Last Voyage of Delilah, Episode 213: Misapprehensions

Two parts and an epilogue. Now this is more like it!—Maer


Air Date: 29 Oct 2014
Present: Andy, Kim, Maer, Matt, Steve, and Terri

Jump to: Part 1 | Part 2 | Epilogue

Sunday, 09 Sep 2525
Santa Ria, Shepherd's Mission
Blue Sun (Qing Long) system
Morning

Brother James has come out to meet Shepherd Faria and the crew as they disembark. He has news. He whispers it in Faria's ear and Faria sighs.

Faria: Carrows. I'd hoped for better.

Poco starts on hearing the name. He knows a Carrows from his past, but what are the odds that the man he knows is the man under discussion now? Pretty long odds … but given our luck lately, maybe not so long.

Poco thinks back on the Carrows he knows. He was a mercenary of sorts. Part of the incentive pay for his band of mercenaries was to collect any additional assets on the ground. So in addition to mercenary-ing around, they would also then find things to sell. Parts. People. Also, a lot of weapons. He rather liked dealing in Alliance armor, Alliance weapons, Alliance vehicles. That sort of thing. And he carried himself as someone who was a veteran, perhaps, of many wars and conflicts and dangerous enterprises. Which isn't unusual of itself. In criminal enterprise, everyone says they're more dangerous than they actually are.

Valentine notices that Faria's expression is more of disappointment than alarm.

Valentine: Everything under control, Shepherd?
Faria: As you may be aware, many of our brethren are struggling against temptations which are a challenge. One of them, it seems, has used my absence as an opportunity to do not as well against those temptations as one would hope. Under the circumstances if you would prefer not to dine with us, I understand.

The crew has been subsisting on protein paste for going on a month now, if not longer. Valentine voices what everyone's thinking.

Valentine: But it's food.
Vikki: Real food.
Poco: (to Val) Rebellion. Why is it you always have to get involved in other people's rebellion?
Valentine: (to Faria) Is this a major rebellion? Should we be concerned that the whole place is getting turned upside down?

The mantra running through Valentine's head right now is: say no, say no, say no. Aloud, he says:

Valentine: We're not going to get a chance to eat real food again for at least another month.
Faria: How serious is this situation, James?

Brother James is an innocent- and earnest-looking man in his twenties. Smooth cheeks. Open expression. Now looking a little troubled.

This can't be good.

Brother James: Well … It appears Carrows has taken our radio. He's disconnected it from our power supply, Father, but I believe he may know of an alternate source. He disappeared with half a dozen other men. He mentioned something about a … a train?

Nope. Not good at all. Faria's expression slides from disappointment to controlled alarm. Poco and Tian both note it and inside, their alarms start ringing.

Faria: (calmly) In what context did this train come up?
Brother James: Nothing. He just … I only caught a bit of it. He trusts me fairly well, sir, but … he appeared to be trying to … assuage the blood lust of his coconspirators. They wanted to ransack the place but he said they wouldn't need to once train—the train—got there. And then, they'd be taken care of. Um … does that mean anything to you? There's no train here, sir. We're the only settlement on this entire moon.
Poco: (under his breath) Aww…. Shǐ-iiiiiii ….
Valentine: (quiet) Is this a problem? What?
Poco: (gruff) Just waitin' for your bleedin' heart to come in …

If Faria notices this little exchange, he doesn't show it.

Faria: If it is the train I think he's talking about, then yes, there's some cause for alarm … (a beat) … Kipling Trane was the leader of a … elite military squadron back in the First U War. It is mostly people from that squadron who are the initial brethren that I brought here. They are … they went rogue, as it were. They stopped taking orders, stole a ship, and began their missions as Kipling's mercenaries. He is a … unfortunately a well established and fairly dangerous fellow. More so, probably, than the ones that I managed to bring to the mission here.

That sinks in for a beat.

Rachel: So … that's an impossibly dangerous kinda thing, right, darlin'?
Faria: No. I wouldn't say it's impossibly dangerous. Trane was on my list of people I wished to bring here. So perhaps this is God telling me that I can meet him face to face and bring him back.

To the side, Poco sighs and Rachel leans in.

Poco: So, we're not gonna be flyin'.
Rachel: Honey, you know we're so going to do this.

Vikki tentatively raises her hand.

Vikki: So ... He's coming here.
Faria That appears to be what Carrows is alluding to. If Carrows has a radio and is able to get in touch with him and is planning on bringing him here to rescue them, that would be why.
Vikki: If someone came up to your gates and said "I'm here to pick up these guys because they want to leave", you'd let them leave, and there'd be no rescuing, right? So … why all this runaround?
Faria: What do you mean?
Vikki: Well … I mean, if all comers are welcome here, then why did Carrows steal a radio, take half a dozen men, and head off for the hills like he had to sneak off with this guy?
Faria: I wouldn't say that everyone is … (how to put it?) ...
Tian: (heavily) Did you miss that this is a prison, Vikki?
Faria: My goal was not for it to be a prison but a penitentiary where they may become penitent to atone for their sins.
Vikki: Not a prison. (to Tian) That's what I thought.
Tian: That was his intent. It's not necessarily how it turned out.
Faria: However, most of my penitents here are not here voluntarily. They were a danger to society.
Vikki: Oh.
Valentine: How would you normally handle this situation? (off Poco's look) Just asking.
Faria: Because I am, as you can see, between James and I we are not much of a force to be reckoned with. I don't keep a lot of guards and weapons around.

Vikki blinks and blurts out the first thing that crosses her mind.

Vikki: There's just the two of you?
Faria: All the brethren help here.
Vikki: How … many?
Faria: There are perhaps three score of people.
Vikki: 60 people.
Poco: (softly) The patients are runnin' the asylum. Basically.
Tian: (a little louder) Pretty much.

Faria apparently is accustomed to this reaction or perhaps he deigns not to notice it.

Faria: There is much work just to stay alive. So, most of them are willing to participate. By the time I deem them potential candidates for this position, I believe they are people who can benefit from this experience.
Rachel: So what happens if he stays out there and no one gets him back?
Valentine: He's not going anywhere. You're missing the point. He's got a radio. He's going to call for someone to get him.
Rachel: Oh.
Faria: My suspicion is that he will summon Trane, Trane will come pick him up, and then they will come and kill James and I and any people who may have been saved and do not wish to join them. And then recruit any people that they can.
Rachel: I see.
Vikki: That there, I think, is what you were listening for, Poco.
Poco: No, I was ready to leave at "We have a problem".

Brother James stirs at this.

Brother James: There are some of us, Brother Lucius and ... and McCoy. There are people who could go elsewhere. Meridian or—or New Canaan or to another system.
Faria: Perhaps … (long pause) … I am hesitant to give up just on this single threat.
Vikki: Shepherd? Pardon me for saying this but … There's about 60 of you here, right? It might not be comfortable but we can fit all 60 of you on our ship—Sorry, Capt'n. Sorry, Poco—We leave, desert the place. Trane arrives, nobody to murder. He picks up his 6 guys, he gets outta there. We come back. And you start over. (off Faria's look) But you'll be alive to start over. And they can still continue on their journey towards redemption. You can't do that if you're dead.

Silence. Then:

Poco: Or we let 60 convicts on Delilah who don't want to be here in the first place and they take over the ship and kill us all.
Vikki: (annoyed) They don't have to be awake.

Jaws drop.

Rachel: What?
Vikki: (verbal eyeroll!) We got tranks.
Poco: It didn't work well with the bull. I doubt it's going to work well here.

And we might not have enough trank for 60 people. Vikki remains undaunted. Poco forestalls her saying more.

Poco: We could just put them all in the cargo hold and flood it with radiation. That would solve the problem. I don't think that's what anybody wants to do, self included. It would be a whole lot less work if we just leave.
Vikki: Poco, you're supposed to glow only after you get to heaven, okay? Not before.
Tian: I do hope you don't think he's going to heaven. Cuz he's on the fast luge to hell, I'm sure of it.
Vikki: There's hope for all of us. He's an operator. I'll betcha he'll be in and out of Hell half an hour before the Devil knows he's dead. Probably sell enough matches in Hell to buy his way into Heaven anyway.

There's no killing Vikki's optimism. Tian laughs. Faria looks somberly amused.

Faria: I think that perhaps that this is a … challenge. But we've been living under the shadow of danger since we've been here.
Vikki: Well, what have you got to work with, then? We don't have to be here when he arrives. I could jigger something up or we can leave.
Poco: (<sarcasm>) Or we could build him a well. (</sarcasm>)
Valentine: That's enough out of you, Poco.

Is Vikki ever going to live that down? Vikki claps a hand over her mouth, eyes wide, trying not to say anything she might regret. And … nope. Down goes her hand and up goes her chin.

Vikki: (to Poco) If you'd gotten off your butt and helped, it would have gotten it done sooner.
Valentine: Stop.
Poco: I don't see why we're all still standin' here.
Valentine: Stop, stop. Stop.
Vikki: (quietly) Well, we should be doing something.
Valentine: What I am doing is thinking. So everyone just give me a few minutes.
Faria: We may be able to intercept them. James, maybe we can get to him before he can plug that radio in.

Faria throws his hat in the ring and he and James start walking inside the Mission. The crew follows.

Rachel: Tinkerbell, is there anything you can do to jam a radio signal, darlin'? So he don't have to hike it 'cross the desert to where he's workin'?
Vikki: Sure. I could—

Vikki starts thinking aloud as she walks, working out one method after another. Valentine is thinking of something else more inimical.

Valentine: What's their plan if Reavers arrive? Do they have a plan?
Poco: (morose) To get slaughtered. That's the plan … (a beat) … Probably not sending out radio signals was part of that plan.

As on Meridian, keeping a low tech profile is important if one wants to avoid the Reavers' notice. If Carrows starts broadcasting with that radio, that would be like planting a big "Open Buffet" sign at the Mission and everyone in it.

So … we just have to catch up to Carrows before he sends that signal. The shuttle would be best. We can rig up a way to make her ping like a Cortex relay to encourage Carrows to jump on it. Once he does that, we can track it to his location and scoop him up. It sounds simple but we know by now that nothing is ever that simple. Tian is unwilling to expose Nuri to more risk than necessary and we briefly entertain the idea of leaving her at the Mission while we fly off … but the fact that she'll be a lone young woman in the middle of a penal colony of men …

Yeah, no. Not happening. Nuri will fly with us.

Faria has a satellite-image map of the area. Santa Ria is at the junction of two mighty rivers fed by a mountain range to the west. Between the mission and the mountains is a broad river plain. That's a lot of territory to lose six men in, much less one man with a radio. We decide to use a grid patter to fly our search and we figure out the likeliest grid square to start our search: the crosshairs that line up with coordinates 0-0. It's the site of an abandoned terraforming station and it would have rudimentary supplies as well as shelter from the elements during a prolonged stay.

Rachel flies us out and matches the coordinates on the map to what we see below us. When we're close enough, we start scanning for broadcast signatures. We detect a faint one from a power source. Might it be whatever Carrows is using to power his radio? We try to lock on its location. We actually fly over it the first time and have to double back. Rachel finds a place nearby to land and has Valentine do the honors.

Valentine: This is the brake pedal, right?
Rachel: Yes and if you push that brake pedal any further, it will be the brake pedal outside.
Valentine: I've done that before.

As Valentine lands and the shuttle kisses dirt, Nuri looks at Faria and says:

Nuri: Those thoughts don't seem very holy, Father.

Tian's head whips around. You could almost hear her neck bones crack. Poco watches with narrowed eyes.

Poco: If she starts singing nursery rhymes, I'm out. (a beat) Who's ass was he checking out?
Valentine: Poco.
Faria: Well, he is right, though. If we'd killed him when we had the chance, we wouldn't be in this situation.
Poco: Well, can't argue with that.
Rachel: Is that what Nuri said?
Faria: Nuri, I would prefer if I be allowed to keep my thoughts to myself.
Poco: I would also prefer less mind reading.
Nuri: Well, then, you shouldn't be thinking those things.
Tian: No, that is not a—Nuri.
Nuri: (to Tian) Don't worry. I won't tell what you're thinking.
Tian: Nuri, what you think and what you do are two separate things. You are perfectly allowed within the confines of your own mind to think whatever you like. It's whether you decide to act upon them, or not, that matters. No matter what he thinks, he didn't do it, did he?
Nuri: This time. But you'd know about that.

Awkward silence. Tian was a combat medic and a soldier before she became a full-fledged doctor. She never made a secret of it but she never thought it would be thrown back in her face from this particular quarter, either.

Poco: I'm pretty sure his Book says that impure thoughts is all kinds of evil.
Nuri: I was in your dream last night. I remember it.
Tian: What?
Valentine: Nuri. For the sake of us getting out of this alive, keep those comments to yourself until we solve this problem.
Poco: I hope she wasn't in my dreams, because that whole slave-girl thing is freakin' … distracting.
Rachel: (disgusted) I'm gon' go outside.
Valentine: Why am I here? It's the big dollars on pay da—Oh, wait. I'm not paid.
Poco: Why are you just now asking that question of why you're here?

Hell, Poco's been asking that for a long time now: why are we here instead of bugging out and saving our asses?

Poco: You walk onto the shuttle, dragging the rest of us—
Valentine: It was a rhetorical question, Poco.
Poco: You should have asked that question earlier.
Valentine: I did ask that question earlier and I decided that the food was worth it.
Rachel: Damn, that had better be good food.
Valentine: I'm hungry, Poco.
Poco: Hungry enough to get shot?
Rachel: Ain't nothin' makes you hungry as healin'.

Meanwhile, Vikki asks Nuri a question.

Vikki: What am I thinking?
Nuri: Nothing of importance.
Valentine: (paying attention now) Wait. What's nothing of importance?
Nuri: I'm not a … a trained monkey to be toyed with.
Valentine: Vikki. No. (off her look) Vikki. No.
Vikki: (small) Sorry. But … Me-yawn Cat's so cute.
Valentine: No. (to Nuri) You are not a trained monkey. We also do not at the moment need you telling us what everyone is thinking.
Poco: Unless you hear the thoughts of murderous souls approachi—
Valentine: No.
Poco: That would be helpful.
Valentine: No. (then …) Do you want to be of help, Nuri?
Nuri: I could just be making things up. You don't really know.
Valentine: This is what I'm talking about. Unreliable information is oftentimes worse than no information.
Poco: I don't think she was faking what the Father was thinkin'.
Nuri: Would you all feel better if I was making it up?
Vikki: No.
Rachel: Young'un, if you want attention, just ask for it.
Valentine: Hey!

Valentine brings everyone to a screeching halt.

Valentine: This particular subject is closed. Out the shuttle door. Be careful as we do so to see if there's anyone out there and see if we can find where this potential power source might be. If we can disable that in advance, that would solve the whole radio problem up front.

We check the sensors. Nothing shows up. Visual check out the cockpit windows. Nothing there either. Nothing but the early afternoon light shimmering over the scrubby, rocky terrain landscape. No one pops up to poke us with a stick.

We all leave the shuttle and lock her up. Valentine takes the lead, Black Rose in hand. Now that we're off the shuttle, we can see the terraforming station, half sunk into the ground. Rachel suggests we try sneaking up on it, maybe get the drop on whoever's already there.

Approaching cautiously, we see it's a prefab structure, half buried to protect it from the elements, and there are definite signs of someone living there. There are various things like buckets and tools to reinforce that supposition. Animal hides are stretched on drying frames, curing in the sun. Footprints track up the ground everywhere around.

Valentine orders his crew to find the power generator. We can't afford to have that radio signal get out and bring the Reavers hunting. Tian opens the door to the shelter a crack. No light or sound comes from within.

No bullets either.

Good sign.

Inside, there is a series of modular units. The first module is clearly an airlock, with spaces for EVA suit storage. The suits have been replaced with terrestrial clothing. Cloaks and the like, the sort of goods a trapper would use. Tian looks for signs that the shelter has been used recently: lack of dust or evidence of dust recently disturbed. It looks like the shelter has been used in the last day or two.

Valentine assigns the person with the best eyesight outside as lookout. That would be Tian so she steps out. The rest of the crew continues their search through the shelter. It is mostly empty, the modules for the sleeping and living quarters showing but little use and it's quickly obvious that there isn't a lot of power. There are candles in use for lighting everywhere. It's more looking as if the signature we picked up was a residual reading from prior use. How far back that use was, we have no way of telling.

Searching more carefully, the crew finds a heat pump and a high-efficiency materials processor used as a wood stove. Nothing really is able to power a radio for very long. The overall sense that this is a sometimes-hideaway, a once-in-a-while shelter, and not the den of thieves and murderers we were expecting.

Valentine tasks Poco and Vikki to disable the power source so Carrows cannot send out that radio signal. There are batteries here, but most are drained nearly to nothing. It might be possible to refurbish the existing equipment into battery chargers but that work hasn't been done yet. If the radio job was so urgent, why hasn't it been done?

Outside, Tian sees someone approaching on foot, cresting the rise and immediately ducking behind it again. Tian slips inside the doorway for cover and peeks a cautious eye outside, waiting to see if the person shows up again.

Valentine is in the middle of asking Vikki if she can disable everything that could power that radio and has just gotten an affirmative when Tian says over her shoulder:

Tian: Captain, we have company.
Valentine: (to Vikki) And now you got a timeline. Meaning soon.
Vikki: Okay.

A minute passes and a voice outside calls out from behind the rise.

Voice: Who's there?

Inside, Valentine looks for the Shepherd. He's in the next module deeper in and Valentine sticks his head in.

Valentine: Faria? Does that sound like who we're looking for?

Looking out the door, Tian can't see who's calling out, much less ascertain if it's someone from the mission. Valentine hears the call, returns to his position beside Tian, and addresses the person outside.

Valentine: You first!
Voice: That your shuttle?
Valentine: I still haven't heard the answer to my question. Who might you be?
Voice: You got an Alliance shuttle but you don't sound like Alliance.

Tian looks for Faria. He's deeper into the shelter and he's having difficulty negotiating the space in his wheelchair. The wheels are slipping on the deck. Vikki goes to help him.

Voice: Now, I can either dismantle that shuttle of yours and we can talk like uncivilized people or you can maybe put your guns down and walk out and we'll negotiate this like friends.
Vikki: (quietly to Val) Don't tell him we don't have guns.
Valentine: I don't know about negotiating gun-free, but we might be able to negotiate.
Voice: I don't know what you think I got, but take what you want.

Something's not right.

Tian: (soft) Captain, I don't think that this is the guy.

The guy steps into view. He's haggard and a little frightening looking. We recognize him as Carrows. Or rather, Poco recognizes him. Carrows sees Poco and his expression changes. Valentine watches closely and cuts a look at Poco.

Valentine: (quietly) Is that him?
Poco: Uhh … I wouldn't know.
Valentine: Okay, in a theoretical world, would that—
Carrows: Is that … Poco?
Valentine: Okay, now is that him?
Poco: (grudging) … Yeah. It's him.

Carrows squints at Poco and addresses him directly.

Carrows: What d'you think you're doin' here?
Poco: Bein' … penalized for somethin', apparently.
Carrows: No, Faria wouldn't bring your likes over here.

Speaking of Faria, Vikki pushes him past the slick spots and Faria wheels up under his own power the rest of the way.

Faria: Carrows, we know what you're planning. Just give the radio up and we'll be done?
Carrows: (come again?) …What are you talkin' about?

Valentine gauges the man with the skill honed by years of casino managing and he knows Carrows is telling the truth. The man is genuinely annoyed at our arrival, in the way of someone being intruded upon than someone with something to hide. Carrows literally has no idea why we're here. Poco is right there with Valentine, grokking that Carrows isn't part of whatever is really going on.

Shit.

We've been had.

HOW TO SPEAK CHINESE

Shǐ = 屎= shee = feces, excrement, stool, dung, secretion Sound clip

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