Editing Episode 311: Suckered, Part Two

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[[Episode 311: Suckered | '''Part 1''']]<br>
[[Episode 311: Suckered, Part Three | '''Part 3''']]<br>
[[Episode 311: Suckered, Part Four | '''Part 4''']]<br>


Meaning Iskariot.

'''Arden:''' I don’t think so, he—<br>
'''Rina:''' I don’t want that bastard on our ship.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Why? It’s not like we’re going far. New Canaan. Highgate. Three days.  We could probably wrangle some credits out of this.<br>

Meanwhile Rick asks Faria how many Reaver bodies were found.

'''Faria:''' They found…not many at all, really. They found three Reaver bodies.<br>
'''Rick:''' Well….as you guys probably already know, be careful with interacting with him at the moment. Because any dead Reaver was probably killed by him.<br>
'''Joshua:''' (deadpan) Really. (a beat) Any dead Reaver?<br>
'''Rick:''' Any of the that Reavers here that were dead.<br>
'''Joshua:''' How many dead Reavers are there?<br>
'''Faria:''' Three.<br>
'''Arden:''' There were three.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Did he kill the three Reavers by himself? (to Rick) I mean you’ve killed several by yourself.<br>
'''Rick:''' Well, I’m sure that there are probably some other ones that ran away bloody.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Who ''is ''this guy? No seriously. Who is he?<br>
'''Rina:''' (sighs) I’ll tell you later.<br>
'''Joshua:''' (tell me now) ''No.''<br>

Meanwhile, Arden asks Faria about Iskariot’s condition.

'''Arden:''' Has he been violent since you’ve been here?<br>
'''Faria:''' He has, what we’ve seen about Prion disease, that it appears that he has some of the symptoms that people mistake for violence. <br>
'''Arden:''' but he warned us away, saying that sudden movements caused him to do inappropriate things and that we should leave.<br>
'''Faria:''' As the Prion disease affects the frontal lobe, the state of consciousness tends to swing back into the more….<br>

Well, violent.

'''Arden:''' Have you explored all the basements?<br>
'''Faria:''' We didn’t get a chance to explore all the basements but we didn’t find any prisoners. But we did get a chance to see the video he did.<br>

Video? Oh, that’s right. The one of the captured Reaver that he’d experimented on.  That video.  

'''Faria:''' It looks like after the battle he, uh, wrote some things down which are all…uhm, it’s fair to say they’re rambling…<br>
'''Joshua:''' Can we read them.<br>
'''Faria:''' You can.  If you wish. I am not sure exactly how informative they will be.<br>
'''Joshua:''' I doubt it, but I could read them anyway.  What else am I going to do?  Go down and talk to the Shepherd?<br>
'''Arden:''' You could.<br>
'''Joshua:''' (sharp) Do you value my life? I mean, you may not. Like, ah—<br>
'''Arden:''' (stung) Now, that’s not true.<br>

Rick interjects before it can get ugly.

'''Rick:''' You wanna go talk to him?<br>
'''Joshua:''' No. I don’t want to talk to him. I want to read the writing. I don’t want to talk to him because that’s pretty much equal to—(mimes a throat slitting and gags)<br>
'''Rick:''' He probably doesn’t have his sword on him.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Does it ''matter''?  He could probably kill me with his pinky finger.<br>
'''Rick:''' Nah, he won’t hurt you.<br>
'''Joshua:''' (no shit!) Really.<br>
'''Rick:''' I think if he was going to hurt you, he would have done it already. <br>
'''Joshua:''' He might have. Or maybe he’s just taking his time.<br>

Meanwhile, Arden takes up his interrupted conversation with Faria.

'''Arden:''' Yes, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to go with us. He’s infected himself with the Prion disease.<br>
'''Faria:''' Yes, we saw his… darkness within him.  Clearly an insane person.<br>

There isn’t much more we can say to that. 

And there are other considerations to tend to. Repairs: there isn’t much here to use to effect them.  Cargo: We’re two days late on delivery and penalties will accrue. 

'''Rina:''' I say we get going, deliver the cargo, get paid.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Are we taking him? I mean, we’re going to New Canaan—<br>
'''Rina:''' If it were up to me? Sure, we’ll take him. ''Only so long as I can lash him to the hull.''<br>
'''Joshua:''' —it’s seventeen hours. And then Highgate’s another twenty-six.  So are we taking the Shepherd?<br>
'''Arden:''' It was my impression he didn’t want to leave.<br>
'''Rina:''' Ditto.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Okay but—<br>
'''Rina:''' Okay. I think this is where we catch you up. He used to be an Operative of the Parliament—<br>
'''Rick:''' We don’t know that.<br>
'''Rina:''' ''Oh, come on.'' The way that man ''moves''? He’s got a ''sword'', for Pete’s sake.<br>

Just like another Operative we all know: Arden’s clone brother. Otto.  Swordsman.

'''Arden:''' Rina thinks he’s an Operative of the Parliament. All we know is that he’s very skilled and he did bad things.<br>
'''Rina:''' And he decided to atone for his sins by coming to this Mission.<br>
'''Joshua:''' So you think the Shepherd is—<br>
'''Rina:''' Was.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Was an Operative of the Parliament, just like your….(looks at Arden) …your brother? person? thing? Otto?<br>
'''Arden:''' Could be.<br>
'''Joshua:''' That would explain—that would explain something. No, it actually makes sense.  If we assume that if….since I’ve seen your brother before, that if he is like—though not all of them are like—I’ve seen him before, like….<br>

Joshua’s starting to lose the thought here, but it seems to have to do with Joshua seeing Otto at the Academy, overseeing the subjects.  Arden drags us back to the matter at hand.

'''Arden:''' So anyway. He’s a bad individual who’s done very bad things.  And to atone he infected himself with Prion disease and came to this Mission.<br>
'''Joshua:''' (frustrated) I don’t understand people. I think I understand, like, and then….so to atone he ''infected'' himself with Prion disease? ''In what Universe'' is that the correct way to go about atoning?<br>
'''Rick:''' I guess it’s because he tortured some people and ruined their lives, that he’s experiencing some crazy pain himself.
'''Joshua:''' How do you go about helping people when you’ve—<br>

Rick explains Iskariot did infect himself with the Prion disease and also helped the people below on Muir with the disease.  Yeah, Joshua gets that, thanks.  Rick goes on to explain that he didn’t send just anybody on the ships out to die, but people in the late stages of the disease who had no option but to die.  Joshua’s reduced to inarticulate gaping over that one.

'''Arden:''' In fact, on our way over here [our previous voyage to Blue Sun] we came upon an abandoned ship out there.<br>
'''Rina:''' Are you talking about that ship where we found four men strung up like meat in a larder? <br>
'''Arden:''' Yeah.<br>
'''Rina:''' I know.  I was there.  I got the scar. Right here.<br>

She actually pulls her shirt aside to expose the scar on her collarbone.

'''Joshua:''' I’m not judging the guy, I can’t judge him.  I just can’t figure him out. I-I, I’m like…Shepherds are like….I’m just going to stop trying to think on the Shepherds, like….<br>
'''Arden:''' That’s probably a good idea.<br>
'''Faria:''' As a Shepherd, I will say that some of us have taken to the cloth perhaps because of traumatic things, but in a desire to right our lives and to do what’s appropriate.  Now, I will say I don’t recognize the Shepherd from any training that I went to and it’s possible that he ''decided'' he was a Shepherd.<br>
'''Arden:''' That’s what I thought.<br>
'''Rick:''' I don’t think he was formally inducted into the organization.<br>
'''Faria:''' He was in charge of the Mission, in his mind, so he took on the titles.<br>
'''Joshua:''' So…if we don’t take him to Highgate what’s going to happen?<br>
'''Faria:''' Well, he’s going to die here. If not by the hands of the Agua Negra guys, he dies just of the disease. Which looks pretty bad on its own. I suspect that he’ll be shot by one of the security people if they sense he’s a danger.<br>
'''Arden:''' I suspect he’ll try to steal a shuttle and go out to meet some Reavers.<br>
'''Rick:''' Huh. I think he would have left a while ago.<br>
'''Arden:''' I would have thought he would, too.<br>
'''Faria:''' He did seem quite excited about the Firefly when it landed, but …when Hu and his men came out, he was less interested. <br>
'''Arden:''' Is Hu familiar with him?<br>
'''Faria:''' No.<br>
'''Rick:''' One other interesting thing about him…<br>
'''Arden:''' ''Only'' one?<br>
'''Rick:''' He  may have been a part of events that led to the Miranda Wave. Has he told you that?<br>
'''Rina:''' What was the name of the ship that was supposed to be involved in that?<br>
'''Faria:''' He didn’t mention it to me, no. But you’re saying he was an Operative. There was considerable….Well, the War at the Universe Moon, for example, was ordered by an Operative. Which is unusual.  Operatives are not usually out there ordering Navy around.<br>

One has to assume that Faria is speaking from his Wartime experiences and contacts and not his priestly ones.

'''Rina:''' Does anybody find the weirdness of naming this Mission ‘Santa Ria’ which, by ear, sounds a lot like an ancient Earth religion that has bloody sacrifices as part of its rituals?<br>
'''Arden:''' And the people down on Muir aren’t worth doing it?<br>
'''Faria:''' I will say that Iskariot does seem to have a ….odd… <br>
'''Rina:''' Sense of humor?<br>
'''Faria:''' (sighing) Yes.  Sense of humor.<br>
'''Rina:''' Mm-hm.  So.  ‘Santa Ria’.  Saint River.  That’s like an oxymoron.  <br>
'''Rick:''' What is?<br>
'''Rina:''' You don’t name saints after ''things''. You name them after people. <br>
'''Faria:''' You name people after things and things after people.<br>
'''Rina:''' Who the hell names their kid ‘River’? <br>

Which leads the crew to yank a little chain.

'''Rick:''' Who names their kid ‘Rina’?<br>
'''Arden:''' I would name my kid ‘Reaver’ before I named my kid ‘Rina’.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Um…actually….it all kinda nicely, like sorta weirdly pieces together.  Like, uh…<br>
'''Rina:''' (to Joshua) Okay, you’re not making sense again.<br>
'''Joshua:''' I’m sorry.<br>
'''Rina:''' It’s okay.  You can explain it to me later or you can explain to me now.<br>
'''Joshua:''' No, it’s…I didn’t know her, but I, but I knew of her.  Like…I’m assuming the connection seems to be a little too odd not to be…<br>
'''Rick:''' You knew of who?<br>
'''Joshua:''' A girl named River. Like she was like the number one, like the number one person at the Academy—<br>
'''Rina:''' (to Heaven) I was joking.  I was joking! I swear to you, ''God'', I was ''joking''. (to Joshua) No.  You’re yanking my chain.<br>
'''Arden:''' No. He’s saying he knew someone named River.<br>
'''Joshua'''Yeah. And she was a Reader.<br>
'''Rina:''' (eaxperated) Okay, and if you see a six-foot high invisible white rabbit named Harvey, give him my regards.<br>
'''Joshua:''' She was a Reader, like …she….if-if-if if he said that…I mean didn’t he say…didn’t he say something to the fact that…that somebody could break, like, the…some person broke away?  And that it was the person responsible for naming this Mission? Which was named ‘Saint River’?  Like then…then I have to guess she’s the person that they’re referring to.  Not that they have any direct relevance to any—there are probably a handful of Rivers across the universe but how many of them are Readers from White Sun? What are the odds?  Probably slim, I’m guessing.  My point is that—<br>
'''Arden: I don’t know.  There are 689 Ardens, at least.<br>
'''Joshua: (weakly) Ah ha, ha-ha.<br>

Joshua tries again.

'''Joshua:''' My point is that for all that he’s obviously in the late stages of the disease—<br>
'''Rick:''' I don’t know.  I don’t think he was all that crazy.<br>
'''Joshua:''' I don’t think he’s crazy. I’m saying he’s got answers.  But whether we can any of them, I don’t know.<br>
'''Arden:''' Or understand them if we do get them.<br>
'''Joshua:''' That’s the thing.  I don’t know. <br>
'''Faria:''' If he could be treated, perhaps we could.<br>
'''Joshua:''' That might be possible.<br>
'''Arden:''' He doesn’t want to be treated.<br>
'''Rick:''' Yeah, he doesn’t want to.<br>
'''Faria:''' Now I am a firm believer in free will, as you all know.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Really.<br>
'''Faria: '''But it is established common law that if a person is no longer capable of autonomous behavior, if they’re a danger to themselves or others they can be—<br>
'''Rina:''' So, who does have power of attorney over this guy?<br>
'''Faria:''' Well, out here on the Rim? The good people who come across him.<br>
'''Rina:''' Well, I don’t think I’m a good person. Not in that sense.<br>

Like that’s any surprise.

'''Rick:''' I think the two issues are he’s currently got Prion disease and he’s fighting back his prion rage as a courtesy to us.<br>
'''Faria:''' I’m not suggesting you give him a first class stateroom across from mine—<br>
'''Rina:''' How about a first class bullet to the head?<br>

So not a good person.  Nope.

'''Joshua:''' (appalled) Excuse me? Why?<br>
'''Rina:''' Okay, ''after'' we pump him dry of information.<br>
'''Joshua:''' (still appalled) Excuse me? We’re not putting a bullet to his head.<br>
'''Faria:''' (to Rina) You have some issues to work out, don’t you?<br>
'''Arden:''' Yes, she does.  Just a few.<br>
'''Faria:''' You need to talk to a counselor. Perhaps a… Shepherd.<br>
'''Arden:''' That would screw her up more.<br>

Rick drags us back on track.

'''Rick:''' If we want to bring him to get treatment, he doesn’t want it so he’ll fight back.  And even if we do manage to treat him, we’ll have possibly an almost entirely functional guy that we did what he didn’t want to have happen who could probably kill everyone here with a sword before anyone could draw a gun.<br>
'''Joshua:''' It’s all a matter of logic.  If he’s healed, he’ll just infect himself again. <br>

Which would bring him back to crazy dangerous proto-Reaver again.

'''Faria:''' Good point.  Let’s keep swords away from him.<br>
'''Rina:''' Why not keep arms away from him?  You know, like ''from the shoulders down''?<br>

Faria looks at Rina.  He is not amused.  After all, he has only one arm.  Not that his expression makes a dent in Rina’s mood: she is extremely pissed off over the matter of Iskariot and our apparently endless debate as to what to do with him.  For her, their course is clear—either we leave him here or we kill him.  Knowing what awaits for him in the extreme late stages of the disease, killing him now might even be justified as a Christian kindness.

'''Arden:''' I don’t think he is either rational ''or'' irrational enough to submit for treatment.<br>
'''Rick:''' I don’t think we want the wrath of this guy if we treat him.<br>
'''Rina:''' I say we don’t treat him at all. I say to hell with this.<br>
'''Faria:''' What if treating him takes away his drive?  How do we know whether this wrath is a result of the Prion disease? <br>
'''Arden:''' I can’t make that kind of decision. I can not take into my hands the responsibility for someone’s personality.<br>

Speaking of personality….

'''Joshua:''' The other half of that—not that half but the half about bringing him on board—is that I’m not sure how he’d interact with me.  Like, at all.<br>
'''Faria:''' I’m intrigued by that, too.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Yes, I’m sure you would.<br> 
'''Rick:''' (to Faria) We definitely need you to be wearing your powerfists.<br>
'''Arden:''' Powerfists?<br>

Faria’s prosthetic arm grants him the power of ten men.  Well, he amends, ten old men.

'''Faria:''' (to Joshua)  You seem to have some personal issues with all this.<br>
'''Joshua:''' If we take him…If we can take him, then we should take him. <br>
'''Arden:''' For altruistic motives?<br>
'''Joshua:''' If there is any motive, like, there’s some selfishness involved.  For instance, I would love to get some answers. And he might have some of them.  But I also think that if he’s as talented and killed as you think he is and he seems to be, then…<br>

He lets it go, the words making his case for him.

Arden asks if Faria can show the videos Iskariot took and as the Shepherd agrees, Rick speaks up.

'''Rick:'''I have just one question, if all this continues.  Are there any brain modifications that you know of that are required for Operatives?<br>
'''Faria:''' Uhhhnn, that’s above my paygrade.<br>
'''Rick:''' You don’t get paid anymore.<br>
'''Faria:''' If I still was, it would have been above that. <br>
'''Rina:''' Do you know anyone whose pay grade it ''was'' to know?<br>
'''Faria:''' The only time I’ve ever heard of an Operative really, was over on a mission before the war. It was a pacification mission.  Yeah, it was one of the Core planets. <br>
'''Arden:''' Ahhhhnnn, a pacification mission.<br>
'''Faria:''' It was food riots and all.<br>
'''Arden:''' Yeah, it was pacification by knocking them down.  I got it.<br>
'''Faria:''' Yes, that’s what you do.<br>
'''Arden:'''  I know it is. I’m not—<br>
'''Joshua:''' (firmly) Go on, Shepherd.<br>


Faria gathers his thoughts.

'''Faria:''' Anyway, we were following standard protocol and then we got this unusual order from the Lieutenant…and as usual I needed to make sure the Lieutenant wasn’t just totally insane and wrest control of the group from him.  But then it turned out that the order had come from an Operative, and he said it doesn’t matter.  Nothing else matters once the Operative says everything is expendable at that stage.  And it was, ah….yeah.  It was unusual.  No Generals.  No name. Just the ‘Operative’.<br>
'''Joshua:''' ‘The’ Operative or ‘a’ Operative.<br>
'''Faria:''' I just know that it was from an Operative.<br>
'''Rina:''' (softly) What world was this on? Or is that still classified?<br>
'''Faria:''' I don’t know if it’s classified.  You could look it up.  There were hundreds of pacification actions.  I was in ….dozens.  This one? I don’t remember where it was.<br>

Rick again brings us back to Iskariot. 

'''Rick:''' I only ask because he has an incredible restraint. It could be artificial but maybe it’s something else. His level of restraint and controlling his—I mean he clearly has almost late  stage, if not late stage, Prion disease but he’s much more lucid than everyone else that we’ve met in this phase of it. So it’s either because he’s incredibly well conditioned or there’s some brain alteration. Or both.<br>
'''Rina:''' Good point.<br>
'''Faria:''' Well…As I say, I’m not all that familiar with—I did know that an Operative ordered the…that mission would never have gone through normal naval channels. There was no large scale exercise tied to it.<br>

And Arden asks if there was an Operative involved in the Miranda Wave and the battle over the Universe Moon…given Iskariot’s proximity to both, could it be possible if he were involved?  Faria cannot answer that one.  

We also cannot seem to answer the question of what to do with Iskariot, either.  

'''Joshua:''' So. What? Do we take him?  Are we taking him? <br>
'''Rick:''' I think that if we take him, we have to find some way to convince him to come with us. <br>
'''Arden:''' I really don’t want to bring him.<br>
'''Rina:''' I say we honor his last wishes and I say we leave him here to die.<br>
'''Rick:''' (slowly) I mean…yeah, I think if he doesn’t want to come willingly, then I don’t think we shouldn’t try to force him. If we push it, he’s going to make it so that we’re going to have to kill him.<br>
'''Joshua:''' Then I’m going to go talk to him.<br>
'''Arden:''' You ''are'' going to talk to him?<br>
'''Rina:''' You’re not going alone.<br>
'''Joshua:''' No. I’m going alone.<br>
'''Arden:''' No.<br>
'''Joshua:''' If we’re not taking him, then I’m going.<br>
'''Rick:''' Yeah, you shouldn’t go by yourself but I don’t think he’s going to try to kill you.<br>

Faria sighs and relates a story from his childhood, about a dog he’d once had as a boy and whom he loved dearly.  His dog contracted rabies from a raccoon, and rather than let his dog suffer and run loose endangering everyone else, he had to kill it.  Shoot it down.  Quickly.  Cleanly. Humanely.  His father trundled up the dog in a crate for the final trip to the vet, when he caught Faria trying to let his dog loose for one last run.  He reprimanded Faria, asking if it was fair to let the dog live and run in increasing pain and confusion as the disease slowly killed him, or if it would be better to relieve him of the pain now by taking him to the vet to be euthanized. 

Arden insists the analogy is flawed, since a dog is neither a rational or irrational being.  Faria counters that if we are trying to be kind and follow his last wishes—to let him die of Prion disease—are we giving him a good death?  Arden replies that Iskariot is unlike a dog, whose responsibility Faria took on the moment he made the dog his pet.  Faria ripostes that Arden is taking on the responsibility by thinking on it right now.

''Touché'', Shepherd.

Ultimately, we can choose to do something but we can’t choose not to do something…because even a choice of non-action is a choice, and therefore a choosing of something.

And the argument goes around again—keep him alive against his will? Keep him alive by convincing him it’s useful to survive?  To do what? Keep Joshua from going wooly on us? Or would we be doing Iskariot a disservice by prolonging his illness by keeping him alive.  What if we offered him euthanasia?  And so on.  It finally dawns on everyone that there is no telling what we should do until we actually talk to Iskariot and put the question to him.

It is interesting to note that Nika is absent from this discussion—Hu had asked her to stay and look at the Firefly.  The pilot had mentioned to the General that there was something wrong with it and would like another pilot’s take on the problem.

'''Rick:''' I say we go talk to him.  What do you want to do Rina?<br>
'''Joshua:''' She voted pretty clearly.<br>
'''Rick:''' (to Rina) Well the last time we were here, you and I didn’t have much of a problem over what was going on. <br>
'''Faria:''' What’s changed?<br>
'''Rina:''' Are you saying I didn’t have a problem with what Iskariot was doing to the Prion patients?<br>
'''Rick:''' You seemed to be…thought that it was reasonable.<br>
'''Rina:''' (evenly) I don’t remember saying it was reasonable.  I remember being appalled speechless.<br>
'''Rick:''' You and I weren’t the outspoken ones against what he was doing.<br>
'''Rina:''' Quite frankly, I was still trying to wrap my head around it.<br>
'''Rick:''' So…you don’t want to have anything to do with him and you just want to leave him here? Or…?<br>
'''Rina:''' (fed up) Okay, here’s what I want. He wants to atone for his sins and he wants to die here. I say that’s fine by me. I don’t think it would be a good idea to take him aboard our ship or he might harm us in an unlucid moment.<br>
Arden: Or our ship.<br>
Rina: Or our ship.  I don’t think it is wise to try to cure him in case he has conditioning that will override the cure and make him dangerous again.  Any more than you would take a rabid dog with you and turn him loose in a crowd to have one last happy little run before you euthanize him. (a beat) ''Or'', if you think it’s cruel to leave him here on his own, after General Hu packs up his men and flies off of here—after we fly off of here—and he’s completely alone and unsupervised with no food and no water, then I say ''we shoot him before we leave.''<br>

Silence.  Then:

'''Rick:''' Well he has been unsupervised all along.<br>

Since our first visit, he means.

'''Rina:''' True enough.<br>

We give the issue one last go-round, debating our safety against the moral responsibility to help someone in need, even if they refuse our aid. We come to something of a stalemate on taking or leaving him.  Ultimately, Joshua still wants to talk to Iskariot one more time.  Rick recommends talking to the man, but not going alone and Rick definitely recommends that Joshua refrain from Reading the man.

'''Joshua:''' I have no wish to Read him.<br>
'''Faria:''' You might not like what you see.<br>
'''rden:'''I still want to know how he recognized your abilities when you walked into the room.<br>
'''Rina:''' Joshua.  Do you want to talk to this man?  See if you can get some answers?<br>
'''Joshua: I’m pretty sure he’s not going to give answers to me, but more importantly at this point is the question we’re asking: is he worth saving?  Isn’t that the real question?  If we thought he was worth saving, then we wouldn’t be listening to whatever his mentally deluded self is saying. Like the need to kill himself.  But because we’re not sure he’s worth saving we’re vacillating.<br>
 
Faria admits that while he thinks that Iskariot has done some truly atrocious things, that perhaps curing him would be the first step in getting Iskariot to face up to what he’d done.  There can be no true punishment or atonement if one is unaware of what is happening.  And there being nothing more to say, really, we all go see Iskariot while it’s still light outside to put the question to him: come with us or stay?

If only it were that simple.

We go check Iskariot’s office first, looking for anything that could give us a clue as to his mindset.  We find his journal, if you could call it that.  It’s rambling and it’s pretty clear from the quality of his penmanship and the subject matter how the disease progressed.  He starts out coherent and gets progressively worse until his notes are unintelligible.  Looking around Rina spots some sort of communications transponder/receiver on a shelf, sporting a masking tape label with the word ''Orcus'' written on it.

Iskariot’s ship.

The Kuiper class ship he used to bait his trap, parked in a La Grange point between Muir and the outer rim of the system. We’d been there once before, having found it derelict and with parts missing and plated over.

Ohh….right.  That ship.

She calls everyone’s attention to the piece in her hands and the significance of it for us: If we can get to ''Orcus'', we could salvage her for the parts we need for our girl and fly on to New Canaan. Kuiper I is close enough to Kuiper II class to effect repairs.  The money we save on salvaging the parts instead of buying them would offset the loss we’d accrue in penalties for being late from the salvage job.  The last time we saw ''Orcus'', she had functional stabilizer vanes, airlock doors, basically what we need. It wouldn’t require a pulse to get there—which would be best, considering we couldn’t afford to pulse anywhere at the moment.

The crew agrees to go to the ''Orcus'' and we go see Iskariot.  Rina pockets the labeled part in her coveralls. We return to the Sanctuary and find Iskariot gone.  We look for him.  As we look, Rina suggests that we not go anywhere dirtside or spaceside with just three flippin’ pistols to our name, that we should approach General Hu and very politely ask if he can spare a couple of rifles.  And/or grenades.  Whatever works, because going into harm’s way with only three pistols between us is stupid.



Jump to: <br>
[[Episode 311: Suckered | '''Part 1''']]<br>
[[Episode 311: Suckered, Part Three | '''Part 3''']]<br>
[[Episode 311: Suckered, Part Four | '''Part 4''']]<br>

Go to: [[Episode 310: Fais Do-Do | '''Fais Do-Do''']] | Forward to: '''[[Episode 312: Stealing Away Home | Stealing Away Home]]'''<br>
Back to [[Mutineers Season One| Season One: Foundations]]<br>
Back to [[Mutineers Season Two| Season Two: Hitting Our Stride]]<br>
Back to [[Mutineers Season Three| Season Three: Things Fall Apart]]<br>
Back to [[EPISODES]]<br>