Last Voyage of Delilah, Episode 107: Junkyard Dogs, Part 3
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Valentine: (to crew) Hiding never does any good.
Rachel: (eyeing farmer) Ain't no hiding from that.
With that sinking feeling of inevitability, Valentine stands.
Valentine: If you're looking for Quick, you've found him.
Farmer: Who are you?
Valentine: I'm his son.
Farmer: Wait. How old're you?
Valentine: 31. I assume you're looking for Lazarus Quick.
Farmer: (steely) Lazarus Quick. That's right. You're his boy?
Valentine: Yes. Unfortunately, yes.
The farmer pauses, apparently considering where to direct his anger, if the sins of the father should transfer to the son. Tian is a veteran Navyman and she knows the signs of an incipient barfight all too well. She stealthily slides her chair from the table, prepared to spring to action. Rachel discreetly draws Nuri back to a safer distance. Vikki splits the difference and draws back halfway between Tian and Rachel. Valentine makes no sign he's seen his crew move. Instead, he stands to meet whatever comes.
Valentine: So what did my dad do and how can I help you?
Farmer: He eloped with my daughter.
Valentine: Can I buy you a drink?
Farmer: I don't drink.
Valentine: That's fair. Can I buy you something non-alcoholic? We're all friends here.
Farmer: Don't suppose … your father ever brought home a new step-ma for you.
Behind them, Rachel bites her lip and tries hard not to start grinning.
Valentine: No, sir. My father left home when I was seven and never came back home again after that. It's quite possible he had—In fact, if you talk to my mother, she would virtually guarantee that he had a couple extra women floating around the Verse. He didn't seem the type to be a one-woman man.
Farmer: I'd recognize that boat anywhere. (growls) Twelve years ago ... Quick and his crew were here carousin' and gettin' parts and my daughter got hooked up with him. I figured it was a short thing but when I woke up the next mornin' she was gone.
Valentine: … Okay …
Tian's eyes go wide and she shoots a look at Rachel. Rachel silently mouths: I don't remember her. This is no act. She really doesn't. Rachel had taken a stint groundside to have her baby daughter and returned to Delilah once her daughter was old enough to leave with her family. This might have happened when she'd been gone. Of course, this is all behind Valentine's back where he can't see it. For his part, Valentine knows this is something he's not going to buy away with a mere drink. He's sincerely sorry for the man and lets it show.
Valentine: I am sorry for that. I really am. I'm sorry for a lot of things my dad did. I'm not sure what I can do for you, unfortunately. He's dead and he left me nothing of value I can give you for recompense and I don't know where your daughter is.
Farmer: It's late. In the mornin' you get refueled and you get out of here.
Valentine: Yep. I can do that.
The owner of the bar has been following this exchange closely—as have some of the other patrons—and right now she calls softly to the Farmer.
Owner: It was a long time ago.
Farmer: Some wounds don't heal.
And he stalks out. There's a pause and then a collective rustle from the watching crowd as they all turn back to what they were doing. From behind him, Valentine hears Rachel say:
Rachel: You'd think the young'un would'a called home by now, once she got tired'a Laz or Laz got tired'a her.
Vikki: (quietly) Wait. Do we have any proof whatsoever that she left with Laz? Or is it just a circumstantial disappearance with his take-off?
Rachel: Go ask them if—
Vikki: Go ask Poco. It's a rough town out here.
Valentine: I appreciate your generous thinking toward my dad's motivations, but back me up on this one—(nods at Rachel)—that was pretty likely, wasn't it?
Rachel: Yeah, it probably was. Now, he didn't always run off with—.
Valentine: And you wonder why I have a hard time with the ladies?
Rachel: Maybe it wasn't but Val, now she may've wanted to escape him.
Valentine blinks. He sits down. His crew does the same.
Valentine: She wanted to escape … Dad?
Rachel: No.
Vikki: No, she wanted to escape him.
Rachel: Her dad.
Valentine: Okay, that's another thing that looks like it's right up my dad's alley. The soft touch.
Rachel: Now it was twelve years ago and your dad's a fine lookin' man, but he an' I're startin' to get long in the tooth. It sounds like she's a young thing.
Valentine: (thinking on it) So … this was twelve years ago.
Rachel: Yeah?
Valentine: I noticed it hasn't stopped you.
Rachel: Now, son—
Tian: (to Rachel) You still pickin' up the young things? (tsks-tsks)
Vikki: Good for her!
Rachel: I can't help it.
Tian: Trust me, it isn't worth it.
Vikki: Well, I wouldn't know.
Valentine: He likes the soft touch and then he likes a soft touch. (sighs) Well, everyone. Enjoy the drinks.
Everyone settles to their drinking but Tian still can't seem to reconcile Rachel's active love-life as a cougar. Vikki needles Tian that she doesn't have to pay attention to it. Tian is about to tell the younger woman to shut up about it when a loud tone cuts through the air. The bar owner yells at the assembled crowd, who to a man—save the crew—have all rushed to stand with much scraping of chairs and bar stools.
Owner: Quiet down! Quiet down!
Over the speakers that originally pumped out the music, the tone carries on for another second and then is replaced by static. The static is replaced after a couple of seconds by a series of pings that the crew recognizes as the sound made by a ship's navigational beacon. A voice comes over the line next, giving a pulse beacon number. The owner listens to the number, hustles to a Rolo-dex, and starts flipping through it fast. She looks up.
Owner: Aw hell! It's the Buzzards!
Everyone else at the bar drops what they're doing and rush for the door.
Owner: I'm sorry folks, but we're gonna be closing up here in just a little bit.
Tian: What?
Rachel: (to owner) What the hells'a buzzard, honey?
Owner: There's some brigands that come an' take what they need. They usually don't stay very long but you'd best get back inside your ship and lock up.
Valentine: That sounds like an excellent plan.
Vikki: (undertone) The ants gather the food. The grasshoppers take the food … Yeah.
Even as the owner's talking, the crew sees her putting her bottles and other stuff on the bar.
Owner: It cuts down on the amount of damage if they can just get to it.
Vikki: I think we should hide the women.
Valentine: I think we should all of us get moving.
Vikki: Yeah. C'mon. Nuri? Let's go.
Valentine: (to self) Not fast enough for my inclinations.
Rachel: Let's go, girls.
Nuri looks a little dazed by how fast everything changed. Vikki takes her arm in arm and leads her out of the bar. Valentine takes up the rear position to guard their retreat and starts calculating how much fuel he's got left. He's got some, thanks to the meager funds left after paying off Yu Yang, but it might not get them very far. He's seriously thinking that maybe he could hole up with his crew aboard Delilah and just sit tight, pretending to be just another mountain of trash. As an immediate plan, it works well enough. He's not looking to start a fight and he's going to need to be alive if he's to refuel and get his crew off this rock to somewhere safe.
Or safer, at least.
He hustles his crew aboard and locks up behind them. The ramp closes agonizingly slow. Funny, it always seems to take its time when the crew doesn't have the time to spare. Valentine stays until it's closed up tight then joins Rachel on the bridge where she's already busy at the sensors, scanning the area.
Valentine: I was hoping to get us a job.
Rachel: We may yet get one.
She shuts off our external lights and we go dark. Looking out the bridge windows at the nighttime sky, the crew watches and waits for something to happen. It's not long before something does. A craft approaches, something a little sleek and more than a little mean looking.
Vikki: Oh, yeah. That looks awfully friendly. … (squinting) … Are those rocket launchers mounted on top?
Rachel: Yeah, honey.
Vikki: Greaaaaaaat ….
The marauder ship flies right overhead and touches down in the town square in a cloud of dust. The ramp lowers and a bunch of men hit the dirt. They're dressed kinda like commandos but they aren't moving with commando stealth. No, they strut right through the town like they own it.
In a way, they do.
They're more like banditos than commandos, shooting their guns in the air, whooping it up and generally carrying on like bad asses. Or maybe just asses. Beside him on the bridge, Valentine can feel the mood of his crew getting restive on the town's behalf. Honed by years of calming upset casino customers, Valentine tells the crew to sit tight.
Valentine: We're going to be quiet. Just … quiet.
It comes at a good time, too, because it's not long afterward that we hear someone banging on our hull. We do not open our hatch. After a short while, the banging stops. It's a long tense night, punctuated by flashes of light and loud noises. Everyone aboard eventually falls asleep despite the ruckus outside, but no one on the crew sleeps well. Come morning, they find the bandit ship is gone.
Sunday, 11 Mar 2525
Morning
Rachel immediately goes outside to inspect what damage the bandits did to Delilah.
The town itself looks like it got hit by a bad storm. The townsfolk are wearily cleaning up the debris and fixing what can be fixed with the resignation that only comes from familiarity. Though they have places where they hide their really good stuff, it's obvious that they've consigned the rest to the price of doing business. Most operations would have folded up and left under these conditions. Yet for some reason Trash Town continues to hang on.
Which the crew sees for itself when they venture back into town to lend a hand with the clean up. As usual, Rachel goes right to Gossip Central, the town's bar. Inside, she finds more of the same. Valentine and the others join her there. Rachel picks up a chair and rights it.
Rachel: Whyn't y'all fight back? It's just six of the lil'l guys.
Owner: (weary) Well, they're better armed. We don't want missiles comin' down on us.
Rachel: They can't have that many of them.
Valentine lays a quieting hand on her shoulder. She shrugs it off.
Valentine: (murmurs) What are you saying?
Rachel: I'm just sayin'.
Valentine: Are you offering?
Rachel: Would you back me if I did?
Valentine: I thought you weren't the kind of girl who liked to use a gun.
Rachel: I don't.
Valentine: That's what I'm saying. It's a lot easier to tell them to fight when you're not the one having to do the fighting.
Rachel: Oh, suddenly you're recalcitrant.
Valentine: "Not many missiles". But everybody is somebody that they know.
The implication is clear: Anyone who dies, every single one who gets killed, is someone the townfolk know. Mother, father, sister, brother, child, husband, wife, lover, friend. It's a lot to ask someone, to risk their family just because the missile count doesn't seem too high.
Behind the bar, the owner sweeps up the broken glass and dumps it into a trash barrel.
Owner: It's been more frequent lately. Apparently there's been .. during the war and since the war ended, they've been out and we didn't see them for months. Lately, however, there's been a bigger presence of Alliance ships out in space and they've been … not venturing as far away. They've come back more and more frequently and it's…
The owner sighs and sweeps. Rachel leans on the bar.
Rachel: I got a question for ya. (a beat) Do you have any comely girls?
Owner: What are you … ?
That makes the owner blink and Valentine bristle as the rest of the crew stands stunned. Did Rachel say what they think she just said?
Valentine: (at Rachel) Don't start with me.
Tian: What? The? Hell?
Valentine: Don't start with me. (to Owner) Ignore my pilot.
Rachel: If you just have her come ask him, we'll do somethin' about it.
Vikki: What?
Valentine: She's looking for me to play White Knight and she thinks that if they offer up a pretty young thing, that will change my mind. I'm not saying I'm against the idea but what I am saying is—(realizes how it sounds)—not the pretty young thing but the helping out.
Thrown, Tian starts to laugh. Rachel joins her. Valentine throws his hands in the air.
Valentine: I hate both of you.
Vikki: But I didn't say—.
Valentine: I don't hate you. (points at Tian and Rachel) I hate the both of them.
Valentine drags the two women out of the bar and Vikki follows. When they're out of earshot, Valentine pulls them to a halt and addresses them. Tian's still chuckling because Valentine's sticking point does strike her as incongruously funny and Rachel's barely hiding her smirk because she knows she's got him. Vikki stands unsure whose side to take or if she's even supposed to.
Valentine: So here's the thing. I don't mind helping out but … I want to make sure the help is wanted. There's nothing worse in this case than offering something and for us getting banged up and damaged up and then having them say, "We really didn't want you to rile them up."
Rachel: Ask them and see if they'd be willing to give us some fuel for it in exchange. A barter for riddin' them of some vermin an' we get a little somethin' back.
Valentine just stares at her for a beat.
Valentine: Were you this bloodthirsty with Laz? Did you guys just go round shooting people up and …?
Rachel: I didn't think we were going to shoot them up.
Valentine: Then how do you expect to solve this problem?
Rachel: I don't know. That's why you're the brains and the Captain.
Valentine just stares at her for a beat. In the ensuing silence, Vikki offers up a solution.
Vikki: Why don't we just poison the liquor and give it to them?
Everyone turns and stares at Vikki.
Rachel: (appalled) That would be cruel, honey.
Vikki: It would be quick.
Rachel: So's shootin' 'em between the eyes.
Tian: What if they made someone else drink it first?
Vikki: Well, there is that. See? That's why you're here to tell me these things.
Tian: Why are you thinking about killing people? What is going on with you?
Rachel: (air quotes) I was just bein' ruthless. (/air quotes) Calm down. A person can change her mind.
Vikki: Oh I don't know. They say after you kill somebody, the second person is just easier and then the third is even easier.
Tian: That's it. I'm taking you to the Core and dropping you off with your mom and dad. Clearly they need to fix you.
Vikki: (grins) Oh man, you're such an easy mark.
Valentine cuts through the bickering.
Valentine: The only thing I'm concerned about is the fact that we already have four separate groups trying to rack us down, or are in the process, to kill us and you're talking about adding a potential fifth group. If we don't finish them off I am reasonably certain that we'll end up pissing them off so that they'll track us down and end us.
Rachel: True.
Tian: See, that's my concern right there. You're talkin' about doing something and it's going to have to be a permanent something. Otherwise we're just leaving. And they'll just wait until we leave and they'll just come back and do it again anyway.
Rachel: Also true.
Valentine: Let me go and ask them if there is anything we can do rather than make broad assumptions as to what they want.
Rachel: Fair enough. I agree with that, too.
Valentine strides off to do just that … and wonders if he's just been expertly played. There's no backing down now. He didn't start this fight but he's going to have to finish it. Vikki follows him without looking to see if anyone comes with her. She doesn't say anything either, offering her moral support in silence. After a moment, Tian follows them both.
Valentine decides to see the bar owner, sussing her as someone who's in the know, and grabs a broom to help clean up the debris. Vikki and Tian do the same and give Valentine some room to work. Valentine learns the bar owner's name is Hsing Li Qin and she seems willing to talk to him. After a little while, Valentine judges it's safe to talk to her.
Valentine: I'm probably going to regret saying this, but is there anything we can do to help? You said earlier that they've been getting worse. We don't have a rocket launcher on our ship but we might be able to figure out a way.
Hsing Li Qin: (slowly) It used to be that UR would protect us all or the satellites would protect us all against these things and somebody came and found out that we were doing an okay business out here. So they basically diverted the Buzzards and gave them license to do what they want with us.
Valentine: Who—? You figure it's somebody from UR?
Hsing Li Qin: The Buzzards?
Valentine: No, the people doing the diverting.
Hsing Li Qin: I don't know who it was but I think that they just decided that rather than trying to outlaw us and stop us from doing what we're doing, that they would just make life … less profitable … for us.
Valentine: Right …
Hsing Li Qin: And let people like the Buzzards do what they wish. We don't have a lot of weapons and they can outgun us. The one time we did try to stand up against them, they killed several people and it's just not worth losing more life.
Valentine: Are they based somewhere around here? Or just flying loose?
Hsing Li Qin: I think they're just flying loose. Steal fuel. Steal food. Whatever they need to get by. I think they may do some salvage work, too. They've never sold anything to us but they may have sold to UR on occasion. They're loosely licensed and they seem to have no fear of us reporting them.
Valentine: Sure.
Hsing Li Qin: One of the downsides of the Alliance pulling out is that we have no one to do something about this. At least before, there is the thought that somebody would.
Hsing Li Qin seems weary and confused. Valentine can't blame her. Looking at the wreckage of her once intact establishment, he wonders how long the town can withstand such predation.
Hsing Li Qin: I don't know … I don't know what can be done. They—there's … let's see … there's seven of them, I guess, but they're well armed. They seem to know what they're doing. That ship of theirs has missiles, too.
Valentine: I follow. They've got missiles and they've got plenty of personal armaments. Their guns. Are they pistols or … ?
Hsing Li Qin: Light hand-held assault weapons. Machine guns, I think? I'm not an expert.
Valentine: Yes, I'm not terribly familiar with them myself but this does give me a good idea of what they've got. (sighs) How often have they been coming?
Hsing Li Qin: They used to come maybe once a month. Now it's been only four days since the last time they were here. And they seemed to complain about what we had and said we better have better stuff the next time they show up, which suggests that things might go worse for us.
Valentine: I get the picture, yes. If … if we were to try and help you set up an ambush and take part in that ambush the next time they came by, would people participate? Or are they decided that it's not worth the trouble? (slowly) I've got some … very clever people on board that might be able to do a lot of work with … some of this trash to create some ugliness for them when they arrive, to take some portion of them down to make it worth their while not to come back. You know, they have to land. If we can set up an ambush to deal with their men when they're on the ground, we can probably I'm betting we can damage their ship in some way that make it too costly for them to come back. Or potentially eliminate them all as a threat.
A young man, perhaps barely out of his teens, is sweeping up broken glass off to the side but he looks up at this last and says with some eagerness:
Young Man: I'd help you!
Valentine looks at him. The young man is wearing a grocer's apron and pushing a broom. As if aware of the figure he cuts, the young man looks down a little abashed and continues.
Young Man: I … I don't have a gun but if you have one, I could probably learn how to fire it.
Valentine: It wouldn't just be guns, either. The idea would be to set traps. How long ago would it be since you resisted.
Hsing Li Qin: A couple of years ago.
Valentine: Right. They're pretty much assured you're broken down and that you're not interested in fighting back. So this is the time to surprise them, but once again this can't be a half-assed measure.
Man's Voice: And we should believe a Quick is going to help us out of the kindness of his heart?
A figure in the doorway, black against the outside glare, speaks up. It's the Farmer from the night before. Vikki shoots right back before Valentine can respond.
Vikki: Well, this is Quick version 2.0, sir. Maybe you should become more acquainted with it before you start badmouthing it.
Farmer: Young ladies oughta know how to speak to an Elder.
Vikki: (dubious) Uh huh.
Valentine: Vikki, I can speak for myself. I appreciate it, though.
He turns to the Farmer.
Valentine: I understand you not wanting to, thanks to my dad.
Farmer: Yes, all excitement and gettin' everybody all riled up and thrilled. And when the people die you'll tell them what? You'll be tellin' them nothin', cuz you'll be flyin' out'a here.
Valentine: I can't say that I plan to set down roots here. I'm offering because it seems like it's getting to the point where if somebody doesn't do something, there isn't going to be a Trash Town left to come back to again. Everybody seems like nice people. I'm just getting started in this whole shipping thing and it would be nice to have a place to come to where I knew I could trust the people and that there was a place to come. I'm willing to help. I'm good with my people, my equipment, my guns. Everything at risk, I choose … if you chose to do this. But… I can't do it by myself. There's not enough of us and not enough weaponry. I'm going to need people of this town to be willing to help out. If you're not interested, if you're willing to have them keep coming back and taking more and more stuff and maybe next time decide that things aren't enough …? Because I know what men like this do. And when they're tired of taking things or if they decide that you don't have enough things to take, they're going to start taking people.
A middle aged woman with short shaved hair looks up from cleaning and pins the Farmer with an admonitory eye.
Woman: It wouldn't be the first time they did that, either, Aloysius Whitman.
Whitman: I know what they do, Ava. I'm Elder here and you should listen to me. It's better to play it safe and give them what they want. They just want some drink and supplies. We got enough.
Valentine: Do you?
Whitman refuses to answer. The woman, Ava, raises an eloquent brow and then turns to Valentine.
Ava: I'm not a fighter but I can provide you with some materials if you need them. I don't have weapons but … if you can make something …?
Valentine: That's the idea. We're not Federales. We don't have huge supplies of personal firearms. If we're going to do this, it'll be with what little firearms we do have, plus using the surroundings and the equipment that we've got. You know this place better than they do. You know the equipment better than they do. I've got some people. For instance …
He nods in Vikki's direction.
Valentine: I've got an engineer here who may be the most creative mind I've seen when it comes to just throwing crap together and coming out with genius on the other side.
Ava: Well, … (breathes a laugh) … We've got a lot of crap.
Tian: I don't suppose there's any chance to talk it through instead of …?
Valentine: Do they look like the kind of people that would listen? I'm willing to, but are they?
Ava: Maybe once they're all tied up and helpless.
Rachel: (walking in) There's no negotiatin' at that point, darlin'.
Valentine: That's the point. I'm not ruthless. I'm not interested in just … killing them wholesale. But I am interested in that if we do this, then we're doing it so that they don't come back again. I'm not going to start this and then wander off and then have you deal with the consequences. I'm not that kind of guy. I take responsibility for the things that I start.
Valentine approaches Aloysius Whitman and offers his hand.
Valentine: I'll shake on my word. My word's important to me. I am not my father. If you want to shake on it, I'll give you my word and you give me yours. Like two men should do.
Whitman: I'll have no part of this. I left the war behind fourteen years ago.
Valentine: All right. I can understand that.
Whitman: But I won't get in your way.
Whitman walks out. Valentine watches him go.
Valentine: (to self) That's probably as good as we're going to get.
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