roger: Catch up on some technical reading.
Kiera: You know where to find me if you need me for anything. Y’all needin’ a nightcap?

They take her up on that one and she gets their orders in. Food, drink, that sort of thing. Racy proves to be a hungry girl, wolfing down the food we put in front of her. And the drinks we provide her, too. Not that we’re providing alcohol in excess to anyone aboard, but there is alcohol if wanted. For herself, Rina would like to talk shop with the Iskellian passengers but she knows she’ll end up putting her foot in her mouth and we’re in too much trouble as it is already. She doesn’t want to add to it. Arden decides to turn in early.

Arden: I’ve got whiplash from crashing into a certain truck earlier today.
Joshua: By which you had an overdose of fun.
Arden: Well, actually I really shouldn’t complain, because I survived. But yeah.
Giselle: Um, Dr. Arden? I think I still have an injury. Would you look at this?
Arden: I will.

They both adjourn from the dinner table. It’s pretty obvious to the crew that maybe an injury isn’t all Giselle’s going to have Arden look at. She’s been rather … appreciative … of Arden since we’d rescued her and this isn’t the first time she and Arden have departed together. The crew doesn’t make mention of it, not in front of the other passengers. Kiera goes below to the passenger deck with the other passengers and the crew tidies up for the night.

A little later on, Kiera’s retrieving something from the dumbwaiter in the passenger lounge when she notices that while Roger is still there with her, Manse and Racy are not. Kiera keeps it casual even though her senses sharpen. She puts the nightcap order from the dumbwaiter on the lounge table.

Kiera: Hey, where did Manse go?
Roger: I don’t know. I think he went back to quarters maybe?
Kiera: Oh, okay. Well. I can leave this here if they want it. Just tell them it’s here if they need it.

And Kiera leaves the passenger lounge to go … wandering around. She knows most places are locked, but she doesn’t go knocking on doors. She doesn’t get far when Racy storms out of the room she’s been given. She’s followed by Manse and she doesn’t look happy. Racy glares at Kiera and shoves past the steward for the stairs going to the upper decks. Kiera watches her go then turns to Manse. He’s rubbing his cheek. It’s pretty obvious by now what’s happened.

Damn. We told the male passengers that our female passengers are just that—passengers and accorded the respect due to them. Kiera keeps her voice light and non-judgmental.

Kiera: Ah, you’re having a little bit of problem there, huh?
Manse: What’s that?
Kiera: I don’t know—
Manse: No problem.
Kiera: Oh. Cheek hurt ya? You just look like you’re rubbing it.
Manse: Is there something you need from me?
Kiera: Naw, I’m just doing what I can as steward to make sure you’re okay. It would worry me if something on this ship had injured your face. I would take care to take care of you. Would you like me to call Dr. Arden?

She’s solicitude personified. She also tries to get a good look at Manse’s face.

Manse: Uh, I’m not hurt.
Kiera: Okay. Just wanted to make sure.
Manse: It’s just that the … girl you’re carrying is a … uh … well, do you know anything about her?
Kiera: She’s a passenger.

Now Kiera’s innocence personified.

Manse: Uh-huh.
Kiera: You’re uh-huh-ing like you’re implying there’s something else going on?
Manse: I … recognized her from … somewhere.
Kiera: Um … work?
Manse: I guess so.
Kiera: So I didn’t realize she was an engineer, too.
Manse: She’s not.
Kiera: Really? Where did you meet her at?
Manse: It was a party. She was engaged as the entertainment.
Kiera: And you assumed we’d engaged her as the same?
Manse: No. But, um … she might want to learn to change her attitude.
Kiera: Ah ha.
Manse: A girl like her has no business takin’ on airs, thinks she’s so special.
Kiera: So … would you like to define that?
Manse: She’s a whore. And she thinks she’s somethin’ special.
Kiera: But that’s okay. You’re an ass but I am still standin’ here talking to you.

Zing! Manse has the grace to look abashed … and then he looks angry.

Manse: That’s easy enough to arrange.

And he walks away to the lounge and avails himself of the nightcaps. Kiera watches him with a smile and seeing him settled with the drinks, she nonchalantly goes upstairs to find Racy.

Joshua’s upstairs cleaning up the remaining bits of debris from dinner. Racy stalks into the lounge and sits down on one of the couches, clearly angry. Joshua puts aside the task at hand and goes over to her.

Joshua: Hi.
Racy: (angry) Great ship you got here. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess.
Joshua: You want to talk about whatever it is that happened? I seem to get in trouble when I ask that question, but I can’t help it. I … we’re not—
Racy: (still angry) I’m not your whore, okay?
Joshua: Yeah. I know.
Racy: Then quit trying to whore me off to your passengers.
Joshua: (Firmly) We did not try to whore you off to our passengers. If one of our passengers said that we did, they were lying. You are not, under any circumstances, required to do anything along that line that you do not want to do.

He’s quite emphatic about that and Racy subsides.

Racy: All right. Well …
Joshua: Who was it? Which of them was it?
Racy: They’re both the same to me.
Joshua: We’ll have a word with them. But once again, you are not required—you are a passenger on this ship. Just like they’re a passenger on this ship. That grants you to certain rights and one of those rights is not being harassed by the other passengers.

Nika is on the bridge and she notices a sudden uptick in Cortex activity on one of the sensors. Not that surprising, since we’re in a system that has Cortex access and one of the crew could be surfing it and downloading something to read or watch. That’s nothing new and Nika’s inclined to disregard it. Looking closer at the readout, however, Nika sees it’s a broadcast going back to Ithaca. Someone is sending a message.

And that warrants looking into. Meanwhile, Joshua’s still explaining our intentions to Racy.

Joshua: We got you out of there so you wouldn’t have to. The idea is to get you home if you wanted to go home. And if you didn’t want to go home, try and set you up in a life somewhere else that you wanted to do.

The XO is outraged on Racy’s behalf and he’s getting angrier and angrier the more he thinks about it.

Joshua: Can I get you another drink or a snack or something while you’re up here?
Racy: No.
Joshua: All right. I’m just trying to be of help. If there’s something I can do for you, then let me know.
Racy: No, no, no. Just get me away from all this—
Joshua: We’re trying. As fast as this ship will fly, we are trying to move.
Racy: I’ll need some clothes. Some money to get started in something.
Joshua: We can and will help you with that. Giselle knows where she came from and wants to go back. Did you want to go back to where you were from? Cuz if you do, we can go there but if you don’t care, then we can take you where you want to go.
Racy: Have you ever been to Jubilee?
Joshua: No. I can’t say that I have.
Racy: Ithaca’s better than that. When I got on this ship, my parents told me it was a big adventure. In fact, it wasn’t.
Joshua: I’m sorry. I know you don’t need it from me, but I’m sorry.
Racy: This is the same ship.
Joshua: Yeah. Different owners.
Racy: They think it’s the same.

She nods toward the passenger deck.

Joshua: No. I’m sorry they harassed you but it’s not the same. Trying to set it right. Doing the best we can, but the crew is human beings like anybody else. I’m sorry the passengers were being asses.
Racy: Well …
Joshua: Unfortunately, if I lock them down, then I gotta lock everybody down. Nobody wants to get locked down and we don’t want to lock down. So when you have freedom, it also means you have freedom to be an ass.
Racy: I don’t think I could fall asleep.
Joshua: You’re welcome to stay here on the upper deck as long as you feel comfortable.
Racy: I don’t need to talk to you.
Joshua: Yes, ma’am.

Joshua goes back to cleaning up. Rina’s leaning in the galley doorway with a cup of coffee, just taking it all in. Kiera pokes her head into the lounge, spies the coffee in Rina’s hands and crosses the lounge on the pretext of tending to the never-ending coffee pot. Rina goes into the galley on the pretext of grabbing the last of the coffee before Kiera pours it out. Joshua calls to the galley.

Joshua: Would you mind cleaning up the last of this? I just need to go talk to the Captain about something for a moment.
Kiera: Yeah, okay. Sure. Take her this cup of coffee.
Joshua: Thank you.

Kiera starts pulling ingredients to make cookies. Nothing soothes the soul like the aroma of cookies baking and she’s got the idea that any minute now there’s some souls going to need soothing. Joshua goes forward, coffee in hand, and enters the bridge.

Joshua: Nika?
Nika: (turning around) Coffee.
Joshua: Coffee and bad news. You have to take the one to get the other.
Nika: (off his look) Ohhh, you suck.

He settles in the copilot’s chair.

Joshua: Just so you know, Racy was harassed to—I don’t know how bad that means but—by one of the passengers. She doesn’t know which one. She can’t tell them apart. To be fair, I don’t know which one it was. But I decided to give you the heads-up. I told her that’s … that ain’t—she thought we had whored her out.
Nika: Why would she think that? The steward specifically told her from the start that she was not expected to.
Joshua: Uh-huh. That is true. And I double-double-double verified that. I’m betting, if I had to bet, that one of the passengers took some liberties and said something along the lines. And you know, I’m just guessing. I haven’t talked to the passengers yet. Actually, I’m a little concerned to talk to the passengers.
Nika: It’s not your job to deal with that unless it’s a problem.
Joshua: Right now, it doesn’t seem to be a problem.
Nika: Talk to Kiera. Make sure she knows to keep an eye out.
Joshua: Yep. Will do. Just wanted to make sure you knew, since it’s my job to let you know. Do you want more coffee?
Nika: If it happens again, they’ll be confined to their quarters.

As for the coffee? Nope. She’s good. Joshua returns to the lounge to look for Kiera. Cookies are baking up and everything smells wonderful. She comes out of the galley and meets Joshua in the lounge.

Kiera: I wonder if there’s a way to turn it so they only get cold showers.
Rina: (joining them) You’re asking the wrong person, Kiera.
Joshua: Do you know what—?

Kiera tells him the name of the passenger guilty of the transgression. Knowing the guilty party doesn’t make Joshua feel calmer. If anything, it makes him angrier.

Joshua: I wish you hadn’t told me that. When I didn’t know who it was, it was much harder to go down there and throw them against the wall.
Rina: You don’t have to do it. I can do it.
Joshua: No. Don’t mind me. (gets a grip) Keep an eye out, please? Not saying you wouldn’t, because I would hate to lock our passengers down for the rest of the trip.

But keep an eye out.

Kiera: Unfortunately it’s not that much longer a trip but I’ll go sit in the lounge and hang out with them. Be friendly.
Joshua: I’m not sure she’s going to want to talk.
Kiera: Nah, not her.
Rina: Him.
Kiera: With the boys. I’m okay with babysittin’.
Joshua: All right. Thank you.
Kiera: They’re not six-foot-five and full of steroids, so …

She sashays for the stairs and Rina leans in toward Joshua.

Rina: You’re the XO. Do you want me to do something to their climate control?
Joshua: (shaking finger) Dih-dih-dih! No. Professional. Professional. If I was going to do something, I want to do it with my own hands—no, no, no.

He backs off from finishing that thought.

Joshua: I’ve just never been so angry.
Rina: (grimly) You’re not alone.

Given Rina’s past history, it’s a wonder Joshua isn’t sitting on her to keep her from tearing into the letch belowdecks.

Speaking of which …

Kiera’s down in the passenger lounge hanging out with Roger when Manse walks in. He’s looking a bit smug for someone caught molesting a female passenger. Kiera smiles at him anyway.

Kiera: Well, you look like you feel better.
Manse: Yeah, I’ve been thinkin’ this over. Sometimes you got to turn a bad situation into a good one. So why don’t you give me another drink and finish this run.
Kiera: Sounds like you got a really good attitude about it.
Manse: Yeah. It’s all what makes a difference.
Kiera: It does, dun’n it? So you just went and talked it over with yourself and feel a little better now. I’m sure that’s all good. Cuz I’d hate to do somethin’ that would make us both sorry.
Manse: Then I guess it’s all good.
Kiera: Okay.
Manse: I might need to talk to you a little bit when we get to Aphrodite about the terms.
Kiera: (evenly) No. There’s no talking about terms if we’re on time, Mr. Manse.
Manse: Well the circumstances may have changed.
Kiera: The circumstances might find that it doesn’t work that they’ve changed. If you read the contract there’s nothing under the fine print that says we will provide whores. If you’d read it carefully. I’m sure Mr. Roger understood that. Did you understand that, Mr. Roger?
Roger: I wasn’t plannin’ on getting’ any whores.
Kiera: See? He understood that.
Roger: Do you have any whores?
Kiera: No, there ain’t no whores. That was specifically not provided for.

Manse just smiles a knowing little smile.

Manse: Riiight. Did you have something about traveling with fugitives?



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