Episode 109. Part 3
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Christian: I’m going to go out on a limb and say your family doesn’t know you’re here.
Miss Tolson: (whispers) Okay, but you can’t tell them.
Christian: That their daughter stowed away in a car.
Miss Tolson: Yeah, but it’s practically my car, anyway.
Nika: To what end?
Miss Tolson: I just need to get out.
Nika: (gently) You think you’re gonna live in the car for a week?
Rina: Do you want me to shoot’em?
Miss Tolson: (confused) You mean it takes a week to get where we’re going? We brought some food…
Christian: Why don’t we go and move this to someplace a little more civilized?
Nika looks at Rina.
Nika: Hose out the container, please.
Rina: (holstering her gun) Yes, ma’am.
Christian shepherds the ladies toward the container door.
Christian: Why don’t you both come with me, bring your food and we’ll sit down in the galley and we’ll discuss this.
Rina watches them leave and gets to work. She hoses down the container, then opens up the car, vacuums up the food crumbs, deodorizes the interior, and wraps the car back up. She works as quickly and thoroughly as she can, knowing she’s missing the story unfolding in the galley.
Meanwhile, Christian and Nika herd the ladies up the stairs and into the passenger lounge, and as the two women precede them up the stairs, Christian and Nika discuss what they’re going to do.
Christian: I’m sure she has a legitimate reason to want to run away.
Nika: I’ll give you some time, but—
Christian: I understand. I realize the trouble we’re in, but let’s see what they have to say. If anything else, we’ve got to keep them here until their family comes to pick them up.
Everyone pauses at one of the tables in the lounge.
Christian: I’m curious. Is your family really taking a vacation to Osiris? Or did you fabricate this to get the car aboard?
Miss Tolson: Not the whole family.
Nika: Just you. (getting angry now) Your poor butler.
Christian: (picking up the lead) Who arranged the trip, no?
Miss Tolson: Uhm. That wasn’t our butler.
Christian: That was a random person you hired to do the job?
Christian pulls a chair out for each young woman in turn, pushes them gently in. Nika seats herself and Christian settles in a chair facing Miss Tolson and her maid.
Miss Tolson: He is someone who helps us out from time to time. He’s a friend of the family, of sorts. It’s not his fault.
Christian: I’m not blaming him. I’m not blaming anyone actually, at this point. (with emphasis) What are you doing here?
Miss Tolson pulls herself together and answers.
Miss Tolson: We need to get away from Bellerophon.
Christian: Because…you’re in love and your family would never approve? Or…?
Miss Tolson: (taken aback) You…you can tell?
Nika does everything she can do to hold her tongue. It’s a good thing Rina is busy belowdecks, otherwise Miss Tolson will find herself bitch-slapped into next week. Donovan is likely holed up in his quarters, thank goodness, as is Arden. And Mike is doing some work in engineering. The less witnesses to this exchange, the better.
Christian: (continuing) Your father wants you to marry a young man from a prominent family in order to cement family alliances.
Miss Talbot: Of course, of course. And he says that once I’m married I don’t have to do anything, but…. (she sighs, distressed).
Christian: Ah, love. True love.
Miss Talbot: Haven’t you ever cared about someone?
Christian: I am a great fan of true love. I truly am. However, I want to point this out—(looks at Nika)—first of all, would you check out the Cortex and find out if the car’s been reported stolen yet?
Nika: (getting up) Aw…shit…! Arden’s still on the Cortex, yes?
Christian: Yes.
Nika hails Arden via the wall comm.
Nika: Arden, do me a favor and run a quick search on our car.
Arden: (quickly) We have a car?
Nika: We do. Please, look for the Tolson’s car in the ship’s manifest. Check it. Please. Quickly. We’re looking for a stolen car report.
Arden gets right on it.
Christian: Why don’t we start at the beginning? Let me see if I’m understanding this correctly. Your father wants you to marry---please tell me it’s not someone from the Camden family?
Miss Tolson: No.
Christian: Good. Okay, that does mitigate some of the problems. Small ones, but—.
Miss Tolson: They’re creepy.
Christian: Oh, yes, they are. Beyond that, your father wants you to marry someone as is the tradition, and as in certain fantasy stories everywhere you fall in love with your maid and—
Nika: (surprised) What?!
Christian: (surprised right back at Nika) You can’t tell from looking at the two of them, that that’s why they’re together? Besides from the fact that she won’t go anywhere without her maid?
Rina walks in on Christian’s last statement. She’s completely ambushed by it and stands there gobsmacked. What the hell?
Christian: (continuing with Miss Tolson) You decided you two could run away,so you staged this trip.
Nika reaches over and closes Rina’s mouth and pulls her to a chair.
Christian: Imagining you could stay in the car, in the container until—and by the way, I do applaud the fact that you were willing to get over the normal ‘niceties’ that nobles expect, in order to take this course.
Miss Tolson: We don’t care about those things. We just need to get out. We’re on the ship, though, right?
Christian: You are on the ship.
Miss Tolson: Okay. Well—.
Christian: Which is landlocked.
Miss Tolson: Take—…I don’t know what that is.
Christian: That means we are not allowed to take off.
Miss Tolson: (worried now) Was it my father?
Christian: No…. (thinking)….no.
Miss Tolson: They shouldn’t know.
Christian: In fact…let me put it this way: you picked the worst possible ship to be on, for what you want.
Miss Tolson: I didn’t pick the ship.
Rina: (recovering now) They also picked the best possible ship, because they’re not going to get molested in transit. Like the skank next door.
Christian: You should really be glad you weren’t put on the other ship, because had they discovered you, you would be lucky if they just held you for ransom.
Miss Tolson: Well…I’m glad that you want to help us.
Christian: What did you plan to do once you got to—I’m assuming you didn’t care where you went, but in this case it would have been Osiris.
Miss Tolson: Osiris? We just needed to get away. Someplace like, way out on the Rim. Like … like Persephone, or something.
The crew, to a man, stifle a laugh. Poor Miss Tolson is, quite simply, out of her league.
Nika: Do you have any concept whatsoever of what it is to live on the Rim?
Christian: No, of course not.
Miss Tolson: Well, we know that there will be sacrifices. But I can ride a horse, and Emma has skills. And I’m sure we’d—It doesn’t matter. We’ll be able to make it.
Nika: In a whorehouse.
Dismayed silence.
Christian: How old are you?
Miss Tolson: (quietly) I’m eighteen.
Christian: How old are you?
Miss Tolson: I’m eighteen…—ish. I will be eighteen by the time we get to where we’re going.
Nika: (dryly) Not unless your birthday is in less than a week.
Miss Tolson: Well. By the time they find me, I’ll be eighteen.
Nika: Not unless you turn eighteen today.
Christian: (sighing) How long ago was your seventeenth birthday?
Miss Tolson: I can make it worth it.
Christian: No, you can’t.
Miss Tolson: I can.
Christian: You honestly can’t.
Miss Tolson: I can. You say you’re landlocked. Is that some sort of…?
Christian: It means the port administrators—.
Miss Tolson: (jumping on it) Maybe we could pay them. We have money.
Christian: More than the Camden family?
Miss Tolson: Well, no. But some administrator? They’re not going to be paid a lot, right?
Our Miss Tolson might be on to something here.
Miss Tolson: (continuing) These bureaucrats are easily convinced.
Christian: Of course. That’s how you got the car out of the house in the first place.
Miss Tolson: Well, yes.
Christian: How did you get the car off the planet?
Miss Tolson: It helps if the car is never on the planet.
Christian: Your family keeps a house on the moon?
Miss Tolson: No, we have storage containers here. We can’t keep everything in our house.
Christian: I see. So you’re guessing your family wouldn’t inventory the container and notice that the car is missing.
Miss Tolson: Why would they?
Christian: Since they have no need of a car on the planet—.
Rina: (quietly) Excuse me, Christian. (To Miss Tolson) Where does your family think you are now?
Miss Tolson: On…on Bellerophon.
Rina: And when was the last time they saw you?
Miss Tolson: You know, I go weeks without seeing my family.
Rina: Oh, really?
Miss Tolson: Since I’ve been…. (gives in) Eight days.
Rina: And when are they going to start looking for you?
Christian: How long before the servants…?
Rina: (finishing the sentence) …Start telling?
Miss Tolson: (whispering) I don’t know.
Christian: I’m guessing they don’t go a day without seeing the servants.
Miss Tolson: I’m … I mean, I’m supposed to be at my friend Miriam’s estate.
Christian: And your friend Miriam…?
Nika: How long do you think that’s going to last?
Rina: (grimly) Right.
Miss Tolson: It’s like, an hour’s trip from our home.
Christian: I understand, and Miriam is covering for you?
Miss Tolson: Of course, she is.
Christian: And she’ll do that for how long?
Miss Tolson: I don’t know, but as long as it takes, I think at least til we can get off-planet. Once we’re off-planet, what can they do?
Nika: They can waylay us.
Christian: For one thing, they can waylay us and charge us for kidnapping.
Rina: (to Miss Tolson) ‘Cuz you’re underage.
Nika: Her family’s name is on our cargo.
Christian: What’s the legal age for adulthood and marriage?
Miss Tolson: Sixteen. Seventeen….eighteen… Depends.
Christian: I want you to understand something.
Rina: (covering her face) Oh, bozhe moi, just shoot me now….
Christian: Everything you do with your identity card is tracked. So, we can’t use it. But you can’t do anything on Osiris without an identity card.
Miss Tolson: (sighing) So we don’t need to go to Osiris. Let’s go someplace else.
Christian: We have to go to Osiris, actually. We have certain priorities.
Miss Tolson: Where are you going after Osiris? We can just stay with the ship.
Nika: You’re not going with us—
Christian: (To Miss Tolson) It’s been a day since you’ve probably so much as washed your hands. (To Nika) Why don’t you take her to the restroom—I don’t really care which one of you does it—why don’t you take her so she can splash some water on her face and her hands.
Nika: (getting it now) Check with Arden. See what he’s got. I’ll take her.
Nika takes Miss Tolson aft to get the girl cleaned up and once they’re gone, Christian starts questioning the maid, Emma, who has not said a word to this point. Rina stays in her seat, as witness and chaperone, to allay any fears the maid might have. There’s a look in the girl’s eye that Rina suspects hints at something she’s not going to like. So she stays, sitting cross-armed in her chair and lets Christian do all the talking.
Christian drops the kid-glove treatment and addresses Emma plainly.
Christian: All right. Tell me.
Emma: Tell you…what?
Christian: You would not be the first young maid to have an affair with her Master or Mistress. Is there something you want?
Emma: (quietly) I do want to leave.
Christian: I…have heard enough rumors about their family to understand why. I am…sorry you had to go through any of it. Are you indentured or are you hired? I’m guessing you’re indentured if you’re having to run away.
Emma: It’s not as simple as that.
Christian: Is your family indentured?
Emma: It’s….
She falters, sighs, and closes her eyes in frustration.
Emma: I was… Well. Slavery’s not legal in the Core, but…
Christian: Of course, not. But the right paperwork can do anything.
Emma: For my family, I’m here…I was here.
Christian: So your family sold you because they didn’t have enough money to feed all their children?
Emma: Well….
Christian: Or themselves?
Emma: It really wasn’t an issue of money, precisely.
Christian: Where are you from?
Emma: I’m from Londinium.
Christian: Interesting. (Takes a breath, moves on) All right. And whose idea was this?
Emma: ...Well…
Christian: Let me put it this way: She thinks it was her idea. Whose idea was it, really?
Emma: Well, I think it was… she was the one who suggested it.
Christian: Mm-hmm. And you weren’t prodding her in that direction? Making friends with her in order to have better treatment?
Emma: I don’t know what—. (Getting it, now) What do you think is going on, here?
Christian: I think that you are in a very precarious situation, possibly a very dangerous situation. You’re doing what you felt you had to do to survive, and I’m not blaming you for that. But I’m trying to understand everything that is going on here. And it is clear that she is very taken with you.
Emma: And I with her. We’re in love.
Christian just looks at her a moment. From everything he’s been able to read off her, given his experience as a Companion, he knows that while Emma has a genuine affection for her Mistress, she’s not as in love as Miss Tolson so obviously is. He’s also sure that Emma is not a con-artist. Christian senses no double-dealing on that score. But he also senses there’s more to the story that he hasn’t uncovered yet.
He keeps digging.
Christian: I don’t suppose you have a copy of your contract.
It’s not really a question.
Emma: There’s no contract.
Christian: Of course, there’s not. Which means they have no technical legal means to—there’s no contract, at all?
Emma: Not that I know of.
Great.
Christian scrubs his face with his hands and gestures us to wait until Nika and Miss Tolson return to the passenger lounge. When they arrive, Christian asks Miss Tolson if she can wait in one of our guest quarters. He promises her that we’re not going to turn her over, we’re not going to call her family or the authorities about this. We just want to have a discussion with her maid about a few things.
Miss Tolson: I want to stay for the discussion. Just because she’s a maid doesn’t mean she’s not a person.
Christian: Of course, she’s not not-a-person. Very well. If you wish to be here…
Christian hands her back into her seat and we all settle at the table once more.
Christian: I want you to understand something, before we make any judgments. (To Emma) Emma, I want you to be very frank and very honest. And I want you to tell my friends exactly what happens to servants and what’s happened to you on the Tolson estate, and what would happen if we sent you back there.
Nika: You think that’s going to significantly alter how much trouble we’re going to get in for even considering this?
Christian: I think it’s important that we have all the facts.
Miss Tolson: Emma? What happened?
Emma begins to weep quietly. She shakes her head.
Emma: (thinly) I didn’t want to tell you this…your…
Rina grits her teeth and stays silent, knowing what’s coming. It dawns on everyone else as well.
Miss Tolson: Did he do something with you… to you?
Emma cannot speak, but nods, crying harder now. Miss Tolson puts her arms around her lover and says to all of us, angrily.
Miss Tolson: Now we can’t go back. You know we can’t.
Christian fills Nika in on what she’s missed.
Christian: The young lady’s a slave. For one reason or other, she was taken from her home and, ah…brought here. It’s not an uncommon practice among the wealthier elite.
Nika: And they wonder why I could really care less about the wealthy or the elite.
Miss Tolson: I don’t think my family will have slaves. They’re not … monsters. They’ve helped people.
Nika: (gently) Most slave owners don’t consider themselves monsters, darlin’. They consider themselves helping the populace. With free room and board, a better life than they would have.
Christian observes the two young women throughout this exchange and sees that these aren’t crocodile tears Emma’s crying. She is genuinely embarrassed and hurt over this. Miss Tolson holds Emma, trying to comfort her, and looks at us, shocked over Emma’s revelation, but determined to do something nonetheless.
Miss Tolson: If we could just get away….I think that we would have a chance. We’ve heard of other people who have left, have been able to escape this.
Nika: (steely) Young Miss Tolson—
Miss Tolson: (plowing on) Once we get out there, you can have the car, you can have—
Nika: (continuing)—chances are she may get out. (points at Emma) But your parents are going to be looking for you. As much as it sucks and I hate to say it out loud, you’re a financial asset.
Miss Tolson: (to hell with that) I will…I will send them a ’wave as soon as I get out far enough that they can’t just yank me back. As soon as I get outside my family’s influence, I’ll just send a ’wave and say that I’m fine. I just can’t do it til we’re….til we’re outside the Core.
Silence. Then:
Christian: Hmmmm….I don’t imagine either of you had any proper sleep in the backseat of that vehicle.
Miss Tolson: It’s funny because we’ve slept there lots of times before while driving, but it's not so comfortable when it’s just sitting still.
Christian: Why don’t the two of you get some rest? We’ll put you up in one of our quarters for now. And we need to discuss things.
Miss Tolson: (whispering) Thank you.
We escort them to an empty stateroom, as far from Donovan as we can get, and see them installed comfortably.
Nika peels off from the group to see if Arden’s found anything on the Cortex. Nobody’s reported a stolen car, since there’s nowhere to drive on this moon. In fact, there’s not even a proper department of motor vehicles on Parth. And it’s just as apparent that nobody keeps close tabs on their storage.
We gather back in the passenger lounge to hammer out the final details.
Rina: How are we gonna to hide these two women? I mean, c’mon—.
Nika: How the hell are we gonna hide Mike? At this point, we have someone who’s hiding from the Core, these two are hiding from the—we’re running a frikkin’ ship for fugitives. An entire ship of fugitives. And they’re not even crew! So it’s not like they’re even useful, most of them. (Off Rina’s look) I did say most of them.
Christian: I think we’ve all figured out that Mike has a certain set of skills.
Rina: (puts it out there) And in terms of changing identity…
Nika: (taking it up) Well, that is potentially a viable option.
Rina: I don’t know if we can go so far as getting them a ret-job done but at least we can get them a set of fake cards.
Christian: Or get them to a place where cards don’t matter.
Rina: Yeah.
Nika: The problem is we have to go straight to Osiris. We have to go to Osiris. (thinks) They’ve got an Underground...
Osiris also has lawyers who, for a certain amount of money, can gin up a legal-looking set of papers. Because they’ve been drawn up by lawyers. For money.
Nika: How much money are they carrying on them? And for God’s sake, get it out of the car before Sean finds it out.
Christian: We’ll go check their bags and check out the container where their stuff is.
Nika: And you know there’s no selling their car. As soon as that car hits the market, the family’s gonna know.
Christian: We’ll go through the rest of their stuff. I hate the invasion of their privacy but in this case I think it’s forgivable.
We go through the young women’s baggage. The trunks are filled with clothes and we realize that they had been filled with an eye toward convincing the casual observer that they’d been packed for a middle-aged married couple going on a vacation instead of two young women going on the lam. Men’s clothing is included, ostensibly for the fictitious male vacationer, and other assorted odds and ends. We also find, in a purse, handfuls of jewelry. Nice expensive jewelry, and obviously the young women’s means of financial support once they arrive at their destination. And although the jewelry is expensive, it’s not particularly distinctive and once broken down, the jewelry and gems wouldn’t be easily traceable. We find pocket change, but there’s not a great amount of it. Nika orders the jewelry be given to Miss Tolson, to keep it safe from Donovan.
Christian knocks on Miss Tolson’s door and hands her the jewelry, with the admonition to keep it on her person at all times. Nika advises that she keep it in her corset and not take it out. The transfer made and the door closed again, Nika, Christian and Rina gather in the passenger lounge and take final stock.
Nika: So we’re really doing this?
Christian: Sending her back is sending her back to be raped.
Rina: I can’t countenance that.
Christian: And I honestly don’t believe that at this point they’ll go without making it—
Nika: Give me some time to wrap my head around the fact that we’re running a ship of fuckin’ fugitives…
Christian: I got a ’wave to my parents. They may be able to help. If I need to I can go to the Companion’s Guild and beg for a favor.
Nika: Are you in good standing with them?
Christian: I did not leave in bad terms. No. I just don’t have my license.
Nika: Which is not necessarily a problem, being as you’re not in a way to undercut them.
Christian: (agreeing) No, not for a while.
Nika: Which means your standing is still good.
On the other hand, it wouldn’t do to piss off the Guild’s rich and influential clients.
Christian: Why don’t we wait and see what my parents can do, and for now let’s not worry about it. From my understanding, they only want to inspect the engine, and the last time I checked, the engine in not in the passenger quarters. If need be, we can hide them on the shuttle.
There is some dispute over the necessity of that option, but we all agree to keep the young ladies away from Donovan as much as possible, even though he’s done nothing untoward beyond bringing a barfly aboard for an overnight stay. We also arrange to have the girls’ meals sent to their quarters, to further avoid contact with the outside world, keeping them from discovery as much as possible.
For now, we all hope the Inspector doesn’t notice the Tolsons’ car in our container. Rina goes over it again, cleaning and deodorizing and wrapping it back up. For now, Christian is going to have to buy two more weeks’ worth food for the extra mouths we’ve picked up. For now, Nika’s going to keep an eye out for any ongoing police investigation as to the fugitives we’re sheltering. After all, we’ve got our own version of Romeo and Juliet and their Priest to hide from the law and we’re all hoping they don’t end up like their Shakespearean counterparts.
As is the nature of bureaucracies, if you wait on the paperwork, you wait in vain. Paper pushers are the ultimate bureaucrat, desirous of preserving their positions while expending as little effort as possible in execution of their job descriptions, and highly resentful of any reminder to actually do their work. As a result, most tasks die from sheer inertia. And since our current problem with the bureaucratic machine exists only to delay us, it’s a good bet nothing constructive is going to happen from that quarter. For his part, Christian is willing to wait and see if his parents have been able to do anything for us before wading through the inevitable red tape of official channels.
His father replies with this message: There seems to be some sort of issue about the vessel you’re on. And that may be more difficult, although it appears that the system’s Supervisor for the Inspector appears to, how shall we say, have some financial troubles of a gambling nature. I don’t know if you have any money on board, but it may not take that much if offered in the appropriate way, with a few strings attached to it, in a way he might find interesting.
The message ends, and Christian quickly comes up with the plan of arranging an appointment with the Supervisor and giving him an offer: We are quite willing to pay any fees he feels are appropriate, but we need to discuss it first.
We manage to get an appointment for that very afternoon.
Rina declines going—she’d just as soon shoot the Supervisor as bribe him, and she knows it. Nobody disagrees with her, either. Arden offers to stay behind to watch the Cortex for any news or developments inimical to our well-being. There’s not even a second’s thought about allowing Mike to leave the ship. So that leaves Nika and Christian to go as our representatives.
Donovan wants to know if there is still time to go off-board and see more of the sights before we leave. After all, he’s been cooped up in our tin can of a ship for a month, he doesn’t want to spend any more time on it than he has to. Since we haven’t any idea how fast things will progress once we secure the right to leave, we warn him that if he’s not on the ship when we take off, he’ll be left behind. Donovan grumbles and retreats to his quarters to entertain himself as best he can.
Rina: (undertone) Do you want me to jigger his locks so he can’t leave?
Christian: (same tone) Keep an eye on the young women. Scrub the car out of our cargo manifest. I logged it when it came in.
Rina: I’ll see if I can do that, but I think there’s someone on board that can do an even better job.
Christian: That’s fine. I don’t care who does it, just get it out of our system. (to Nika) Okay, let’s go see this gentleman.
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