Episode 617: Contagion, Part 2

Part: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Special Features

Nika blinks. Did Beglan just say that he was leaving?

Beglan: Because being merciless when we don’t need to—
Nika: Have you ever known me to be?
Beglan: But you just said you would do it. You said you would.
Nika: I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect all of you. And if that means that at some point I have to make a decision that I then have to live with, that’s on me.
Beglan: I know it is. But that’s on me, too, if I choose to stay with you. What I’m saying is I’m not convinced right now that you’ve got the best interests of me and the rest of the—I’m not talking about my body.
Nika: You’ve flown with me long enough now to be able to make your own decisions on how you feel about the matter. I will act no differently in the future than I currently have and that you have seen me act in the past.
Beglan: Despite this being war? You seemed to give the suggestion that what with this being a war, things were different now.
Nika: No.
Beglan: You understand my concerns?
Nika: I do. And they’re valid.
Beglan: I think that … I’ve got, I think, a life waiting for me that is something I want to live for.
Nika: (pleased) I am very glad to hear that.
Beglan: But I also think that what we’ve been doing is really important.
Nika: Do you?
Beglan: Yeah.

Now that’s an eye opener.

Nika: Why?
Beglan: I think that the Verse is on the cusp on … it’s at a fork in the road. It’s going to go one way or the other. It may not be a utopia at the end of it but it will be … If things work out the way I like them to, then it will be something worth living in. That said, … I’d rather be … a Solomon than a David.
Nika: I don’t know what that means.
Beglan: Sorry. David was a conquerer who made possible for a people to have a homeland. But he had so much blood on his hands he couldn’t be its king for long. He couldn’t be a king that would leave them in peace.
Nika: (dry) If you figure out where the king who could lead us all in peace is, please let me know.
Belgan: (chuckles) I think the time for kings is gone. Luckily.
Nika: I shall try to let my particular quirks and identity crisis not bleed over onto the crew quite so much. And I do apologize.
Beglan: I understand you’ve got a responsibility to the ship and to its crew to survive. But there’s things you wouldn’t do, right? Even to keep us all alive. I should hope not, otherwise I wouldn’t be sailing on this ship.
Nika: There are a great many things I would not do. There are a great many things I would hope I would never have to choose whether to do or not. But for what it’s worth to you, I will die to make sure that you get home.
Beglan: Let’s try to not let that happen. All I ask is that—
Nika: Before you ask that, I want to say that I have made a point of not asking anyone on the crew to do something I wouldn’t do myself.
Beglan: And I appreciate you giving me the latitude to deal with those things. Like the time you let me and Joshua talk to that poor gentleman about his drug problem. Yet sometimes taking a risk and doing the right thing is better than playing it safe and having no mercy.
Nika: There is no safe.
Beglan: Exactly. So if you can’t be safe either way, then perhaps being merciful’s best bet.
Nika: (dry again) Yeah. That’s gotten us … ?
Beglan: Well, most of us are still here.
Nika: Yeah. Jake died.
Belgan: Well, mercy for the Reavers is probably more different.
Nika: As did … um …. (difficult!) … Rick. And his Blue Sun girlfriend who helped us.
Beglan: I don’t know much about this Rick person, but he sounds like … (pulls together) Well, the other thing. Could I borrow the shuttle and go stargazing? Go to Aesir? Leave the ship for a couple of days for shore leave?
Nika: Yes.
Beglan: I’ll try to bring it back without too much damage.
Nika: If you’ll drop off a package for me when you go to Aesir. I want to send a package to Jake’s mother.

It’s nothing big, just a little something to let Jake’s mother know that we’re thinking of her, even though we’d just seen her at the turning of the new year. Nika and Beglan return to the others to find that Kiera’s managed to negotiate the payment for the passengers up to 900. It’s less than the 1100-plus we would normally charge but it’s a third more than the 600 originally offered. Nika says nothing of what she and Beglan hashed out in private. The crew doesn’t need to know and it would only cloud their focus if they did. And they will need to be clear in their focus. The coming war is more complicated than the last one and the moral issues are not going to be as clear-cut as before. Negotiating them will be difficult as conditions heat up.

Instead, Nika lets the crew know they have a couple of days of downtime. Beglan is headed toward Aesir and he can drop anyone else off on Aesir if they’re interested. The shuttle is his to do with as he wishes for the duration.

Shore leave on Anvil is probably going to be more fun than on Aesir. Malmo was pretty badly bombed the last time we were there. Arden thinks back—are there any orphanages he can help on Aesir? None that he already hasn’t helped during our recent layover there. Joshua makes plans to go shopping on Anvil or if Rina had something else in mind…? Hm. Sleep with her man or play with toys in the Black? Tough choice, let her think… You goon. She’s staying here, where he is. D’uh. Kiera is going to put off shopping until she gets to Sihnon.

In a quiet moment during our downtime, Joshua chooses a moment when Ne and Nika are alone on the bridge and asks her why, ever since that discussion over torture and spacing, she’s been quiet.

Joshua: What’s the deal? You didn’t really think I thought you would torture anybody or … ?
Nika: Why? I’ve done it before.
Joshua: That doesn’t—.
Nika: (gestures) What makes me any better than them?
Joshua: Because …. (hand on heart) … here.
Nika: You don’t know that’s—
Joshua: I do. You may not, but I know you. I know it. I can feel you—.
Nika: I am not that person.
Joshua: Maybe you’re a different person, but it doesn’t mean that you’re not good, that core in you. You’re good at core, Nika. I’m not saying you’re a Shepherd and I’m not saying you’ve never done anything that won’t be … You’ve killed. You’re going to kill people. And I know you will. Because you have to. You’ll do anything you have to. But, you, when it comes down to it, you’re not gonna—I know you won’t torture people without mercy. You won’t kill people without a reason.
Nika: What makes my reasons better than anybody else’s?
Joshua: That’s the other thing I want to ask about. Do you not think that you’re on the right side anymore?
Nika: Do we have a side?
Joshua: Yeah, we do.
Nika: Really?
Joshua: Yeah. We do. Or at least, I do. I do. (Off her look) Yeah, I don’t disagree that there are people on both sides that are … Look. There are people on both sides that are scumbags, to be completely honest. It’s not like every situation has a clear-cut bad guy, but—.
Nika: What I want to know is why so many people are willing to run out and kill other people for this and die for this.
Joshua: For the idea that we can control our own—
Nika: For this idea.
Joshua: For the idea that we control our own lives?
Nika: Do we?

He stares at her. She stares right back.

Joshua: That we should be able to control our own lives?
Nika: We should, yes. Do we?
Joshua: Right now? We actually do a pretty good job of controlling our own lives and making choices. We have the right to make choices, something that Blue Sun didn’t want to give me.
Nika: Crappy choices.
Joshua: Yeah, some of them are completely crappy, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t—we have the right to make them. I didn’t have that right for a long period of time. You’ve got the right to make them, even if you don’t necessarily like the choices you’ve been given. But that means finding a way—
Nika: Then that means someone’s in control of giving them to me.
Joshua: Somebody’s always in control of handing you the choices but … when it comes down to it, you are the one making those choices. Passing them off, like “Oh there’s someone else bigger and badder than me making the choice for me…” That’s bullshit. Absolutely and completely.
Nika: Well, at least we both know you don’t believe in that yet.
Joshua: Look—.

Nika rises from the pilot’s chair.

Nika: We need to get underway.
Joshua: We do. But you need to believe. You finally convinced me the last time, that the thing to believe in is us and that I found it … Hang on to me. Hang on to me and find your way back. You’re not that far away. Not so far away. You’re Nika Earhart. No, look at me. You are Nika Earhart.
Nika: My father wouldn’t know who that was anymore.
Joshua: Yeah, he would. The same with Rina and me believing her. It’s like, my parents wonder who I am and I’m like—my mother, as much as you might hate her as a miserable human being, she knew who I was without ever seeing, without knowing what I’d—Look. If she can do it, hell if you—
Nika: Your mother is…
Joshua: You think she’s a miserable human being, right? I won’t even argue with you on that.
Nika: Your mother isn’t a human being.
Joshua: I won’t even argue with you on that. I am willing to concede that point to you. The point is that if she can figure it out, that I’m her son, then your father certainly could. And I’m pretty sure you father would know you. You’re still doing things. Even if you’re not sure, even if you don’t have that surety that you need.
Nika: It’s a whole lot more sure than if …
Joshua: Well, yeah.
Nika: Hell, I was a whole lot sure when I killed my sister’s husband.
Joshua: Sometimes we don’t get those—I won’t say easy, but—straightforward choices. Sometimes they get more complicated.

And the news we get from the outside Verse seems to bear this out. It’s complicated out there. The war’s gotten a little bit hotter.

Several large vessels, freighters and such, have been captured on the Rim, presumably by Independent forces. Or Independently minded people.

Pericles Station, our favorite decommissioned Tohoku class ship, is being occupied by the Alliance. The Feds have moved in and taken it over.

The Independents have been pushing for a food and fuel embargo of White Sun. They have been saying food and fuel ships going into White Sun are going to be targeted and deterred as best as possible.

(Which may have some bearing on us, if what we’re carrying is considered food or fuel. Still, one can’t fuel a ship with or eat cleaning supplies … ))

Several political things in Red Sun and Georgia: some planets there have been officially requesting aid from the Alliance. Independents claim the true story is: The Feds found criminal types who they then elevated to governor status. Once those governors were in place, they lay down the deal: so long as the governors publically the Alliance to come in and set up shop, they get to remain the governors. The worlds so affected in Red Sun are Jiangyin, Greenleaf, Harvest, Jubilee, St. Albans. In Georgia, the dual system of Ithaca and Priam are affected, and Di Yu and Kerry have requested help. So technically, the Alliance on those worlds was invited in to support those planets, and it’s not an Alliance take-over at all.

In the case of Kerry and Jubilee, they are the sites of land battles as well.

The Independents shut down the spaceport of Pena on Kerry and on Jubilee, the Independents and the Feds got to relive the battle between the Zulu and the British on Old Earth. Thousands of Independents pitted themselves against a few hundred Feds ensconced in a garrison … and like the Zulu before them, the Independents died by the thousands. Unlike the British in that historic battle, despite being better equipped and prepared, the garrison still fell. You could hardly say that battle was a particular victory for anybody. According to news sources, this was a local movement and not an orchestrated one by the greater Independent forces.

Contacts in the Core worlds are reporting a massive pacification campaign. Unlike in the previous war, the Independents are pushing a campaign in the Core to get people to try to resist, not so much to overthrow their government but to get out and protest and demonstrate against the war. As a result, there have been a lot of police actions on the Core worlds against demonstrators.

The first and largest fleet battle is the Battle of Elphame, at the gas giant Elphame in Georgia. Elphame was originally being protected by contracted ships but when the Alliance went in to control the gas processing facilities there, the Independents went in. The Independent fleets were dispersed and most of the Independent ships were destroyed. However, they did serious damage to the massive Alliance carrier, the Echidna. The Echidna and her surviving escorts had to limp back to Boros. Most feel this was a solid victory for the Independents—a much smaller fleet dealing damage to a much larger one and Elphame is still open for business to anyone who needs fuel.

Kiera looks into the groups protesting in the Core. It’s small, yet. Nothing widespread or government-shattering. Just small groups here and there protesting. There are enough people to fill a few squares and there are factory-workers protesting their working conditions. Since the Core cannot produce enough food to feed itself, what it lacks must be imported in from the Rim. The food and fuel embargo is making things hard on the Coreside workers who haven’t the wherewithal to deal financially with the ever-dwindling supplies that do make it through. People are hurting in the Core, mostly the poor.

And that’s the ground we cover over the two days of our downtime. Maintenance and repairs are made. Supplies are laid in. Beglan returns from Aesir with Lagniappe. Our passengers arrive and settle into their accommodations.

Four of them are with NBC— New Byzantine Chemicals. Valerie Fleming, Emile Grand, Kuo Sun-Li, and John Mercier. The other three work with Virdian Dynamics, the mega-corp that Kiera’s father runs: George Ashcroft, Dan Holden, and Bianca Meyers. They are all involved in the agro-chemical business. Kiera gets them settled aboard as Equinox’s steward. Arden asks them if they’re up on their shots as Equinox’s doctor. Joshua asks them if they’re carrying anything dangerous.

In order, thank you, yes, and no. Valerie does look like she’s coming down with a cold, though everyone else looks pretty healthy. Arden lets Valerie know that he and the med bay are available to her should she feel worse. Mercier looks something like a clothes horse, wearing a brown velvet top hat, a bowfront waistcoat and a frock coat over tight fitting pants. It’s dandified wear for the Rim … and somewhat out of place for the Core. Perhaps he has more suitable gear stowed in his luggage? Even so, Joshua frankly admires the passenger’s attire.

We take off on Friday, 16 April, for Persephone. Our ETA, 8.5 days hence, Saturday 24 April, 2523.

Sunday, 18 Apr 2523
Durance class Equinox

En route to Persephone 1030hrs, ship’s time

Our voyage starts off well enough. The crew sees to their duties. The passengers ride along in second and first class comfort. Two days into our trip, Arden’s in med bay, taking inventory of his supplies when he notices Valerie Samson is there and watching him.

Valerie: So … what do you think of those passengers?
Arden: One of them’s sick. That’s about it.
Valerie: Did you notice anything about that? You might want to take a look at it.
Arden: There’s … four males and three females. Why? What are you getting at?
Valerie: You didn’t see the—well, how would you describe her symptoms?
Arden: You mean the other woman Valerie? Her cold?
Valerie: Yeah.

Arden gives the not-there Valerie a run-down of the flesh-and-blood Valerie’s symptoms.

Arden: And those are the things that I saw.
Valerie: Hmm. You think it’s a cold.
Arden: It has all the signs of being a cold. What do you … ?
Valerie: If you worked for a company as big as NBC, wouldn’t you be taking your immunizations on a planet like this?
Arden: As far as I know they haven’t come up with a cure for the cold yet.
Valerie: Well they do have immunizations against almost all viruses.
Arden: So there’s a cure for the common cold?
Valerie: Well, there’s an inoculation for the common cold.

The point?

Arden: I would expect she’s had the regular immunizations and so forth in place.
Valerie: Probably.
Arden: Yeah.
Valerie: How’s the crew been treating you?
Arden: How’s the crew been treating … ?
Valerie: You.
Arden: Fairly normal.
Valerie: Are you feeling watched? Are you still armed? Do you have a gun? In your bag?

Valerie hops off the counter and walks over to Arden’s medical bag.

Valerie: Don’t you keep on in here?
Arden: It’s in the gun locker. I don’t keep it in the bag unless I leave the ship.
Valerie: So they’re not letting you have one?
Arden: It’s not that they’re not letting me have one, it’s that I don’t need one on the ship.
Valerie: Sure. That’s what they would say.
Arden: Stop. (a beat) Stop.
Valerie: Did you need a gun last time?
Arden: Lat time?
Valerie: Well, with all the pirates on the ship.
Arden: I didn’t have a choice then.
Valerie: You’re lucky they didn’t pull you off the ship, going unarmed. I’m just saying I’d be unarmed. Of course, as you know—
Arden: I am unarmed.
Valerie:—I have an allergy to bullets.
Arden: Don’t we all?
Valerie: Yes. Well, you don’t have as bad a reaction as I do.
Arden: Why is that?
Valerie: Don’t you remember?
Arden: Refresh my memory.
Valerie: You know, when I had 25, 30 bullet wounds?
Arden: Or more. So why are you here talking to me now? Shouldn’t you be resting someplace six feet under?
Valerie: Well I would be more worried about you than me. Aren’t you worried?
Arden: I am a little worried about myself.
Valerie: I would be very worried. This is a big sign of a psychosis.
Arden: Yeah.

Yah think?

Valerie: You’re in a tricky position. You can’t really trust anyone to look at you because they might be the people you did this to you in the first place. What can you do about it? I mean, before you start trying to do surgery on yourself and that’s rarely a good idea …
Arden: I trust my crewmates.
Valerie: Yeah, sure, but that’s probably the bad part about it. They probably trust you but if you’re a crazy person, you can’t be trusted. What steps are you going to take—
Arden: Do you have anything positive or concrete to say?
Valerie: I’m trying to be helpful—.
Arden: No, you’re not, though.
Valerie: I just want to know what steps you’re taking to prevent you from hurting them?
Arden: And what if the ship blows up tomorrow?!
Valerie: You can’t do anything about that but—
Arden: I can’t do anything about this either!
Valerie: Sure you can. You can take steps to make yourself less dangerous.
Arden: Uh-huh.
Valerie: Maybe we should take the sharp objects and put them away.
Arden: They are put away.
Valerie: I mean, where you can’t get to them.
Arden: That would be silly.

What’s a doctor without his tools, like his scalpel and such?

Valerie: You could be pretty dangerous with one.
Arden: Anyone could.
Valerie: You don’t still have Chempliant, do you?
Arden: They’d be in the safe.
Valerie: Want me to change the combination for you?
Arden: No.
Valerie: It might be a good idea.
Arden: If you feel like you have to …
Valerie: Will that make you feel more comfortable?
Arden: No.
Valerie: I’m not particularly worried, because like I said, I’m dead.
Arden: You’re dead. Yes. I got that.

Arden walks to the wall comm and calls Joshua on it.

Arden: Joshua? Can you come to med bay?
Joshua: All right?

Arden cuts the comm and looks at Valerie, who sits and looks right back.

Arden: So my psychosis is back and she’s sitting right there on the table. She says she’s not real.
Joshua: That would be the definition of a psychosis, yeah.

Joshua looks at the table and sees nothing. He announces such. Arden has no such trouble and he sees what Valerie’s doing.

Arden: Oh great. She’s unbuttoning her shirt. Maybe I should ask you to leave.
Joshua: Well if I can’t see her … ?
Arden: Yeah, that’s true.
Joshua: It would be really kinky if I could, but … do you want me to leave? I can’t see her but I will try to basically Read—.
Arden: It would probably be more effective if you Read myself.
Joshua: I will, but … If she had a mind, if there is an actual person of any sort there …

Joshua wants to Read the room to see if Valerie really is a paranormal manifestation, instead of a mental one. After all, Joshua spent the better part of a year being haunted by the ghosts of Jing Jing Bei. If Valerie really is a ghost and not a neuro-chemical imbalance in Arden’s brain, he should be able to detect her. Joshua Reads the room and picks up only Arden, who has some admittedly interesting thoughts. Arden, having a better view of Valerie, seems a little distracted.

Arden: Hey, I didn’t know you had a tattoo there.

Yikes, Arden. TMI, thank you!

Joshua: There are some things, once seen, that cannot be unseen. And I saw them with my mind. But there’s no secondary mind, there.
Arden: But is there an effect on mine?
Joshua: Right now all the thoughts I hear are yours.
Arden: But it is a conversation being supplied by my own brain.

Valerie leans over to Arden and whispers it isn’t.

Arden: It is my brain.
Valerie: Well, is it yours?
Arden: Yes.
Valerie: Or is it ours?
Arden: Ours? No, not really.
Valerie: But I’m in there too, right?

Of course, Joshua’s only hearing one half of the conversation. At which point he tries to Read Arden to see if he can’t hear the rest of it. And so he does, but it’s Arden’s mind in both cases. Which is a plus, since Joshua doesn’t want to miss a word of it. It’s actually a little unpleasant to Read and follow it. The sensation of two minds is taxing. And Arden keeps right on talking to Valerie.

Arden: Here’s what I want to know—if you’re real, how do I make you physical and if you’re not real, how do I get rid of you?
Joshua: There’s no mind here, Arden. There’s no second mind. If it’s a person, it’s all—
Arden: You’re on the outside looking in. You can’t understand what’s inside.
Joshua: Yeah, I can. That’s the whole point.
Arden: No, you’re still outside looking in.
Joshua: I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist or any of those –ists, but you’re really not helping your thoughts or your argument you’re making with me. I’m not trying to—.
Arden: (points) You see that jar, the one that’s completely covered and you can’t see inside. You might be able to hear the hornet that’s buzzing inside that thing but you can’t see if it’s an actual hornet on the inside.
Joshua: Okay I’ll buy that argument. That’s true. I’ll buy that. I’m not saying I know everything but what I’m saying is, right now, to the best of my abilities as they are, there is not a second distinct mind separate from yours. Now that doesn’t mean—
Arden: It could be beyond your comprehension.
Joshua: That’s possible. And it’s possible that there’s a second mind contained within inside a second individual.
Valerie: You know, someone like him might have more …
Arden: Sympathy?
Valerie: He might have other things inside him too, when you think about his past behavior.
Arden: Can you get in there and find out?

Valerie laughs.

Valerie: Well, we could.
Arden: We could?
Valerie: Sure.
Arden: How?
Valerie: Put him under.

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