Editing Answers Lost, Events Questioned, and Chickens Pondered

''Thanks for having the conversation with me, Bobby!''

'''November 16, 2520'''<br>
'''Summer's Gift landed on the planet Muir'''<br>
'''0700 hours, early morning, '''<br><br>


Seven in the morning was early for Joshua, who was not normally a morning person. But his sleep was restless last night, despite being worn out from yesterday's surgery. As he walked to Arden's cabin, Joshua wondered what it signified that he had done more surgeries in 4 months with this crew than he did in his entire life before. Thoughts of an overtired mind, he thought and shook his head to clear out the cobwebs.

The advantage of getting up early was that Arden *was* an early riser, and if Joshua knocked on his cabin door now, he would be likely to be there instead of the med lab, and they could talk privately. He had some things he would like to discuss with Arden without the presence of the newly christened Deborah and her father, Reverend Jim, who would both be in the med lab. 

He threw on some clothes and walked out the door to his cabin, taking the few quick steps across and right to reach Arden's door. He knocked on the door, the sound echoing strangely loud in the quiet of the early morning ship. "Arden, it's Joshua. Do you have a few minutes to talk?" He paused for a sec while waiting Arden to answer. "If you wanted some coffee first, I could go make you a fresh cup."

--

Arden answers the door, wiping sweat off his bare torso and head with a hand towel, "No, no coffee right now... just don't want any for some reason don't want any."  Arden moves inward. "Come on in, I'll throw a t-shirt on and we can talk.  What's up?"

Arden goes over to a chest and opens it, sliding it out into a dresser with drawers and flat surfaces.  He selects a dark green shirt and shakes it out.  The shirt has some white logo on it.

--

Joshua stepped in past Arden and found a chair to sit in and turned it around to face Arden. He leaned back a little. "So, how's our patient doing? She starting to recover?"

--

Arden pulls on the shirt, a white logo of some thing called banshee appears. "Yes sir," Arden says with a smile.  “The peculiarities of her condition combined with her self medication seems to have been just the ticket to help her survive.  I think she will recover quite well."

--

''Banshee? The wailing spirit? Were they a band or something?''  It was a big 'Verse, to be sure.

"Good to hear." He paused for a minute, then scratching his head in puzzlement, said, "I thought for sure she was a Reader, Arden. But you were there. You saw her brain up close and personal just like me. No sign of anything."

--
Arden smiles gently, then sits on his bed next to Joshua on the chair, "Well.... I know, and there wasn't anything apparent to be seen yes.  But it's... well, an Earth-That-Was poet said it best, 'More thing on heaven and earth that dreamt of in your philosophy.'" Arden pauses and then continues, "It’s possible that she's a natural reader and the drugs unlocked that portion of the brain that surgery unlocked for you.  That's my theory at least."

--

"I keep running my head over the conversation. She had answers, Arden." He looked at Arden. "She knew how you had a number. And I read something from her. You know, before the seizure."

--

"Not arguing with you," Arden points out.  "I just think that you shouldn't put too much faith in her speechifying, as Nika would say."  He pauses and drums his fingers, then says, "She had some answers, or clues that led to answers.  But if she could actually answer specific questions, I'm not so sure.  She was strung out on drugs, in a situation where anyone either hated her or loved her, and probably a bit power mad."

"I doubt she knew what she was saying, or more importantly, could interpret what she was saying."

--

"She knew about Rubicon, Arden. I saw it in her head. Rubicon Terraforming Station B." He sighed. But Arden was right. As much as it sucked, Queenie wasn't capable of providing any answers they could have used. And Deborah *certainly* wasn't capable of providing any answers now.

He nodded to Arden. "You're right, of course. Just frustrating knowing we might have been one step closer, but now seem to be right back where we were. Well, right back where we were plus a bunch of ants. Does it ever bother you? Having all this mystery surrounding your life?"

--

Arden thought for a moment. Did it bother him?  Sometimes, he supposed. '' But when that was the way it always was, you got used to it.  But that really doesn't answer the question.''

Arden shrugged. "Yeah, it bothers me, but it seems like that is the way it always is.  So I could stay keyed up and irritable about it, or I can let it go and wait for the pieces of the puzzle to make themselves evident."

"And I am sure Queenie did know about Rubicon.  Sort of. Remember she came from the Core.  It’s possible that she heard something, saw something, anything that didn't seem important until she unconsciously read you.  Then the pieces clicked and she said what she said or thought what she thought."

Arden smiled at his friend, "And once we leave Blue Sun, I think we should head to Rubicon and see what is there.  That is something positive we can do to start finding the pieces to the puzzle."

--

"I don't want to rush us," said Joshua quietly. "After all, with all the ship repairs to be done and maintenance and medical supplies to be refurbished, and so on, we're going to need to stick around Blue Sun just to keep getting paid."

''Had he ever actually gotten paid?'' He was pretty sure he hadn’t, now that he thought about it. "I mean, I've never gotten paid in my life, so this is nothing new," and he turned out his pants pocket to illustrate,  "but I figure the rest of the crew would like to have some credits in their pocket."

--

"Still, it is my next goal... finding Rubicon that is," Arden smiles.  “And as for getting paid, we really did, y'know?  We're still alive.  Some days that's all the payment I need."

--

Joshua nodded in response and said, "Yeah, I understand that. I'm happy just to be here with you guys." As he said it, he realized Arden's statement had triggered a thought. 

"Speaking of staying alive..." he said, "Do you think it would be okay to talk to her? Deborah, I mean. I promise I won't question her about anything. But I think it would be a good idea to tell her not to go back to Osiris. I'm sure Reverend Jim would tell her the same thing, but still..." Joshua knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't say anything and she went back, never to be seen again.

--

"I am sure that you can, just don't do anything that might agitate her." Arden holds up a hand. "Not that you would.  You have to be one of the most easy-to-get-along-with people I know.  Also I noticed that she seems to have sketchy…sparse, if any, memories of her time as Queenie."  Arden smiles. "So if that comes up, try to steer the conversation away from that."

--

"Can do." Joshua started to stand up, and then thought for a moment and sat back down. "Terribly rude of me to come blazing in and just be me, me, me. How are '''you''' doing, Arden? This has been the first quiet moment the ship has had, really, since the Decatur."

--

Arden smiles, then the smile falters.  He stands up and moves across the cabin to go through a small pile of stuff.  Even though his back is turned to Joshua, he speaks softly, so Joshua has to work to hear what he says. "Oh fine,  I suppose.  Nothing I can complain about."  He pauses in speech then turns to Joshua. "Oh I don't know.  Personally, I feel like there is something…while not wrong, not quite right either."

--

"You can '''always''' complain to me. That's what you guys pay me for, right? Oh, wait, that's right, we don't get paid..." joked Joshua. Then he shifted his tone more serious as he settled forward in his chair, an intent look on his face. "But seriously, I'm a good listener. What's going on? Talking about it can only help."

--

Arden smiles, though it’s a mocking sort of smile. "I don't know if there is anything anyone can do.  It's more an ‘Arden needs to get his head screwed on straight’ type of thing."  He shakes his head.

"Once upon a time, I knew what the ship was about, how things were going and what would happen (in a very general) way.  These days everything seems to be in a muddle.  The Gift can't even accomplish a gorram simple lumber delivery without running into zombies."  He laughs without humor. "It is just getting very frustrating.  Nothing working the way it should."

--

Joshua chuckled slightly. "What's funny to me is that I've never known anything different. Perhaps you should kick me off ship. I'm bad luck, it seems." He paused. "I'm joking. I think. Look, the whole 'Verse is a huge mess. I don't see why we should be any different."

He then stood up, walked over to Arden and put his hand on his shoulder. "But I have faith that it will all work itself out. We'll get ourselves back together, keep taking some jobs in Blue Sun, get ourselves repaired up, put some credits in our pockets, and then all we'll have to worry about is our crazy personal lives."

--

Arden shrugs, not reconciled to what the present future held for them. "I guess.  Maybe I need a vacation..." he laughs, more genuinely, "Know any good resort beach planets?  I've always wanted to try surfing."

--

Joshua tilted his head for a moment in thought. "You know, that's actually not a bad idea. Find somewhere we could get away from people and work for a little bit. That's not a swamp. You know, I don't think I've ever had an official vacation. Even if it was only for a day or two. Hmmm...." Joshua trailed off, lost in thought.

--

Arden nods, "Wait.  You mean get away from people AND work?  Or do you mean get away from people then work for a bit?  Which?"

--

"I meant the former, actually. Give everyone on board a chance to relax. If we wanted to get away from people in order to work, we could just stay here on Muir. But I don't think anyone wants to do that." Joshua, was in fact, pretty certain that at least Rina might kill someone if they stayed on Muir too much longer.

--

"No, Muir is not a place I want to stay.  I just want to get someplace where civilization at least pretends to be.  Here, civilization is on vacation, not us."

He turns around and examines the cabin, "So.  I'm off to medbay to check on the patients, then breakfast.  Want to join me?"

--

"Please." He looked over at Arden with a smile on his face. "If we had some chickens, I'd fix us some eggs. As is, you'll have to settle for coffee and toast over the cooking fire." And he headed out the door, turning to wait for Arden to come up beside him as they headed out.

--

"You know," Arden says as he closes his bunk's door, "we ought to check with ... whatever their community's name is.  Surely they have chickens and if they do, maybe they have eggs.  And if they have eggs, maybe we can buy some.  Deborah might know."

And discussing food options, the two headed down the hall to the medbay.

__________________

'''Go to''' [[Joshua Drake | '''Joshua's Crew Page''']] or to '''[[Arden 689-C | Arden's Crew Page]] <br>
'''Go to [[CREW]]''' or '''[[Mutineers Timeline|TIMELINE]]''' <br>
'''Go to [[Mutineers]]'''
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−	Seven in the morning was ~~late~~ for Joshua, who ~~had to be an early riser to fix breakfast for the crew~~. But his sleep was restless last night, despite being worn out from yesterday's surgery~~. He had slept later but felt worse~~. As he walked to Arden's cabin, Joshua wondered what it signified that he had done more surgeries in 4 months with this crew than he did in his entire life before. Thoughts of an overtired mind, he thought and shook his head to clear out the cobwebs.	+	Seven in the morning was early for Joshua, who was not normally a morning person. But his sleep was restless last night, despite being worn out from yesterday's surgery. As he walked to Arden's cabin, Joshua wondered what it signified that he had done more surgeries in 4 months with this crew than he did in his entire life before. Thoughts of an overtired mind, he thought and shook his head to clear out the cobwebs.

	The advantage of getting up early was that Arden was an early riser, and if Joshua knocked on his cabin door now, he would be likely to be there instead of the med lab, and they could talk privately. He had some things he would like to discuss with Arden without the presence of the newly christened Deborah and her father, Reverend Jim, who would both be in the med lab.		The advantage of getting up early was that Arden was an early riser, and if Joshua knocked on his cabin door now, he would be likely to be there instead of the med lab, and they could talk privately. He had some things he would like to discuss with Arden without the presence of the newly christened Deborah and her father, Reverend Jim, who would both be in the med lab.