Last Voyage of Delilah, Episode 107: Junkyard Dogs
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Interim: Saturday, 03 Mar 2525 – Saturday, 10 Mar 2525
Banggi Island, Newhall
Kalidasa (Xuan Wu) system
The crew of Delilah stay a week in Nuri's village, giving the girl time to heal from her heart transplant surgery. As soon as he gets clearance from Tian, Valentine visits Nuri in recovery in his official role as Captain.
Valentine: Hi, Nuri. We met casually before. I loaded things so you could get away.
Nuri: Yes.
Valentine: I just wanted to formally introduce myself as Valentine, Valentine Quick. You can call me Val if it's just both of us on ship. If there are people outside the ship, I'd prefer it if you called me Captain to keep it official. Other than that, while you're on board you are our passenger.
Nuri: (softly) I appreciate you taking me. I don't have … passage …
Valentine: It's not—You don't have to worry about that. The only thing I'm saying is as long as you are willing to ride with us, you are welcome to do so. The only caveat to being a passenger rather than being a member of the crew is that you get to go where we go. If you want a vote in that, I'll put you to work.
Nuri: (eager) I'm happy to help. As soon as I—(coughs)—as soon as the doctor allows me.
Valentine: Yes, we will not overwork you and immediately cause another surgery. (smiles) Because the doctor will strangle me. Welcome aboard Delilah. I hope our voyages are pleasant.
Nuri: I'm excited.
She is, really. Fragile though she is, you can see it shining in her eyes.
Valentine: It's going to be interesting. That's for sure. If you need anything, don't hesitate to let me know.
Valentine pats her hand gently and leaves. He doesn't want to tire the patient out. Dr. Grace Tian certainly would be torqued off if he did. Now that he's introduced himself to Nuri and welcomed her aboard, Valentine has one more formality he needs to address.
He calls a crew meeting in the lounge.
Valentine: I won't keep you long but I just wanted to say that I came to some conclusions. There will be no more discussions from me about scrapping the ship or selling the ship, at least not that I know of. I wasn't put in this situation of my own choice but no longer am I going to let it control me. I am officially the Captain of this ship and we are officially continuing to fly as long as we can afford to. That may be three weeks, judging on things, but we'll play it by ear. That means those of you who are IRP are welcome to stay on board for as long as you are interested in doing so.
He looks at Rachel with something of a fond nod.
Valentine: Obviously, you are not going anywhere unless I'm completely off the mark …
Rachel: (nods back) You got a pilot.
He looks at his engineer next.
Valentine: And there's Poco.
Poco: If we ever go someplace where there's something better, then I'm outa here.
Valentine: That's fair.
Poco: But so far, you've been careful in finding the worst places to go.
Valentine: It's a talent. (to the rest) That's it. If you got any questions, feel free to let me know. Otherwise, we're going to stick around for a while and try to figure out what the next steps are.
The meeting breaks up and we get going on the what's-next. For most, it's merely going back to work interrupted. Vikki and Poco work on fixing the ship. Tian compiles her images and reports for the work she's done on Newhall and sends everything off to the IRP as promised. There are lots of pictures of smiling kids along with the long lines of people waiting to be treated at Salt City. She debates including an incident report explaining our run-in with the local sheriff and how he fell down the stairs and seems to hold us accountable for it. Rachel retorts that it wasn't our fault he forgot to tie his shoe laces.
The hours and days pass. During the downtime, the crew is tasked to make fix-it lists for the ship.
Valentine: There's a long list in every areas of this ship of things that need to be done. Give some thought to your area and what the top priority is. If you could have one thing fixed or one thing added, what would it be? That will give me a clue as to where to start dividing the money and focusing our efforts.
Tian: Given what's gone on so far, a surgical bay would not be amiss, even if it's only a small one.
Vikki: We already got a start on that, so I could—.
Rachel: I want my giddy-up lever back.
Valentine: (looks at Vikki) Giddy-up lever. Surgical bay.
Vikki: Wherever you need me.
Valentine: You're basically in charge of everything that's not engine. You'll probably be put to work on the engines but—
Poco: Oh, yeah. I think we need one of those. That's pretty high on the list.
Valentine: (no shit) Engine. Check.
Vikki: Yeah, the Capissen 38 is kinda iffy …
Poco: But I'm a little hesitant to take it out just because I think it's holdin' stuff up.
Tian: I would not be surprised.
Valentine: Once again, this is why I'm asking you want you want. I trust your judgment as far as what we can and what we can't do. (to Vikki) But you're basically in charge of everything that's not engine. So take a walk around the ship and make that list.
Rachel: I got a suggestion for Tinkerbell, honey. I'm pretty good at knowin' while I'm walkin' around at night about not fallin' through the big hole, but it might help to have some railin's up so other people don't fall in the big hole.
Valentine: I know everyone's list is going to be 100 items long but for now, just pick one thing and roll with it.
Vikki: You can't fix anything if you're dead. I'm going to do the railings.
Valentine: Perfectly good start. Get your list in order. Set the priorities and make your supplies lists. When we have the money, we'll start allocating for the areas in most critical need.
Before he adjourns the meeting, Valentine issues one last order to his crew.
Valentine: While we are on a tropical paradise of an island, I recommend everyone to spend some time off the ship while you have a chance. Beylix is not going to be Vacation Central, from what I've been told. I won't order it but I will strongly suggest that you do not spend all your time working.
The meeting breaks up on good-natured teasing about everyone's "vacation" plans. Some time is taken off ship but the work-a-holics of the crew don't dally for long. Using the scrap already on hand, Vikki ropes off the holes in the deck and goes back to work on the lift. The hot water heater and the tub's plumbing also gets some work done on it. The oxy tanks get a checking over and the electrical systems for power get finicked with. Poco continues to fiddle with the engine, trying to fix the temperature problems they've been having with it. All in all, Vikki and Poco pretty much have their hands full just keeping the ship together.
Tian has her hands full making sure Nuri's recovery goes well. There are a lot of things that go on in the background of a hospital setting that a doctor usually does not deal with. Out here, Tian finds she's doing it all on her own. Even with occasional help from Vikki, it pretty much falls on Tian to get it done.
She manages. Nuri's recovery continues. Thanks to the medicines available, by the end of the week, Nuri's well enough to get out of bed and walk around a little bit.
On the morning of the 10th, the crew bids the villagers of Banggi Island a fond farewell and takes off for Beylix.
Saturday, 10 Mar 2525
Beylix Airspace
Beylix is right next door as orbits go, making it only a few hours' flight to get there. While on approach to Beylix, Rachel notices something a little puzzling. Usually on approach to a planet, there's a fair amount of comms chatter from the other ships coming and going. This time, there is none. Rachel realizes that the external comms aren't working. She turns to Valentine, who's keeping her company on the bridge and petting Mortimer (who's in his lap).
Rachel: Awww, dammit. Could you go holler at Papa Bear and tell 'im that the comm's not workin'? Or Tink? I'm not sure which one'll work on it.
Valentine: I was going to add it to the list, but sure.
Before Valentine can move the rat off his lap, Rachel hits the walkie-talkie duct taped to the console.
Rachel: Papa Bear? Tink? One'a you engineerin' types. The comms for the ship don't seem to be workin'. I'm internal but I can't get nothin' out. Either that or they've gone real quiet usin' sign language which don't make a lick a sense out here.
Poco: (via talkie) Well, … I could do that, but that would mean leaving the atmo thrusters off line for a bit while someone goes—
Vikki: (in background) I can get it. I'll get it! I'm on my way!
Rachel: All right. See you in a little bit.
Rachel can't say any more because at that moment we get a ping off one of our medium range sensors. We've just been painted with radar. Rachel looks and sees that there are blips that appear to be satellites in orbit around Beylix and they seem to be locked on us.
Rachel: When in tarnations did they put those things up?
Valentine: What are those things?
Rachel: (irony) Those're satellites. And they locked on our trajectory. Cuz they wanna know where we are. Cuz they're friendly.
Valentine: Okay. (a beat) Is there anything we can flash?
Rachel: It'd be nice if our pinger'd go off or if I had a way to talk to the towers.
Valentine: I mean, don't we have lights or something?
Rachel: (wry) Yes. Cuz headlights beam deep in'ta space, darlin'.
Valentine: Do you want me to sell the ship or do you mind me asking questions when I don't know what I'm doing?
Rachel: Fair enou—I'm not used to you hoverin'.
Valentine: I have to learn the ship. You're the most important piece.
Soon to be pieces. The satellites are DOGS (Drone Orbital Guardian Satellites) and we suddenly have 3 missiles inbound.
Rachel: Dammit! Now, see those little blips? Now those are missiles.
Valentine: Oh, that's not really what I wanted to learn but can we maybe dodge those? Make a hard left or something?
Rachel: (on all-ship) Papa?
Poco: (via talkie) Yeah, Mama Bear?
Rachel: You got engines underneath me? We got three missiles comin' in that we need to figure out how to dodge.
Tian: (via talkie) What?!
Vikki: What?!
In the med bay, Tian's glued to the walkie-talkie that's taped to the wall. On the bridge, Rachel's head whips around to look at Vikki, who's just stepped onto the bridge.
Rachel: Whoa. That was in stereo, darlin'.
Valentine: Tell me what I can do.
Rachel: Gimmie trajectories and tell me what they're comin' in on and what you think they're gonna hit. (on all-ship) Everybody. Strap in. We're gonna do some fancy flyin'.
Vikki sighs and grabs onto something. Tian straps Nuri securely to her bed in med bay. Rachel scoops Mortimer off Valentine's lap and puts the rat on her shoulder under her hair. Then she guns the engines and plummets for the planet, hoping to lose the missiles in atmo. Rachel flies and Valentine helps. He accidentally hits a button that pulls up the Cortex feed and has a flustered moment trying to figure out how to turn it off, muttering how he can't imagine how Rachel even works this thing … Everything jerks to starboard as Rachel jinks hard to a-port. She loses a missile and it streaks right by our bridge windows.
One down, two to go.
Rachel: C'mon, Baby …
Valentine: You have this. There's nothing to worry about. You've done this before, I take it.
She avoids the second missile. She swears.
Valentine: You've got this. No worries.
Rachel stomps on the gas and tears like a bat out of hell for the planet's surface.
Rachel: McAllisters always come home.
The third missile spends out in our fiery wake. We're clear. Once we're through atmo, Rachel wags our wings to let the folk on the ground know we aren't about to crash on their heads and she levels our trajectory. Of course, it's easier said than done. Delilah flies like a bird but steers like a rhino—a mite hard to change course when charging. Luckily we have enough sky between us and the ground to allow Rachel to adjust our angle … by increments … and we manage not to auger in.
Vikki, meanwhile, unstraps to get to the bridge and gets on her back under the consoles working on the outgoing comms glitch. She's successful but it arcs in her hands, zapping her a painful burn and causing everybody else to flinch.
Vikki: Owww! Yebani v'rot!
Rachel: Ahhh!
Valentine: Protect Mortimer. Shield the rat.
Vikki: (sighs) All right. Who did I kill?
Valentine: Nobody. Yet.
Rachel: The rat does not sit on the radio for a reason. For sure it's shocked him before.
Valentine: Is the comms fixed? We don't want our radio silence to make anyone think we're pirates.
Words thus uttered, the Universe has to yank our chain. Our comms goes live just as Vals says "…we're pirates." And Rachel's seat-of-the-pants flying doesn't endear her to the ground crews either, as she jinks at the last minute to a slightly better landing pad. So it's understandable that were met with 8 men with assault rifles pointing in our direction. They're all wearing the grey UR (United Reclamation) coveralls and grim expressions. They're also accompanied by a woman who looks twice as pissed as they.
Um … oops. Looking out the bridge windows, Vikki sighs.
Vikki: The Unwelcome Wagon is here.
Valentine: (right behind her) Yeah. I know.
Rachel: They're waving large pieces of metal at our girl.
Valentine: I'm going out to talk to them. Please don't leave the ship.
Rachel: Don't put a bandana on, babe. (laughs)
Valentine: Yeahhhh ….
Rachel: You want me to go with ya?
Valentine: No. I'm okay. I'd rather you stay onboard. I'll be right back. I got this.
Rachel: Well, one of us sh'oughta go with ya.
Valentine: Why? Do you feel like somehow one extra person is going to help me take out 9 assault rifles? If I can't talk my way out of this—
Rachel: It would make you 50% less a target.
Valentine: If you want to come, come. But let's go.
Rachel rises from her chair and leans toward Vikki.
Rachel: Baby, just make sure that the wires don't set the comms on fire again.
Vikki: (softly) … Okay.
Valentine and Rachel step off the ship to meet the unwelcoming party. The men are still holding rifles. The woman is squat, Asian, and in none too good a mood.
Valentine: Gentlemen. (nods) Ma'am. I'm Captain Valentine Quick of Delilah. Judging from the amount of weapons you've got pointing at us, you feel that we're dangerous. I can tell you that's not the case. Our comms system went out as we came in and unfortunately when it came back on, I'm sure you heard something completely out of context because we are as far from dangerous as anything gets.
Woman: There is a list of things you're supposed to do when this happens. You have done everything you are not supposed to do.
Valentine: I know it's not an excuse, but as an explanation I'm new to the shipping industry. I inherited this ship and it's … complications.
Woman: Do you know how much those missiles cost?
Valentine: I have no idea.
Woman: How expensive it is to restock them? In orbit?
Valentine: I imagine it's fairly expensive.
Woman: You will find out.
Valentine: Really? That seems a little extreme, to be honest. We had barely started getting into atmosphere when they targeted us to begin with. It feels like you have them on a bit of a hair trigger.
Woman: This is Reaver space. You think we're just going to let any ship land here that wants to?
Valentine: No. I don't believe that. But if these missiles are so expensive, do you not have human beings paying attention to fire or not fire? Or are they all automated?
Woman: You matched our profile of a Reaver ship.
Valentine: I'm—
The woman barks an order to the men.
Woman: Search the ship!
Rachel: Well, now …
Valentine: I have a manifest, if you're interested.
They board our ship. It's full of junk. Valentine follows the men and the woman aboard. He asks her as her men fan out.
Valentine: Do you have a name or a title I can refer you by?
Woman: I'm Chief Yu, Yu Yang.
Valentine: Chief Yu, it's a pleasure. I'm sorry that we caused you so much trouble. It was certainly not our intent. Just looking to offload this cargo we took on back on Persephone. We had a delay in Newhall.
Yu Yang: We'll see your papers.
Valentine: Okay.
Valentine hands the papers over and shuts up. Rachel yells up at the deck above:
Rachel: Poco! Put your pants on, darlin'! We're getting' boarded.
Poco: We got company?
Rachel: We're getting' boarded. Put yer pants on.
Yang's men do a cursory check and don't find any armed pirates ready to jump out at them or anything that triggers their itchy trigger fingers. They just find big piles of trash, which is what they're used to seeing. They come back and deliver their report.
Man: If it's dangerous, it's not from the people on board.
Yu Yang: You'll come to my office and we'll negotiate the fees.
Valentine: Of course. (to Rachel) Make sure the cargo gets unloaded and figure out where we need to be. Once it's taken, you can handle all the fees as you've been doing them. I mean as in "get them paid".
Rachel: Oh, yeah. I think I can get them paid.
Valentine: Thank you.
Poco and Vikki have joined Rachel and Valentine on the ramp.
Poco: Captain? All that buffeting we had? Seems to have jiggered loose some of our flight stabilizers. You want me to take a look at that?
Valentine: If you would. I'd appreciate that.
Vikki: Want some help?
Poco: Ah, no. I got it.
Vikki: Okay. Back to the comms.
Vikki goes back inside while Poco fetches the tethers to hang off the exterior hull of our ship. Rachel examines our cargo manifest and papers and finds out that our load is a plain-vanilla delivery of junk to this site. We're supposed to get paid on delivery. However, that might not be much considering the possibility of damages we might need to pay for. It was an exciting flight in but nevertheless life (and business) goes on as usual. Rachel looks up from the paperwork and whistles at the dock workers gathering on the pad.
Rachel: FWEET! Boys, let's get this cargo off!
Meanwhile, Valentine walks off the ship with Yu Yang, who leads the way to her office. On the way, Valentine takes in the details. The spaceport is a series of raised hexagonal landing pads, big enough for ships much bigger than his, arranged around a central high-tech secction. The central section is raised a little higher than the surrounding pads and it also descends five or six stories below them all the way to the ground. The entire complex is an elevated platform like an oil-drilling rig. For miles around, all Valentine can see is mounds and mounds of trash loosely organized in categories. Recyclables, resusables, organic, dangerous, and other. There are conveyor belts as wide as highways moving trash toward the central area of the platform. Ants are swarming over the mounds of trash and it takes a moment to realize the ants are people. Thousands of people physically sent out to sift through the trash, looking for anything of commercial value.
Once that scale is set, one can see just how HUGE an operation United Reclamation is … and how wretched life be here. Poor working conditions. Low pay. Scattered about are armed men in the grey UR uniforms, ostensibly there to make sure no one makes off with valuable scrap. Even so, anything a person could reasonably steal in a backpack would not be sufficient to translate into a day's pay, much less make it worth the risk of being shot.
Off in the distance and on the horizon, one can see the hulks of old ships that have been junked. Here too, they are slowly dismantled into their constituent parts and materials by the worker "ants".
Yu Yang leads Valentine to a small office down some narrow passageways in the industrial core section of the platform. Nothing is shiny or new. Everything is grungy and has seen hard use. Pretty much the norm around here. The office is littered with stacks of paperwork and other odd bits that might be junk … or not. Yu Yang clears a place for herself to sit but leaves Valentine standing.
He doesn't mind—he's used to standing. He's also used to sizing up people and his experience as a casino floor manager stands him in good stead. from looking around the office and at the trinkets Yu Yang has kept, he notices that she probably has some delusions of how important she is. Also, he thinks she might be somewhat smitten by his good looks. Armed with that knowledge, he calmly waits for her to lead and set the tone.
Yu Yang: (Sits) … So … Mr. Quick, is it?
Valentine: Yes.
Yu Yang: So our defensive satellite system is expensive to maintain and it's what makes it possible for you to do business here.
Valentine: Understood.
Yu Yang: But when people don't follow the rules …
Valentine: In my defense, all I can say is that the ship is new to me and is, at best, unreliable. We were hoping that one of the tasks once we arrived was to see if we could find some pieces and parts to help fix the most crucial things that needed to be fixed. I wasn't aware at the time that the comms system was one of them but it seems that it is. I inherited it from my dad, who's now dead. He made his way around and for all I know, you knew him. But he was not big on keeping things up. So I can tell you right now, we don't—(sighs)—I almost hesitate to ask how much it costs, because I'm pretty sure that I don't have the money to cover it.
He pauses and holds up a respectful hand.
Valentine: But … I can tell you that it will probably cost you more to keep me in jail or try to drag me out of it than it would be worth it to you to do. I'm not trying to be ugly about it but I know the financing of this sort of thing. Sometimes trying to collect ends up costing the collector more in the end.
Yu Yang: We have a system for that.
Valentine: And what's that?
Yu Yang: Indentured servitude.
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