Episode 703: Dar Al Tabr, Part Two

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

Wednesday, 14 Jul 2523

At five in the morning, Joshua and Arden hear the whine of engines coming down for a landing. Joshua doesn't wake Rina up but lets her sleep. Less trouble that way. He snugs down to grab a few extra winks. Arden remains awake and when it's about 630 am, the hour he would normally start his day, he stirs from his quarters and starts looking for a gym.

He looks for someone to point him the way. Poking his head out into the hallway, he sees two men wearing super shiny suits—made of fiber that can only be found in the Core. They are talking to El Sahir. He doesn't see any other people like attendants. It's just those three. Arden exits the suite, closes the door loud enough to alert them that someone else has joined them in the corridor, and starts moving toward them.

As Arden approaches, El Sahir says:

El Sahir: Ah, gentlemen. Here is a member of the competition.

The two men turn around and scrutinize Arden closely.

Arden: I really don't consider myself competition for anything.
Coresider #1: Neither do we.
Arden: Then we should get along fine.
Coresider #2: We just don't consider you competition.
Arden: Then you can get along fine.
Coresider #1: Or … you could get along.
Arden: I'm just looking for the gym. Excuse me for interrupting your meeting. (to El Sahir) Is there a gymnasium or an exercise area I can use?
El Sahir: (checks watch) It is not available for men at this hour.
Arden: When will it be available?
El Sahir: I believe after ten o'clock.
Arden: Then perhaps I should go off in search of breakfast.
El Sahir: Are you all awake or do you need sustenance?
Arden: I'm usually the early riser in my group. I do not know if anyone else is awake.
El Sahir: Do you wish to break your fast alone?

There's something in the way the man asks that hinks Arden.

Arden: Perhaps I should just go back to my room and when it's time for all of us to gather for breakfast someone can be sent for me.
El Sahir: I can send someone with sustenance if you are hungry.
Arden: It's not that I'm hungry. I'm more social than hungry.
El Sahir: You're social but you wish to eat alone?
Arden: I do not wish to eat alone. That isn't what I said. I said I could return to my room and come when everyone gathers for breakfast.
El Sahir: No one else has arisen to my knowledge.
Arden: Would a walk around the compound be acceptable for me to do? I do not want to intrude on this meeting you are having.
Coresider #1: All evidence to the contrary …

Both sides bristle—Coresiders and Rim doctor alike.

El Sahir: Why don't all four of us go have some coffee?
Arden: That would be wonderful.
Coresider #2: (flatly) Yes. Wonderful.

They are led to a beautiful little courtyard filled with flowers and a trickling fountain. Servants bring them coffee and when it's served up and in hand, one of the Coresiders looks over at Arden.

Coresider #2: (dubiously) So you're, like, some sort of representative of the Independents?
Arden: I'm a doctor. That's pretty much it. I doubt I could represent myself much less a group of people.
Coresider #2: See? It's what I tell you. They don't have normal people and jobs and stuff—well not that doctor's not a normal job, but you don't have a—
Arden: Yes, we're not all clones and exact duplicates of one another.

Wow. The irony. These guys don't know who they're dealing with. Poor bastards.

Coresider #2: I told you. They have their own charm, in a country-ish sort of way. Hey, so like, you live out here in the Rim?
Arden: Ah, yes.
Coresider #2: Do you like … what do you guys eat out here?
Arden: What do we eat?
Coresider #2: Coyotes and stuff? Protein paste, mostly, right?
Arden: No … it depends on what planet you're on.
Coresider #2: (to companion) See? I told you. They hunt their own food. (to Arden) Right? You hunt your own food.
Arden: We …buy beef at grocery stores.
Coresider #2: (not listening) And you use the whole animal, right?
Arden: Excuse me? The whole animal?
Coresider #2: Yeah. Like the hide, you make like …
Arden: Leather out of?
Coresider #2: Yeah, you make wallets, and belts and stuff. And the bones you carve for jewelry or something?
Arden: Yes, that's exactly what we do.

Arden's thinking: This guy's an idiot. Coresider #2 turns to his friend with an air of proving a point.

Coresider #2: See? There's something noble in that. It's like—
Coresider #1: You are just living in, like, tri-vids. It's not like that. He's probably a perfectly normal doctor who got swayed by some … Independent spirit, right?
Arden: Um. Yes. I have an independent spirit.
Coresider #1: Don't let Glen bother you. I—
Arden: He's not bothering me so much as amusing me.
Coresider #1: My name's Alan. I'm head of Original Sales for Blue Sun Radioactives. And Glen there is my assistant.
Arden: My name is simply Arden. I'm just a doctor. Traveling aboard a tramp freighter. Well, not anymore.
Alan: And now you're part of this thing—well, that's interesting. So you know, other times I'm sure we could probably, well, you know it would be neat to talk to you about what life is like out here. I've heard stories. And so far it's been pretty exciting. I mean, we—

Alan breathes a laugh and shakes his head.

Alan: When we got off the ship, they didn't have the sonic particulate removers. We had to use water to wash ourselves off.
Arden: Really?
Alan: Which is fun. I like washing in water. But you think when you leave your ship, like in most starports, you go through the sonics to get all the particulates taken off you.
Arden: Showers are much fun, even when you have someone to share them with.
Alan: That's—Yeah. See?
Glen: Yeah, but you probably don't get to shower that often, right?
Arden: I shower every day.
Glen: You shower every day?
Arden: Yes. With water. On my ship I get to shower every day. Off my ship, here in the hospitality of the compound I also have been able to shower every day. So where in the Core are you from?
Glen: I'm originally from Londinium but I'm working now on Osiris. And where are you from, Al?
Alan: You know where I'm from.
Glen: Yeah but I wanna hear you say it.
Alan: I'm from Gonghe. There's nothing weird about Gonghe. It's not like it's way off in the boonies or anything like that. It's a Core world just like any of the others.
Glen: Yeah, yeah. It is.

Alan pronounces it gong-zhuh. But to most ears it sounds like ganja … which might explain the man's defensive attitude. For his part, Arden thinks if Glen is gullible enough to believe all the outlandish stories about people from the Rim, he'll just string the guy along a little bit before admitting he was educated on Osiris.

Glen: So you were—well you weren't originally from the Core but you were—
Arden: I'm Core trained.
Glen: And you decided to take that training and run against the Alliance?
Arden: Like you said, I wasn't from the Core. I went there to be trained and then I went home.
Glen: So you took what the Core had to give you and you decided to use it against them—
Arden: I paid for what the Core had to give me. It wasn't like I was getting it for free so that I owed them something.
Glen: Well, so … some people might think that you… It's a citizenship duty—
Arden: I was a citizen of … the Republic or whatever it is. Or whatever it was.
Glen: The Alliance.
Arden: The Alliance. But now that it's no longer a being. I don't think my records are a being—I don't know. (a beat) I find the obsessive one-ness of the Core to be hives-giving. That's not to say if you were to choke on something I wouldn't help you. My medical training, my vows—
Glen: Are you suggesting that we would? That we're, like, the Core and you're the—
Arden: No. I'm not.(slowly) I'm giving you an example. (A beat) I consider all people, people, before I consider whether they're the Alliance or the Revolution or the Core and the Rim or whatever. People are people.
Glen: That sounds true.
Arden: I don’t like the idea of everybody being forced into the same sardine can.
Glen: I don't know what sardine can you're talking about.
Arden: The Alliance sardine can. Perhaps political and sociological discussions shouldn't be done over the table. We should be much more polite. Especially to our hosts.

Because El Sahir is sitting right there with them, just taking it all in.

El Sahir: No, no. This is interesting to me. It is important that we know which side you're on. If you represent the values of the Independents and they represent the values of the Alliance—
Arden: Don't know if represent any set of values as much of most of my values belong in the set of the Independents more than the Alliance. Did that make sense?
El Sahir: So where do you differ from most Independents?
Arden: Where do I differ from most Independents? I am not rabidly against government function.
El Sahir: So you're saying the Independents are?
Arden: Seems most Independents seem to be.
El Sahir: Hm.

At this point the rest of the crew are shown in. Joshua, Rina, Nika, Kiera, and Beglan. They make as polite a beeline as possible for the food and the coffee spread out before them.

Nika: (reverent) Oh, coffee. Ohhh…. (looks, sees) … Good morning.
Arden: (to El Sahir) And also, Independents seem to want to be independent more than anything else.
El Sahir: And you don't.
Nika: (Uh-oh) What are you doing, Arden?
Arden: I'm having a sociological discussion with these two gentlemen. They're from Blue Sun Radioactives division.
Joshua: Oh. It's a pleasure, gentlemen.
Nika: Good morning.
Arden: I'd like to introduce my Captain, Nika. First Mate, Joshua. His wife and Chief Engineer, Rina. The Ship's Steward, Kiera.

We all nod in varying degrees of hello. We get our coffee and something to eat and settle on chairs and benches provided.

Rina: (reverent whisper) Thank God there's coffee. (sips) Ohh, yeah. that's got a kick to it.
El Sahir: We were just discussing the differences between the Core and the … everywhere else.
Kiera: Very little, I assume.
Arden: Apparently my political theory is a little rusty.
Alan: What we've learned is that the Core encourages people to be mindless clones and drones—
Arden: Clones and drones. That's actually good sounding.
Alan: And that we are all in the same sardine cans together.
Joshua: (wry) I see you've met our ship diplomat, Dr. Arden.
Arden: Am I not being truthful?
Joshua: You might be being a little extreme.
Arden: I didn't think I was.
Kiera: I was not in a sardine can.
Arden: If you were still at home, your home surroundings, would you be forced to do something you didn't want to do?
Kiera: (dry) Yes, be sitting in the lap of—
Arden: Ah, ah, ah! You said yes. That's all that matters.
Joshua: (nods at Arden) Also our lawyer.

The entire crew cracks up at that one.

Joshua: He serves a lot of purposes aboard our ship.
Kiera: Rebuttal: Extremely well off and comfortable.
Arden: But you'd be forced to be something you don't want to be.
Kiera: Oh, eek. I'm living in the lap of luxury.
Arden: Doing something you don't want to be.
Joshua: (to Alan) So, how do you like working with Blue Sun?

Cuz, Lord, we gotta change the subject before it gets ugly.

Alan: How do I like it? Well, get to see the greater Verse. Been interesting.
Arden: He 's from Ganja.
Alan: (pained) Gonghe
Arden: I thought he said Ganja.
Rina: Gonghe.
Arden: I like Ganja better.
Rina: You know, where the Oolong Abbey is. (to Alan) How's that Abbey doing, by the way?
Alan: Uhh … I'm not real familiar with that.
Rina: I understand it's a very nice place.
Alan: It's a … a Shepherd's Mission somewhere? I'm not a particularly religious person.

Rina remembers from the news that the Oolong Abbey had been raided by the Alliance last summer, acting on reports that the Abbey had been harboring Independent agitators. She keeps her mouth shut on it, however.

Kiera: So how's the Core perceiving the declaration of war?
Nika: The Declaration of Independence.
Alan: (sighs) Well, as you can imagine, it's put a bit of a strain on our … you know, our various relationships. We at Blue Sun are trying to continue to serve all of our customers.
Joshua: (gently sarcastic) Of course you are.
Rina: (more sarcastic) Of course.
Alan: And that of course, includes people in the Rim.
Nika: I don't think she asked you to spout the party line. She just asked you how you viewed it.
Kiera: Yeah. Blue Sun is a corporation, so of course you're trying to maintain your relationships.
Arden: That sort of is the party line.
Alan: Well, I don't want to get shot or anything like that. So …

What? Shot? Really?

Joshua: What?
Nika: There will be no such thing.
Arden: I don't have any gun.
Rina: By whom?
Alan: Well there are six of you ….
Nika: El Sahir, didn't you say something about a horseback ride?
Arden: None of us are armed. Except with a left one and a right one.
Alan: Well, then perhaps we'll just be beaten to death.
Joshua: Excuse me.
Arden: Please.
Nika: (to Arden) What have you been telling them this morning?
Arden: Nothing.
Nika: Wow.
Arden: Except he seems to think we use all the cow. Including the bones to make jewelry.
Kiera: Bone jewelry is extremely nice.
Joshua: Look. We are here to for a peaceful negotiation. You're here for a peaceful negotiation. Nobody is going to be beating anyone based on an opinion. We can have a civilized discourse about the differences between the Alliance and the Independents without it resulting in violence.
Alan: Okay.
Kiera: I'm from the Core and they haven't beaten me to death with their bucolic savagery yet.
Arden: Bucolic savagery? Have you been raiding the Thesaurus?
Nika: Kiera. Have you been waiting months to say that?
Kiera: (eyeroll) Yes. I have.
Joshua: That was good. I like that.
Arden: I've going to have to write that down.

The crew cracks up over this one and after a moment of mirth, we settle down to our coffee and breakfast.

Alan: A couple of you are expatriates, right?
Kiera: Hmm, not really.
Alan: You hear about them. People who get upset with their parents or something and they hie off to the—
Nika: Technically, every single person in the Verse has been part of the Alliance at some point. So in technical terms, every single person who believes in independent thought and independent governing as a right we've been given is actually an expatriate.
Arden: I'm not sure if expatriate means that.
Joshua: Where were you going with that, sir?
Alan: Well I was going to say that people who were raised in the Core worlds, maybe that's a better way of putting it. Who are maybe expatriates of the Core. And there are people who are raised out here in the—
Arden: Savage wilds.
Alan: —the Rim, in which the influence of the Core is less strongly felt. Fair enough?
Joshua: I think that's a fair point. Where are you going with that, sir?
Alan: So I think the people who abandoned the Core must have had something there they didn't like. Whereas the people here may feel like they don't or aren't benefitting from all the … um….
Nika: That would be a valid perception.
Joshua: Really? All the benefits of living out on the Rim are better than the benefits of living in the Core. Don't you have a horseback ride?
Nika: (sighing) Apparently not.
Kiera: I'll be honest. I just have Daddy issues. So there. You're right.
Alan: That would be common. Among expatriates there are—I mean, there are people who have other reasons to leave. It seems that if they have issues, it's more about personal things.
Joshua: There are moral and ethical issues, too.

Beglan and Rina are watching this unfold but are keeping their mouths shut, thanks. Arden pulls a bowl of dates over and then hands it to Glen.

Arden: Let's pretend you're a Core planet and you've got all the dates. And the rest of us are Rim planets. Would you give us some dates?
Glen: Sure.
Arden: But that's not what we're perceiving out here on the Rim. That is why the Rim is not happy right this moment.
Joshua: That's partially tr—
Arden: Well that's the majority. It's a have versus have not situation.
Nika: Yeah, he's right. That's a lot of it.
Joshua: I didn't say it wasn't all of it. Just that—
Arden: I'd say that was the biggest bone of contention between the two factions that there is.
Joshua: Really?
Nika: Well, and the different viewpoint on who gets to determine …
Joshua: Which is separate from have and have not. Determining who controls your fate is a completely separate matter.

Joshua would know from personal experience just how separate and vital it is.

Alan: Let me put it from a pure economics standpoint for a moment. I'm a businessman, am I not?
Joshua: Yes, I'm sure you would know. You're Blue Sun.
Alan: Suppose I want to sell processed Thorium on … let's say, Valentine. A distant Core world but a Core world. My return on investment is about 240 to 250 percent. Say I want to sell that same Thorium on Meridian or Boros. Now I'm down to like 20 percent.
Joshua: True.
Alan: So, I got the bowl of dates. If I've got everyone here sitting around the table, it's a lot easier to hand the dates to you folk than to make sure that all hundred and—what is it now, Sahir? It's one-sixty?"
Glen: One-sixty-five, I think.
Alan: Yes. To all one-sixty-five of the wives … It's hard to do. Cuz they're further away.

So … distance is sufficient justification to deprive people of what they need? Is that what the man is saying?

Alan: So you can see from an economics standpoint, the Rim gets more attention, really than it warrants in terms of population and economic means.

Oh. Okay, so not exactly like that but we can see the man just isn't on the same page. Arden tries to explain.

Arden: Let me put it this way. I haven’t had a date in weeks.
Alan: Really? You?
Arden: Hard to believe. In any case I also have no money. Yet my friend here has all the money. He's got a hundred credits.
Alan: And you've got two cows.
Arden: We're equal distance apart. Economically you sell to him.
Alan: Right.
Arden: Humanitarily, I believe you should help your fellows. And I think that's a big difference. I do not believe the Core worlds have enough humanity within them. They have more economic concerns than humanitarian concerns.

Okay! Arden's just about called the two men carpetbaggers. Great.

Nika: I thought I was going on a horseback ride.
Joshua: I was about to say I might want to go on the horseback ride with you.
Rina: I need more coffee for that to make sense.
Kiera: (ironic) No Arden, it makes perfect sense that a corporation shouldn't be forced to give away their products. Blue Sun could be making money on the Rim and should. What's all this about charity, human kindness, and all that nonsense?
Arden: I thought it made perfect sense.
Kiera: No, Blue Sun makes poor economic sense. Cuz if he's saying he can't get the resources to get a port to up his profitability on a vast vast population, that's a complete failure on Blue Sun's part.
Alan: A vast population? How many people do you think live on the Rim?
Kiera: A lot more than what you think who do.
Alan: Not even a billion people. A couple million. How many people live in the Core? Sixty, seventy billion.
Kiera: But most people capitalize on resources. You're ignoring a potential base of resources.
Alan: We do business out here. We just don't make as big a profit as we do.
Arden: So they're not encouraged to do business out here.
Kiera: Exactly.
Alan: But here's the thing. We do do business out here. The Alliance does—or did—do work out here.
Kiera: I see very few Blue Sun cola machines out on the Rim.
Joshua: It's not all about economics.
Arden: It isn't all about economics.
Alan: Anywhere you go, you're going to find Blue Sun products.
Joshua: (wry) That's right. You can find Blue Sun products everywhere you go.
Kiera: I know. (smiles daggers) I can't get rid of one. I've got one that runs up and down the hallway.
Rina: Yeah, I sleep with one every night.
Alan: I know as a company, Blue Sun would go to the farthest reaches of the Verse.
Arden: For a profit.
Alan: And to serve the mission, which is to provide the Verse with high quality product at a reasonable price.

And the man falls back on the standard line.

Nika: Miranda had a wonderful high quality product, didn't they?
Rina: Yeah. People were dying to get it.
Joshua: Whether they wanted it or not.
Kiera: Well then the argument of it costing a lot of money to do it out there is not a problem, then, for you.
Alan: I'm explaining why it may seem as though the Core has the biggest bowl of dates.
Joshua: I understand where you're coming from. Absolutely.
Alan: If feeding a hundred people in Blue Sun is going to starve a thousand people on Gonghe, is it the humanitarian thing to feed those hundred? And let the thousand die?

There is a perplexed and exasperated silence around the table for a beat.

Rina: It's a pity Jesus wasn't here. He'd solve the problem quite handily with three loaves and five fishes.
Arden: He must have been a hell of an economist.
Joshua: That's pretty good.
Kiera: No. Basically you'd feed the thousand because it comes out long-term.
Joshua: I think the issue is the Alliance wants to take responsibility for governing the Rim but doesn't want to take responsibility for fully giving everyone they are governing the same rights and responsibilities.
Kiera: Don’t forget privileges.
Joshua: And privileges that the Core always had. They wouldn’t have to feed people in Blue Sun or Georgia if they would they would give up the right to govern them.
Alan: No. You've got it all backwards.
Joshua: (evenly) Do I now? Please. Enlighten me.
Alan: Here's the thing. The Rim has remarkable resources. People think that just because they're squatting on some resources, that they should have more rights to those resources than the rest of the Verse. But what the Alliance does is, it says we're one big Verse. And so just because you happen to be sitting on—
Arden: Oh, ho. So we're back to the economic argument now. I thought because these people could pay you more you'd deliver to them first. But these people out on the Rim who actually have the resource that you want, they don't get as much as you do because it's for everyone else.
Joshua: Actually, I want to go back to the squatting thing.

Doesn't that imply that property rights don't exist out on the Rim? That the Alliance is true owner of everything out here? Really? Why else use the term squatters?

Joshua: So they're squatting on the resources that the Alliance and the whole Verse has a right to? So say a thousand people from one of the planets in Blue Sun shows up and claims rights to … say, apartment complexes in Osiris, because the people on Osiris are just squatting on the resources given there, then—
Kiera: No, he's actually got a very socialist viewpoint. If everything in the Rim is actually part of the Core and should be shared, then on the end-Verse everything that's in the Core should be shared with the Rim.
Joshua: That's what I'm saying.
Arden: That's what we're pointing out.
Kiera: Yeah. So I'm thinking a distillation of it is what you're not. You know you're not. Share it equally.
Rina: The sharing is very one-way, from where I'm standing.
Alan: Well, see, your problem is your thinking it as too much in terms of consumer products.
Joshua: Uh, huh. And what are you thinking of it, in terms?
Alan: But really, a credit is—what is a credit?
Joshua: No, let's not go that route.

Alan goes on as if Joshua hadn't said anything.

Alan: The nice thing about a credit is, here we are. On Dephi, the best way to think of a credit is—
Rina: It's a multiple shared hallucination people believe it's worth something.
Alan: Think of a credit as a microgram of Thorium.
Arden: But it isn't.
Alan: But think about it as if it is.
Arden: But it isn't.
Joshua: (to Alan) Okay, you're going to have a hard time with literalness here.
Arden: It's a representation of what the government will give you for the credit.
Alan: Right.
Joshua: Go on.
Arden: The government is not giving me anything so it means nothing.
Alan: Hold on, now.
Joshua: I want to hear this argument.
Alan: Here's the thing.
Rina: (whispers) Oh, God …
Alan: You can't compare what the final outcomes are for each individual. What you have to compare is what is the energy output required to give each person a thing. For me to get a pound of Kaviar Krunchies to Highgate takes way more energy to take to Osiris.

So we're back to distance traveled equals less return on investment, which justifies less being offered to those far away. It still doesn't explain why more is asked of people who have less to spare. Bleeding a goose who's already dying of blood loss will not produce more golden eggs. It will kill the goose. Is that the real goal here?

Joshua: So maybe the Alliance changes the people of Blue Sun so they need less Kaviar Krunchies. Research alters them or something and that way you'll be able to—
Arden: A pound of Thorium here is worth less than a pound of Thorium in Osiris.
Alan: It's … well, the Thorium by itself isn't worth anything. It has to be used.
Arden: That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying if you take a pound of Thorium to Osiris, it's worth more. If you take the same pound to the next planet over, it's worth less.
Alan: That's true.
Arden: So therefore, people in the Core should pay more for the Thorium.
Alan: But we do.
Arden: No, you really don't. We pay the same amount.
Alan: That's because you're paying for what we have out here. The processing and sending out the ships to refine it and the technology and all.
Kiera: (to Arden) His argument is the Core is subsidizing our standard of living out here and why are we not grateful?
Alan: They are. You should.
Arden: You know I missed that argument completely. Thank you for explaining it to me. I don’t think we have anything more to discuss.
Kiera: (pleasant) No, I thought I would just help him convey to us what kind of horrible little ingrates we are.
Joshua: That's right.
Kiera: How stupid of us.

When Kiera's being that pleasantly sarcastic, it's a warning. Will Alan pay attention to it?

Alan: (laughs) It's not stupid. It's understandable. People see shiny things and they want them.
Kiera: Uh-huh.
Joshua: Yeah ...
Kiera: Or the argument can be made that y'all made poor use of the Core resources and have overpopulated and you need the Rim because we got land and can grow things. But that's kinda stupid, isn't it?
Alan: Well, if you could compare the two, I think—
Kiera: I mean, yeah, it's hard to grow a cow on a half acre of nothing, isn't it? Whereas war is profitable.
Nika: I'll tell you somethin', my cow would eat a lot more than that.
Kiera: Yeah but that's because see, Nika, you underpopulated Boros. I can see how he'd feel the transportation costs it takes to send anything—why we never send them anything useful. Do we?
Joshua: We could send the Reavers.

Whoa. Bloodthisty much, Joshua?

Glen: Everything was working fine. We had a good system—
Joshua: The Rim has a full share of Reavers. The Core doesn't have any.
Nika: (brightly) Why don't we send them some of those?
Kiera: Economic policy is what we learned in college. In order for an economy to function there has to be an underclass and that's us. And darn us, we're not satisfied, are we?
Glen: You're not in the same …. No. That's not the way it is at all. You're not an underclass.
Joshua: (rising) Well, this has been a pleasure.
Glen: I mean, you fly around in a spaceship. Underclass people, they're like … living in …
Kiera: Tents.
Glen: (nods) In tents.
Kiera: Camels.
Glen: Bone knives.
Kiera: And beads.
Joshua: Yeah …. Right.
Glen: But those aren't the kind of people that you are.
Nika: Wow. Education in the Core has seriously gone downhill.

Okay. This has ceased to be funny. Joshua rises from his chair and we all follow suit.

Joshua: Well, it's been a pleasure. Always nice to meet somebody from Blue Sun.
Kiera: It's always nice to be informed I'm economically not holding my part of the bargain.
Arden: I discovered I went to medical school and not economics. Coreside.
Rina: Did we all learn what we're to do?
Arden: I'm going to need some more time in the library.
Kiera: I probably need to call Dad and tell him Blue Sun is having economic problems. I should let him know to disinvest.
Nika: Oh that's a good idea, yeah. (to El Sahir) El Sahir, did you offer me a horseback ride this morning?
El Sahir: Of course.
Kiera: (brightens) Ride?
Arden: I'm waiting til ten o'clock to use the gym. If you want use the gym, you better do it before ten o'clock.
Kiera: Uh. No. Thank you.

We gently drag Kiera away with us and leave our Captain to her ride. Who knows what she and El Sahir might talk about while they're out there. The rest of us make our way back to our suites, smoothing ruffled feathers as we go.

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

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