Last Voyage of Delilah, Episode 213: Misapprehensions, Epilogue
Jump to: Part 1 | Part 2 | Epilogue
Epilogue:
After dinner, Faria eases back from the table and looks at Valentine.
Faria: Can you give me a push into the orchard?
Valentine: Yes. Absolutely.
Valentine takes Faria's chair and readies to go where the Shepherd tells him to go. Farther down the table, Vikki's discovering that the mission has its own wine making facilities.
Vikki: Oh hey! You mean you got a still? Can I see it?
Tian: Not a still. It's a winery.
Valentine: Wine doesn't need a still.
Vikki: Even better! That's vats and vats mean you've got valves and heat sources and pressure gauges and—
Tian: Stop. I'm too tired for you!
Vikki is already rising from her seat and making her way to the door.
Vikki: (hobbling fast) … Ow … ow … ow … ow …
Tian: (sighing, following) The fact that you can walk at all is a testament to my skill.
Vikki: (determined) … Yes it is.
Tian: You shouldn't be able to move.
Despite her grousing, Tian lends Vikki her shoulder and the women go investigate the wine making facilities. Faria and Valentine also leave but go directly to the orchard after the women detour into the winery proper.
Valentine pushes the chair along the vine rows as night falls and the stars come out. Faria rides along in silence for a little distance. Then:
Faria: This has interrupted some of our Fall Harvest. When it's possible, we have prepared some packages for delivery to New Canaan, which is not too far from here. There is a … two particular people we would like you to make these deliveries on our behalf. If you would.
Valentine: I will.
Faria: One is to an orphanage run by Buddhist monks. And the other is to the Companion Training House that is also there.
Valentine: Okay.
Faria is silent once more and Valentine keeps pushing the chair. It's a pleasant walk.
Faria: (delicately) I would urge you … to have Nuri spend some time there.
Valentine: Which one?
Faria: Perhaps both. The goodwill that both places generate may serve as a counterpoint to some of the feelings she has been … (how to put it?) …
Valentine: You mean, the horrors she's been dragged through?
Faria: Yes. She may need … I'm not sure what it would do, but if all that you sense is the worst, then perhaps when the worst is pretty good then that might be enough to alleviate some of it. I imagine when you come bearing the candied fruits and such to the children, their feelings would be ones more … palatable. At least from your perspective.
If by that he means the innocent joy of children might lighten our hearts, the Shepherd might be on the right track.
Valentine: I appreciate that, Father. I appreciate that.
Faria: And I trust you to monitor behavior to make sure that any residual effects are kept under control.
Valentine: (yes) That. Of course. I … That sounds like a good plan to me.
They go on in silence for a beat.
Faria: It's not a large cargo. I'm afraid don't have the fund to pay for that but on New Canaan you might be able to find those who do.
Valentine: Yes. I think … getting Nuri to a good point where she's not at where she's at right now is important.
Faria: I'm not sure what your preconceptions of what the Companion Training House is, but one thing they are masters at is emotional control. Among them may be the only place they would be able to dictate the terms of her progress, if that makes sense.
Valentine: Is there someone there at the Companion House specifically …?
Faria: You can mention my name to Sheydra.
Valentine: I don't know how much … Obviously, I want to try and restrict the number of people that know about what Nuri can do.
Faria: I'm not sure you need to make it clear to everyone what she does… Just expose her to the emotions of the children and the controlled of emotions and see what happens.
Vlaentine: Okay.
Faria: I am not basing this on any scientific knowledge of this. It is pure hope and faith.
Valentine: We're all … At this point, all of us are taking our best guess at it. And we all have Nuri's best interests at heart and mind. So, thank you. I appreciate it. And once again, thank you for—
Faria: You don't need to thank me. You have saved us considerable embarrassment, if nothing else. But it's important that these people finish what they've come here to do. It would have been disheartening to those who wish to remain, had others fled.
Valentine: I wish you success going forward.
Valentine and Faria go through the rows of vines without saying another word, just enjoying the peace and the night.
Later that night, Tian approaches the Shepherd as Valentine suggested earlier.
Tian: If you could suggest, if nothing else, meditation techniques that would work for easing the … nightmares of the situation.
Faria: It's … interesting. We have, in some ways, similar backgrounds. You suffered in the war and then the Reavers, as well. I never suffered the Reavers themselves, but I've had run-ins with creatures, the people, who are almost …there was an attempt to make them like Reavers. It was pretty horrific. (a beat) And people who have been subjected to—I don't know if you remember the TSE? That epidemic? But I came here to keep the Reavers in my mind. What is your ultimate goal? To make peace with what happened or to push it aside…?
Tian: simply to make peace with it. What I saw was ... horrific … but it's not the first horrific thing I've ever seen. I just need—
Faria: Do you believe that Nuri was reading your thoughts or perhaps thoughts you weren't aware of?
Tian: I know that I'm missing some time.
She has a hole in her memory, a point past which she cannot go.
Tian: I know that something happened that I … can't quite … force myself to relive yet. So I don't know what she's reading from me. That does frighten me.
Faria: As I mentioned, before my … change of careers … I was fairly highly placed within the Alliance military along with several friends and I will tell you that …
Faria pauses. The pause grows long. The Shepherd's expression grows distant and grim.
Faria: After the war—or the battle near Miranda after the Miranda Wave, or simultaneously with the Miranda Wave—the …. ah … More than a few soldiers, Marines, shipmen … were affected in ways that no one could explain based on their experiences. They were short, brutal. There is a whole hospital full of them on Athens.
Faria looks at Tian again.
Faria: I'll be honest with you. A good portion of those … have disappeared.
Tian: (blinks!) I'm sorry?
Faria: They … served some time. They managed to convince the beleaguered services that they were unwounded. They promised to return for treatment … and no one ever heard from them. The legends are … somewhat disturbing … where they ended up.
He sighs and shifts in his chair.
Faria: According to initial calculations, there should have been no more than 40-thousand Reavers made on Miranda and at least half that number were killed in the battle at that time, and many more since over the years. And yet … their numbers do not seem to diminish.
Tian: Ah. That might explain what I saw. (a beat) Which utterly terrifies me, thank you very much.
Faria: The terrifying news that some of their victims might have found their way into their ranks is horrifying but on the other side, most of the people did not return to their ranks. So it's not like a foregone conclusion, that anyone who suffers will go back there. In fact there is a small percentage—
Tian: I don't expect that what I'm dealing with is going to necessarily going to do that—although, yes, that is one of my nightmares at the moment—I just need a better way to process it. I can't … I can't let myself become reliant on medications to do that, so I was hoping you might have some suggestions that would be less, uhm … It would be entirely too easy to let the nightmares to be all there were.
Faria: (gently) I have a book.
Tian gives him a wan smile.
Tian: I had a feeling you would say that. It is religious, Shepherd?
Faria: Well … yes. It's the Bible. The solution I would recommend is that you surrender yourself to a higher power. If you have thoughts that you might not be trustworthy, that is what I would recommend. If that doesn't appeal to you—for whatever reason—I'm sure there are plenty of places that would possibly treat you. As for mediation techniques that would help you fix that, I would be cautious.
Tian: Why?
Faria: Well—and again, my experience is somewhat limited—but the previous Shepherd left disturbing writings. His ... meditations on Reavers and … ah … (thinks) … The previous Shepherd infected himself with the Spongiform Encephalitis—
Tian: Are you kidding me?
The doctor can scarce believe it. That's tantamount to a death sentence.
Faria: No. He felt responsible for the Reavers, in some sense of the word, or at least for the damage they did to the Navy during the battle and this was the form of his self-punishment. And his writings were somewhat disturbing and granted, he'd injected himself with Spongiform Encephalitis. These are not identical scenarios but he spent much time reflecting ont his and his reflections got more and more disturbing the more he did it. Again, probably the effect of the disease, but having heard what Nuri has absorbed in such a short time … when you don't have a counterpoint and your thoughts can wander of their own free will, if there was something that has … peered over the edge into the Abyss, it may be difficult to think your way out of it.
Tian just sits there and breathes and tries to absorb the import of what the man hasjust told her … what it might mean for herself and Nuri. The Abyss? Is that what she's been avoiding in her mind? Is this what has swallowed up Nuri?
Faria: I know some doctors who can prescribe medicines … (wait a sec) … but I'm sure that as a doctor, you yourself have resources.
Tian: I have never relied on such crutches before and I choose not to do so, now.
Faria: I won't take that as a personal insult.
He chuckles to defuse any embarrassment.
Tian: (softly) I will definitely take into consideration everything you've told me. Thank you. I appreciate your time.
Faria: I think that … and again, I don't know that much, but I think that the people who disappeared, I think that some of it at least was … curiosity.
Tian: Curiosity? You mean … of the sort that Nuri is exhibiting?
Faria: For years, the Reavers were boogeymen. And then they were monsters. But in some of these, they thought they were something else. And maybe that possibility …?
Tian: I can say that the one I met face to face did not fit my conceptions of what a Reaver was. That's certainly not what I'm experiencing.
Faria: Not curiosity?
Tian: No. It's more …
She shakes her head.
Faria: Perhaps you just need time to deal with the trauma.
Tian is silent. Then:
Tian: I suppose there is a level of curiosity there, but of the kind "I'd like to dissect brains." … Honestly, Shepherd, the thing is that, at least experienced on some level, the early Reavers.
Faria: Well, proto-Reavers, I would say.
Tian: Perhaps. Were they as organized … as the … current ones seem to be?
Tian voices the question that's been on everyone's mind.
Tian: How do you … run a vessel and not eat your own, without having some amount of humanity left?
Faria: Oh, I believe they're human. I approach it the other way. Rather than asking, "How can a monster pilot a ship?" I ask, "How could a human do what they do?" What would you have to do to a man to make him do that?
Tian: I guess that's where my mind has been going lately, too.
Faria: I've become philosophic in my old age but sometimes I wonder if some questions are too dangerous to ask.
Tian: Yeah … (weak laugh) … I am definitely in that boat.
Faria: You have a good crew. Find someone to anchor you in case you feel yourself adrift.
Tian: Thank you, Shepherd.
Faria smiles gently. Tian takes her leave. Though the conversation has possibly spawned more questions than answers, and certainly did not yield all the answers she sought, it has given her much to think on.
The crew spends the next two days on Shepherd's Mission repairing the ship and loading Faria's cargo for New Canaan. They also avail themselves of the fresh air, fresh food, and the quiet. It's a brief but much-needed respite from the rough and tumble, and despite the background threat of Reaver attack, it helps. Ruffled feelings get smoothed down.
Valentine: I already trusted in Poco. He never believes me but I trust Poco.
Rachel: (moseying by) See? Things go better when we do them as a group.
Valentine: Things also go better when people follow my orders.
Rachel: (over her shoulder) And I didn't get far when I listened to you this time, did I?
Valentine: (eyeroll) I can't win.
Tian: (patting his shoulder) No, you can't. Why you keep trying, I don't know, but you can't.
Valentine: Because I'm the captain. Being the Captain doesn't involve winning but it does involve doing the things that looks like I'm going to win.
Toward the end of their stay, Valentine approaches Tian and recounts part of his conversation with Faria in the orchard. Seeking help for Nuri at the orphanage and at the Training House might be the help we're looking for.
Jump to: Part 1 | Part 2 | Epilogue
Return to Episodes | Season Two | Firefly-RPG Homepage | Crew Page
