Episode 515: Ithaca Rumble, Part Two
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Nika curses and flies to the opposite end of the building, hoping there is something Joshua can use for an exit. The roof is end to end skylights and she can just make out the racing form of the mule. Inside the building, Arden and the girls prep for collision … and realize the flatbed isn’t exactly built with collisions in mind. Joshua drives, still hell bent for leather and through the maze of machinery he glimpses a patch of light. It’s a window high up on the wall, closer to the ceiling than the floor, and he pulls up on the steering controls and aims for it. He stomps on the accelerator and Arden and the girls duck and cover and…
CRAASSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH!
The mule flies right through the window in a shower of broken glass and framing and unfortunately, pieces of the mule’s hover package. They hit the ground with the rest of the debris and despite Joshua’s best efforts there is no keeping it in the air. The mule sails in a smooth arc into a holding pool filled with … gunk … and splashes in. Everyone’s rattled and bruised but alive. Arden picks himself off the deck and moans sourly at his crewmate.
Arden: You can stop now, Joshua.
Joshua: Yeah, I think I’m gonna have to.
Joshua’s eyeballing the level of the goop crawling up the sides of the flatbed. The pool is deeper than the mule is tall and she starts to sink. Joshua and Arden get the girls to higher ground as the flatbed tilts cab-first below the surface. Giselle is out cold and Arden has to revive her.
Nika hovers Lagniappe between her crew and the approaching gang. When they don’t engage but turn around and drive away, Nika eases over the pool. Rina sends the abseil lines down and winches our crew aboard Lagniappe. We fly out of there, leaving our poor flatbed behind. We may be able to retrieve it later but now is not the time to effect retrieval.
Score: One JJB girl, with a guest and two crew, rescued. All are suffering some level of injury. Both menfolk are sporting wounds and cuts and stun damage. Racy is likely utterly convinced she’s been kidnapped by insane maniacs.
Once we’re safely underway, Nika flies a roundabout route toward the spaceport and asks for a sit rep.
Nika: You guys wanna tell me what you did?
Beglan: (over the comms) Apparently when the men left the ship, they got into a bit of a scrape. (a beat) We may be leaving quickly. I don’t know if when you get back or not, we may be leaving in a hurry. I don’t know how long it will take to get all this cargo on but we’ll try.
Back on Equinox, Kiera hears we’re on our way in and gets on the horn to tell our passengers that we’ll be ready to go, that they should make their way aboard now.
Manse: Why are you leaving so—What’s the story?
Kiera: They’re ready to go. Dialed up and ready to go. We’re trying to beat that speed, you know. We don’t want to give out that money. We are so ready to go.
Manse: All right.
Kiera: Awesome!
Back on Lagniappe, Nika asks again for the sit rep.
Nika: You guys wanna tell me what you’ve been doing?
Arden: We were .. rescuing the young lady and the pimp decided he didn’t like that so he called his friends and we ran. It’s pretty simple.
That’s a succinct and accurate summary, actually. Joshua sits up and gestures for the outside. His face is lit up like Christmas.
Joshua: Did you see? Through the window? Like—phtewwwwwwhhhhhh!
He skip-slaps one palm off the other and mimes the mule smashing through to freedom. Nika looks less than impressed.
Joshua: But it was necessary. The guy with the big gun and the new tech weaponry was chasing us, like, I mean—
Nika: You get to explain to your fiancée why we no longer have a mule.
Joshua: (enthused) Because I jumped through a window!
Rina: (butting in) Instead of going through the skylight?
Joshua: I didn’t see the skylight. I saw the window.
Arden: I was too busy screaming in terror with my eyes closed.
Joshua: I didn’t see the skylight. I’m sorry. (a beat) It was much more dramatic going through the window.
From the comm, Kiera hails us, telling us she’s been helping Beglan stow and tie down the cargo. In addition …
Kiera: I told our passengers to get here ASAP so that we can make it.
Nika: (thumbs comm) We’re going to attempt to recover the mule, probably in the next several hours.
Kiera: Oh, okay. Well, I just told them to get everything on and ready to go.
Nika: Good plan. Cuz I don’t know if we’ll have several hours, so we’ll see what happens.
Kiera: Where is the mule at again?
Nika: (eyeroll, sigh) In a puddle of toxic waste.
While Kiera sputters over the comm at the news, Rina pulls Joshua to his feet.
Rina: Speaking of which, let’s get you in the head. (looks at the men) Both of you. Wash that crap off you.
Lagnaippe doesn’t have a shower but it does have a sink and it’s better than nothing to effect a clean up. Joshua digs in his heels and calls back to Nika in the cockpit as she flies us home.
Joshua: I’ve always wanted to say this but … I learned it from you, Nika. I learned it from you.
Nika: (flying on) You didn’t learn it well enough cuz your truck didn’t run anymore after that.
Joshua: This truck didn’t move that fast, I’d like to point that out. I couldn’t even get it up to 70. Geez.
Nika: (flying on) That’s your fiancée’s department. Not mine.
Joshua: Get me a truck that goes fast.
Nika: Maybe you shouldn’t get him a truck that goes fast.
Joshua: (off Rina’s look) Yeah. I’m probably not on the winning side of that argument. Never mind.
Nika: Learn it from me, my butt.
Joshua: But did you see me go through the window?
Nika: (relenting) I have to tell you, in that truck? That was pretty damn impressive.
Joshua: Then my work here is done.
Nika: You have to explain to your fiancée why we no longer have a mule.
Nika flies on for a beat and then switches conversational gears over splashing from the head.
Nika: Did any of you inform this nice girl that we’re the good guys or did you just scare the crap out of her?
Arden: I think we just scared the crap out of her.
Joshua: Yes, to both of those questions.
At which point Nika actually turns around and looks at Racy.
Nika: So … did you want to go home again?
Racy: (subdued) I’m not sure I have a choice now.
Nika: Yeah. (counts to three!) Did anybody ask the nice young lady what she wanted?
Arden: We were too busy being chased.
Joshua: The problem was that the pimp was slapping her up and so Arden dodged and pulled a gun, so—
Nika: Soooooo, instead of—
Racy: You can take me to another planet in this ship?
Nika: In the regular ship, yeah.
Joshua: Yes.
Lagniappe is a short range shuttle, unlike Equinox whose range is a mite longer. Nika flies and drags us back on topic.
Nika: So, instead of just hiring her services and finding out what she wanted—
Arden: I tried that. The pimp got uppity.
Nika: Arden just used the word ‘uppity’ with me.
Dead silence. Then Joshua starts to chuckle.
Joshua: It all makes perfect sense.
Nika pointedly says over her shoulder at our newest rescue:
Nika: We can drop you off wherever you like to go. If that means home to your folks, that’s up to you. If it means to a different planet, we would be happy to oblige you. We are headed for—where the hell are we headed for next? Somebody tell me.
Rina: Beaumode.
Joshua: Aphrodite.
Nika: Aphrodite is where we’re going next, but it’s your call. Wherever you’d like to go.
Racy: I don’t know anything about Aphrodite.
Joshua: Where are you from?
Nika: Well, I’ll tell you what—
Racy: Did you say Beaumonde?
Rina: (slowly) Eventually.
Racy: I was supposed to go to Beaumonde.
Nika: For?
Racy: When I was … taken, years ago off of Jubilee, they said they were going to take me to Beaumonde. But I was too much trouble, so they left me here.
Rina: Too much trouble how?
Nika: Tell you what. Let’s get you on board and get you settled in and we’ll talk about it, okay?
Racy: I don’t like being made to do things.
Nika: I actually don’t blame you.
Arden: I apologize. I don’t mean to kidnap you. We honestly had the best of intentions.
Nika: I hesitate to say that … to—to… (rethinks) You know what? No, I don’t hesitate to offer you the option. This is where you’ve lived for how many years now? If you want to stay here—?
Racy: (brusque) And what? Get killed by Rio?
We’re beginning to see how Racy could have been too much trouble. She has spirit and she isn’t taking this upheaval of her fortunes lying down. If anything, she seems angry at the monkeywrench we’ve thrown into her life, our good intentions notwithstanding. And despite the whirlwind of her escape, she’s still got her feet firmly on practical ground: there’s no going back to her previous life. We’ve burned that bridge for her already. Not that Nika is unaware of that fact.
Nika: Yeah. That was my biggest concern. I’m offering the option but I wouldn’t recommend it. And I apologize for the fact, being as it was not supposed to happen.
Joshua: We didn’t plan it this way. I promise you, Captain.
Racy: (dubious) You guys do this a lot?
Arden: Well … not up til now.
Racy: So you randomly pick up—?
Nika: Actually, it’s not so random. We’d come into possession of the ship that once transported you, and in one of the vents a log book was located. With names of girls who had been taken in the same way that you were. And so, quite frankly, it besmirches the honor of our vessel and so we’re trying to—
Racy: What are you talking about?
Joshua: This means we’ve got to set right what was done wrong by the previous owners of the ship. Giselle here is … was … one of these girls.
Giselle nods and her manner when she speaks is a mixture of awe and gratitude.
Giselle: I was in the same situation as you. And they rescued me and now we’ve rescued you.
Racy: (still dubious) I don’t know if I’m better off rescued or not.
Joshua: All right. It seems a little crazy.
Racy: I think asking me first would have been a better plan.
Arden: I agree.
Rina: (too sweetly) Yes. It would have been.
Nika: (heading Rina off) I think somehow, there’s conversation to be had in here with—I’m almost sure with him.
She tilts her head toward Arden and Arden bristles.
Arden: Me?
Joshua: He—no, he was actually—Giselle. Tell her. He was very honorable defending—
Giselle: Yes. He went to rescue her. She was hit by him, by the pimp.
Arden: And then he tried to stab me with a knife.
Giselle: It’s true. I saw that.
Nika: It’s too late to argue about it now.
Arden: I’m not arguing. I’m explaining.
Nika: Here’s the thing.
Nika flies a second and gathers her thoughts.
Nika: Going back to the issue of what you want to do, take some time and presuming we do not have to leave the planet in a hurry, you have a little time to think about what it is you’d like to do.
Racy: The Rockets are pretty dangerous.
Nika: Well, then let’s go ahead and take you with us. And you can decide en route where you want to go.
Arden: Is that the name of the gang? How original.
Nika: Arden.
Arden: Yes? (a beat) What?
Silence, deadly silence from our pilot and captain. Then:
Nika: Snark will not get you anywhere today.
Arden: I just said it wasn’t original.
Nika: Sarcasm. And snark. Not going to fly today.
Arden: I don’t think ‘snark’ is in my Oxford English Dictionary.
Nika: Mouth. Is still running.
Rina: I have duct tape.
Arden: There’s a crack?
Nika: (last nerve!) Uhhnnnnn!
Since just about everyone on the flatbed is in need of some serious patching up, Nika doesn’t waste any more time in conversation but makes haste for Equinox and the med lab we have there. Giselle was the worst off of everyone but Arden and Joshua are pretty banged up too. Nika checks for tails and she’s certain we’re clear. However, she notices a number of skiffs in the air near the starport on the way in. She can’t be sure if it’s our pursuers or parties innocent of wrongdoing. It’s fully dark now, Ithaca firmly entrenched in the 84-hour night cycle and Nika can’t make out more than their running lights. No telling if the skiffs have red paint jobs with yellow rockets painted on their quarter panels.
Arden: Do you think we can ask the Rockets to replace our truck?
Joshua: I’d guess … (thinks) … No.
Rina: You’re not from this Universe, are you?
Nika’s doing a mental count of the number of skiff lights she’s seen and decides that there’s a few too many for her peace of mind. Air traffic should be lighter than that during Ithaca’s night cycle. She changes course and lands Lagniappe some distance away from the city. If the Rockets are hunting for them, there’s no way in hell she’s going to lead them right to our front door. She comms Equinox.
Nika: Beggar. Do you have any comm chatter on anybody being locked down?
Belgan: Comm chatter? Ah, give me a second. I haven’t really—I mean, I’ve been listening but I haven’t been listening to—give me a minute.
Nika: Okay, that’s fine. We got a little bit of air traffic over the port and I’m not sure I want to bring the shuttle in under those conditions.
Beglan: I’ll take a gander. (pause) It all appears normal to me. Am I looking for something in particular? Like … ? The starport’s open.
Nika thinks for a beat. Then:
Nika: All right. You guys loaded up?
Beglan: Uhm. Actually not yet…
We still have 200 tons left to load and it’s going to take a little while to get loaded aboard. From below on Lagniappe’s passenger deck, Arden calls up to Nika.
Arden: I’m curious, though, what you would have done different.
Nika: You’re asking me this now, when I’m trying to get us back to the spaceport?
Arden: Well, we have to wait for them to finish loading the ship.
Nika: (to Beglan) I’m going to give it a couple of hours. See if they give up.
With only two crew members on hand to load cargo, loading the rest of the cargo just might take that long. Beglan relays Nika’s news to Kiera, who receives it with some justified grumpiness.
Kiera: They have to wait for us to finish—Yeah, thanks for leaping to our aid.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, our passengers arrive, bags in hand, and Kiera leaves off loading with Beglan (whispering she’s sorry to leave him alone with it) and goes over to them.
Manse: Is there a steward or something?
Kiera: Yeah, that’s me.
She gives them her sunniest smile and leads them past the cargo to the passenger deck. Manse looks around. Our Topio Dio robot trundles up and offers to take our passengers’ bags in a properly robotic voice.
Roger: Wow. Check it out. They have a Topio.
Manse isn’t impressed.
Manse: So, you got a drink menu or somethin’? How soon are we liftin’ off?
Kiera: Oh it should be in the next few hours.
Manse: Hours? Oh. You had given me the impression that we were—
Kiera: We are hoping to leave sooner but the Captain … said there was something holding them up just a little bit.
Manse: Uh, oh.
Kiera: (sighing sadly) I know. I know. I will impress upon her the speed needed. So… you like whiskey or you like scotch?
Manse: I don’t know what kind of alcohol you got. Do you do fancy drinks? Is this that sort of ship?
Kiera reads the mood off Manse and though she sighs inwardly, she keeps on smiling and rustles up those drinks. We’re down to our last bottle of booze and it’s not going to be up to Manse’s obvious standard. Kiera fetches something better from her own private stash. She’s going to have to find a way to make it serve until she can get more. At Lagniappe, Nika’s got her own cross to bear. She leans back in her pilot’s chair and calls down to Arden.
Nika: Don’t take this wrong, but under the conditions that you were working under, I’d’ve just offered him money.
Arden: I didn’t have any money.
Nika: You knew what kind of life she was probably supposed to be in.
Arden: I told him I just wanted to have her for one hour.
Nika: Arden, somehow I have the feeling that’s not exactly what happened.
Arden: That’s what I remember.
Nika: I’m sure.
Joshua: Well, actually he’s right. Unfortunately, it’s just that he offered …
Arden: After punching him.
To pass the time and to try to fix it so we can listen for the Rockets via any of their comm chatter, Rina fiddles with Lagniappe’s comm equipment, hoping to boost our gain. She manages it and starts scrolling through the channels. Traffic is pretty light. There’s the occasional call on the police band, but the police seem curiously unwilling to respond. Oh, they’ll take the address down, note the nature of the call, and mark the time, but they aren’t actually leaving the station.
Huh.
Looks like when night falls, the police leave Ithaca to the cockroaches, just like rumor has it. Rina can make out very faint signals from the skiffs. The chatter is basically of the have you found them?/nothing yet/they gotta come back sooner or later variety. Rina mutters a curse. If the Rockets don’t give up their surveillance, how are we going to dock with Equinox? She slips the head phones off and throws Nika a sour look.
Rina: They’re lying in wait for us, Captain.
Nika: Let’s go play a little chicken.
Rina: Do you need me to hang out the hatch with a rifle?
Nika: (calmly) Not yet.
Rina: All right. I’ll get the abseil.
Nika: Let’s go keep them busy until they can get the ship off the ground.
Rina: Okay.
While Rina gets to work, Joshua climbs up to the cockpit platform.
Joshua: (low) Can we?
Nika: What?
Joshua: Dock the shuttle in space. (off her look) Well, I’m just saying that if we dock the shuttle in space—the ship takes off and goes into orbit, and then the shuttle takes off from another place and goes into orbit—
Nika: (flipping switches) The ship has to finish getting loaded.
Joshua: Well, yes. I mean after that, rather than playing with the skiffs now.
From the rear a deck below, Rina adds her voice to Joshua’s.
Rina: Exactly. It will save on fuel. We just have to lay low until that happens.
Joshua: (to Nika) I don’t even know if we can. That’s why I was asking.
Rina: I can’t even believe I’m advocating the non-violent approach.
Joshua: (to Rina) I know.
Nika: Yes. I can dock the shuttle in space. But I would like the get the skiffs out of the way so we can lift off and not have any issues.
Joshua: All right.
Nika: Now the question is—do you guys just want to walk in and let me play cat and mouse with them for a while?
Joshua: I don’t think the girls should be walking in.
Nika: No. You and Arden.
Joshua: Sure.
It would be hours to walk in from where we are. Nika thinks she can fly in low and drop off Joshua and Arden a little closer to the spaceport and they can walk the rest of the way in. Joshua’s not so sure.
Joshua: If you come in close enough, you’re going to get their attention.
Nika: Then we can play cat and mouse with them or we can attempt to essentially slam the shuttle home and take off with Equinox.
Joshua: It seems if you know you can dock in space, then doing that is the less dangerous option. Cuz the ship I don’t think will necessarily draw their attention. They don’t know what they’re looking for.
Nika: It doesn’t have a pilot.
Joshua: Can Beggar fly it?
Nika: Kiera can fly some, but …
Joshua: How hard can it be to … (rethinks it)
The comm breeps for our attention. It’s Kiera.
Nika: What?
Kiera: Time is ticking. Passengers on board.
Nika: Are you loaded?
Kiera: (squeaks) Almost.
Nika: Then get loaded. And then we’ll talk.
Kiera: Trying to steward and load, Captain. Sorry. Faster ….
Nika cuts the channel.
Joshua: How difficult to be to lift the ship and launch? That’s pretty basic right?
Nika: The question is, will they let the Equinox take of.
Joshua: Why wouldn’t they?
Rina: They’re not after Equinox. They’re after the shuttle.
Joshua: That’s Part A. And Part B, these are not, I mean, they didn’t look like they—
Nika: Stop. Stop. (a beat) Racy.
Racy looks up from her seat on the passenger deck.
Racy: Yeah?
Nika: So tell me a little about your ex … boss.
Racy: What do you want to know?
Nika: I’d like you to tell me just how far he’s willing to go to get one girl back. And why?
Racy: I think … he doesn’t like being insulted and shot at. And robbed from.
Nika: Okay. It’s just a face thing. He’s lost face.
Racy: Face is pretty important to him.
Nika: Absolutely. I’m just checking to be sure that this is a he’s-lost-face versus it’s about you, personally.
Racy: Well, I don’t know how much they value me but they certainly stopped me from running away. Sometimes I—one time I made it as far as Boros one time. For three days. Five? He found me. So …
Nika: So they’re willing to go to some lengths. How many girls does he run.
Racy: Five or six … I can’t always tell if they’re working like I am or if they’re okay with it. Some of them seem to be more girlfriends. It’s hard to say.
Nika: But you’re saying you’re not a particular favorite, say you’re not his girlfriend and …
Racy: I’m property of the gang.
Nika: Okay. (grim) It’s a property thing.
Racy: I’d say so.
Nika nods and quells her engineer with a look. Not the most constructive time to get outraged.
Nika: Okay. That’s what I needed to know. If we’re dealing with a face issue—
Racy: It’s not just him. It’s the whole gang.
Nika: Right.
Arden: How many is the whole gang?
Racy: Thirty, forty.
Rina curses under her breath.
Nika: Now, is this guy who’s slappin’ you around the honcho?
Racy: No.
Nika: The guy in the big car?
Racy: He might have been in the car, but I don’t know. Do you mean who’s the leader of the gang?
Nika: Yeah.
Racy: Yeah. Skarn.
Nika: ’Kay.
Nika thinks. Picks up the comm.
Nika: Hey, Kiera.
Kiera: Yes.
Nika: So here’s a question for you.
Kiera: Okay.
Nika: The boys here have managed to piss off probably the biggest gang in the place and now we’ve got one of their girls, their property. There’s a serious amount of face lost here.
Kiera: O-kay.
Nika: Any thoughts on how we might fix that quickly?
After all, she’s our underworld expert.
Kiera: Um. Okay. Do I know what would fix face? Aside handing over Joshua or Arden. Cuz truly, handing over Arden—
Behind her chair, Nika can hear Joshua enthuse:
Joshua: That would be awesome. We give him some money and I challenge the gang leader to hand-to-hand combat, like, to the death. The winner—
Kiera: Is he still talking? Tell him to shut up.
Rina gives Joshua a whap and Nika thumbs her comm again.
Nika: What would make it right, besides turning her back over?
Kiera: Well, no. Turning her back over doesn’t take care of face. You would need that plus something. Turning her over won’t do it. We could buy her straight out but that won’t do it either.
Nika: That won’t save face.
Kiera: No. Basically, you could have just done a transaction and it would have been done up.
Arden: I say we just let them deal with the face loss.
Kiera: Why do you need to fix it so that you’re fixing their—
Nika: I’m just looking at the options.
Kiera: Can they stop you from taking off. Are they connected with the spaceport, Captain?
Nika doesn’t know. Things are different at night. During the day, the gangs don’t have the pull they have after dark, when the cops pull back and let them take over. If we just sat and waited for daybreak, it would take 3.5 days.
Kiera: Do you know how to contact the leader? Do you want to make that offer?
Nika: We have the name.
Arden: I can wait 84 hours.
Nika: But our passengers may not be able to.
Arden: Then I say we run the blockade.
Kiera: At a certain point, tell Arden we’re recording them two days for free.
Arden: I have no problem with that. Run the blockade.
Kiera: I would like to keep Iskellian on our good side.
Arden: Them too.
Kiera: I have this silly idea they might use us again. If we do a good job.
Arden: Then why don’t—
Nika claims back her comm.
Nika: Okay, get the cargo loaded. Get off the ground. We’re gonna dock in space.
Kiera: Okay. We can do that.
Arden: Yeah, that was what I was about to say.
Nika: Assuming we can get off the ground. Or you can get off the ground, however.
Kiera: I … hope to, Captain. (faintly over the comm) I’ve never flown this one.
Nika: I’m aware of that.
Kiera signs off to get things under way as ordered.
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