Episode 605: Devil's Compromise: Rina and Joshua, Pinned
(Split from Devil's Compromise.)
Rina and Joshua are pinned to the deck of the burning ship by debris. Joshua’s still conscious and he takes careful stock of his condition. He can feel his fingers and toes, the crap on him is heavy enough to pin him but not so heavy it’s cutting off blood flow. All to the good. He takes a deep breath, tastes and smells nothing of the smoke and fire outside his helmet.
Joshua: Suit seems okay ...
Looking around, he can see Rina but she’s too far away for him to touch. He’s not surprised to see her conscious and trying to get them out of their predicament, which at the moment seems to be stretching as hard as she can for a length of metal on the deck. It’s a couple of inches out of reach, not that it makes any discernable difference to her. Joshua watches as she lunges again for it and again, the wreckage pinning her to the deck holding her fast.
Rina: (lunging) Grrrahhh! Yebatʹ ! I need a lever …
Joshua: Heyyy, language. Chinese, please. Chinese.
Rina: V’seriozni?
Joshua: Yes. How’s your suit?
Rina: (to self) Gotta put my back into it.
One of her legs is pinned but the other has a little room to move. She puts both hands flat on the crap pinning her and plants her free foot on the deck and throws her back into it … nothing happens. The wreckage doesn’t move an inch. Joshua doesn’t like the look on her face when she stops pushing. Her expression is a touch wild and furious, like an animal caught in a trap. Not panicking, not yet, but soon.
Joshua: Hey, hey, hey … Calm down. How’s your suit?
Rina ignores him and tries pushing again. She strains and lets the metal go, panting.
Joshua: (louder) Rina. How much air do you have?
Rina: (coughs) 90 minutes.
Joshua: You’re using a lot of it right now.
She tosses an eye roll his way and tries for the bar again. Still inches too far for her to grab.
Joshua: Rina. You got to breathe for a second.
Rina: If I can just reach this … (tries for the bar)
Joshua: I know. We need to evaluate the situation before we start to use all our air. Okay?
Rina: Lever. This off. Now.
She pounds the metal with her fist. Nope. Didn’t budge that time, either. She looks to all sides, as best as her suit helmet will let her, hoping to find something she can use. Nothing’s in reach. Joshua watches her, sees her mentally coming up with and discarding one ploy after another toward their escape. Frustrated, she puts her back into shifting the wreckage again. Still nothing budges.
Rina: There is no way I’m dying like this. No way, Joshua. No freakin’ way we’re dying—!
She lunges for the bar behind her again. She strains, stretching her suited fingers as far as she can reach, twisting her torso, striving for those last few inches… She goes limp and slams her fist on the deck in frustration and Joshua knows his fiancée is fast coming to her limits.
Joshua: Turn around and look at me. Rina. Turn around and look at me.
Rina: Well. (looking at him) Do you have any suggestions?
Joshua: At the moment, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be able to move this. And I’m pretty sure you’re not going to be able to move it.
He pats the metal pinning them to the deck. He keeps his eyes on her and keeps talking. He wants her calm and level-headed. If she panics, she’ll use up all her air.
Joshua: Because you’re talking about moving something the size of a small spaceship, Rina. Like, no lever is going to be able to move that.
Rina: I don’t know, I’m very determined.
Joshua: (fondly) I know you are.
She lunges for that bar again. Fails. Wilts. Starting to see it’s futile.
Rina: (shaky) Not like this, Joshua.
Joshua: Hey. Hey-hey-hey. You got me. I’m still here. You’re lucky, you know. I’ve got less air than you do, you know.
She stares at him, not one bit comforted by the fact that he’ll go before her, that she’ll have to watch him die just a few feet away and not be able to stop it from happening… unless she can get the damned wreckage off. She grits her teeth and tries putting her back into it yet again.
Rina: Gotta get this gāisǐ de bèndàn off … (grunts) …
Joshua: (calmly) You are not allowed to do that. (off her look) No. No, no, no. (raises finger) No.
Yes, she’s more desperate now. Joshua can see it in her eyes. He’s going to have to engage that mind and willpower of hers in something else or she’s going to lose it. He puts a little more authority in his voice.
Joshua: Hey, hey. Stay with me please.
Rina: I’m not going anywhere.
Joshua: I know you’re not. But they’re going to come for us. (off her frustration) They’re going to rescue us. Or at least they’re going to rescue you.
Rina: (No.) I’m not leaving without you.
Joshua: (Yes.) Yes you will. If they get you out, you damn well will. I have less than half the air you have, and that’s before—that’s before it all collapsed on us. (breathes a laugh) You’re a lot more realistic than I am. I’m the optimistic one. I’m hoping that they’ll rescue us, but I’m telling you, if it wasn’t you, if it wasn’t me, and it was two random people in this situation, what would you give their odds? They ain’t a lot.
Rina: Joshua—
Joshua: (wagging finger at her) Ehh-eh-ehn.
Rina: Joshua. Did you or did you not rescue me from a sinking ship as I was drowning?
Joshua: I’m not saying I’m giving up.
Rina: I’m trying to tell you the odds don’t mean as much—
Joshua: I do love you.
Rina: (blinking tears) And I love you back. But I am not going to—
She lunges for the bar again. She’ll tear herself to pieces with that single-minded determination Joshua knows she has. He has to get her thinking on something more constructive than lunging for that bar.
Joshua: Hey, hey—You have got to—you are using—(regroups)—Okay. What is our best plan to get out of here? What is our best chance to get out of here? Give me a plan please.
Rina: (takes a deep breath) Several things.
Joshua: Okay. Start with number one. What’s our best chance? And I really shouldn’t be talking but … But I can’t. I want the company.
It’s also keeping her sane and occupied and using up less of her precious air.
Rina: Number one, another explosion shifts this around—(slaps the wreckage)—and we get out of it. Two, the others get this crap off of us before we burn. Three, another explosion and it kills us. Four, it gets soft enough to move. Five, if we could get that bar—!
Lunge. Fail. Lunge again. Fail again. Slap the deck some more.
Joshua: Hey. Okay.
Rina: (small voice) I can’t feel my leg.
Joshua: Because it’s pinned under a small spaceship, Rina. (rueful laugh)
Rina: A tiny one.
Joshua: (serious again) You’re using up your oxygen.
Rina: Well, fine. We’ll go together.
Joshua: You are not. No. If you keep doing this, I’ll start hyperventilating. I’m not afraid to use it against you. Our best chance is to trust in our friends.
Rina mimes pulling out a deck of cards from her pocket. The gesture makes Joshua laugh.
Rina: All right. Go Fish.
Joshua: (Smiling) I don’t wanna Go Fish.
She mimes scattering the deck of cards all over the floor and goes limp on the deck again.
Rina: We’ll play Pick-Up 52 later, when we get out of here.
Joshua: I want to talk to you.
Rina: (sighing) Then talk to me.
Joshua: Where are we going to get married?
Rina: We’re going to get married in hell. (quirks a grin) Don’t you know the Devil has gold-plated seat with my name on it?
Joshua: Not likely. I’ll wrestle the Devil to the ground for you.
This is no line. Joshua puts his heart and soul into it. Rina coughs down a sob and gets a grip—damn the man, he knows how to push her buttons. The world is burning down around their ears, death by fire is imminent, and he has to say THAT to her? And she can’t even grab his hand to let him know how much it means to her that he said it anyway. He’s just out of reach. She looks at Joshua and resumes the topic of their conversation.
Rina: Okay, so we get out of here. Where?
Joshua: Where? Lucifer’s Landing? To play the irony? (chuckles)
Rina: (chuckles back) That would be nice. Christian and Lem could be there. When we get there.
Joshua: Kiera asked me what song I wanted, what was going to be our main song, and I didn’t know.
Rina: Our song? You mean, for the wedding?
Joshua: That’s what I was saying. And I said that as a good boyfriend, I know my answer is to say whatever you want.
Rina: You’re better at lyrics than I am. Whatever you choose.
Joshua: Okay.
He’s got her distracted now. He’s kept her from tearing herself to pieces trying to get free for a solid two minutes. Joshua tries for three.
Rina: Kiera could play guitar.
Joshua: I could play guitar.
Rina lunges for the bar again. Fails again. So much for three.
Joshua: Hey.
Rina: (shaky voice) I have got to get us out of here.
Joshua: I’m kinda torn, to be honest.
Rina: (really shaky) About what?
Joshua: I love watching you do that. I love the fact that you won’t give up until the last possible second.
Rina: You know I would anything to—(chokes up) I know I should have packed grenades. I should have packed grenades.
Joshua: Hey, hey, hey. Don’t. If I’ve got—I can’t look at my watch. (Tries. Nope. Can’t.) If I have ten minutes left, I don’t want it to be full of I-wish-I-had-packed-this or I-wish-I-had-done-that. I don’t want it. I don’t want it to be that way.
Rina silently sobs, dripping tears, and turns her face away. But Joshua knows she’s eyeing that damned bar again.
Joshua: Hey, hey. Hey. You’ve got to stop. You have got to relax. You’re overbreathing. See how calm I am? You know I’m scared completely shitless. I’m usually confident that I can escape out of things. But this is not looking good, so let’s talk.
Rina: (gets a grip, looks back) Bliny and caviar? Or those little cocktail sausages? (small voice) Can we have both?
Joshua: (relieved) Sure we can. We can have whatever we want. That’s the whole point of a wedding, right? Celebrate the two of us being together and what’s most important to us. Have family there … what family we have.
Rina: (sighs) It’s getting hot in here.
Joshua: That would be the … wait for it … fire. (grins)
Rina: Yeah.
Joshua: I’m trying.
He is. He can tell she’s swinging back around to getting free again.
Joshua: (continuing) Wholeheartedly. Death as comedy doesn’t make for the best material. But I still have faith in them. It’s funny. I sought for so long for faith and found it in them. Not in God or anything else. But in them and in you.
And there she goes again, trying for that damned bar. Maybe this time she’ll injure herself doing it. Maybe rip her suit. Lose all her air. Die. Can’t have that.
Joshua: Hey. Have you moved any? In all this stuff that you’ve done?
Rina: Two or three inches.
Lunges again, stretching. Goes limp.
Rina: (panting) Maybe four.
Joshua: The key—dammit, Rina. Don’t. Don’t—
Lunge. Fail.
Joshua: Don’t. You’ll tear something. If you tear a suit, a piece of the suit, then the thirty minutes you have … quickly evaporates. And right now, we—
Rina: I’m not getting anything on my comm. Are you?
Joshua: I’m hearing you.
From five feet away, the signal’s coming in pretty damned clear. Joshua raises his voice so she won’t miss a single word.
Joshua: I want you to do whatever gives you the best chance to live. I’ve lived more in … (thinks) … the last three years than I ever thought I’d have a chance to and you’re a big part of that. And I’m not—Don’t. Don’t do something stupid.
Cuz he knows she’ll want to.
Joshua: Don’t do something stupid and use up all your air. Don’t do it. You need to focus.
Rina: Been there. Done that.
And she does it again. Lunges and fails. Joshua can tell she’s tiring but she won’t give up, fixated on that bar the way a drowning man on a floating spar. For his part, he’s feeling fine, if pinned by something heavy, but he’s running out of air and he’s going to have to vent his helmet soon. The air in his suit has gone stale and heavy. He can’t see the gauges; his suit doesn’t come equipped with a heads-up display. But he does have a hand free and he can manually vent his faceplate. Not yet, but soon. Rina, on the other hand, has already said she can’t feel her leg. She can feel her toes, though, oddly enough. In fact, Rina can feel something dripping down her leg inside her suit. That only makes her struggle harder. If she waits much longer, she might not be able to stand once she gets free. If she can’t stand, their chances for getting out of here go right down the crapper.
Joshua: For God’s sake, stop struggling for that same beam. I’ve been watching you do it for the last—it’s not going to move. It’s not going to move. (a beat) I’m going to have to do the helmet thing. (off her look) You have twice the air that I have, which means you have twice the time for them to come and get us.
Joshua closes his eyes and listens to the hiss over his comms, hearing nothing from his friends and crewmates the next ship over. He doesn’t know how much air he actually has. His wrist display is out of sight. His arm isn’t injured, he just can't lift it clear of the wreckage to see it. His other arm is free, however, and he thinks he can vent his helmet one-handed when the time comes. He listens for any sound of organized rescue and hearing none, he listens to the dim roar of the fire audible through his suit. The ship is still burning with that eerie crimson glow, painting the compartment in the colors of hell. It’s getting hot and Joshua privately admits he just might die here.
Rina is still looking around, still pushing on the wreckage, trying to find its weaknesses to exploit them. She’s not unaware of the rising temperatures either and watches closely for any sign that the metal pinning her and Joshua might loosen its grip in the heat. She mutters to herself as she observes and Joshua’s comm picks up her words.
Rina: Not to worry anyone or anything but the bulk that’s resting on us …Is it melting at the same rate as the stuff pinning us? Or is it going softer faster … ?
Joshua: Boy. This is the ten-minutes-left kind of conversation I really wanted to have.
Rina sees the metal isn’t going softer so much as it’s … glazing.
Rina: It’s vitrifying. It’s what happens when you paint a glaze on something ceramic and put it in a kiln and melts under—(off Joshua’s expression)—Because the molecular structure has been broken down and then reformed under heat into a glassy surface.
Joshua: Are we …? We’re screwed.
Rina thinks it’s probably the fluorine merging with the metal somehow, creating a layer that is less prone to the oxidation process. And despite the dire circumstances, Rina marvels at it.
Rina: It’s binding the fluorine right out of the air? Wow. This is really cool.
Joshua: I hate to be the one on the other side of the equation for this, but I’m kinda past the this-is-cool stage and I’m starting to move into the oh-God-oh-God-we’re-gonna-die stage. So … I love you.
Rina: I love you back.
Joshua: What do you think the odds are that I’m going to hit poisoned air when I open my helmet?
Rina: I’d say they were … pretty good to absolutely.
Joshua: All right then.
Rina: Save your air.
Joshua: If these are my last words, I ain’t saving my air. (off her look) No, no, no. No. When have you ever known me to shut my mouth?
Black humor. But it’s all they have.
Rina: (breathes a laugh) We’re made for each other, apparently.
Joshua: Apparently. There’s still some chance I think that they’re gonna come and get us. I’ve been pretty much unstoppable no matter how stupid I’ve been, so I think this should be no exception. I wasn’t even all that stupid this time around, really. When I think about it.
Rina tries again to move the wreckage off them, straining to make it budge. An inch. That’s all she wants. One measly goddamned inch.
Joshua: Would you please stop wasting your air. (off her look) I’m allowed to be hypocritical here. Stop wasting your air. You have much more than I do.
He sees her looking at that bar again.
Joshua: You taught me to be human, you know.
Rina: You already were. You just had to remember how.
Joshua: But … it’s all been worth it. Even if I don’t make it, one way or the other, no regrets. No regrets. Not when it comes to you. Well … except maybe that I wish we got married a little sooner, but … (grins) … but you can’t hold that one against me.
Rina: No. (quietly) You are the bravest person I’ve ever known.
Joshua: Or the stupidest.
Rina: No. Hands down the bravest. And if you were stupid, you were stupid for all the right reasons.
Joshua: Thank you. I love you.
Rina: I love you back. (sighs) God …
Joshua: Well, we did have a whole ship fall on us, you know.
Rina: Actually, not the entire ship. Otherwise we would not be talking.
Joshua: I like that you clarified it in this situation. Once again, I do love you.
Rina: I love you. I know that I’m not very good at saying it but—
Joshua: I know. I do know. It’s gonna be okay.
Rina wavers toward tears again, yo-yo-ing between despair and determination. Joshua’s calm. He’s already come to grips with the situation, even if his fiancée refuses to acknowledge it.
Joshua: Hey, it’s going to be fine. You’re going to make it out of this just fine. Heck, I’m probably going to make it out just fine. I just … but it needs to be said if I’m going to die, I ain’t gonna die without knowing I told you I love you, and what you mean to me. And now that I’ve said it, we can have a conversation about just about anything.
Rina: Have I ever told you that I like that little boy look you get on your face when you find something you’ve never seen before? You’re like a little boy, a kid at Christmas. (laughs softly) It’s been a long time since I’ve felt like that.
Joshua: I know. But I’ve seen it in you. Every now and again. I see that … that burst of amazement out of you when—it’s so rare when I see it, but because it’s so rare, I treasure it. I’ve little spots at the back of my head where I try to file them away to remember at some point. You know, I honestly picture that’s how you’ll be at the altar together. That look on your face, of amazement that we’ve … “Holy crap, I’m getting married.” (laughs) I’m pretty sure that I haven’t seen that look on my face.
Rina: (softly) That would be wonderful, wouldn’t it?
Joshua: It will be.
Rina: Okay. So …
How many times has Joshua talked her off the ledge in the past hour? Three times? Four? Rina takes a deep breath and goes along.
Rina: You and I. Getting married. Lem and Christian. Bliny. Caviar. Cocktail sausages. Um .. oh, no.
Joshua: Yeah? You okay?
Rina: What culture are we going to … at the … and, um … for food at the wedding reception?
Joshua: I don’t know. I don’t have a culture. I don’t have a food. You know me. I’ll eat just about anything. I think we should have it be—
Rina: Finger food. Food you can eat while you’re dancing.
Joshua: Sure. Keep it simple. I don’t want to bankrupt us for a wedding.
Rina: (agreeing) No, no. If we were in the Core now, we could stockpile.
Joshua: Sure we could.
Rina: And then we could have the entire town but … I don’t think we could get an entire town of fifty people bliny and caviar. Maybe we can do without that but the cocktail sausages, we’ll have to have that.
Joshua: And we’ll have to get Kiera to play the guitar.
Rina: Maybe … maybe if I could get us out of here, we could think of something else—
And she tries for the bar again.
Joshua: Hey, focus on me. Focus. Focus on the sound of my voice. This was kind of fun though. I mean, it’s past that stage but … I don’t know. I always … I mean how many people get to say they were trapped under a spaceship with a raging fire going on around them? This is the kind of thing you tell your grandchildren about.
Rina: From someone who’s been pinned before, I can tell you it’s not fun—
Joshua: Oh it’s not fun now. But imagine afterwards. Remember the afterwards. Because you’re not moving that stuff. (off her look) Ah-ah. Don’t kick me.
And he talks her off the ledge again.
Rina: Okay. Do you know what to sing?
Joshua: Sing?
Rina: You should choose the song.
Joshua: Okay.
Rina: (sighs) Christian should give me away.
Joshua: Yeah. I always wanted your family to be there. (off her look) You see, this is the kind of conversation we can have until I vent my helmet. This’ll keep you focused.
Rina: You know why they can’t be there.
Joshua: What’s that?
Rina: You know why they can’t be there.
Joshua: Why you think they can’t be there.
Rina: “We the crew of Equinox are pleased to announce the wedding of Joshua Drake, their XO, to the Corpse Bride”. Yes, of course.
After all, her family thinks she’s dead.
Joshua: You’re making the choice for them. Don’t pretend otherwise. You’re making the choice for them. You think it’s for their best interests, but you’re the one making it. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Push on the beam. Get out of the conversation. This is definitely the conversation we should be having three or four minutes before I die, because … because this is the kind of conversation that pretty much defines us. (laughs)
Rina: (somewhat bitter) Laugh it up, Joshua. Get it off your chest.
Joshua: (sobers) You should find your family. Give them the choice. Give them the choice to accept a live daughter twenty years after the fact. If they choose not to … then what has been lost? Nothing changes. (a beat) But if they say yes, you get a family back. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re more scared of that than this fire and these beams. So promise me, that if I don’t make it out of here that you’ll go find them. Let them know you’re alive.
Rina: God, I can’t believe you’re putting me in this position.
Joshua: I know. I know you hate the fact that I’ve asked you to do this. But if I’m not going to be there—if I’m not going to be there—you’ve taken huge strides, Rina, from the woman you were even when I met you to the woman you are now. And from everything you’ve described, you’ve made even huge-er strides from the woman you were before I met you. But it’s—I’m not going to die and I’m not gonna let that go to waste and let you slip back into the woman you were again.
He’s asking her to break the one thing she’s refused to break for over 13 years—her silence. Knowing her silence would keep her family safe had gotten her through thick and thin. At base, she knows he’s asking this because he loves her, but … He’s just delivered his dying wish and she has to honor it, quite possibly by sacrificing her family. What the hell kind of choice is that? She has to explain, to get him to see why she can’t say yes.
Rina: Joshua. The Alliance. They’re rounding up people they suspect were Browncoats in the war. They are taking them and making them finger other Browncoats. This is absolutely not the time.
Joshua: Who are you worried about? You? Or them?
Rina: Them. If they pick me up off the street—if they follow me and they—I can’t do that to them.
Joshua: Really? Okay. I think it’s time to vent the helmet. I think I am feeling the air loss.
She’s trapped, the fire will get them if she can’t engineer an escape, and it’s likely that Joshua will die despite her efforts once he cracks his helmet to the noxious atmo. There’s any number of things she could say to him, but they are all ill-omened. There’s only one thing she can say.
Rina: All right. If there is a way to get them word safely, I will.
Joshua: (pausing) I know you will.
Rina: We have the Ark. Maybe I can have them pass it on.
Having just given up her last inch, Rina strains against the wreckage again, lunging for the bar, pushing off the deck. She stops and pounds her fist on the beam. It’s futile and she knows it, but she won’t go down without fighting.
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