Last Voyage of Delilah, Episode 108: Clementine Run

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Wednesday, 14 Mar 2525
Trash Town, Beylix
Georgia (Huang Long) system

The crew of Delilah have successfully freed the beleaguered residents of Trash Town from the marauders known as "The Buzzards". Valentine is taking the opportunity to grab a little rest for his crew and a chance to refit and/or fix the most pressing issues with the ship. A couple of the most pressing issues to be addressed are …

1. Getting a better sensor package installed
2. Patching the holes in the deck or at least putting up more permanent/sturdy railings
   
   

Valentine has already announced his intention to stay on as Captain of Delilah, for better or worse, and therefore would like to make the ship more like a proper ship and home. There are three Trans-U model ships on the outskirts of Trash Town, Natchez, Molly Aida, and Whydah. As the crew and the townfolk work to repair Delilah, he learns a little more about the three ships. Natchez was a multipurpose boat. Molly Aida was primarily a transport with a mobile stage and theatre. Whydah primarily hauled cargo. Of the three ships, she's in the worst condition sporting plenty of carbon scoring and hull plating that is plain shot up.

A sensor package is found and installed, but not without stirring some memories from Poco's checkered past.

Getting the gaping holes in our deck is next on Valentine's to-do list. He tries negotiating the materials with Elder Aloysius Whitman but he flubs it, angering the Elder who stalks off in a huff. Rachel visits the Elder to soothe his feelings and she's successful. Over the next few days, Valentine gets his deck plating and the holes get repaired.

Tian, meanwhile, is busy getting better medical facilities installed aboard Delilah. She has to work with a competitive young man man from the town who is eager to show everything he can do … but who tries to override Tian's better judgment on what she needs. Tian has a secret weapon up her sleeve, however: Nuri. With Nuri's natural genius and not so coincidentally her natural effect on a normal teen-aged boy, Tian managed to throw the boy off his stride long enough to describe exactly what she needs done.

Hallelujah, y'all! We have a proper med bay!

For herself, Rachel really really REALLY wants her booster controls up and running again. She only needs a few small parts to manage it, but she's going to have to scrounge the piles of trash surrounding the town for them. Poco helps with the search and installs the parts. Rachel gets her giddy-up lever but it comes at a price: the installation somehow has caused a leak in the fuel line that's hard to find. Until Poco can find it and seal it off, Delilah will have to court the fire hazard the leak will cause.

Vikki spends the several days on the ground scrounging for machinery and parts to make a machine shop aboard Delilah. Trash Town may be small by UR standards, but even so, Vikki is able to find enough for a machine shop. Of course, such equipment needs to be hooked up to the ship's power system in order to run it and Vikki has to make a rat's nest of the wiring to accomplish it. As such, it might lead to problems until she can tidy the wiring up.

Valentine, meanwhile, is interested in turning at least one deck into casino space. It's a shoo-in for revenue and it might cut down on risky business from dubious cargo. Of course, it also dovetails cleanly with his skill set as a casino manager. He knows people and their gambling habits. Why not make it easier for them to indulge themselves by bringing the casino to them?

He gets a line on someone who might be able to supply him with good casino gear. A man by name of Novak lives a little ways out into the trash piles, where he makes a living restoring ship furnishings. Valentine gets directions to his place and on the way, he passes a graveyard filled with markers. He notes the names and the dates, seeing that while there are graves filled with the dead from both U Wars, there are many graves for plague victims as well. Valentine takes pictures of the graves to show Tian later and continues to Novak's place.

Novak's place proves to be a farm—or at least a former farm, as there seems to be no sign of farming on the property. Instead, Valentine finds a barn where the restoration work takes place. It's filled with wood and machinery to work it: hand tools, several lathes, workbenches, vices, presses, drying racks … it's a forest of pieces in progress and redolent of sawdust and varnish.

The furniture inside isn't exactly up to Golden Dragon standards but Valentine didn't walk in expecting to find it. What he does find are tables the right shape, half circles and elongated ovals that can be made to serve the purpose. Valentine's reasonably sure he can find a few locals and train them to be croupiers. It would only take a few days to bring them up to speed on the trade. But that is for later. Right now, he needs the furnishings.

He finds Novak. He's dressed a little bit fancy in a vest and a tie. He's surprised and pleased to see Valentine and his manner is polite and helpful.

Novak: Yes, my good sir.. What can I do for you?
Valentine: I was told that this where I go if I want quality pieces furniture. And looking around, I see that's correct.
Novak: Well … actually you probably should go to Sihnon or Londininum … (brightens) … but since you are here we're the next best thing.
Valentine: One must do with what one has. Let me tell you what I'm looking for and you can tell me if you've got anything. I can see a couple of pieces that might fit. I'm potentially looking to outfit a ship for as a mobile-slash-travelling casino. I will need pieces that can serve as card tables, pieces that will serve where a dealer could deal black jack and other styles. I see a couple of pieces over there that might fit but you might have thoughts about pieces that you don't have out or that I could have you custom create.
Novak: Yes. Well, I think I see what you're looking for …Is there a certain look you wish to emulate? Do the pieces all have to be in the same style?
Valentine: If possible, sure. But our ship itself is … let us say … quaint. I'm not sure any pieces we get are going to fit in with its style. What I get is going to see a lot of wear and tear. I need solid high quality pieces I can count on.
Novak: How much space are you fitting? How many pieces are you looking for?

Valentine tells him and it becomes apparent that Novak missed the whole business with the marauders. Valentine has to describe Delilah and the space he's got aboard her. He asks Novak for a quote and gives him what he's budgeted for the purchases. He compares the price to the quality of the wood, joinery, and the felt. There's a gap between what he needs and what he can afford. Valentine has bought fittings for the Golden Dragon in the past and he knows what quality fixtures should be like. There is also a gap between what he needs and what Novak has available. For instance, the game marks would have to painted in on the tables before they would be ready to use. The felt isn't the best grade for the job. Given the funds at Valentine's disposal and the objects for sale, it would take some work to bring Novak's furniture up to snuff.

Of course, paint is pretty low-tech and he has Vikki who's genius with making low-tech solutions work fabulously… but Valentine already has important tasks for Vikki to do. Besides, this is a project Valentine wants for himself. It's his idea, his project, his labor. And right now, he's getting an idea that it's going to take some work to pull off.

Novak: (gently) I sense that you're not overwhelmed with the selection at this stage. I might have something else but the numbers you quoted were a bit low. I could show it to you … (trails off)
Valentine: Please. I'd like to see it.
Novak: There was a time when there was a hope of starting a resort on Beylix and then the junkyard business took off and the idea went out the door.

Novak leads him to another room where there are other pieces stored under drop cloths. Novak pulls them back. These pieces are nicer. They are of a quality that Valentine expected to see from lower-grade competitors of the Golden Dragon on Paquin. It's actually casino furnishings. Nothing would have to be retrofitted or altered. Everything Valentine needs is already there.

Valentine: Let me be straight with you. Honest and up front. I don't have that kind of cash on hand. But this is what I need and this is what I want. However … going by the dust on the covers, I'm also guessing that with the resort falling through that there is little to no opportunity for these to be put to work anywhere else. I may be your last option to take these off your hands, free up your space, and put these to use where they will be appreciated. I would like to see if we can come to some sort of middle ground.
Novak: Hmmm … (covers the furniture)
Valentine: (sincerely) What can I do for you? Everybody has something they need. What do you need, Mr. Novak?
Novak: I could use the cash.
Valentine: Other than that.
Novak: I am a businessman. Tell you what. Come back tomorrow and I'll see how I feel.
Valentine: All right. I'll do that.
Novak: Maybe you have some resources you don't know you have.
Valentine: I'll do some looking. However, If you'd ever seen our ship … (soft laugh) … This is a luxury purchase for me. It will be hard for me without some help from your end to justify—
Novak: I appreciate that but I don't want this to be squandered and sent off on a ship that will go to the worst parts of the Verse, where people will put their drinks on it and such.

Novak is an artist and these are his babies. Valentine can see that right off.

Valentine: No, I understand. I worked in the Golden Dragon on Paquin. I appreciate high quality, well-loved, well-maintained equipment and furniture. If I buy it from you, if there's one thing you can guarantee on, it's that I will take care of it. All the time. (a beat) I'll come back.

Valentine takes his leave and returns to Delilah. He goes straight to med bay with the pictures he took.

Valentine: If you ever have any doubts as to why you're doing what you're doing, that's something to take a look at.
Tian: How bad is it?
Valentine: Take a look. You can see this is just a small area out of Beylix and the number of graves there are bigger than—
Tian: (looks, sees) The pandemic?
Valentine: Yes. Those are pandemic graves. Clearly their numbers are larger than both wars. (off her look) This wasn't meant to bring you down. In fact, the exact opposite. You're working against this. You're doing good.

Tian nods. Valentine gives her shoulder a reassuring squeeze and leaves her to her thoughts … and goes off to find the rest of his crew.

The crew is gathered at Qīngdǎo , Trash Town's main watering hole-general store-post office. They've taken over a table and it's currently covered in paper with sketches of Delilah's renovations. At the moment, Vikki is trying to work out how to get a better boom crane and winch assembly installed and going over engine room-bridge interface matters Poco. Nuri watches and learns with that quick mind of hers. Valentine joins them and borrows a pen and some paper and starts sketching out where he could put the casino tables. Poco spies what he's doing and says to Vikki with a twinkle in her eye:

Poco: He's got to fit you and Nuri for little cocktail waitress dresses.
Nuri: I think cocktail dresses are haram.
Poco: They're ankle length.
Vikki: Could I have pockets in mine?

Meanwhile, Tian gathers her supplies and some information on the town's overall health. Who here has been vaccinated already? Who hasn't? Is this an area that has been treated before? The answers are: None, everyone, and no. Trash Town has only about three dozen people. She can take care of everyone in an afternoon. Tian takes off for Qīngdǎo to do that.

She is just finishing up when the alarm system Trash Town has set up blares. Hsing Li Qin, the owner and barkeep of Qīngdǎo yells over the noise as she fiddles with the tuning knob on the comms.

Hsing Li Qin: Everybody quiet down! Shut up!

Static and warbles sputter from the speakers and then …

Comms: … fi## on## ves#####pow##er## … Once again, this is Captain Sutton of the ore hauler Clementine. We have abandoned ship. Escape pods are heading for New Kasmir. I repeat. We have abandoned ship en route between Djinn's Bane and New Kasmir. Fire on the vessel. No power. This is Captain Sutton of the ore hauler Clementine. We have abandoned ship …

The town residents perk up at the news.

Poco: Sucks to be them.
Vikki: Wait, is this a mayday?
Tian: Yes. They're evaccing.
Valentine: Not quite a mayday.
Poco: Ooh! Scrap!
Vikki: Okay … (writing fast) … and he said it was off of …? Djinn's Bane and New Kasmir …

From the bar Hsing Li Qin snorts.

Hsing Li Qin: It's quite certain that United Reclamation will send a ship out there.
Vikki: But who's going to save the people?
Poco: They have escape pods headed for New Kasmir.
Valentine: They're fine. (off Vikki's look) Not our job.
Hsing Li Qin: However, it takes about 5-6 hours for UR to get a ship launched.

Valentine looks at his crew and he can tell what they're thinking.

Vikki: We can go right now, right?
Valentine: Yes we can.
Tian: How long will those pods last?
Hsing Li Qin: The pods should be on their way to New Kasmir. They should be fine.
Valentine: (quiet) Get us spun up, please.
Poco: Yeah, Boss.
Vikki: Okay! Let's go!

Poco finishes his drink first. Vikki's out of there like a shot. As everyone boards Delilah, Tian looks at Valentine, a question in her eyes.

Valentine: Yes?
Tian: Why?
Valentine: Because I need cash. We can raid their ship before UR gets there and grab some things. They're on escape pods already heading out.

Rachel is quietly reading on the bridge when she feels—and hears—the engines spin up. She hits the stairs for the engine room where Poco and Vikki are getting things underway.

Rachel: What are we—?
Poco: We're headin' out.
Rachel: To where?
Poco: Uhhh, salvage.
Rachel: We're sittin' in the middle of it, honey. Why are we flyin' off for?
Vikki: We're gonna rescue people!
Valentine: No, no. Salvage.
Rachel: What?
Valentine: Free salvage.
Poco: The kinda salvage you sell to these people instead'a buyin' from 'em.
Valentine: (evenly) I need cash. We need cash. And this is a perfectly good option. We've got four hours.

We take off. Rachel is thrilled to have good working sensors under her again. OMG, she's got a screen up that shows things proper. Thank you, Tink. Thank you, Papa. Elsewhere aboard, Valentine can see that Tian is less than thrilled.

Valentine: Are you all right with this? Speak now or forever hold your peace.
Tian: I had no idea that we were going to be pirates.
Valentine: We're not pirates. We're salvagers.
Tian: You do realize that if UR comes upon us, it's illegal salvage and we are carrying highly, highly questionable cargo.
Valentine: (evenly) Yes. I am walking a very fine line between playing it safe and taking appropriate risks. This feels like an appropriate risk.
Tian: As I said, I'm not arguing with you. I'm just reminding you of the situation. As I have been reminded.
Valentine: And I appreciate it. The faster I can do this the better I'll feel. If we could just avoid UR altogether, even better.
Poco: I'm also for avoiding UR contact.
Rachel: (over the comms) Val, if you got a minute could you come up here? I got somethin' to tell ya.

When he gets to the bridge, Rachel asks him as she flies:

Rachel: Sit down. So, do you know what they're minin' in that area, Val?
Valentine: No, what do they mine in that area, Rachel?
Rachel: Treasure, in effect. Thorium. That's some mighty valuable ore. So you might be gettin' a little bit more than ship parts, if you have that inclination.
Valentine: As Doctor Grace is fond of reminding me, we are illegally salvaging this. Is there anything we need to worry about if we come upon some ore?

United Reclamation still claims the entire area as their exclusive property ( and the planetary governments more or less support the claim) but the salvage rules are a little more vague now that the Alliance arm of the law doesn't reach as far or as strongly as it once had.

Rachel: Is it illegal if nobody could stop ya?
Valentine: No. More like, could we sell it without getting ourselves into deep trouble.
Rachel: I wouldn't reckon you'd be asking me that. I'd think you'd be askin' Poco.

And he quits the bridge to find Poco in the engine. Can Poco sell the ore if we get any? Yes, Poco assures the Captain that he can. Good. Valentine comes away thinking that things are starting to look up.

Even though we've got a 5-6 hour head start on UR, it will still take a day's worth of flying to get us to the salvage coordinates.

For Tian and Nuri, things are looking up as well. Nuri's recuperation is coming along nicely and she's able to help Tian with various light duties. For the trip out, it's helping the doctor run medical supplies inventory. As they work, Tian notices that Nuri's intelligence allows her to pick up and keep up with the pharmaceutical jargon. In fact, after a very short while stocking the medicines, she stocks them more efficiently by category and usage, all without instruction or prompting by Tian.

How does Nuri do that? Is she lifting the knowledge from Tian's mind? Is it some sort of weird osmosis via the environment of the medbay? What factors or elements in the equations are critical to Nuri's success? Tian asks Vikki to take Nuri with her on her repair rounds aboard Delilah. Perhaps by changing the environment portion of the equation, Tian can discover how Nuri's abilities work by tracking the changes in her knowledge gained.

It's a mystery but Tian takes it up, intrigued. For herself, Nuri has no disagreement with the change in duties and follows Vikki. The girls are not too far apart in age and they get along well.

In the engine room, Poco keeps an eye on things and most importantly, tries hunting down the source of the fuel line leak. While he's doing that, a stack of deck plating that the crew has gotten from Trash Town slides around in the cargo hold. Valentine goes down to secure them. Valentine enlists Vikki and Poco to help him tie down the rest of the deck plates. Well, Vikki puts her back into it, at least. Poco sits to the side and supervises. It's hard and dangerous work and one of the plates falls on Valentine's foot. Luckily, he's wearing sturdy boots but still—owch‼ The air turns blue with his cursing, causing Tian to come down and investigate. Nobody knew Valentine possessed such language—he's usually a very controlled even-tempered guy.

Who knew?

He hobbles into med bay so Tian can examine his foot. She delivers her diagnosis: he's got a couple of broken toes. Tian sets them but there really isn't much she can do beyond that. She gives him a stern look and asks how he got his injury.

Tian: Do I want to know?
Valentine: No, you really don't.

The injury slows him down and even with help, it takes roughly seven hours after take-off before the job is done. As they get closer to the salvage site, Rachel hears UR's automated call-ahead messages, broadcast on general channels.

UR Message: This salvage is claimed by United Reclamation. We will use lethal force to protect our salvage … Zhè dǎlāo shēngchēng yóu liánhéguó tián hǎi. Wǒmen jiāng shǐyòng zhìmìng wǔlì lái bǎohù wǒmen de dǎlāo.

Rachel laughs and ignores it. She's got her giddy-up button. Life is good.

Thursday, 15 Mar 2525
Somewhere in the vicinity of Djinn's Bane
Georgia (Huang Long) system

It's a day's flight from Beylix to Djinn's Bane. Once there, it's not long before sensors pick up the freighter. Surprisingly enough, it's moving at a fair clip. It was moving at high speed when the engines shut down and it's coasting on the residual inertia. Based on its current trajectory, it's going to head out into deep space if her course isn't altered or if she isn't brought to a stop altogether. The crew will also only have a few hours to salavage what they can. The freighter is much bigger than Delilah … and she's not no bitty ship, neither, so that's sayin' somethin'. As the freighter comes into viewing distance, the crew gathers on the bridge to watch on approach.

Vikki: We're going to have to match velocity and vector, too.
Rachel: Ya think?
Vikki: Do we have anything we can make a soft seal with or are we going to do all this EVA?

Delilah has a forward deploying umbilical airlock.

Rachel: I haven't used that in three years. I wonder if it unhooks.

There's only one way to find out. Rachel matches our trajectory with Clementine so the crew can board her. The umbilical extends to the freighters airlock and the seals go green. Once docked, the crew gets ready to go across.

Rachel elects to watch the sensors on Delilah's bridge. Valentine sits with her for a lesson in how to run them and when he does a sweep with them, he accidentally sets off a ping. United Reclamation picks it up. UR sends an immediate warning. And Valentine lets off a stream of curses.

UR: Unauthorized Salvage Vessel, we are on intercept course and should be there shortly.

Valentine does the math. It will take them 7 hours to reach Delilah … so now the clock is ticking on the salvage operation.

Valentine: To be honest, I kinda hope they show up.
Poco: (To Rachel) You gonna kick him? It's ill advised.
Valentine: Shut your hole.

Poco hears the warning (piped in to the others by Rachel) and thinks there's something familiar about it … but he can't quite recall exactly what.

Valentine decides to go with the boarding party instead of staying on the bridge and he suits up with Tian, Vikki, and Poco. Tian tells Nuri to stay aboard where it's safe. The girl doesn't put up any argument. Rachel will stay on the bridge in case they have to make a quick getaway. It's unlikely that it will happen anytime soon. They've 7 hours and the UR ship is huge and lumbering. Delilah is smaller and nimbler by comparison.

Rachel: Besides, this ship is gonna fly out into space anyway. By the time they get here, it won't be here and we won't be here.
Valentine: All right, less talking. More stealing.

Clementine is still pinging away with her nav beacon, telling everyone within earshot where she is. 7 hours or not, the window of opportunity will not stay open forever. The crew suits up and boards Clementine.

Sure enough, Clementine has containers full of valuable Thorium ore. Their EVA suits are registering hazardous levels of radiation. Thorium is radioactive but the readings suggest that in addition to the presence of Thorium, there might have been a containment failure on the ship's reactor. They find the Thorium levels dangerous but manageable. As long as they stay inside their suits and not linger, they won't get anything nasty like cancer.

Vikki: (sarcasm) Gee. That'll never happen.
Tian: Just be aware it's a danger. What we're reading right now are pretty high levels.
Poco: When the gauge doesn't show the smiley face, it's time to get outta there.
Tian: Backpedal fast.

Even so, Tian does take pains to explain that cleaning out the hazardous waste from Delilah is more hazardous than merely walking through the residue on Clementine and the current Thorium levels aboard her shouldn't harm us as long as we don't set up camp for months inside. Of course, if the Thorium levels are more concentrated in other parts of the ship, the danger goes up.

Vikki: Great.
Tian: If you find anyone aboard, let me know. Assuming they're alive and even if they're dead.
Poco: Our comms are working.
Valentine: (to Poco) I don't need to tell you this … (turns to Vikki) … But I need to tell you this: Don't take any unnecessary risks. Okay?
Vikki: Okay.
Poco: Got it, Boss. Whatever.

Valentine orders Tian and Poco to get what they can out of the Engine room and he and Vikki will see what they can scrounge off the bridge. Each two man team has an engineer/tech person and a non-engineer/tech person to spread the skill sets to best advantage. Valentine also has another motive for the team assignments—he wants to keep an eye on Vikki to keep her from getting into trouble. Valentine tells them to keep an eye out for things of value other than Thorium that they can salvage as well.

The team splits up and explore the ship. Clementine is running only on emergency power and so the interior is dimly lit and the going is slow. The suits are heavy and slows everything down further. Another sensor goes off in the EVA suits, showing Radon is present. Tian and Poco surmise that it's a byproduct of the Thorium ore. It's one of the consequences of asteroid mining—not only does one get the product one aims for, usually you get lovely little surprise that would kill you in high enough doses.

A grainy dust like ash is everywhere. Some of the walls appear to have some kind of rust and it strikes Poco as odd. In fact, even though Clementine is in better shape than Delilah on the outside, on the inside in some respects, Clementine is worse off.

In the engine room, Poco finds lots of parts he can scavenge for Delilah and a fair amount of them are new. Mind, they might not fit Delilah exactly but he could make them work. Those that he can't, he can still sell for cashy money. He gets to work removing them.

Meanwhile, Valentine and Vikki have made it to the bridge. Valentine finds the manifest and looks it over. He finds out that the Thorium is in the form of something very like sand. It's mined out in a sandy consistency and is transported to a refinery to have the Thorium sifted out. It's gold panning on a larger scale. It also means the job of transferring it to Delilah will be a little harder.

The bridge is in reasonable working condition but it's low on frills. Clementine is an industrial ship, not a luxury yacht. Off the bridge is a smallish cargo area. The manifest lists its contents as various used equipment shipped off for scrap or refurbishment. There are laser drills, suits, and such. All are labeled "Spent".

Valentine: So basically we've got a bunch of used up mining equipment and a bunch of Thorium that we can't actually do anything with.

But it's vastly expensive Thorium …

Valentine: (snark) You know what else we have in our hold that's vastly expensive that we can't do anything with? A big pile of radioactive biological guns. So why not take another big pile of vastly expensive that we can't do anything with?

To be fair, the weapons cache aboard Delilah doesn't have anything radioactive in it—or at least, it wasn't when it was first brought aboard. Even so, Valentine isn't thrilled to take on yet another cargo container full of stuff he can't do anything with. He comms Poco.

Valentine: If the containers are filled with Thorium sand, who are we going to sell it to?
Poco: (slowly) … Thorium sand merchants … ?
Valentine: I don't think those exist.

On Valentine's orders, Vikki removes Clementine's pinger so they can launch it out the airlock on a crybaby so as to throw off UR's arrival. She flubs the first attempt but makes the second. While she's on her back under the bridge consoles yanking the panels she finds some brand new sisterboards in the nav system. She pulls them right out, as they will fetch a good price.

Easy money!

An hour after boarding, Tian and Poco find something gruesome in the engine room: three bodies. They have the bright red skin caused by carbon monoxide poisoning and there's evidence of fire in the air vents, pointing to the possible source of the high CO levels. Fire produces CO as a byproduct of combustion.

Tian asks Poco to investigate the cause of the fire. He discovers significant burn marks in the ventilation system.

Sabotage? If so, by whom? For what reason?

Tian: Poco?
Poco: … Yeahhhh? ….
Tian: What kind of explosion would cause a fire all the way through the air vent?
Poco: Well, depends on what was leaking into the air vent, really. I mean, some heavy metals are actually combustible.

He pulls some plates off the walls to get a good look at the interstitial space between inner and outer hulls. He finds evidence of long-term burn creep. The sensors were tampered with so no one would know about the fire until it was too late.

Once Poco is done in the engine room, he goes on to the cargo area of the ship. It's filled with mining equipment, pretty standard really. He also finds gravity binders. When mining for sand in asteroid fields, there must be a way to gather the sand without dispersing it. Gravity binders emit a net (or a field) that binds the sand into a stable body that can be gathered. Grav binders worth several thousand dollars. It's not worth more than the entire cargo of Thorium aboard Clementine but for the size, it's worth more than the same volume of the sand. Just two of the grav binders would translate into a considerable amount of money.

No dummy, Poco calls all hands to the cargo deck and engineering. This is where all the worthwhile stuff is.

Valentine and Vikki are in an airlock where Vikki's putting the finishing touches on the crybaby. The pinger is duct taped to the side of the propulsion unit she's devised and it all looks very jerry rigged. Vikki gets the crybaby launched. Task completed, she and Valentine hustle over to help load up the valuable cargo.

Tian takes a moment to move the bodies aside so they will not get stepped on during the salvage work, then takes herself forward to scavenge medical supplies from medbay. As she goes along, she checks the air vents for fire evidence. To various degrees, they all show it. There's no obvious source of the fire and she's got more important things to hunt down. She fills her bag with supplies, among them a good amount of osteocaltrate. It's a bone fortifier against the long-term effects of zero-g work. It's not something that she would use but it fetches a good price on the resale market.

On the bridge, Rachel tries to buy us more time by changing the direction of Clementine's inertial trajectory by giving her a push with Delilah's engines. She gooses the power and manages to push the other ship off course. Once the joined ships are drifting away from the spot UR expects them to be, Rachel suits up to help with the salvage operation.

The ore, the grav binders, and such will take some hard work to move and the suits are slowing the crew down. They could salvage faster if they didn't have to wear the suits but the presence of CO and Radon make it dangerous to go unsuited. Poco suggests flushing the atmo on the ship. Valentine approves the order and tasks Vikki to make a flusher. She manages.

Once it's safe to work, the crew starts with the mining equipment as it's the most valuable. Valentine uses Delilah's mule to help off load the salvage. With more carrying capacity available via the mule, Tian goes back for more medical supplies while Poco goes back to the engine room to scavenge more parts for Delilah. Rachel helps with the unloading and positioning the salvage in Delilah's hold but the shifting deck plates have made it difficult, taking up more room than they should. Valentine finds a placer space vacuum and succeeds in getting it off Clementine in one piece.

On another pass, Tian investigates the captain's stateroom for anything useful. She finds clothes, knick-knacks, some creature comforts. She also finds a wall safe standing open and empty. Rachel tries to move the deck plates around but tires. She's an old woman and calls it quits before the rest of the crew.

The crew does what it can to get the salvage loaded aboard but they're not able to leave the site before United Reclamation arrives. The crew scrambles to get the last of the salvage aboard. They clear the airlock so it can retract and make it flight-worthy.

The UR ship hails us.

UR: This is Captain Cole. This is an illegal salvage. Prepare for boarding.

Valentine pulls a fast one by claiming Delilah is suffering from dangerous engine trouble. Captain Cole says he'll help with the engine trouble, stand by. Rachel readies the ship to rabbit on Valentine's orders. The UR ship is armed. They'll try to shoot us on our way out so Rachel will need to outrun them from the git-go. She calls to Poco for more power, he spins it right up, and she screams Delilah out of there like a cat with its tail on fire.

Vikki's rat's nest of wiring from her earlier repair job starts sparking and she has to yank it out. She's successful and thankfully nothing critical fails when she does it.

Valentine is on the bridge with Rachel, manning sensors. A blip pings on the scopes and as they draw closer, they can see it's a ship listing to one side. The engine signature it's emitting is wonky, as if it's got core containment failure. Valentine relays the information to Rachel, who starts swearing.

It's Reavers! We need to go.

Unfortunately, Delilah is lit up like Christmas and she's a big fat shiny lure. The Reaver ship latches on to her and gives chase. Rachel turns Delilah back around for the pursuing UR ship. Valentine tells her to make a run for Beylix instead and orders Tian to get on the horn and warn UR what's coming in behind Delilah.

Tian does as ordered. Captain Cole doesn't believe her. Valentine takes over the comm and curses him out.

Rachel asks Poco to get the turbo booster online. We're going to need it to punch through the Reavers.

Tian goes very quiet and very tense. She hunkers down in a jump seat on the bridge and tries not to relive a bad boarding incident in her past. OMG, she did not sign up for this. Valentine stays with her and talks her down from the edge. She manages to keep it together.

Poco's working furiously in the engine room getting that booster online and FINALLY finds that pesky leak he's been hunting. He pinches it and yells at Rachel to go. The Reavers are practically on top of us. Rachel punches the turbo boost and flies, flies, flies! As Delilah pulls away from the Reavers, a missile streaks in from behind and hits our starboard pod.

BOOM!

A missile?! REALLY??‼

The crew can't tell if it came from the Reaver ship or the UR ship and quite frankly, they aren't interested in sticking around to sort it out. Rachel flies like a crazy thing, jinking all over trying to evade whatever both ships throw at her and trying to ditch the Reavers locked on Delilah's tail. Back in the engine room, the leak gets worse. Stuff is sliding around on the cargo decks. Delilah has smoke coming off the missile hit. Alarms are blaring. Everyone's scrambling to keep things locked down so nothing explodes. Tian is particularly stressed. All this chaos is not doing her PTSD-like tendencies any favors.

Delilah shoots right past the UR ship, her speed dopplering UR's automatic message—

UR: You've enteredrestrictedairspace…….

—and Rachel keeps on going. She doesn't give a good gorram if the Reavers on Delilah's tail crash into the UR ship and/or munches the other crew.

Nope.

She's a MacAllister and MacAllisters always come home.

A few whiteknuckled seconds later, it looks like they've dodged the bullet. Even so, Rachel doesn't linger but flies all the way back to Beylix …

Friday, 16 Mar 2525
Beylix Airspace

… And … thanks to the damage the ship has taken on, Beylix is coming up really really REALLY FAST. Valentine hails the main spaceport and apologizes on the open channel for the trouble he's about to cause.

Valentine: We have a Reaver behind us. You might want to point your satellite missiles at it. I'm just sayin'. I'm sorry to be running full speed through your atmosphere, Chief Yu Yang, but … we've got Reavers behind us. I'm sorry.
Tian: I bet the ground crews have got money changing hands, cuz there's no way we're landing this without splatting.

The planet zooms ever closer. Flames start flickering on the hull, small at first and then blooming in sheets across the ship. Delilah starts to buffet and buck as she screams her descent.

Valentine: You've got this, Rachel. You've got this.

Rachel makes a show of pulling an apple out of her console stash and crunching down on it. She holds it in her teeth as she glues her hands to the yoke and executes a feathering maneuver, leveling Delilah out just a touch. Stomachs drop for the deck.

Tian: Shiiiii!

Seconds zip by and turn into minutes. Minutes turn into a lifetime. All around the crew, Delilah whines and moans as physics takes hold and tries to tear her apart. She paints a bright burning trail across the sky as she plummets. Details on the ground can be seen through the fire bathing the bridge windows, coming up far too fast, far too close. Crash trucks are already rushing for the tarmac.

And Rachel pulls a miracle out of her ass and lands us in the nick of time.

Blink.

Blink.

Did we just survive?

Blink.

Blink.

Yup.

WOOO‼!

The crew shakes off their shock and celebrates their victory. Nuri smiles and says we did good. Tian swears Rachel free drinks for life. Vikki works on putting out the starboard thruster fire and gives Valentine the sisterboards. In all the excitement, she forgot she'd shoved them in her bag. In addition to the sisterboards, they've got a cargo hold full of salvage—equipment, parts, and more that will net them a good amount of money.

For the first time in what feels a very long time, the crew has managed to pull off a payday that will do more than simply put gas in the tank and a couple weeks of food in the pantry. After refueling and reprovisioning, they'll actually have funds left over to fix the ship—even after repairing the damage done by the missile. Flush with their success, the crew rolls up its sleeves and gets to work doing just that.

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