Episode 709: Land of the Lotus-Eaters
Air Date: 28 Feb 2012
Present: Andy, Bobby, Kim, Maer, and Terri
Go to: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, Special Features
Saturday, 16 Oct 2523
Durance class Exeter
En route to Pericles Station
We left Namira under precipitous circumstances and have maintained pulse for Pericles Station, hoping to find enough fuel and food to keep us going. For the next seven days we keep ourselves occupied as best we can.
Arden talks to Dr. Kell Lawrence about his unique problem with Valerie living in his head, his genetic heritage, and his immunity to Pax and his physical reaction to Chempliant. He also tells him about what we'd found about the mutagenic victims on Persephone and the vector. In turn, Lawrence shares his knowledge about what he knows about everything that has been happening with regards to these new disturbing diseases, saying that some of them have been studied and developed since before the previous war.
We also notice that Beglan's been showing up for duty sleepy. He's been keeping odd hours of late. About a week into the flight, Beglan approaches Nika with a request: the alignment of the Verse, the relative lack of gravitic lensing, and our current course will allow him to observe that mystery point in space he's been tracking. Could we please stop for a week to allow him to update his findings. We've no cargo and no schedule to keep, but we will not have enough fuel to start up again … not without some jiggering of our systems. Which Rina is perfectly willing to do, confident she can make it work. And Nika can't resist the piloting challenge it represents.
So we stop.
While Beglan takes his notes and makes his observations, Rina starts tinkering with the engine and working out a way to crack water for the extra hydrogen to use for fuel.
Also, Kiera and Arden spend the time carrying out their autopsies on the four bodies from the Namira cargo. They confirm that Halcyon is in their systems, the side effects of which are the vector for several nasty illnesses, including the mutations we've seen on Persephone by the Sansa. They find a mutagen common to all four victims and run tests on the crew for it.
We've all got it.
We don't know if or when we'll be the unlucky few who will start having our organs mutate and kill us or if we'll just carry the altered genetics/RNA with us for the rest of our lives. But right now, that's a far-off event that's necessarily pushed aside for more pressing matters—like what to do with the several feet of water collecting under the deck plates in the engine room. Looks like Rina's hack broke and we've sprung a damaging leak. It takes her a couple of days to fix it and bail out the flooded spaces. The end results are disheartening—the water has damaged some of the equipment, which was never intended for submerged operations, and the water recovered cannot be used for anything because it's been contaminated by the engine equipment. In response to the damage, Rina spends the balance of the week adjusting the engines to make them run leaner, further stretching out our fuel. We are running low on food as well, stretching out our supplies with protein paste, and later on, algae from our life support system. Kiera and Joshua make sure that critical personnel get the most benefit from it in terms of portion and nutrition. We can't afford to have our pilot and our engineer making mistakes from going light on food. A botch from either of them will mean a slow agonizing death stranded in the middle of nowhere. By such measures, we can make our supplies last us to Pericles if we're careful.
And if nothing else goes wrong.
Nika flies us well and Rina's hacks hold for the duration … but we run out of gas short of our destination and come to a slow but complete stop.
Now what?
Getting on our sensors, a sweep of the area shows us two pings. Both are fairly large. One is likely Pericles Station, a retasked Tohoku class cruiser. The comms chatter we're getting off it sounds like … loud shouting and music and … screaming? That doesn't sound at all like comms traffic from a space station. Is it Reavers? Not exactly. It's not flooded with blood-curdling howls and screams. But it's incoherent enough to be not-normal.
The other is an Alliance vessel, standing about an AU away.
We can't drift out here indefinitely. Our food and our water will run out and eventually our backup generators will fail and life support will go out—long after we expire of privation, but still. We can't stay here. We decide to go for the non-Alliance vessel. Rina manages to eke out a little bit of fuel off our water supplies and she further stretches it by siphoning what she can off our shuttle. We use it in one final push to coast us closer in the right direction. After it runs out, we're at the mercy of the Universe throwing us a bone.
One hundred hours later, we're still moving and we're definitely closer to our goal. The signal we're getting off it is clearer and what pours out of our speakers is metal-head music. It's not continuous. It stops and starts and the content changes. Even factoring in the static and the distortion from other space bodies and fields, more and more it's sounding as if someone is broadcasting a raucous party. Even so, we have to send a call for help. We are at the end of our rope in food and fuel. After listening to the signal for an hour, Nika decides to send our call out to the non-Alliance vessel, despite the odd chatter we've picked up from it, and hope for rescue.
Joshua sends the message.
Joshua: Unidentified Vessel, if you can pick up this communication we are in need of some assistance. Please respond.
The response takes hours. Odd. We aren't that far away for comms. Then:
Unidentified Vessel: Whoa. Hey, is somebody out there?
Joshua: (grabbing the mike) Yes.
Unidentified Vessel: Hold on a second.
There's a loud noise, like someone dragging the needle across a vinyl record, then:
Unidentified Vessel: Hey, who's out there?
Joshua: (calm) This is the Exeter, in theory, and headed in your direction.
Unidentified Vessel: Are you friend or foe?
Joshua: That would depend on who you are. We generally like to think of ourselves as friends.
Unidentified Vessel: This station is under the command of the Planetary Defense Force.
The PDF. The Independents of Blue Sun. The Good Guys!
Nika: Rock on!
Joshua: (relieved) Then, hell yes, we're friends. Hell yes.
'Pericles Station:' All riiight. You bringin' supplies?
Joshua: Uhhh …. about that. We are in fact out of fuel. We are eating algae. And you don't want to know about the water supply.
Pericles Station: All right. Let's see if we can't find someone that can bring you in.
The tone off the station is friendly, laid back, even mellow. Not at all like the military manner we'd expect of the PDF. But we aren't going to quibble.
Joshua: Okay! Rock on.
Nika: Please, Jesus.
Ten hours later, punctuated by some infrequent communication, we pick up a small vessel approaching on our sensors. The station has sent us a tow truck. There's a muted crash thrumming through our hull as they attach the grapples and start towing us in. Joshua hails them.
Joshua: Welcome aboard, so to speak. Thanks for the help, Mystery Tow Truck Vehicle.
Mystery Tow Truck Vehicle: (cheerful) Hey, no problem.
They tow us to their barn and sure enough, it's Pericles Station.
We're saved.
On the way we talk a little bit with the pilot, who seems happy to fill us in on the news.
The news from the tow truck pilot isn't encouraging.
Pilot: Oh, we kicked ass. They tried to use some kinda … uh, bioweapon on us but we were prepared for them. We had the antidote and … then they took off and we actually used it on them. We, like, reversed the … uh, somethin' or other in the airflow so they got sucked on it. And they took off, man. They surrendered. Well, they didn't surrender. They fled.
Nika: So that's their ship sitting derelict out there?
Pilot: Oh yeah … like, a million miles or somethin' like that?
Nika: Yeah. Somethin' like that.
Pilot: Yeah, it's probably them. Don't think it's derelict. They're just watchin' us.
Nika: Okay …
Pilot: But we got all the missiles. So we're not too worried.
Nika: I'm just grateful you guys were where you're supposed to be.
Of course, the crew's on the bridge and listening to this and we're just thinking that the guy sounds overly confident. Like …drug-induced overconfident?
Arden: Does he sound overly confident?
Rina: As in … drug-induced overconfident?
Pilot: (listening in) As in … positively overconfident? Yeah! We're just really happy cuz we kicked ass. And took names!
Joshua: That's right! He's awesome!
Pilot: That's right!
Joshua: I feel a kindred soul, here.
Pilot: If you're feelin' sad, stop. And feel awesome!
Joshua: That's right. You should. I want that on a tee-shirt so badly …
Kiera steps onto the bridge and catches this last.
Kiera: I am very hungry.
Because she and Arden have been running on adrenaline shots and little else so as to stretch the food for the other members of the crew. Nika cuts the channel and turns to Kiera.
Nika: Please for God's sake take a rebreather with you when we dock and see if you can't get an air sample before we let anybody loose on the station.
Kiera: Okayyyyy…
Joshua: Why?
Nika: Cuz he doesn't sound right.
Joshua: What do you mean he doesn't sound right? He sounds just like me.
Nika: That's—
Arden: That's exactly right.
Nika: (yah!) Exactly right.
Arden: When's the last time you met someone who sounded like you?
Joshua: I'm hurt.
Arden: You shouldn't be.
Nika: No, seriously. You are enthusiastic and overwhelmingly cheerful and positive. How many people have you ever met like that?
Arden: In the real world?
Joshua: Maybe … (grins) … Maybe he's my brother.
Arden: Wow.
Kiera: (nodding toward the tow vessel) How old is this guy?
If the music and such coming off the station is any indication, college-age. Really, the programming we can pick up sounds like some party-campus playlist. Loud, frenetic, party music.
Rina: We could ask him.
Arden: (sniffs) He sounds like he's fifteen.
Nika: (groaning) Ohhhhh my Goddddd …
Maybe he is fifteen. He certainly drives like a teenager. He crashes us into the station when he tows us into the landing bay. We take some damage and stun to our hull and our systems. Nika's still in the pilot seat and she protests, even as Rina curses from the engine room.
Nika: Dude! Dude … ! Shiiii …!
Joshua: Any port in a storm, any port in a storm.
Mystery Tow Truck Vehicle: Sorry, man. First job.
Nika: Oh, bloody hell …
Joshua: (cutting channel) Hey, keep it off the comm. Play nice. They towed us in. Any landing we can walk away from, okay? Any landing we can walk away from.
Nika: Uhn! I don't mind when I do damage to the ship. But I don't like it when other people do.
Arden: That makes so much sense. (not!)
Nika: I don't care.
Even so, any port in a storm, Captain.
We survey the landing bay outside the bridge windows and it looks like this place hasn't been maintenance in a while. There's some damage, probably from the fighting through the decks during the battle for possession of the station. But that was months ago. You'd think they'd have cleaned up a little by now. Nika turns from surveying the view outside and nails her XO.
Nika: Food. Fuel.
No argument, her tone says. It's clear she doesn't want to stay here one humpin' minute longer than we have to. Something's clearly not right here and the longer we stay, the better the chances that not-right will hammer us. Joshua argues, nonetheless, in his own fashion.
Joshua: Just like you to bring me down …
And he goes off to do as ordered. Our freezer compartment is empty of food and full of body bags. Arden and Kiera have elected to keep the bodies after the autopsy instead of jettisoning them mid-flight, just in case they have an opportunity to study them further with better facilities. There may yet be more knowledge they can glean from the remains.
Once we've come to a complete rest on the deck and the bay doors are closed behind us, we're surprised that no one comes out to meet us. Normally on a station like this one, the deck crew would be crawling all over the hook-up ports and the lines, getting us refueled, our waste tanks purged, our water tanks refilled. All we get is a whole lot of nothing.
Huh. It's not like we've never done this sort of thing for ourselves. The crew hustles to go out there and do it and maybe get a bead on what's going on.
Joshua: Let's go out. Let's go find out.
Kiera: Wear the rebreather masks.
Nika: Hell, yeah.
Rina: Thank you.
Cuz it's nice to have your paranoia acknowledged as smart every once in a while.
Beglan stays aboard with Dr. Lawrence and Adam while Rina, Nika, and Kiera go off ship to start the business of the hook-ups and the purge lines and all the rest of it. Joshua and Arden will go out to see if they can't find provisions. The women wear the rebreather masks. The men refuse.
Rina: (to Joshua) Then you're staying on the ship.
Joshua: No I'm not.
Rina: Joshua.
Nika: You know what? It's good we have the canary.
Joshua: That's right.
Kiera: He'll either become more overconfident or morosely depressed. This will be interesting. I'll start writing notes.
Joshua: I'm fine.
Nika: (to Arden) And himself over there will get speedy if there's a problem.
Arden: Why would I get speedy?
Joshua: Because Chempliant is a Pax derivative.
Arden: Only if, yes.
Joshua: All right! So let's open up the doors.
Rina: Fine.
Rina stomps out first, pissed off that her husband's going to be an overconfident ass about his chances, and starts hooking things up.
Nika: Your wife is now pissed off at me cuz now you're the canary.
Joshua: Isn't that great how that works? She's pissed at you, like, and not me.
Kiera: Pretty much it's set. All the girls are breathing through masks and both guys are breathing normally. This ought to be fine. If he starts moving at Mach 9 and that one goes just bug nuts, then we'll know.
Joshua: You're never going to tell with me.
Kiera: That's true …
Joshua: Let's go out the doors!
Just to prove the point, Joshua steps off the ramp and takes a deliberate deep breath. Nika looks to see if anyone's shown up. Not a soul. She calls to her engineer.
Nika: Hook us up.
Rina: (from the hoses) Yes, Ma'am.
Nika: Get us ready to run. Please God, let there be fuel. And food.
Kiera: But only in cans.
Nika: I'll head to what passes for the bridge on this station.
Kiera: I'll go with you.
We've been on Pericles station before. We've got a good idea of the layout and the procedure. Getting refueled isn't simply a matter of hooking up a hose. There are connections and switches elsewhere that need to be made. But Rina does what she can on the landing deck itself before going farther afield.
Joshua: Usually it's polite to ask first before you do anything.
Nika: Hmmmm, usually. But they're not out here to meet us so I'd rather beg forgiveness than ask permission.
Joshua: Well we don't have a pump to turn on here, do we? We have to find where it is.
Nika: Yes, but we can get the rest of everything ready to go.
Joshua: How? We don't know where it is, though. Or the staff.
Nika: All right. (to Rina) Come with us up to the bridge and find out what's going on.
Rina: Yes, Ma'am.
Everyone goes with Nika, actually, and we leave the docking bay for the Command and Control center. We see that there's signs of small weapons fire wherever we look. It's obvious that there's been battle here. Evidence of burns, and burn-through, mar the bulkheads and walls. Gouges from bullets. Things damaged or destroyed. Even so, the station has weathered the action remarkably intact. We don't find evidence of venting or decompression—proof that both sides wanted the station in useable condition after victory. Surprisingly enough, we find many places where the surfaces have been hit by spray paint, as if someone or several someones were gang-tagging portions of the station. They are in irregular places here and there but there seems to be a consistency in the different designs. Nika eyes these askance.
Nika: Did the tow truck pilot sound like the kind of guy who would do this sort of thing?
Kiera: You mean that guy on the radio? No.
Nika: Okay, good. Just checking …
Joshua: Gang tagging … ?
Nika: Just checking. (glaring at Joshua) Just checking.
Maybe messages between soldiers during the battle? Speaking of battle, Rina's walked off the ship with all her usual suspects. Nika's taken only a pistol. Kiera's got her shotgun from Namira with the Chempliant rounds. Arden has a pistol in his everpresent doctor's bag and Joshua, of course, is armed only with his enthusiasm and sense of wonder. Oh, and a brain that can Read yours. Nika gives Kiera a warning look.
Nika: I really don't want to have to kill anybody.
Joshua: I'm right with you.
Kiera: If all else fails, I can shoot Arden because Arden responds to it well.
We push on for C-in-C. We decide to see if the tram lines that run between the tower sections is running and find one of the tram stations. There's a fair amount of trash everywhere. Kiera leans in toward Nika and Rina.
Kiera: Frat party. One great big frat party.
Rina: I have one word for you Captain: inquiline.
Nika: What?
Rina: Okay. (sighs) An inquiline is an animal that regularly dens in an abandoned den made by another animal. I think the people living her now have come in to inhabit the station after it was abandoned by both sides.
Nika: Identifying themselves as the PDF would be a good way of getting themselves killed by that great big Alliance ship out there.
Rina: Okay. For that, do they sound or act like the PDF? Would Shyla countenance that sort of thing? (waves at the trash, the graffiti) Of this sort of maintenance?
Nika: That's not a valid comparison of the station because we have no idea what's been going on out here. Especially if there's bioweapons.
Joshua: We're going to meet them soon enough.
Arden: And if they're insane, they're not going to care.
A tram car shows up. Graffitied up on the outside. About half a dozen riders on the inside. Their clothing is a mixture of the remains of PDF uniforms and station maintenance uniforms. They look like they are in party mode. They've got kegs and there are cardboard boxes of stuff on the seats. They brighten up when the doors open up and we step forward on the platform.
Rider #1: Hey man!
Joshua: Hey!
Rider #2: (pumping fist) Victory!
Joshua: Yeah!
Rider #3: Where you going? Come on in.
Joshua: Command Center. Wherever that is.
Rider #4: Tower Two!
All righty then! They see the rebreather masks and they make haste to reassure us.
Rider #2: Don't worry. This section of the ship's clean. You should be good.
Rina: Clean of what?
Nika: They said something about bioweapons.
Rider #3: Yeah, no. This section's clean. We flushed the whole section. Everything's clear.
Kiera: Oh we're not worried about that. I'm just contagious. So, no, it's all cool.
Rina: Yeah. And I've got cooties.
Joshua: (oh, please) Really?
Nika pulls her mask off in a show of good faith. Kiera follows suit a moment later. Little Miss Twitchy keeps hers on, thankewverymuch.
Nika: Is there anybody on duty so we can refuel?
Rider #2: What? What kind of refuel?
Nika: Hydrogen?
Arden: Ship refueling.
Rider #5: You guys need a ship refueled? That's funny. Come on in!
Arden: Why's that funny?
Rider #1: Well, where are you gonna go?
Like, why leave?
Nika: Blue Sun.
Rider #1: Oh. Yeah … you guys need to talk to the … someone in command.
Joshua: Yeah, yeah. That would be great.
Nika: Watcha doin' here, man?
Rider #3: (happy) We're on leave!
Nika: Oh, nice! Okay. I'm sorry I—
Rider #2: Didn't you hear?
Rider #4: Didn't you get the memo?
Nika: No. We just got here.
Rider #3: (no way!) Whaddya mean you just got here?
Joshua: We just got here.
Nika: No really. We just docked.
Comin' late to the party, man. Bummer. The riders wilt and then it's all smiles again.
Rider #6: We won!
Joshua: Yay!
Rider #5: The Alliance fled!
They give us hugs all around and start grinning like monkeys. Rina tries unsuccessfully not to twitch at the familiarity.
Rina: That's nice. (twitch!) Just—I—You don't need to share with me. I can tell from here.
Nika and Kiera crack up. Too funny.
Joshua: I like you guys. A lot. (grins) So what's in the boxes? Party tools?
Rider #6: Oh, some food … some cooking fuel—
Rina: Oh, food?
Joshua: Awesome, you're gonna cook?
Rider #5: Yeah!
Joshua: I'm so dying to cook something that's not algae.
Rider #1: So come with us! Don't go to the command center. (waves it off) Come with us.
Kiera: No. We need to, like, refuel our ship.
Rider #3: Nobody's workin' today. You're not gonna be able to refuel.
You can't deny these guys have their backyard barbeque party hats on. Laid back. Ready to have fun. It's like a college town on Spring Break here. Joshua turns to the women of our crew.
Joshua: I'll go with them. You go on to the command center.
Kiera: Y'all got an energy bar or somethin', maybe? (pokes through a box)
Rider #2: Uh, no. But come on!
Joshua: (looks at Arden) You and me?
Arden: Let's just get to command.
Joshua: I'm going to the party.
Rina looks at Nika.
Rina: I'll go with you.
Nika: You guys join the party. I'll stop in command and come back and join the party.
Kiera: Yeah.
Rider #1: Nobody's on deck command. Everybody's on leave.
Nika: (sweetly) Well then, if not, we'll just come back and join you.
Kiera: Yeah.
Rider #1: (sighs) All right …
The tram stops at a station that stops near the command deck. The women get off and the men stay on. Nika holds the tram long enough to ask:
Nika: Where are you guys headin' so we can meet up with you?
Rider #2: We're over in the Agro section.
All righty, then. We wave the men goodbye and take off for C-in-C. It's a short walk to the elevator. Rina is twitchy as ever and keeps her eyes peeled for anything hinky. She's trailing the other two women and as a result catches movement in the corner of her eye down one of the side corridors.
Rina: Hold the elevator.
She goes down the side corridor to take a look. She unzips her coveralls far enough to get at her gun but she leaves it in its holster for now. She's only going to take a look, not shoot anybody … maybe. She hears an access hatch clang shut and she spies the hatch roughly 50 meters away. It's the sort that allows access between the decks.
What the hell? Were they being watched by somebody? Rina waits a beat and when nothing happens, she backs away and returns to the elevator to tell Nika and Kiera what she's seen. Which, on the face of it, isn't much. But still …
Rina: Why aren't they using the elevators?
Nika: Who's they?
Rina: Why are they crawling between decks?
Nika: Again, who's they?
Rina: Oh, so you're saying that the door opened and shut itself on its own? (sighs) Look, everything is decidedly weird here.
Says the woman with the rebreather mask still strapped to her face.
Nika: Well I'll give you that. Get on the elevator.
Rina: Yes, ma'am.
Rina pulls a pen and a notepad from one of her pockets and starts drawing a map of where they've been so far. With notes. And observations. It's that or start seriously freaking out. Nika sighs and leaves her engineer to it. It's not worth the argument to talk her down from the ledge.
The elevator doors open up on the command deck itself and it's very impressive. High ceilinged. Expansive. Massive observation windows. Consoles lit up and blinking with pretty pretty lights. There's a central dias and several station pits surrounding it. The command deck normally has 50 people manning. Today there's 6. They're sitting around a monitor bank to one side, with glasses of something to drink in hand and they're just looking pretty casual.
They look up at our approach. No one looks aggressive, though one of them eyes his stunner leaning rifle-style against his chair, but leaves it where it is. No one is wearing a Navy uniform but a woman is wearing a Marine uniform. She straightens up and addresses us.
Woman: Can I help you?
Nika: Are you the commander?
The woman laughs, thinking that's pretty funny, as does everyone she's sitting with.
Woman: Yeah, I guess I am. I'm Major Min Lo Chen. What can I do for you? Where've you been—oh, are you from the ship that came in? Ohh, welcome.
Nika: Yes, I am. And I want to say thank you for the help.
Min Lo Chen: Well, no problem. Yeah, sorry if it was a tough ride. We don't have any specialists and …
Nika: I understand. That's fine. We're just grateful you guys were here.
Min Lo Chen: Yeah … well, once we've finished our little celebration, we'll get back on the duty rosters and such and we'll get you fueled up. But while you're here you're welcome to celebrate with the crew and ah, roam the ship as far as we're concerned. There's a few areas that we're locking down but …
Nika: Sure. No sensitive areas.
Min Lo Chen: Like missiles and such but anywhere else, yeah, we're good in fact.
Nika: You expecting a supply run shortly? I gathered you were running a bit low.
Min Lo Chen: Well, you know. It's not super low. We've been without supplies for a couple of months, but this ship's providing for us decently well for now. So I think we'll be good. But eventually we're expecting to be.
She's pretty laid back about it, really.
Nika: So you're in contact with the main force?
Min Lo Chen: No.
Nika: Not at all?
Min Lo Chen: Ah, no. They cut off the communication system before we were able to recapture the station. We'll work on it after … we all get back to work. But again, it's not something that's really our forte.
It's Rina's forte, actually, but she stays quiet. Her Captain's better at drawing out people anyway.
Min Lo Chen: Rebooting systems this big is … troublesome. But I figure eventually word will get out. Actually, once you refuel, you can get out to Blue Sun and let them know if they don’t know already.
Nika: Actually I was going to ask if you'd like to do that, that would be fine.
Min Lo Chen: You're actually going on? We wanted to send one of our own ships out to do that but we just don't want to lose any essential personnel.
Nika: Absolutely not. Looks like you're pretty shorthanded.
Min Lo Chen: Yeah …
Nika: But today's a day for partying, so …
Min Lo Chen: Yeah. So, most of the people are gathered in the Agriculture center where they got hydroponics and that sort of stuff and there's also—I guess it was set up as sort of a … shopping area and that sort of stuff. That's where most of the people are holed up now, feedin' them and entertainment. So you're welcome to partake in that.
Nika: (easily) All right. Should I hop back in tomorrow when we're ready to get back on duty and talk about refueling?
Min Lo Chen: Uhh … you planning on staying on your ship or staying here on ours?
Nika: I guess we haven't quite gotten that far.
Min Lo Chen: Yeah, we'll work it out. At your leisure.
Nika: (smiles) Thank you very much.
Min Lo Chen: (smiles back) All right.
Nika: We're going to head back down and join the rest of the party.
Min Lo Chen: All right.
Nika gathers her crew, gets back in the elevator, and waits until the doors are shut.
Nika: (narrowly) Does that remind you of Palla at all?
Rina: (taps her mask) Sure does.
Kiera: Excuse me? What's—who's Palla?
Rina: You tell her Captain. I'd take too long.
Nika tells Kiera about what we'd found on Miranda and on island of Palla, back when we got stranded there for four months.
Nika: This is ringing serious alarm bells for me because, as it stands, either we have already been exposed and we'll either very soon start acting very casually about things and Rina will be the only one left who has a brain …
Kiera: Uh huh.
Nika: Or they have in fact flushed it but these people were susceptible enough that it's a long term, possibly semi-permanent change for them.
Kiera: Ah ha. Yay.
Nika: (dry) Yay.
Well, at least we've run into this kind of thing before from our own encounter with the Pax on Miranda. The crew, save for Arden and Kiera who he'd hopped up on adrenaline, slept for a week. Nika keys her earcomm.
Nika: Joshua, if you can hear us, we're headed back your way.
There's no answer. Dread crawls through Nika's gut. For all intents and purposes, Joshua and Arden are on their own, possibly incapacitated by Pax, and lost in the vast warren of the space station.
Go to: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, Special Features
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