Editing Episode 202: Obstinacy

Twenty-three days after we leave PDF Decatur, we make landfall at Vanderbilt City, Boros and while Christian stays with the Gift to get her refueled and restocked and also sell our cargo of mules, the rest of the crew and Jake go on in the shuttle to Nala and Nika’s ranch, there to stay for a visit.   

Nala says she would and the Sheriff leaves.  And we find out that some of Nala’s cattle are known to have mingled with Kurpinski’s herd and are likely still with his cattle even now.  If Kurpinski won’t test, the Federal Marshalls will arrive in a couple of days to confiscate the herd for testing and possible slaughter.  Any other rancher’s cattle with Kurpinski’s herd will be judged infected by association and that rancher’s herd will be eradicated as well—IF Kurpinski’s animals test positive.

Nala has only just gotten her financial legs under her, at least enough that she and Larry are making a go of it.  If Nala has to lose her herd, she’ll run the risk of losing her ranch, despite backing from the Johannsens.  We need to get her cattle back BEFORE the Feds arrive and she’d take it as a kindness if somehow somebody talked some sense into Kurpinski, too.  The Kurpinskis seem to think that the Earharts have gotten all the good breaks of late, and the Kurpinskis all the bad ones and as a result, any negotiations will be rocky.

It’s late January, there’s snow on the ground and freezing temps outside.  Nevertheless we saddle up and ride out, out past Nala’s ranch and onto Kripinski land.  Rick is a tracker and it doesn’t take him long after we start out to find the trail of Nala’s missing cattle, nor does it take long to figure out where they’ve gone: a box canyon inside the Kurpinski spread.  Rina’s hinked about the topography.  Where others see a pretty narrow canyon sugared in snow, she sees a killing box where the enemy can shoot at leisure from the heights at targets below….targets like her and her crew.

We ride in and sure enough, we catch a glimpse of something shining up on the heights.  A rifle shot echoes down to us and a bullet ricochets off the rocks at our feet.  Cletus Kurpinski, one of the Grandpa’s sons, yells down to us to clear out.   

It does not go well: the Kurpinski’s are a suspicious lot and embittered by recent hard times, and see Nika and Nala as rapacious interlopers out to steal what is rightfully the Kurpinski’s.  When the Feds are mentioned, the dialogue is doomed to fail.  No amount of pleading for sense makes any difference.  More rifle shots come down on us, then sticks of dynamite which set off minor landslides.  Cletus has decided we’re out to ruin his Grandpa and we have no choice but to turn around and ride out, the Kurpinski’s unconvinced to see reason and Nala’s cattle still unrecovered.  It’s a long ride home to Nala’s and several of the crew have borderline frostbite by the time we get back.

Despite the weather, we agree to make one more attempt that night and Christian comes with us.  We ride out in the shuttle this time, the better to cover the distance to the Kurpinski’s quickly, and pay them a visit at their house. It’s at the far end of the box canyon and impossible to miss.  Rick elects to get dropped off the shuttle early so he can examine the herd to find the Earhart brand—or not—on the cattle.  We’re all linked to each other via our headset comms and we drop the naturalist off some distance from the Kurpinski home.  We fly the rest of the way in, land in the front yard and are met by Grandpa himself at gunpoint.   

Nika convinces him to let her talk to him inside and Arden offers to give everyone a medical once-over and treat anyone who’s ill.  Grandpa Kurpinski agrees, saying his 4 year old grandson’s been doing poorly.

While we go to test the child, Christian stays with the Kurpinskis and in between regaling them with funny stories he carefully investigates the home environment, looking to find out how the child got sick.  Grandpa Kurpinski had mentioned that they’d been reduced to eating Blue Sun food products what the Feds gave them, and like most folk on the Rim, they have a Blue Sun protein texturizer—a common kitchen appliance that adds color and texture and some flavor to the protein paste to make it more palatable. Christian thinks back to what we learned in Blue Sun, that the TSEB is the food supply but no one has been able to track the vector within it. Could it be the everyday protein paste could be it?  Everyone has it, the protein in it comes from a variety of protein sources—including bovines.  He takes a sample of all the various proteins the family has run through the machine and writes down the make and model number of the machine itself.  He warns the family that they should avoid eating the stuff if they can, though he realizes that they may not be able to. And that done, he entertains the family as best he can and he waits for our return.

We test the child and the test result is positive.  It’s in the early stages and there are some experimental drugs that could prolong his life…but the child is basically sentenced to living the rest of his life in Federal hands, taken away from his family.  TSEB victims are cared for as humanely as possible and are given medical care, but it is still an exile followed by death.  Arden gathers up what vitamin supplements and small medicines that the Kurpinskis can use and we can spare, and we fly back to their ranch to deliver the bad news.

Meanwhile, Rick has spent the balance of the night checking each of the cows in the Kurpinski herd and has determined that they are not suffering from TSEB.  They have no symptoms.  If they get tested, they should test negative.  Nala’s cows aren’t among them.  Either they walked away or were culled out or never were with the herd.  No matter what, Nala’s in the clear.  Overhead, Rick spies a round light—a moon?—shining through the falling snow.  It very quickly resolves into a ship and it’s coming in for a landing.  He calls it in.   

Rina’s on the shuttle, takes the call and relays it to the others.  Sensors show it’s big, bigger than our shuttle. It’s obvious the menfolk mean to make a stand against the Feds who are coming and we offer to take on any of the Kurpinski women and children.  Grandpa turns our offer down.  The Feds will be here any second.  The mother of the sick child rushes up to us at the last minute and shoves her son in our arms, tells us to take him, take care of him, please.  She’s staying, but her son would have a chance if we take him.  We try one last time to convince Grandpa to stand down, we tell him his cattle aren’t sick.  If he would only let the Feds test his herd, they are sure to test negative and he won’t have a thing to worry about.  Grandpa Kurpinski and the other men refuse to hear reason: the Feds are the enemy, come to wipe them out, and there is no way they’ll let them do it without a fight.  He has the women and children herded into an inner room for their safety and the menfolk take up their positions.

While Nala is absent doing that, Christian fills the rest of us in on his findings at the Kurpinskis.  He suggests that though the protein pastes is supposed to be from safe vegetable and animal sources, if someone somewhere was convinced that using unsuitable material would save the manufacturer money….  Well, there’s very little that can be done, right?  That protein paste goes everywhere, is eaten by everyone.  What if the paste is the vector, or the more commonly used flavorings and colorings that people add to it using the machine?  Rina’s right on board with the theory—she’s always been of the opinion that protein paste and its close cousin, tofu, is Evil Incarnate.

We discuss what we can do for the Kurpinskis next.  If the Kurpinskis are still alive come morning, we will go over and offer them a lift to Blue Sun—the system needs farmers and though it’s not the same as ranching, the Kurpinskis can make a fresh start there.  After all, the Feds have taken their herd and they’ll likely have lost everything along with it. They have nothing left to lose.

Nala returns and asks what we’re going to do with the little boy.  We admit we have friends working out of Blue Sun who may be able to help him.  No, he’s not going to turn Reaver.  There are only about 300 cases of it so far but no one’s gone Reaver.  In fact, the hype about the disease may be a sham, a political ploy by some to win independence for the Blue Sun system.  Nika tells her sister that we’re willing to take the Kurpinskis to Blue Sun to resettle, if they survive the night against the Feds.  And that said, we turn in for the night to see what the morning will bring.  Arden stays up and listens over the CB channels for any word of what’s happening the next ranch over.<br><br>

 

 

The Kurpinsky house has been razed to the ground.  Corpses of cattle litter the ground.  We see two Fed spacecraft parked in front.  It’s an Alliance ASREV, tasked to the Federal Marshals.  A second craft, a 30 ton ship, lands next to it and people in Hazmat suits move on and off it.  Of the Kurpinskis we see no sign.

'''Marshals:''' Why don’t you take your first vector out.  I encourage you to contact the Marshal Headquarters in Vandenburg City.<br>

'''Nika:''' Do you want us to take the boy to the Alliance hospital or do you want us to take him with us? I don’t know which way the Kurpinskis would want us to go.<br>

'''Rina:''' It’s a stupid name.<br>

There is nothing more we can do at the moment.  We thank Nala for her hospitality, leave Boros with both a kitten and a kid, and set our course for Hera.<br><br>

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the previous episode: [[Episode 201: Crossroads, Part 1| '''Crossroads''']] | Foward to: [[Episode 203: Gibraltar Blues| '''Gibraltar Blues''']]<br>