Episode 606: Fireworks, Part Three
Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Special Features.
Kiera: Every time I tether up to somebody, they go ‘Wheeeee!’ Dammit!
She re-tethers and launches herself out the airlock door at Joshua, grabbing his foot just centimeters before her tether stops her short—Grab! Yank!—and there they are, twisting slowly at the end of her rope. Slowly, carefully, Kiera reels them back into the airlock.
It seals. Atmo hisses. The lights go green and Kiera rips her helmet off.
Kiera: Argh! What is it with you and your girlfriend!?
Back on Rob Roy , Rina thinks she’s got the sensors recalibrated as ordered. She’s tired, she’s still in her suit, she’s worried about her ship, and she’s worried about her crew … she’s just not sure if she’s got the sensors recalibrated as ordered. Even though she’s removed her gloves, it’s still damned clumsy doing the finicking work in the suit. But until they can pinpoint where the corrosive is out there, there’s no telling when they might get struck by the stuff again and go through another decompression. So the suit is staying on … and she continues fighting the equipment.
And she’s not the only one fighting. On Equinox, Joshua’s having a round with the SmartShip system over unlocking the door entering to Nika’s quarters. It tells him that there’s vacuum on the other side and it cannot open the door as ordered.
Joshua: I don’t care. Lower the bulkhead. By the way, Computer, lower the bulkhead.
SmartShip: All the bulkheads?
Joshua: No. Not all the bulkheads.
SmartShip: Detecting a minute leak on the bridge.
Joshua: A minute leak on the bridge?
SmartShip: Yes. It’s within tolerance but not recommended.
Joshua: I don’t care if it’s within tolerance. Lower the bulkhead.
Kiera: I can’t believe you’re arguing with the computer.
Joshua: Everything on this effing ship argues with me. So why should this be any different?
Kiera: Yeah, you’re calm.
Joshua: I’m perfectly fine, actually. Computer: override. If I die, Computer, you can say I told you so. Open up the bulkhead.
The indicators on the door go from red to yellow. He gets that door open and steps into Nika’s cabin. Her quarters are pretty messed up.
Kiera: Wow. Nika’s room exploded. That’s cool.
Joshua: (sidestepping some skivvies) Not really. Let’s get to the bridge.
The bridge is in better shape. Everything important is still intact. There’s a funny smell and there are alarms still blaring. Joshua turns them off. Thank you but we know what the problem is. Kiera puts some patch tape over the holes from the inside, reinforcing Joshua’s repairs. There is no sign of an exit hole for the corrosive, however, but Joshua can’t spare the time to look for where the crap went right now. He gets on the comm and hails Nika.
Joshua: Captain?
Nika: Yeah, you guys—?
Joshua: On the bridge.
Nika: (proudly) Great job.
Joshua: Now, what the hell do we do?
Nika: I wish I frakkin’ knew, Joshua. We gotta get out of this minefield, if that’s what this is, and the only way I can think to do it is to tweak the sensors so that it can read the substance that’s hitting us.
Joshua: All right.
Nika: Rina’s working on it but she’s not having a whole lotta luck.
Kiera: Is there a way to link this ship’s computer with that ship’s computer, so Rina can do her programming? Is it something she can download once we’re linked together?
Nika: Ask the SmartComputer. I don’t know.
Joshua: Get Arden in here to look at it. Arden might be able to because he actually knows exactly what the substance is. He might be able to tweak the sensors.
Joshua rises from the captain’s chair to get Aden from med bay.
Kiera: Joshua, make sure you get Arden in a vac suit in case these seals fail.
Joshua nods and gets to Arden, asks him if he can tweak our sensors to detect the corrosive.
Arden: It seems possible.
Joshua: You want to give it a try.
Arden: I will.
Joshua: Put a vac suit on.
Arden: I’ve got a rebreather.
Joshua: That won’t help. We’re sealed but the computer keeps giving us the minute leak warning.
Arden: I won’t have the manual dexterity needed if I have a suit on.
Joshua: The captain will kill me if you don’t, but feel free. I’d rather you get the job done. If you’re willing to take the risk…?
Arden: I’ll put the suit on but leave the gloves off for now.
Arden goes to the bridge, gets into the sensors, and finally we catch a break: he successfully installs that hack. He hits the scan button and our sensor display lights right up with hits, pinging away like a pinball machine.
Kiera: Oh my God, it’s like a Christmas tree.
Joshua: Fantastic work, Arden. Fantastic work.
Arden: I just hope it’s getting the right thing, yeah.
Joshua: (on the comms) Captain?
Nika: Yeah. How many have you got?
Joshua: How many do I have? I’m sending it over to you now. (sends)
Nika: (reads, chokes) Oh my word …
Joshua: Yeah.
We’re in the middle of a minefield. She motions MacGregor over to the display.
Nika: Uhh, Captain?
MacGregor: That’s not nice to see.
Nika: Ya think?
Joshua: (over comms) I don’t know enough about our defensive weapons in our weapons bay whether any of those can be used to clear a path or whether we even want to risk it.
MacGregor: Best not to use it on mines.
Joshua: Okay. I’ll take your word for it.
MacGregor: It’s missiles and most defensive weapons are good, unless you have anti-mine equipment?
Joshua: No. Not really.
Studying the readouts, Nika thinks we might be able to tiptoe through the field on slow thrusters. It’s a twisty path out of there but it is a path out there, nonetheless. We could clear it in an hour at a crawl. Nika cuts a look at MacGregor.
Nika: How good’s your pilot?
Joshua: (over the comms) I don’t know why you’re asking the question. You’re better than he is.
Nika: (to Joshua) That’s not the point.
MacGregor: He’s a good man. He can make it. Although he got us into this the first time.
Nika: Well, he couldn’t exactly see it now, could he? That’s not fair.
Arden tosses a look at Joshua on the Equinox bridge.
Arden: Now where have I heard that before? “He’s a good man but got us into this in the first place.”?
Back on Rob Roy , Nika tells MacGregor she’ll take the lead. He agrees.
Nika: Cuz sitting here is not doing us any good. We’ll just keep getting hit. We’ll take this path out in this direction and tell your pilot to stay as hard on my heels as he can.
MacGregor: What about our wounded?
Joshua: (over comms) Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Nika, which ship are you on?
Nika: Rob Roy .
Joshua: And how are you getting over here?
Nika: Of course we have to get our ship fixed first before we can do that …
That’s right. The way up from the umbilical is still blocked by vacuum. Rina suggests Nika pull a suit on and spacewalk outside from the cargo bay to one of the airlocks on the crew deck. And she’d be in good company. Beglan will have to do the same thing.
And MacGregor brings up a good point. We have their injured aboard and we have the only doctors. Do we keep the injured on our ship for the duration or should we move the injured back onto Rob Roy ? Was Rob Roy ’s sick bay hit? No, they don’t have one, just a space cleared where they do medical stuff. Kiera offers to go over in her vac suit and hand it off to Nika for her trip back. Nika orders her to bring an extra vac suit for Beglan, who’s still waiting in our cargo hold. He comms in to say that he’s still interested in fixing the hatch access between decks. He’s pretty sure the lockdown on it is a malfunction. It’ll be a tight fit with a suit but he wants to go up the hatch tube and patch what’s broken. Nika calls him back onto Rob Roy to wait for Kiera and the suit she’ll be bringing with her. Rina joins the discussion.
Rina: You know, I can’t leave these sensors discombulated. So I’ll have to recombobulate them right? I’m going to get out of my freakin’ vac suit so Beglan can use it.
Nika: (blinks) Oh crap. You’re in a vac suit.
Rina: Uh-huh.
And it was a pain in the ass working on the sensors while wearing it, too. Rina’s annoyance has finally overtaken her paranoia over decompression and all she wants is to get out of the damned thing. It’s a great idea at first glance, until you take into account that Rina’s suit is sized to her height. She’s short. Beglan’s taller. No-go on the swap. She gets out of it anyway. Kiera brings him an extra suit.
Getting everyone swapped over to where they need to be takes a while. Arden finally begs off as the stims he took wear out. Nika EVAs over to the crewdeck and makes it to the bridge. Before she leaves, she gives Rina a parting command:
Nika: Check in with Joshua because he was very worried while you were out.
Rina gives her Captain a thumbs up from under the console and keys her comms: Joshua, I’m fine …
The next few hours are busy ones. Beglan manages to get the access hatches to work. The stairs are still blocked off due to the depressurized passenger lounge, but the hatchways are good enough for us to travel between the decks. Rina and Kiera are still aboard Rob Roy and when everything’s in place, they comm back for their final positions.
Kiera: You want me to ride with them?
Nika: Yeah. I want you to stay with them because it’s going to be a good hour and just in case something goes wrong over there, I’d like you to be there.
Rina: Captain, do you want me to stay here or come back home? They’re flyin’ without an engineer and you’ve got Beggar.
Nika: Go ahead.
Rina: All right. Love you, Joshua.
Kiera: I want two back-up vac suits in case we punch something else through again.
They’re sent right over and Kiera hands Rina one—just in case something goes wrong with the suits they’ve got now. Nika looks at her XO.
Nika: Joshua, you wanna take copilot?
Joshua: Sure.
Nika: And wake up Arden and make sure he’s awake enough to man sensors.
Joshua: He’s been awake for a couple of hours now, at least. Although he could have gone back down again.
Nika: Oh really? Leave him to sleep but he’ll just die in his sleep then. (chuckles) Much as I hate to say so but should another thing go wrong, I would rather like it if the doctor were awake.
Joshua: Fair enough.
Joshua leaves the bridge to alert Arden of the plans. Kiera works with the Rob Roy crew to take care of the rest of the wounded there rather than transfer them to Equinox. Arden installs himself in Equinox’s med bay and Joshua takes Arden’s place at sensors on the bridge. When everyone’s ready on both ships, Nika takes the lead out of the mine field. She’s piloting in her suit as a precaution but it makes it harder for her to move normally at the controls. Luckily, we aren’t going fast, barely at a crawl. Joshua’s sensor readouts are crowded with mines but when half an hour goes by without hitting anything, Nika decides to go a little bit faster. Half an hour later, she flies Equinox clear without a scratch.
Whew.
She checks her backtrail for Rob Roy and doesn’t see it. Their pilot isn’t as good as Nika. They’re still in the mine field. About halfway the way through, a mine gets him with a glancing spatter. Nothing breached … but he gets hit by another mine three-quarters of the way through and this time it’s a serious hit. Rob Roy lurches and the power shuts down.
Rina’s scrambling to determine the extent of the damage. The first mine didn’t do much but the second mine … She’s working without lights, working without power and the alarms are going off everywhere.
Alarm: Seek shelter. Decompression. Hull breach. Xúnzhǎo bìnàn suǒ. Jiǎn yā. Hè ěr wéifǎn. Seek shelter. Decompression. Hull breach. Xúnzhǎo bìnàn suǒ. Jiǎn yā. Hè ěr wéifǎn.
Rina’s still in her suit. She immediately tethers herself to something and gets on the comm to MacGregor. We need to abandon ship, she says. MacGregor isn’t happy at the news but the man is no fool. He gets his distress signal going and starts gathering his people. It’s a heartbreaking task: He doesn’t know if he’ll be able to come back for his beloved ship. He’s still in the minefield and there are mines everywhere. Nika suggests towing him clear. It would make recovery of his ship much safer and easier later. Towing Rob Roy , however, would cut our own agility down to practically nothing, but Nika thinks she can do it.
Kiera: She’s going to what? (sputters) Is she off of her roc—Can she do it?
Rina: Yes.
On the bridge of Equinox, Joshua has questions of his own.
Joshua: I’m confident you can do it.
Nika: I’m not.
Joshua: Then why are you doing it?
Nika: Actually, I’m reasonably sure I can do it.
Joshua: Then the question is why are you doing it? I’m pretty sure you can do it, but I want to know why.
Nika: Because I don’t think that this man have his livelihood removed if it’s at all possible for us to save it. And we’re close enough to the edge of the minefield to make that a possibility.
Joshua: What did he say?
You know, she didn’t ask him. She comms him and puts the question to him.
Nika: Would you come back to the minefield if you could have it salvaged?
MacGregor: Yeah. Yeah, I’ll try to save it. Of course if we all die in the process it won’t make any difference.
Nika: This is your call. It’s your ship. Do you want to go or not?
MacGregor: If ye think it’s safe …
Nika: I won’t say it’s safe. I’ll say I think I can do it, but I won’t say it’s safe.
MacGregor: I don’t know how good a pilot ye are. So I’d say no, unless you’re very confident that ye can do it. But I can’t make the call cuz I don’t know ye as a pilot. Only you know that.
Joshua: (to Nika) I think you can do it.
Nika: If you want your ship, I’m gonna try to get it out of here for you.
MacGregor: Your call.
Joshua: I think you can do it.
Nika: (comms Rina) Let’s go.
Rina: Okay.
Rina gets out there and rigs the tow cables. When she’s done, she comms Nika from the hull:
Rina: She looks good from here.
Nika: All aboard.
Rina: Yes, ma’am.
Kiera: (over the suit comms) Help me carry the wounded. I’ve got at three people to bring.
Rina: Will do.
Rina reboards Rob Roy and helps Kiera shift the wounded to the cargo bay. There's no getting the patients over to Equinox. The two ships are not positioned to allow using the umbilical. However, Rob Roy's cargo bay hasn't been breached by the mines and right now is the most secure place on the ship for transport. Rina and Kiera quickly devise a bed out of a hover pallet and install two of the patients on it. The third is made comfortable on the cargo deck. All the patients are secured by bungee cords to deck rings as a precaution. Joshua gives them time to get settled before announcing:
Joshua: Are all crew members and passengers on board strapped in and in position? Nika’s about to pull some crazy shit.
Nika: Ready to rock and roll here, people. (cuts channel)
Joshua: (to Nika) This is crazy shit.
Nika: It’s not.
Joshua: I didn’t you couldn’t do it, but it’s crazy shit, Nika. You are doing something that the ship is not meant to do, pulling it through a minefield that we didn’t know was there. Like … It’s crazy shit.
Nika: What do you suggest we do?
Joshua: I still think you can do it, but you gotta acknowledge that what you’re doing is not within the normal parameters.
Nika: Well, I acknowledge that. I don’t think it’s insane.
Joshua: You think?
Nika: We got through it pretty safely.
Joshua: We got though it because we weren’t towing another ship our size.
True. The Series 0-4 Firefly is nearly twice as big than the ubiquitous 0-3 and about the same size as Equinox. Nika runs through a final check of her boards as Arden installs himself on the sensors. Kiera shoos Rina upstairs after they’ve secured the last patient and the engineer heads for Rob Roy's crew deck. Nika calls for her crew to sound out and they all comm back their positions. Rina’s in engineering. Kiera’s in the cargo bay. Joshua and Arden are on the bridge. Nika puts the family car in gear and starts the tow. Arden listens to the engines strain.
Arden: Remember the simple days? Remember the days of Summer’s Gift?
Nika: (laughs grimly) Yes. This is for all the marbles people.
Nika flies. Equinox tows. Rob Roy moves. Time slows down and everyone listens for the sickening thud of another mine impacting on our hull. The flying gets trickier … and the ships slowly win free. Nika flies a little farther away before giving everyone the all-clear. You can feel the atmo move from all the pent breaths released at once.
Rina: That’s our captain. The best damn pilot in the Verse.
Back on the bridge, Nika gives Joshua a grin.
Nika: See?
Joshua: I didn’t say you couldn’t do it, Captain. I never said that.
Nika: Okay.
MacGregor: (over comms) Take us to a safe place to set up the beacon and cross your fingers and head to on Sho Je Downs?
Nika: Yep.
MacGregor: Huh. That’s where we just came from.
Nika: Sorry, Captain. This is all I can do.
MacGregor: It’s all right. You did more than can be expected.
Kiera calls up from the cargo bay. She needs help getting the patients onto Equinox. Nika maneuvers into position and engages the umbilical and once it's in place, Joshua joins Rina and Kiera on Rob Roy. Working together they manage to get them onto our ship. We rig a sling to pull them up through our access hatches. We secure the patients in med bay. We get out of our vac suits. Kiera finds a soft bunk to crash in. Her stims have finally worn off and those were on top of a long day, to boot. We look at the clock: we’ve been working with MacGregor for almost 24 hours and have tipped over into the next calendar day. Fifteen hours at pulse will have us at Sho Je Downs and tip us into the next calendar day again. Looking at MacGregor and his crew, alive and glad to be breathing, makes it all worth it.
Wednesday, 25 Nov 2522
In orbit over Sho Je Downs
Kalidasa (Xuan Wu) system
0900hrs, ship’s time
Actually, Nika does that voodoo that she can do so well and gets us there in thirteen hours’ time. Once there, we stop and take stock of our options. We didn’t get as badly damaged as Rob Roy but we did suffer damage that would prevent us from landing in atmo. Since we need to deliver our cargo dirtside, we have to stop for repairs in orbit. There is no station to dock to for the duration and though we could whistle up a repair ship to come alongside, we have nothing in our coffers to pay for the repairs. We’re pretty much marooned unless we can get a loan.
Joshua: Our options are a loan or nothing. Or if somebody who’s wealthy can give up the money.
Nika: (dubiously) We could ask Badger.
Rina: But Badger’s on Persephone.
And we’re on the other side of the Verse in Kalidasa. No quick way to contact him, either. Joshua catches Kiera’s expression and groks the reason behind it.
Joshua: You have family? Can they loan us the money? At a not-exorbitant rate? Are they into that?
Kiera: I can try but he’s into making money.
Nika: (off Kiera’s look) I could almost want to borrow it from anyone else.
Joshua: But that’s the thing. Do you know anybody on Sho Je Downs that we can borrow that kind of money from? Of the top of your head? Anyone? We can put our ship into hock with a bank if we want.
We’d done it before, before Joshua came to us. And as circumstance would have it, we’d gone into hock to a bank on Sho Je Downs, paying for our medical and decon bills after being nearly killed by a biological bug Potemkin had planted on our ship.
Joshua: It’s your call, Kiera.
Kiera: I’ve got to wave Daddy to get a security code. So if all else fails …
Joshua: All right.
She waves her father. She doesn’t get an answer from him but a security code arrives. Her father has a mobile base of operations on Sho Je Downs and the security code gives her the coordinates for his current landing site. It’s not at the space dock. We’ll have to land dirtside. Unless we get the blasted-out viewports in our passenger lounge covered over, we’re not likely to get there, either. We’d burn up on reentry. Rina suggests a hack-around to the problem: she can get back in a suit and cut off the camouflage plating over our starboard missile bay ports. The plates are large, non-essential to our hull integrity, and more importantly, have already proven their burn-resistance from prior trips through atmo. They should be more than strong enough to withstand reentry. Once in place, our ship will be sealed against vacuum and fire and we should make landfall to meet with Kiera’s father. Nika commends her on the idea and has Rina get right on it.
Kiera: Take someone with you.
Rina: I’ll take all the help I can get.
Kiera and Beglan go out with her. With their help, she gets the job done in one trip out. Kiera quips she should get some spray paint and spray the word "Ow!" on our hull. Once everyone is safe back aboard, Nika fires up our engines to take us dirtside. On the ride down, the plugs we’d installed on our breaches burn and break off. We’re venting atmo but Nika gets us down fast enough that we don’t actually decompress. Still, it makes our ears pop painfully hard. Nika hails ground control at the spaceport, informing them that we’re coming in hard with damage. They give us the go-ahead and we gratefully land in one piece. Our hull is smoking from the burn-through, making our damage worse. Of course, the orbital position of Sho Je Downs makes it necessary to seek shelter from direct sunlight and though our landing pad is shaded, the outside temps aren’t doing us any favors either.
Nika lands us hard on the tarmac, bouncing the rubble and those of us not strapped in. Which means Rina, running loose in engineering to give her captain every advantage she can. Arden and Kiera take some damage from the landing too, being busy keeping their patients secured. Still, any landing we can walk away from is one we can call a win.
Once Equinox is secured, we don’t linger but fly Lagniappe to the coordinates that Kiera received from her father. Beglan offers to stay behind to watch the ship, freeing the rest of us to go as moral support and to show a solid front to Mr. Sullivan. His facility is some distance away, sitting out in the desert of Sho Je Downs. It’s a bleak and desolate location. Daytime temps regularly hit 160 degrees Fahrenheit and dips to a brisk 130 degrees at night. As such, walking on the surface to knock on the door of her father’s facilty is not advised.
We land half a klik away as ordered and we wait to be given permission to come closer in. An hour passes. No word and we’re still sitting in Lagniappe. Two hours. No word. Three hours. We’re getting hungry. At the point, Nika hails the receptionist at the facility.
Nika: I got stuff to do darlin’.
Receptionist: (politely) I’m sorry, but Mr. Sullivan is still busy.
Kiera: If you could just let my father know that we came, I have got to let my captain return to her ship.
Receptionist: If you leave, you may not be able to get in.
Kiera: I can sit outside.
She’s joking, of course, but there’s an edge to her tone nonetheless. Not that anyone aboard has missed it or the reason it’s there: Kiera’s father has the upper hand and he’s making her wait just to prove that he can, making her sweat. Somewhat literally—the surface is furnace hot and it’s a touch warm on Lagniappe. Nothing life threatening, but not exactly comfortable either. If we leave now, we might be able to scrape up enough money somehow to repair Equinox to do cargo runs again. If we want to carry passengers, though, we need to get our passenger deck repaired and quite frankly, the patch job over the blown-out windows is only temporary. We need money. Kiera’s father has it. And if we want it, we have to dance to his tune.
Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Special Features.
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