TUELLER: “We’re not pirates, by the way.”
MILLICENT: Millie leads, using the directions from the public message
TUELLER: “Not anymore, and not for years.”
TUELLER: There’s a little steel in that.
STORY: “What are we, then?” Calixta asks.
TUELLER: “Fucked if I know, honestly.”
TUELLER: “Right now, knights in shining armor, I guess?”
RYO: Ryo acknowledges this with a mea culpa bow of his head.
TUELLER: “Though that didn’t work out so well the last time.”
TUELLER: “Let’s go figure out who we are.”
RYO: Leaning forward against the shoulder harness, he watches with intense curiosity as the flyer begins its approach, slowing now, descending toward a colossus of metal and concrete that stands on three legs in Titan’s largest ocean, a giant on a tripod. Ryo feels it in his stomach as the pilot pushes the stick and they bank left into a slow circle around the structure. Chandra’s ocean palace sits approximately twenty stories above the sea. A few cranes overhand the sides, used to lift immense cargo off of hovercraft. Ryo’s seen many similar cranes and many similar cargo craft. That’s of course why he’s here, he imagines. Chandra has learned about his prodigious ability to smuggle just about anything anywhere through his family’s shipping businesses.
—
STORY: You’ve been on the road a few weeks, getting used to each other’s habits and the new space and healing, slowly. Everyone’s on their feet and able to move around, but universally uninterested in any pick-up basketball games. You’re between the two jump relays you need to take to return to the Ark, a leg of the trip that should take about three weeks, and you’ve been reminded of a need you had gotten out of the habit of handling: you’re low on gas. Ryo directs Calixta to a local moon they’d often stop in when making the Ark-AC trip, one with a small Odh settlement you’ve gassed up in before.
STORY: You make landfall and find the gas station deserted. The pumps appear to be functional, there’s just no one around.
STORY: What do you do?
RYO: Ryo looks at Tueller and Millie. “No one home? Shall we help ourselves?”
RYO: He turns and shrugs to Calixta.
MILLICENT: Millie uses the ship’s terminal to scan the local frequencies for news alerts or broadcasts that might tell us what’s up
TUELLER: Tueller shrugs, still leaning on the cane though looking less like he needs it these days.
MILLICENT: “I’m going to look through the local chatter first, give me a moment.”
RYO: “Of course, Doctor.”
TUELLER: “I can afford it, if they’ll take my chit.”
RYO: “Indeed,” Ryo looks at Tueller. “I’m still hoping to hear more about exactly what your prodigal relationship with your family really is, at some point. But it sounds as if you’ve done quite well for yourself without them. Impressive.”
TUELLER: “I make money. It’s a thing I can do in my sleep. That’s all.”
TUELLER: “I assume you’ve heard of my estranged family. Everyone human has.”
TUELLER: “I’m not them, though.”
TUELLER: “Now more than ever.”
STORY: Calixta’s looking at the console, but her response is to you, Tueller. “You’re not exactly not them, either, though.”
TUELLER: “I’m…dealing with that.”
TUELLER: “Not well, thanks for that.”
STORY: Millie, there’s a local broadcast on repeat, just a short message alerting the locals to the location and time of the community council meeting.
MILLICENT: “Oh, huh. Seems like there was a local community council meeting.”
MILLICENT: “Maybe everybody went?”
STORY: Calixta: “Huh. Weird. Everyone?“
STORY: “What could be so important that they’d just leave their shit out like this? Look at that ship, I could just walk up and steal that ship.” She points out the window.
TUELLER: Tueller checks the pumps. They locked?
STORY: Nope! You can gas up right now.
RYO: “Are you usually so fortunate?” He’s referencing Millie’s observation.
MILLICENT: “Never.”
RYO: And he’s taken interest in Tueller’s looking at the pumps.
MILLICENT: Can I remotely pay for our gas by pushing money to this place’s accounts?
STORY: Sure.
RYO: “I’m new to pirate life, at least as the pirate. What’s next?” He looks at the three of them.
RYO: He adjusts his glasses.
TUELLER: “Well, you found me in a transition period, without my lodestar.”
MILLICENT: Millie does the math in her head. “We could refuel for —exact total of credits—. Tueller, will you mind the pump?”
TUELLER: “On it, Doc.”
RYO: “I’ll keep you company.” Ryo follows Tueller out.
TUELLER: Tueller hobbles over on his cane (not in a particularly pity-inducing fashion) and hooks up the hose to the nozzle.
TUELLER: “This takes premium, I assume.”
RYO: “Only the best for my former boss. So, yes.”
MILLICENT: To Calixta, “You know, there’s probably something seriously wrong if the local council meeting included every single person. We could stick around and see if we can be of help.”
STORY: Calixta raises an eyebrow.
STORY: “You help people now?”
STORY: “For no reason?”
STORY: She’s smiling.
MILLICENT: Millie sighs. “We used to. We wouldn’t mean to, of course. Big bad mercs, the lot of us. But somehow we’d always end up helping someone. Or trying to.”
STORY: Calixta chuckles. “I’m glad to be back with you, Millie.”
STORY: “Even if it sucks at the same time.”
MILLICENT: Millie pushes payment for the fuel to the local vendor they’re pumping from. She smiles. “It’s been nice getting to know you, Calixta. I see so much of him in you.”
STORY: She takes a long breath.
STORY: “Yeah.”
STORY: She stares out the windscreen for a while, then flips some switches and puts the ship in idle mode.
STORY: “All right, let’s go help some people.”
RYO: Ryo hears the ship power down. “Seems we’ve decided to stay for a while.” He looks over to Tueller.
MILLICENT: Millie jumps up and follows her.
STORY: Calixta comes striding down the ramp to the ground where Ryo and Tueller are, swinging a pack over her shoulder. “C’mon losers, we’re gonna go help some locals.”
RYO: “Pirate life is fun.” Ryo says dryly.
TUELLER: Tueller uncouples the hose deftly with one hand, and moves it back to the cradle. (This hose is giant, by the way. It’s fueling a starship).
TUELLER: “Okay.” His voice is neutral.
RYO: Ryo follows.
STORY: Kahn’s sleeping, Astra’s being invisible wherever she is.
TUELLER: “We’re not pirates, by the way.”
MILLICENT: Millie leads, using the directions from the public message
TUELLER: “Not anymore, and not for years.”
TUELLER: There’s a little steel in that.
STORY: “What are we, then?” Calixta asks.
TUELLER: “Fucked if I know, honestly.”
TUELLER: “Right now, knights in shining armor, I guess?”
RYO: Ryo acknowledges this with a mea culpa bow of his head.
TUELLER: “Though that didn’t work out so well the last time.”
TUELLER: “Let’s go figure out who we are.”
TUELLER: “No more pirate cracks, though, please.”
RYO: “I mean no offense, Mr. Ya’Makasi. I’m working off flawed intel, no doubt. Biased, at the least.”
TUELLER: “Old intel.”
STORY: You reach the council meeting, hearing it well before you see it, and find the roughly four hundred residents of this town in a total uproar, crammed into a common room not big enough to hold them. Half of them look exhausted and stressed, the other half stand and shout, objecting to whatever was just said.
RYO: “Well this certainly looks exciting.” There’s a genuine excitement in Ryo’s voice, and his eyes are bright. He looks for someone to approach to learn what’s happening.
STORY: They’re almost all Odh, though there are a handful of other races represented. The mayor does her best to call the meeting back to order, attempting to shout over the din.
MILLICENT: Millie tries to scoot in unobtrusively to the back of the room to observe
STORY: Ryo, you find a local who’s leaning on the door frame and listening. He wears overalls and work boots and is holding a small bag.
TUELLER: Tueller limps in. A sitting Odh stands and offers him a seat, but he waves him off.
RYO: Ryo approaches him, friendly. “Hello, friend. This is something, isn’t it?”
STORY: He blows a puff of air out of his lips. “Endless, this mess.”
RYO: Ryo nods. “Certainly seems like. I’m new here, though. Mind helping me understand the big beats a bit better?”
STORY: He looks at you and spits on the floor away from you both. “You look new.”
RYO: “I get that a lot.” He adjusts his glasses and smiles.
STORY: He points at a Vitruvan sitting next to the mayor. “Trade Federation is charging a toll on the, uh, the jump relay.”
STORY: “Traffic’s slow, our businesses are dying, most people in the room’d rather tear that man’s arms off than let him go back to his ship.”
STORY: “Mutha’s doing her best to keep things civil, but,” he gestures to the crowd.
TUELLER: “Sorry, the Volturnii Federation is squeezing you?” Tueller comes up.
RYO: “Shit.” Ryo says this in sympathy.
STORY: “Not me. Not us. Travelers.”
STORY: “But,” he nods, “six of one. It means less people coming through this moon.”
MILLICENT: Is that “legal” under the terms the AI left?
MILLICENT: I would have thought the AI would have wanted to make sure the jump relay wasn’t monopolized
STORY: Millie, it’s sort of a tricky grey area, but probably not a good idea.
RYO: “Absolutely. Externalities.” He smiles. “Sorry, I’m a bit of an economist. The consequences fall on people other than the ones who benefit.”
TUELLER: “The Volturnii are tricky bastards.”
RYO: “Take it that you’re not a fan of the tax?”
TUELLER: “Who’s the trade rep here?”
STORY: He points at the Vitruvan.
TUELLER: “He got a name?”
STORY: “Ruslo, Rusod, something like that. I don’t hold much stock in these traders.”
TUELLER: “Smart of you. Devious bunch.”
STORY: “Mm.” He spits off to the side again.
TUELLER: What’s going on in the hall?
TUELLER: Sorry, the assembly.
STORY: Mostly arguing, people giving impassioned testimony as to how their businesses and livelihoods are failing with the reduction in trade traffic, and the Vitruvan looking dispassionate.
RYO: Is the Ruslo, Rusod person close?
STORY: He’s up on the dais with the mayor and a handful of officials.
RYO: “Absolutely. In it for themselves. How long has this tax been going on?”
STORY: “Six months. Showed up with a dozen ships, set up a blockade, and waited to collect their money. Bastards.”
STORY: “Some of us can’t afford to ship our crops offworld.”
TUELLER: “This is not normal behavior for the Volturnii.”
STORY: “Aliz there got no more ships coming to gas up in her shop.”
TUELLER: “Not in my experience.”
MILLICENT: Millie sidles up. “It’s also a generally frowned upon scheme, at least by the majority of Ark-recognized agents.”
RYO: “Got one.” Ryo smiles at Millie. “But this does seem very unusual.”
MILLICENT: “The AI Collective didn’t explicitly forbid it, but their mandate that the relays be used to establish inter-species relationships seems pretty clear.”
TUELLER: Tueller looks at Cali and doesn’t say anything.
STORY: She looks back at Tueller, brow furrowed, giving him a “what?” look.
RYO: “I agree completely.” He looks at their interlocutor. “So, what’s this meeting about. I mean, besides frustration. Is there some particular point or goal here?”
TUELLER: Tueller looks away, saying nothing.
STORY: He shakes his head. “Just another useless attempt to get them to clear out. They come down once a month to hear us out, pretend to care, then slink back up there and nothing changes.”
RYO: Ryo shakes his head in disgust. “Assholes. Where’s ‘up there’?”
RYO: “Like their ships?”
STORY: He points vaguely in the direction of the jump relay.
STORY: “Yuh.”
RYO: “Of course. Assholes,” he repeats. He looks at the others.
STORY: Calixta leans in. Low, so the local can’t hear. “So… are we helping?”
MILLICENT: Millie nods. Mouths, “I’m in.”
TUELLER: Tueller taps his cane against the ground twice. “Yuh.”
RYO: Ryo’s eyes widen, anxious for the answer. Then he realizes that she’s at least partially asking him. He half frowns and half nods. “Yeah,” he whispers. “If for no other reason than to rehabilitate my mistaken earlier aspersion about all of you. Us. I guess.” He shrugs again.
STORY: “Ryo, c’mere.”
STORY: Calixta steps back, away from the others.
RYO: Ryo gives them all an “I’m in trouble now” look and then follows her.
STORY: “Look, we’ve known each other for a while. Sort of. I mean, I was a spy the whole time and then also partially an AI for a while and so basically lying to you the whole time, but my point is we had an icily cordial relationship, didn’t we?”
STORY: “So like. You can go if you want, man.”
STORY: “I know this isn’t your thing.”
TUELLER: “What do you grow, sir?” Tueller asks the farmer.
STORY: “Mmm?” He looks confused. “I’m a librarian.”
TUELLER: Tueller smiles. “I love the library.”
STORY: “Well, come on by whenever you like, son. We’re never too busy.”
STORY: “Folks out here not big readers.”
TUELLER: “Will do, but I’m not a local so borrowing a book might be a bad call for me.”
RYO: Ryo beams at this. “You’re delightful! I like you much better now that I know you were a spy, if I’m being candid.”
RYO: “I take your point. But . . . my choice here is both strategic and personal. I need these people for now. But I also wasn’t lying about owing a debt to your dearly departed brother. He meant something to me. And I . . . can’t be the same as I was or have been, if that makes sense. This seems like a win-win, Calixta. I’m no hero. But maybe I don’t have to be a villain anymore. Alejo, oddly enough, showed me that.”
STORY: She looks sad, then smiles and nods. “Seems like he showed a lot of people that. Weird legacy, for a double-crossing spy. My brother.” She shrugs.
STORY: “Mill. Tueller.” She waves you over.
STORY: “So?”
TUELLER: “I think I got a library card?”
MILLICENT: “This is an abuse of power, plain and simple.”
RYO: “Look at you making friends!” Ryo smiles at Tueller.
MILLICENT: “The Ark won’t like it, but that’s scant comfort all the way out here.”
STORY: “The Ark can’t stop it anyway. They don’t hold jurisdiction out here.”
RYO: “Well, since we’re not the P-word, maybe we can do something about it.”
MILLICENT: “So, we’ll need some kind of leverage or we need to shut down their barricade.”
RYO: He gives Tueller a quick eyebrow rise. “Calixta here just offered me an out, you should all know. I don’t want an out. I am, for selfish and for . . . ” he pauses and cocks his head, earnestly thinking about this for a moment, “altruistic?” He seems surprised at himself. “Yes, altruistic reasons, fully committed to this.”
STORY: Calixta laughs when he immediately outs her, impressed.
TUELLER: “This is going to fuck with my application to join the Volturnii, isn’t it.”
RYO: Ryo nods exaggeratedly. “Oh yes. Oh, most assuredly. Yes.”
MILLICENT: “They’re going to laugh you out of town, yes.”
STORY: “So. Way I see it is two options.”
STORY: “Go up and pay them a visit, or kidnap that guy right there,” she points to the Vitruvan, “and threaten some murder.”
STORY: “Sweet or salty?”
TUELLER: “Oooof.”
RYO: Ryo smiles. “Sweet. Please. It’s my first altruistic venture, Calixta.” He shrugs meekly.
MILLICENT: Millie considers.
TUELLER: Tueller’s face gets kind of pale.
MILLICENT: “Look at that guy. Would you pay eleven credits for that guy?”
MILLICENT: “I wouldn’t.”
STORY: Looking at him and agreeing with Millie: “Yeah, he’s a real weenus, huh.”
MILLICENT: “Let’s try paying them a visit.”
STORY: Calixta nods, then heads back to the ship.
STORY: What do?
MILLICENT: Millie looks to Tueller. “You up for this?”
TUELLER: “My ability and willingness to threaten and enact violence is rather limited at this moment.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods. “So, let’s try something else.”
MILLICENT: She smiles. “There are other solutions.”
STORY: Nonviolence! It’s a brave new world!
STORY: Okay! So you take off, newly gassed up, and begin the weeklong journey to the blockaded jump relay.
STORY: Three days into the trip, Tueller, you’re getting out of the shower, robed up and replacing your bandages, doing your moisturizing regimen, when Calixta enters swiftly, slides the door closed, and whacks the handle with a huge wrench you hadn’t noticed she was carrying. She tosses it into a corner and hops up to sit on a countertop, exhaling and wiping her forehead. “Jesus, it’s damp in here. How hot do you make the water?”
TUELLER: “I’m from a volcano.”
STORY: “Huh.” She considers this, then moves on. “So listen, I’m mad at you, you’re all depressy, but I also missed you and I feel like we need to just figure this out and you can’t leave in the middle. Oh.”
STORY: She smacks the wall console. “Millie, the bathroom lock’s stuck, can you grab some tools and let me out? No rush, I have to do my face.”
STORY: “Self-imposed timer.”
TUELLER: “I can probably get that door open if I absolutely need to, but your point is taken.”
STORY: “You killed my brother, Tueller.”
TUELLER: “I did. I didn’t mean to, but I did.”
STORY: “I know you’re mad at yourself about that but I have to be able to be mad about it too.”
TUELLER: Tueller has let his voice go neutral and is definitely breathing as regularly as he can.
MILLICENT: Millie, deep in a book and a mug of oolong, decides to ignore this for 20 minutes.
STORY: “Well, come on.”
TUELLER: “Come on what?”
STORY: “I don’t know, like. Have some reaction. Get mad or something.”
STORY: “I’m a spy and an AI, I don’t do emotions well.”
TUELLER: “Am I supposed to defend myself here? Literally fight back to you? Attack back?”
TUELLER: “Let’s try it all!”
TUELLER: “I did what Alejo would have done if Chandra hadn’t shut him down.”
TUELLER: “But that’s a terrible argument. Alejo’s instincts were shit about this as well.”
TUELLER: “My instincts…I don’t even fucking know what my instincts are any more. I was trained my entire life by a pack of rabid animals who destroyed everything they touched that wasn’t theirs.”
TUELLER: “All I know is how to deal from a position of power. My family had literal weapons of mass destruction aimed at their enemies. It’s FUCKS with you. Noma has to know a little how that works–she’s a member of the biggest of the biggest in the known universe.”
TUELLER: “It is seriously distorting to live like this and I don’t know how to act otherwise.”
STORY: “Don’t do that.”
STORY: “I’m Noma. She’s not a third party.”
STORY: “I’m one person, Tueller.”
STORY: “You don’t get to imagine there’s some separate part of me that isn’t mad at you.”
TUELLER: “Yes, but unlike me you are also Calixta, who knows what it’s like NOT to be the biggest of the big.”
STORY: “I don’t remember anything about being part of the Collective. That was part of the firewall they left me with.”
TUELLER: “Oh.”
STORY: “Questions about it… it’s a dead end. I shut down.”
STORY: “And Tueller, I mean. It’s hard to listen to the richest man I’ve ever known complain about how hard his life was.”
STORY: “Change it, if you don’t like it.”
TUELLER: “I’m not…I mean…fuck fuck fuck fuck.” Tueller turns away for a moment and paces three short steps back and forth, three times.
TUELLER: “Have you read up on what we’ve been doing since we lost you in the visor?”
TUELLER: “Or been told about the medieval planet?”
STORY: She shakes her head. “Haven’t reconnected with that part of the codebase.”
TUELLER: “I did something and it went badly, and I lost someone.”
STORY: Calixta snorts. “Sounds familiar.”
STORY: You see her face soften as she realizes she shouldn’t have said that. “Tueller, I’m–”
TUELLER: “I took it bad, and I wanted to get better at doing things, and apparently that’s not a thing you can just change.”
TUELLER: Tueller snaps his finger with his non-hole hand.
TUELLER: “Can’t just do it like that.”
STORY: Calixta walks over and takes your hand, gently.
STORY: “I’m sorry, Tueller. I didn’t know.”
TUELLER: “Your brother was maybe my best friend. I didn’t think in the moment that I would lose him.”
STORY: “I know. I’m taking it out on you.”
TUELLER: “I thought we’d get out somehow.”
TUELLER: “We always have before.”
STORY: “We are what we know.”
STORY: “You mostly know the one thing.”
STORY: She mimes punching with her free hand.
TUELLER: “I know so much, actually! But punching just…”
MILLICENT: There’s a crunch crunch click noise and the door swings open, Millie on the other side with a couple of tools in her hands.
TUELLER: “Hi Doc.”
STORY: Calixta drops your hand immediately.
STORY: “Millie, thanks.” She hurries out.
MILLICENT: “I was reading.”
TUELLER: ’Guess I don’t know my own strength.”
STORY: Millie, you notice a discarded wrench in the corner of the room.
STORY: You travel for a week.
STORY: Anyone doing anything in the meantime?
STORY: This ship is big, and well supplied, but unless you dig around there’s not anything particularly interesting going on in it
TUELLER: Naw. Tueller’s recovering from open heart surgery and mostly avoiding conversation.
TUELLER: He finds some stationery and writes letters to people.
TUELLER: He shows them to no one.
MILLICENT: Millie reads a bit, checks on her patients.
TUELLER: That stationery is maybe the most expensive thing on the ship, which Tueller doesn’t even think of.
MILLICENT: Millie finds Tueller during one of his letter writing sessions.
MILLICENT: She closes the door behind her, opens it again, closes it.
TUELLER: Tueller turns over the letter, blowing on it to dry the ink quickly, so you can’t read it.
TUELLER: He caps the fountain pen and looks at her.
MILLICENT: “Nominally I’m checking on the door and your health.”
MILLICENT: “The door’s fine, how’s your health?”
TUELLER: “It is fine.”
MILLICENT: “Great.”
MILLICENT: “How’s your mental health?”
TUELLER: “You cannot put a piece of metal into my head to fix that, Doc.”
MILLICENT: Millie shakes her head. “I know.”
MILLICENT: “But I have a little experience with making very bad decisions assuming they will work out.”
MILLICENT: “And I know a thing or two about regret.”
MILLICENT: “So I thought I’d make myself available to you.”
TUELLER: “Doc, I really don’t know what I can tell you.”
TUELLER: “I made a decision in a heartbeat and it got my friend killed.”
TUELLER: “And it’s especially hard to say this to you, specifically, because my only thought before doing it was, ‘I hope this doesn’t get the Doc killed.’”
MILLICENT: Millie nods.
MILLICENT: “I appreciate that.”
MILLICENT: “It is nice to be considered.”
TUELLER: “You were the one I had to worry about. Not Ejo. Ejo always made it through.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods.
TUELLER: “He lived in a non-habitable section of a hostile spaceship for weeks when I met him.”
TUELLER: “It was my hostile spaceship.”
MILLICENT: “Oh? I didn’t realize. You boys were always a little cagey about your pasts.”
MILLICENT: “In retrospective, with much less reason than I had.”
TUELLER: “We weren’t cagey. We’d just lived it together, and didn’t need to rehash it.”
MILLICENT: “Fair.”
TUELLER: “Doc, I have no moral compass. And as much as I’d love to live up to the life and death of our dear friend and live by his example, he was a spy and a killer as well.”
MILLICENT: Millie shrugs. “And I almost got the human race obliterated because I was sad.”
MILLICENT: “You, of all of us, were starting to take steps to define yourself separately from your past.”
MILLICENT: “I will not let you define yourself by this mistake. You.” She takes Tueller by the shoulders. “And I. Are going to be the people we choose to be.”
MILLICENT: “Maybe that means less reactionary violence from you and maybe it means less mad scientist egotism from me.”
MILLICENT: “But we can make those changes.”
TUELLER: “Should we?”
TUELLER: “In that…what was it called, the Nexis, or whatever, we saw what my secret dream should be. Just running a farm.”
TUELLER: “With a nice girl.”
TUELLER: “Maybe I should do that. Fall in love with the cows and take care of them.”
MILLICENT: Millie shrugs. “Maybe.”
TUELLER: “Yeah, maybe.”
MILLICENT: “I think we’ve got some business to take care of before then, though.”
MILLICENT: “I can’t make it through this without you, Tueller.”
TUELLER: “Yeah.”
TUELLER: “I hate the cliche of this, but I owe it to Ejo to follow through with the deck and where it leads.”
TUELLER: “And I owe it to my family to take them down for what they’ve done and what I’ve done.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods. “So let’s do that and then we’ll get you a farm.”
MILLICENT: “And we’ll get me a garden on a space station somewhere.”
TUELLER: “I keep thinking of more people I owe, though.”
MILLICENT: “So you’ll send them some zucchini, I don’t know.”
MILLICENT: “But I don’t want you to disappear inside your grief about this. That’s what I’m getting at. We’ve got work to do and a life to live after that work.”
MILLICENT: “Are you going to be with me on this?”
TUELLER: “We’re in this in part because I disappeared into grief.”
TUELLER: “If I was more engaged from the start…less in my head after our trip back in time, maybe….well, maybe something would be different.”
TUELLER: “I’m here. I’m engaged. But I’m behind and I don’t know how to catch up.”
MILLICENT: “We’re all behind. You’re with the pack right now. But I want your head in the game when we’re determining what to do. I don’t know Ryo and honestly, Calixta/Noma doesn’t make sense to me. I’m glad to have her back, but it’s hard to take her truth on face value. So I need your eyes with me while we figure out what’s going on and how we’re going to respond. The real, 100% Tueller. Not the brooding hulk.”
TUELLER: Tueller looks at Millie silently for far too uncomfortably long.
TUELLER: “I’m trying, Millicent. I”m trying.”
MILLICENT: Millie squeezes his shoulder. “Good.” She takes a deep breath. “Remember to stretch your leg after any period of walking or standing of more than ten minutes. I love you, you’re the only family I have left that I understand. Drink lots of water.”
MILLICENT: She heads to the door.
TUELLER: “You too, Doc.”
TUELLER: Pause. “I love you, that is. I assume you’ve got the water handled.”
MILLICENT: “I drink 2 liters a day.”
MILLICENT: Millie leaves.
RYO: Ryo is sitting in the Galley, thoughtfully reviewing an economic paper on currency exchange.
RYO: He’s sipping at coffee.
MILLICENT: Millie walks in, dumps her tea and starts preparing a new one
MILLICENT: “Mr. Hanaka.”
RYO: He looks up and smiles. “Doctor. Hello.”
MILLICENT: “I’d offer you some oolong, but I see you seem to have handled your hot beverage needs.”
RYO: “I never say no to oolong.”
MILLICENT: Millie makes two cups.
RYO: “Coffee is for a work-a-day read. Oolong is for a good conversation.”
RYO: He sets his tablet down.
MILLICENT: Millie offers a cup to Ryo and leans against the counter as she blows on her cup.
RYO: He takes it and raises it in thanks. “I haven’t had a chance, Doctor, to thank you. I know this has been more difficult for you — for all of you — than I can imagine. Thank you for giving me a chance here.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods. “You’re welcome, of course. And I’m sure your particular breed of genius will come in handy somehow, but I just. I’m confused, Mr. Hanaka.”
MILLICENT: “You sound as if you’re intent on staying with us, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why.”
RYO: He purses his lips and cocks his head. “It’s a fair question. Let me ask you: why did you stay with Tueller and Alejo? You’re a universe-shattering intellect. Why pass up the conventional opportunities to make that matter?” He looks at her for a moment. “It’s rhetorical. Of course. But it also perhaps answers your own question. Not that I’m in your league. Of course.” He smiles demurely.
RYO: “I don’t completely know what motivated your sins. Everyone’s sins are their own. I have mine. I’d like some measure of redemption, I suppose.”
MILLICENT: “Initially? I needed, ah, pirates. To fulfill my plans.”
MILLICENT: “As we went on, well, I began to see that my intellect is blind in ways that their instinct was not.”
RYO: He raises his cup. “Indeed.” He sips.
RYO: “Your skepticism of me is smart and warranted. Nothing I say can rectify your doubts. But, for the nothing that it means, I’m here because I choose this.”
MILLICENT: Millie shrugs. “Okay. I can accept that.”
RYO: “And, for the very little it’s worth, I’m terribly sorry for your loss. Your losses.” He looks down. “I am not my former employer.”
MILLICENT: “Oh, I. Thank you. I don’t. Think you are, I think.”
MILLICENT: “Look.”
MILLICENT: “I know I can come off as a bit of an. Universe-shattering intellect. But I want you to know. As long as you pull your weight, point the same way that we all decide is right, and don’t betray us, you’ve got a place here.”
MILLICENT: “On your ship.”
MILLICENT: “But I think you understand my meaning.”
RYO: He smiles. “I absolutely do. And I’m grateful.”
STORY: So you’re headed to this blockade. What’s the plan?
STORY: Ideas?
STORY: Calixta favors sending someone on as an envoy to kill the captain and take over their systems and give you a window.
TUELLER: “I’m not a great judge here but that seems like a bad idea.”
RYO: Ryo respectfully considers this but has opted to try less drastic action.
MILLICENT: Millie wants more information. Is there some way to scan their systems and armaments before we arrive in their sights?
STORY: Sure! Give me an Assessment + Interface on that one.
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 7 + 2 = 9
STORY: Two of their ships are smaller transports, likely with crews smaller than your own. Three others are within a kilometer of the jump relay itself and potentially vulnerable, as that distance is generally counterindicated for use of shields.
STORY: They’re all fairly well armed, though not dreadnoughts or anything. All have crews of a dozen or less.
MILLICENT: Millie passes this all on
TUELLER: So Tueller had been trying to get in with the Volturnii but we’d not established how much he’d learned about them in the process. So I guess he’s sitting there trying to establish how much this process conforms with what he knows about them.
STORY: He’s a known entity to them, but not a member. Probably somewhere in the application backlog.
TUELLER: That’s how much they know about him. Not the reverse.
RYO: “What can we offer them? They are interested, obviously in money. Can we give them something more lucrative to lure them away from a scheme that’s already killing the stream of revenue they wanted? They are clearly not acting as rationally as they might.”
TUELLER: “Also, we’re in Chandra’s ship.”
TUELLER: “With Chandra’s….whatever you are.”
TUELLER: “Plenipotentiary, I guess.”
RYO: “COO, actually,”’He looks at Tueller.
MILLICENT: “What else could they have been interested in?”
RYO: “Besides money?” He considers Millie’s question. “Interesting.”
MILLICENT: Can I access Arc logs to see how many shipments have been coming in from other system that are similarly isolated with Volturnii reported active in the system?
MILLICENT: Can I see, basically, if they’re pulling this stunt all over?
STORY: Tueller, you know they’re a large decentralized federation, mostly the kind of thing that people are members of but aren’t necessarily ruled by, which means you don’t necessarily know how whoever is running this particular scheme is going to behave.
STORY: Millie, Assessment + Interface on that one
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 5 + 2 = 7
RYO: Can Ryo look over her shoulder and help interpret the data?
STORY: Sure! Get Involved + Expertise, please
RYO: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: ablair01 rolled 6 + 2 = 8
STORY: You can help, but only if you call in a favor with a contact who may or may not hate you now that Chandra’s death is becoming widely known.
STORY: Expertise is fine, actually, this is reading the data she’s gathered.
RYO: Great! Ryo will contact Shilo, a cousin of the NPC Stu played, the CTO.
STORY: Shilo happens to be in the system on some unrelated trade business, a few planets away and contactable by wave so you’re live with her. She narrows her brow once the connection is made. “Hanaka.”
STORY: “Word is your boss is dead and my cousin disappeared.”
TUELLER: —“Yeah, I’m calling from the airlock where we disposed of her. The reception was best here.”
STORY: close up for stu, but not tueller
STORY: okay, Tueller can share it
RYO: “I’m afraid so. I’m sorry.” He says the last carefully. Calculatedly.
STORY: She nods slowly, reading you.
STORY: Let’s have Face Adversity + Influence
RYO: “Family can be very complicated.”
RYO: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: ablair01 rolled 8 + 2 = 10
STORY: Shilo smiles. “She was a dick anyway. So was your boss. What are you up to?”
RYO: He smiles brightly. “Attempting to find my path to being less of one. I could really use your assistance, actually.”
STORY: “Oh?”
RYO: He shares the data.
STORY: She looks over the data for a long moment. Then, “Oh, this is Ruell’s ship! I wonder what he’s doing here. You want an introduction?”
RYO: “Yes, please!” He says this quickly and then looks over his shoulder at his comrades for confirmation.
STORY: She sets one up for you, then says a friendly goodbye and hangs up. You’ve got an appointment with the captain of the largest ship in a half hour!
RYO: Ryo leans back in his chair, smiling. “I rather like being, what did you call us?” He looks at Tueller, “knights in fucking shinning armor.”