Episode 709: Land of the Lotus-Eaters, Part 3
Go to: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, Special Features
Joshua strides forward and yells.
Joshua: This isn't Skull territory! You aren't wanted here. Get gone!
Arden: (to crew) Ready your guns, guys.
One of the Skulls shouts and fires a stunner-type weapon. It misses. Everyone on both sides ducks for cover. Nika gives Kiera permission to start shooting while she pulls her crew back through the docking bay doors. She keys her earcomm as more shots fly. It's in range of the ship and she hails it.
Nika: Beggar. You guys okay in there?
Beglan: We're okay for now. They're not gonna be able to bust in with buncha clubs.
Rina's not entirely happy over this.
Rina: (growling) They are messing with my girl. We got anything flammable in here?
Nika: What?!
Joshua: What are you going to do?
Rina: Fuel drums, explosive stuff.
Nika: No. A thousand times no. Joshua, sit on that woman would you?
Joshua has a better idea. He yells to the hooligans beating on our ship.
Joshua: Look! You can go back to Skull territory now with all your parts intact. Or you can wait until we're done with you and go with your tails between your legs. Choose!
Arden: Thus speaks Arden!
Joshua: (to Arden) I hate you so much.
Dammit, some days you can't win for losing.
Rina: How many of them are there? A dozen?
Joshua: There's too many.
Kiera: That's only a dozen against us. That's fun.
Rina: Yeah, you and I? We get six each, yeah?
Nika: Stop. Beggar and our guys are okay right now.
Joshua: Cuz they're not going to be able to break into our ship.
True enough. Their clubs are just bouncing off our armored hull. Short of a ship to ship missile, there isn't a thing they can do to damage our girl, not with what they've got.
Arden: What would happen if a fire broke out in the hanger?
Rina: It would use up all the air.
Which would asphyxiate the Skulls. And don't forget the fire suppression system would kick in and pretty much do the same thing. Absent that, the hangar doors would open to vent the fire into space. Hey. That's an idea. Vent the hangar … or threaten to. No one would stick around in a hangar that's going to vent. Not without a vac suit at any rate. It would be a fantastic way to clear the hangar of the Skulls. So … where are the hangar door controls?
Rina: Be that as it may, until they're gone, I can't refuel the ship.
Nika: I know.
Rina points at the gantry office halfway up the rear hanger wall.
Rina: Why don't I check it out and see if the fuel switch is there?
Joshua: How are you going to do that?
Rina: (huffs) I don't know. I'm making this up as I go along. I have to go back and then up a level and get in.
Arden: I don't think you should go by yourself, though.
Joshua: Why don't you take Arden?
Arden: Really?
Rina: (grabs Joshua) Yes, Arden. You come with me.
Joshua: Please stop calling me that.
Arden: So you going with her or not?
Joshua: Yeah I'm going with her.
Kiera: Oh boy. Yay. Now we have "Joshua". Am I getting this right?
Arden: I think so.
Kiera: Okay.
Rina: (to Joshua) What's this with—?
Joshua: Don't ask. I don't want to talk about it. (to Arden) Don't kill anybody while I'm gone.
Arden: Joshua would never kill someone.
Joshua sighs and leaves with his wife. He and Rina retrace their steps to the corridor and they start looking for a way up to the office.
Kiera: Why do these people hate Joshua so much?
Arden: Because they asked me what my name was before I shot them. And so I shot them and they think Joshua shot them.
Nika: (facepalm!) I give up. I just give the hell up.
Kiera: So I can see them hating Joshua then. Why did you shoot them?
Arden: Cuz they were getting ready to beat us up.
Kiera: What did you say to them?
Arden: They wanted to take our weapons and also pay a toll of some sort.
Kiera: They might have just wanted a compliment. Why didn't you say that?
Arden: I gave them the chance, they didn't back down, so I shot one.
Nika: Really? This is what we're going to argue about right now?
Arden: Well, we're waiting for them to get up to the other thing. (jerks a thumb after Rina and Joshua) What else are we going to do?
Speaking of whom, Rina and Joshua find an access hatch that leads to the gantry office and Joshua is finally climbing up something closed in and tight. Yay! So of course, he wants to go first and Rina agrees to watch his rear. So they climb up the ladder inside. Rina is no stranger to such access tubes and she's twitchy as hell besides. She spies something dead ahead of Joshua and the next thing he knows, she's got his ankle in an iron grip.
Stop.
He freezes on the rungs and manages to see what his wife spied ten feet away—a hair thin wire has been stretched across the tube and anchored to a bomb. It's a trip wire and had Rina not grabbed him, he would have climbed right into it.
Joshua: That's so awesome. See? I told Arden he was missing out. (off Rina's sigh) What?
Rina: I'll see if I can deactivate it.
It takes some squirming around to swap places but they get it done. Rina maintains tension on the wire when she snips it and anchors it to something not a bomb and out of the way, thanks. The bomb is still armed as always, but at least now it's not blocking traffic. They come out the top of the tube inside the gantry office and find the controls are powered down. It's dark in there but there's enough light to see by, coming from the windows overlooking the bay. Rina pulls a pocket torch from her coveralls, turns it on, and signals out the windows to Nika below.
Blink-blink: We're in place.
Looking around, Joshua and Rina discover that the power to the office has been turned off. Using her understanding of conduit routing, Rina thinks the power was deactivated from a more central location but she thinks she can override it where they are. They leave the office through the normal exit door and start tracking the power lines to the proper point where Rina can work a hack. They find the junction box and Rina gets to work rerouting a connection. While she's busy doing that, Joshua's skin starts to creep with that feeling that he's being watched. He puts a hand on his wife's shoulder.
Joshua: (whispers) Just keep working.
And he slips off toward the direction that creepy feeling is coming from, which is another person's mind. He's sure of it. It's a familiar sort of mind, kinda. It's a lot like Rina's mind, actually. Not literally hers, but the flavor of it is like hers. You know …. Paranoid.
Meanwhile, in the docking bay, the Skulls are leaving off banging on the ship and heading over to start banging on Nika and the crew. Nika doesn't want to start a fire in the bay and she motions Kiera to hold her fire … until one of the Skulls throws a Molotov cocktail at the crew. It falls short, hits the deck and starts to burn. Nika orders suppression fire to keep them busy.
On the level above, Joshua tries to get a bead on the other mind's surface thoughts. Nothing comes in clearly, but Joshua continues his search for both surface thoughts and their owner. After a few moments, three red dots light up on his chest. Joshua sees them and stops.
Joshua: I'm unarmed.
In the darkness he hears mechanical breathing sounds. He recognizes it as the breather on a full NBC suit.
Joshua: I'm not with the Skulls. I'm not with the other—well, not with any other gangs, though we've only run into the Skulls. We're here with the Exeter. That ship not too far from … here.
There's an audible click and a bright light stabs his eyes, piercing the darkness. Ow…!
Joshua: Jesus Christ, warn me before you blind me.
The light moves up and down Joshua, who puts a hand up to shield his eyes.
Joshua: So, do you like what you see?
The light abruptly clicks off and Joshua really can't see anything now, blinking spots.
Joshua: Good. I'm not a cat or anything, folks. It's already pretty dark.
He hears nothing but the eerie clunk and hiss of the breather unit. Creepy as hell. Joshua stands his ground.
Joshua: Dare I ask who you are? It sounds like you got—
Voice: This level's not safe.
A man's voice, a little hollow and tinny from the suit speakers, but a man's voice nonetheless. A sane-sounding man's voice.
Joshua: You know, to be honest—
Voice: You should leave this level.
Joshua: Why is it not safe? Just out of curiosity?
Voice: It is not contained.
Joshua: By contained do you mean people or do you mean biohazards?
No response.
Voice: Neither.
Joshua: Okay, now I'm completely lost. What are you trying to contain?
Voice: Threats.
Joshua: Wow. (shakes head) You guys … It wouldn't—it's not costing you per syllable. I'll give you a few free extra syllables.
Cuz, Geez! Would it kill him to actually string a sentence together?
Joshua: What kind of threats are not biohazards or people-hazards? I've got a crew I'm trying to figure out how to—we want to get off this crazy boat. I'm unarmed. You can come out and talk to me.
There's a crack! and a raspy rattle and in a second, Joshua sees a glow stick shaking to life. Bathed in the green light, he sees a figure in a hostile environment suit, the sort that people would wear when working in a radioactive zone. Furthermore, it's been modified with weapons belts. The mystery man is armed for bear.
Joshua: That's some serious equipment there.
Mystery Man comes forward and looks at Joshua a bit.
Mystery Man: Are you on that ship that … ?
Joshua: That's exactly right, sir. I would like as much information as I can get on what's going on here. From what I've seen and we've been able to tell, it seems some sort of Pax derivative, the one that the Alliance is using, half the crew seems to be, like, partying out and the other half seems to be turning into roving gangs. But if they're not what you're trying to reduce the threat on, what are you trying to reduce the threat on?
Mystery Man: Just trying to keep things running.
Joshua: Yep … (nods) … So you're helping keep this contained until the PDF gets here?
Mystery Man: Whatever we get. Or whoever. So your plan is to fuel up and …?
Joshua: Fuel up. Food up. We got to clean out our water supplies and sewage and all that good stuff. To be honest, we'd really like to get out of here and get into Blue Sun system. Unless you've got other ideas how to put this station under a semblance of order … ?
Mystery Man: I could use your help.
Joshua: Okay … So, tell me what you need.
Without further explanation, Mystery Man turns and walks off in Rina's direction. A little worried about his intentions considering the man is walking toward his wife, Joshua tries to stall him a little.
Joshua: It's still dark, you got the glow stick, I can't see … You gotta slow down …
Joshua catches up and sees Mystery Man has a homemade assault weapon. It looks like a rifle with an under-barrel grenade launcher duct taped to a flame thrower. Or something like that. Either way …
Joshua: Man, not only is that a serious suit, that is some serious weaponry, man. You clearly built that yourself. I don't think that's standard issue. Um, so … what am I helping you with?
Mystery Man pushes a button on a chrono he's carrying on him, checks the time reading on it.
Mystery Man: How long have you been aboard?
Joshua: I dunno? A few hours? I kinda lost track when I got lost.
In truth, it's more than a few hours.
Joshua: We were wandering around in Skull territory for a while. They didn't have any clocks anywhere.
Mystery Man: All right.
Mystery Man continues walking toward Rina's last known position. Joshua raises his voice, hoping to telegraph to his twitchy wife the situation before it rounds the corner on her. And also let her know not to shoot first and ask questions later.
Joshua: Once again, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be helping you with.
Mystery Man: I'm going to need your ship.
Joshua: You're going to need our ship.
Okay, if Rina heard that, maybe she'd shoot first and ask questions later anyway. Hoping to stave that off, Joshua keeps talking and asking questions.
Joshua: What are you going to need our ship for? I mean, you can't fly the ship yourself. What are you going to do with it?
Mystery Man: (quietly) No, I'm staying here. I've people who need to get off.
Joshua: People who need to get off. This is good. Where are they? Where can we get them?
Mystery Man: I'll let you know.
Joshua: Okay. Thanks.
Back at the junction box, Rina hears two sets of footsteps and the murmur of conversation approaching. Then she hears her husband calling out as he rounds the corner.
Joshua: So … Rina. I've run into some company. Don't worry. He's with the good guys.
Rina turns around and looks to verify Joshua's claim. She sees in the green glow of the stick an industrial strength NBC suit, packed with weapons and gear, and extra air tanks. Creepy and dangerous looking. She withholds judgment and more importantly, gunfire, and stands warily, waiting for Joshua to explain.
Joshua: So, this gentleman—whose name I never got—
Mystery Man: Mason.
Joshua: Mason. I'm Joshua, by the way. He's got some people—I assume survivalists like you?
Mason: Not like me.
Joshua: But, like, not all Pax-derivatived up people?
Mason: (to Rina) You almost done with the power?
Rina: (reserved) Yes.
Mason: I might be able to turn on the system.
Rina: Was it you who rigged that booby trap in the access tunnel?
Mason: Probably.
Joshua: She was impressed.
Rina: (evenly) Good work.
Mason: Well, not if you saw it.
Joshua: Well, she's fairly … She's fairly twitchy. If the situations were to be reversed, she'd be in the suit with all the armor and the—
Rina: Is that a flame thrower?
Joshua: See? This is exactly something that she would have built.
Rina steps closer, frankly admiring Mason's ingenuity. She's still reserved but is thawing in the presence of skills she and he apparently have in common. She's walking around him trying to figure out how he's rigged everything.
Rina: Do you have any trouble with the accelerant clogging up the nozzle?
Mason: I use a wire brush.
Rina: (nodding) Mm-hm.
Joshua: We just got married. (to Rina) Please don't leave me for him. I can't build that. Turn on the power please.
Rina:(slow smile at Joshua) There's no one like you.
Rina turns the power on, no problem. There's a hum and the lights flicker, then go steady on. Down below in the docking bay, the rest of the crew sees the lights go on above. The Skulls also notice and like cockroaches, they start taking cover … a little bit. Unlike cockroaches, they still have a mad on. They're still shooting and the crew's still shooting back. Nika keys her ear comm.
Nika: Nice job, Rina. (shoots) Whaddya got?
Rina: Yes, Ma'am. We've made contact, Ma'am.
Nika: Bloody hell. (shoots)
Rina: We may have passengers.
Nika: Okay …
In the gantry office with Joshua and Rina, Mason gets to a keyboard and starts tapping away despite his gloves. A map blinks to life on the screens. Rina's all over that, grateful to finally be able to see the big picture of the place. Mason points out the needful details.
Mason: This is … You're here. And this is Duct 27. The main medical wing is … over there. There were some that were wounded in the initial fighting on both sides so they were treated in the medical wing. I don't know what their situation is. We haven't been able to get to them but they may still be alive there.
Joshua: We have a medical doctor, at least one.
Mason: Here—you can't get there from the elevators, they've been disabled. But the access path down to this level … (points, traces) … it's one of the fighter docks. The Ordnance Room, Number 1725, there's no ordnance in there but I've been, ah … taking care of some people down there.
Joshua: Okay, so you've got people in the Ordnance Room and potentially people in the medical wing.
Mason: When the initial gas attack was done, these ones appeared to be … well, as you may have discovered, I don't know how many you've encountered, but some people are affected differently than others. Some people are … ah, just, crazy, lawless, chaotic.
Joshua: We've run into them.
Mason: And other people are ridiculously … happy and blissed out. These people are probably of the latter group. So much so they wouldn't do much of anything. Probably something like what happened on Miranda.
Joshua: Yeah.
Mason: Not as bad as Miranda. I've been able to get them to feed themselves when I bring them food—
Rina: (twitchy) So you know about Miranda.
Mason: Everybody knows about Miranda.
Rina: (true) All right.
Mason: Especially if you're from Highgate. I mean, we all heard about the … stories, from the teams that have been there.
Rina: So, how many teams were there and how many are left?
Mason: Teams where?
Rina: Miranda.
Mason: There was the Miranda Wave and there was the Christmas Wave.
Rina: No. You said 'teams', not 'wave'.
Joshua: (heading her off!) I think he meant teams as waves, they that sent waves.
Rina: (relenting) … Okay.
Whew. We've dodged the bullet. The last thing we need is Rina killing the guy because she got twitchy. We need him alive for the help he can give us.
Joshua: The other thing we're needing is food.
Rina: And fuel.
Joshua: Fuel we can get. The power's on. We can get enough fuel, I'm assuming?
Mason: Probably enough to get you to Blue Sun or Bellerophon. It might not fill your tanks, but … (shrugs)
Mason points to another area on the map, a bit far away from our position.
Mason: This area over here … was … I believe originally the administration section. The two towers and the four basic sections—the docking areas, the commercial sector, the military sector, and the administrative sector—all of them were designed to be quasi-independent with their own power source and their own food sources and such. I haven't been able to get there. I haven't actually tried, to be honest. I've mostly been securing this area. But I suspect there might be food sources there because that area was not heavily occupied during the combat.
Joshua: The administrative section?
Mason: The administrative section, yes.
Joshua: All right. And if you happen to know where those booby traps of yours are in any of the access tunnels, could you mark them for us even if we might be able to catch them anyway …?
Mason: I recommend rather than trying to move all the people that I have, that you move your ship to everybody.
Joshua: (relieved) I agree.
Mason: I can turn on a beacon to guide you there.
Joshua: That would be nice.
Mason: I assume you have a dorsal dock?
Rina: Mm-hm.
Joshua: We're good. (sighs) All right. We'll just have to clear the Skulls and refuel here, since the power is on here, and we'll get those people for you. Take them to Blue Sun, to Highgate.
And Rina's already moved on to the next problem: clearing the Skulls.
Rina: There's tear gas. If we had tear gas—
Joshua: We don't have any tear gas.
Mason: Are you the Captain of the ship?
Joshua: I'm the XO. The Captain's downstairs.
Mason: (to Rina) If I can talk to you for a minute? (shows her a console) These are the controls for refueling.
Rina: Spasiba. Thank you. (flips switches, mutters) Get this damn thing set up …
Having put Rina on a task, Mason turns to Joshua and continues, keeping his voice low.
Mason: It's fairly likely you've all been infected if you've been breathing the air. Even her. (nods at Rina's rebreather) I'm not sure the mask is gonna do it.
Joshua: Yep.
Mason: So, if you can lock in your course for Highgate, it may not hurt you enough to veer off, but you might want to keep an eye on everybody. If you've got somebody on board the ship now, if they can pilot the ship, you might just want to lock them up on the bridge. Let them grab some food and lock themselves up on the bridge for the flight. Just to make sure that you get there safely.
Joshua: Makes sense. Much appreciated. We can do that.
Joshua offers his hand to Mason for a shake, if he wants it. Mason shakes his head.
Joshua: (unoffended) I figured.
Mason: I just hope that you last long enough to get there.
Joshua: We will. Don't worry about that. We will. Rina. I'm going down to inform the Captain.
Mason meanwhile looks out the office window at the ship.
Mason: Exeter, huh? Hmm.
Joshua: Yeah. It is that Exeter.
Joshua comms Nika, who's down below with the rest of the crew. He speaks with a broad grin and a bouncy attitude—Sunshine Personified.
Joshua: Hi, Captain!
Nika: (drawling) You know I love it when you do that.
Joshua: I know. That's why I do it.
Nika: What's going on?
Joshua: We just ran into a survivalist. Oh, and he—(rethinks)—Imagine Rina hopped up on super-armor plus flame thrower plus, um …
Rina: (from her console) Ten million parts of bad ass.
Nika: Really?
Joshua: Yeah, well anyway—he says that there are people that need to get out in the med wing.
Rina: And the Admin wing.
Joshua: And the Ordnance Room over in this section and he suggests we get them by moving the ship over to the dock near by it. There's also food in that general area.
He goes over the plan as quickly as possible. The med wing is in the military section of the ship and we're in the dock section. That's going to be a bit of a journey by tram. The admin section is on the far side of the ship. Basically, we're going to be hop-scotching all over the station. For instance, the Ordnance Room …
Nika: Down a couple decks?
Joshua: Down a few decks but yes, in the dock section. There are people who got hit hard by the Pax derivative but are able to feed themselves.
Nika looks at Arden.
Arden: What?
Nika: I'm loving the shades of Pala.
Arden: Yeah, well …
Joshua tells them also about the people stranded in the med wing and the fact that we won't know who's alive or dead until we get there. Nika tells him that if any are alive, we'll take them as well. And the food's in the Administration wing.
Nika: That's on the frigging far side of the station.
Joshua: But we're gonna have to go there as well. Also, he said we might want to have Beggar locked himself up on the bridge with some kind of food. Um … to pilot the ship and lock in the course for Highgate.
Nika: Cuz he's the only one who hasn't been affected. I was already … Yah.
Joshua: I figured you might be. It's solid advice and worth passing on.
Nika: Did he give us any information on the refueling situation?
Joshua: The power's on. If we can clear the area—
Nika: From there can you shut the doors to the hallways and just vent the friggin' bay into space?
Arden: (pissed) Oh! But I get slammed when I mention it!
Joshua: I'm still gonna slam her.
Nika: He can slam me all he wants. I don't care.
Actually yes. The gantry office controls the exits and entrances to the docking bay. It's a big reason why it's there.
Rina: Okay, I'm on it!
Joshua: (motioning her to stop) Can we give these guys a chance to—
Nika: Sure. Hang on. (cuts comms, yells to Skulls) We're about to vent the dock into space. You got thirty seconds to get across to the other side and out of this dock!
There is a door on the far side that would lead them to safety. Nika ducks back into the corridor with the rest of the crew, keys her comms on again.
Nika: (to Joshua and Rina) Shut it.
Sirens start going off and the doors to the hallways start to slide shut.
Go to: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, Special Features
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