STORY: “Savvy. I think we can certainly work something out, Mr. Hanaka. But.”
STORY: “Unfortunately, there’s a complexity we have to deal with.”
STORY: “Mr. Ya’Makasi is your… partner?”
TUELLER: “Tueller, please.”
TUELLER: “I am a Ya’Makasi in name only.”
STORY: Ruell doesn’t look at you, Tueller.
RYO: “He is a partner, at least in some ventures. Why?”
STORY: “I’d like to negotiate for him, please.”
RYO: “I’m sorry?”
TUELLER: Tueller got up in the middle of the night again and went over the prospectus. The residence advertised was at the top of his price range, but he thought he could make it work. The morkfish market had been very good to him recently, and he deserved it. The Moran climate would be good for him, and a seaview–even if being on an actual planet would freak him out–was amazing. He sat down again and hand-wrote out an offer. He wouldn’t send it yet, but if the market kept treating him right, maybe this might be a good place to settle down. He’d see.
—
STORY: Ryo, you’re five minutes from your arranged meet with Captain Ruell of the Volturnii Trade Federation. You’re to board her ship and have a sit down, arranged remotely by Shilo. Who’s coming with you and what’s the plan?
RYO: Tueller is with Ryo.
STORY: Calixta offers her services as a bodyguard, just in case, she says.
RYO: Excellent!
TUELLER: Is the crew wired up to Millie now? Or just Tueller?
STORY: Just Tueller.
STORY: and Kahn, presumably.
RYO: Okay, the plan is to try to determine what we can offer the Trade Federation that will be a win-win for everyone. Failing that, we’ll try to learn as much as we can about why they are doing what they are doing with the Jump Relay in order to devise plan B.
RYO: “Tueller, just so that you and I are on the same page, you’re here for your business acumen, yes? You’re not, I trust, intending on a more violent solution. At least for the time being?”
TUELLER: Tueller holds up his hands, one which still holds his appropriated cane. “Yeah, no fighting for awhile for me.”
TUELLER: “Unless it becomes necessary, but I’m a last resort type of guy these days.”
RYO: Ryo offers a sympathetic smile. Then he pauses. “Well, no physical brawling at least. A good business dispute might be just what you need.” He smiles again.
TUELLER: Tueller looks a little unsettled and composes himself.
TUELLER: He raps the cane twice against the floor. “I guess I’m your man, then.”
STORY: All right! You take the shuttle over, dock in the frankly huge cargo bay, and are greeted by a small retinue who take the three of you up to the captain’s quarters.
STORY: Tueller, what species is Ruell?
STORY: Ryo, what’s the decor in this room like?
TUELLER: She’s a Mora.
STORY: She greets you with a hard-to-read expression, gestures for you to sit. Calixta stays near the door, keeping a silent eye on things.
RYO: The room has Rothko-like paintings on three walls and two gigantic flowering plants of some sort. They seem to be swaying gently, as though there is a breeze, though we cannot feel anything like a breeze in the room. That said, the room has a fresh, modestly fragrant smell, like a botanical garden in the morning.
TUELLER: Tueller sits to the side, leaving the seat directly across from the Captain to Ryo. Tueller is polite and bows with his hands flat open, a Moran gesture of respect.
RYO: Ryo greets her with the formal Mora bow as well and then takes his seat.
RYO: “Thank you, Captain, for seeing us.”
STORY: “Of course. Shilo is an old friend. How can I help you, Mr. Hanaka?”
RYO: “I am fortunate to hold Shilo in the same regard. And, I hope that we can help each other, actually. But, please pardon my failure to introduce him. This,” he gestures formally to Tueller, “is my colleague, Mr. Tueller Ya’Makasi.”
STORY: Ruell nods. “Luce,” she calls to an assistant. “Tea for Mr. Hanaka and Mr. Ya’Makasi, please.”
STORY: The assistant nods, departing.
TUELLER: “I may be in your system as Code Name Narcissus, a tyro aspirant, as well.”
STORY: “I know who you are, Mr. Ya’Makasi.”
TUELLER: “But please, just call me Tueller for now. I am not…okay, yes, thank you.”
RYO: “We have come to understand that the Trade Federation has taken a particular and challenging interest in the Jump Relay here. If you are open to discussing the matter, we would like to find an alternative arrangement that could be in everyone’s best interests. But I am perhaps getting ahead of myself. We may have only half the story.”
STORY: Ruell nods, taking a nut from a small bowl on her desk. “No, you’ve got it right, Mr. Hanaka. We saw an opportunity and are making use of it. Certainly we could arrange for you to pass through, you simply need pay the toll.”
RYO: Ryo nods thoughtfully. “I wonder if the toll is in your long-term best interests. Please don’t take that as any sort of challenge. I think of it more as pondering the next phase of the opportunity, as you put it.”
RYO: “We’ve also come to understand that the toll has had the unfortunate consequence of diminishing traffic through this relay, which, in turn, has depressed the local economy. If that continues, everyone will suffer, yes?”
RYO: “But, again, we may not have all the correct information?”
STORY: Ruell nods. “You have it right again, Mr. Hanaka. We have no concern for the local economy. Our interests here are temporary.”
RYO: “Ahh, I see. So, the opportunity is not primarily financial in nature?”
STORY: “It is. It’s merely opportunistic. We had a gap in our schedule, we’re filling it here.”
TUELLER: Tueller, who has been keeping a rather papered on neutral expression, tilts his head to the side and briefly scowls.
TUELLER: He returns his expression back to neutral again.
RYO: “What if there was a way to turn a temporary opportunistic venture that,” he pauses considerately, “causes externalities for others into a longer-term and thus far more profitable venture that benefits everyone?”
STORY: Ruell leans back. “I’m listening.”
TUELLER: “I am too.”
RYO: “Excellent! Well, the toll that you’re charging is obviously too high. It’s destroying the market. I appreciate that you don’t currently care, as you are seeing the endgame soon. But why have an endgame? Why not reduce the toll, share part of it with the locals in exchange for them enforcing it, and take an ongoing cut for some period of time? A sort of finder’s fee, if you will.”
STORY: “How would we guarantee they pay us?”
TUELLER: “Contracts are the glue that binds the universe together.”
TUELLER: “More than gravity, more than the strong nuclear force.”
STORY: “They’d never sign.”
RYO: “Hmm, yes. Certainly we could memorialize the deal in a legally enforceable agreement. But, I think that the larger point is the ongoing benefit you could provide. Certainly, the Trade Federation has the ability to direct more suppliers through certain routes, yes?”
MILLICENT: Back on the Augusta King Millie gets irritated and can’t figure out why.
RYO: “If you were to mandate that your suppliers or business partners, or some of them, use this relay in greater proportion, the locals benefit as do you.”
STORY: “Mm. An interesting thought, Mr. Hanaka. We direct traffic this way and collect on the tolls we take from our own partners?”
RYO: He smiles. “Business.”
STORY: Let’s have FA + Expertise to see how she takes it.
RYO: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: ablair01 rolled 7 + 2 = 9
STORY: “Savvy. I think we can certainly work something out, Mr. Hanaka. But.”
STORY: “Unfortunately, there’s a complexity we have to deal with.”
STORY: “Mr. Ya’Makasi is your… partner?”
TUELLER: “Tueller, please.”
TUELLER: “I am a Ya’Makasi in name only.”
STORY: Ruell doesn’t look at you, Tueller.
RYO: “He is a partner, at least in some ventures. Why?”
STORY: “I’d like to negotiate for him, please.”
RYO: “I’m sorry?”
TUELLER: Tueller leans back in his chair, putting his cane on his lap. It is not a threatening gesture, or at least not intended to be.
STORY: “We’d like to keep him with us. I’ll offer four hundred thousand credits as an opening bid.”
TUELLER: “I can’t tell if this means my license application went very badly or very good.”
RYO: “Captain. Perhaps you could elucidate precisely what you are offering to buy?”
STORY: Ruell looks confused and speaks slowly. “Mr. Ya’Makasi.”
TUELLER: Tueller straightens up.
RYO: Ryo takes a long breath and leans back. “I see. Well, allow me to respond by directing us back to the deal that I propose to broker with the locals. You strike me as a very savvy business person. The new offer you’ve made threatens to derail what could otherwise be a very lucrative and positive relationship.”
RYO: He takes another deep breath. “As you also seem to be a direct person, allow me to be direct. Mr. Ya’Makasi is not for sale, and we do not deal in the sale of bounties.”
STORY: Ruell nods. “Mm. Shame. Unfortunately, Mr. Hanaka, I’m afraid this gate will remain closed to your ship.” She stands.
STORY: Offering her hand, “Thank you for the conversation, and the idea.”
TUELLER: “If you want me to work with you, you can just pay me for services that I’m capable of rendering.”
STORY: Tueller may as well be invisible to her.
RYO: Ryo stands. He looks at her hand for a moment, then takes it. “It’s a shame. I encourage you to reconsider. If you do, the offer remains open for 24 more hours.”
STORY: “What offer, Mr. Hanaka? What will stop me from using your idea for my own?”
STORY: “The offer was for Mr. Ya’Makasi. You have nothing else I want.”
RYO: He smiles broadly. “Oh, I may have misunderstood. If you think that there’s any chance before the ice death of the universe that you can, without the aid of a trusted intermediary, broker that deal with the locals, without getting your head ripped off, you are absolutely correct.”
RYO: “But perhaps the Trade Federation is less about profit and more about . . . pride?” He says the last with a feign and a shrug.
RYO: “And perhaps Shilo will not be able to connect me with others who would be more open to a profitable venture such as the one I propose. You probably know more than I do about that.”
STORY: “Don’t overplay your hand, Mr. Hanaka. We’ll be in touch.”
STORY: She turns to a console and proceeds to ignore you.
RYO: Ryo bows again and turns to leave.
TUELLER: Tueller gives her the finger and turns to leave.
STORY: Close Up
RYO: Once they are back on the shuttle: “How’s that fighting spirit of yours doing, Mr. Ya’Makasi?”
STORY: Millie!
STORY: Back onboard, you gaze out the window with jealousy, thinking about the sensor readings that blockade must have of the jump relay and wondering if you could find some use in that data.
STORY: They’ve been sitting idle next to this thing for months, if there’s anything to pick up from one of them that might help with your research.. one of them has it.
STORY: Kahn hands you a mug of tea. “That’s your plotting face.”
STORY: “What are you plotting?”
MILLICENT: “Fighting off that plotting spirit. Thank you.” She accepts the tea.
MILLICENT: “It occurred to me that this blockade must be scanning the relay in their search for ships to charge their ridiculous fee to.”
MILLICENT: “They’ve probably got some extremely interesting data about the jump relays and it’s sitting there in the hands of.” She clenches her fists around the mug. “Capitalists.”
STORY: Kahn looks deeply unhappy, lowers his head, and shakes it. He reaches out silently and puts a hand over yours. “Millie.”
STORY: “We got married, Tariq and I. That’s what I wouldn’t tell you when we were leaving. I didn’t want to come. That’s what I wouldn’t say. But I came anyway, for Alejo.”
STORY: He shakes his head. “I came because he asked, and it almost got me killed. And it did get him killed.”
MILLICENT: Millie lets out a sudden breath. “Oh.”
STORY: “Everyone’s talking about honoring Alejo by finishing this thing.”
STORY: “How about we honor him by living?”
STORY: “Go back to the Ark, make a life for yourself, and live. It.”
MILLICENT: Millie puts her hand over his. “Oh Kahn.”
MILLICENT: “I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”
MILLICENT: She looks out the window again. “You know the man who did the heavy lifting on designing Earth’s relay? We were engaged. He, ah. He’s dead now too. I’ve got this terrible knack, Kahn, for falling in love with men who are about to get themselves killed. For this stupid thing, no less.” She shrugs toward the window. “I’m not done yet.”
MILLICENT: “But this time I’m not just throwing myself at this hoping death catches me, too. I’m really after something this time. And I am going to find it.” Tears appear in her eyes, but she’s smiling at Kahn. “Not for Nikau. Not for Alejo. For me, for all of us who are still living.”
STORY: He squeezes your hand, and lets it go. Then, a long pause.
STORY: “All right. But I can’t come with you.”
MILLICENT: Millie smiles. “I know, dear. I think I understand that now. Do you think Tariq…?”
STORY: “Hates you so much I can’t tell him we even talked during this entire three month trip? Yes.”
STORY: “Completely. Sorry.”
STORY: He smiles. “He’ll come around eventually. He needs time.”
STORY: “And you need to be alive long enough for him to reconsider.”
MILLICENT: “I meant, do you think he’ll have you back?”
STORY: Kahn laughs. “Oh. Sure, of course. He’ll be pissed, but he gets it. We all owe debts.”
MILLICENT: Millie smiles. “Good.”
MILLICENT: “I don’t blame him for hating me and I wouldn’t ever try to change his mind.”
MILLICENT: “I have to live with what I did, but he shouldn’t have to. I hope.” She leans forward and smiles, “that you two are disgustingly happy.”
STORY: “Just. Stay alive. Someday we’ll have you over for Solstice dinner.”
MILLICENT: “It’s a date.”
STORY: Ryo and Tueller rejoin the others in the galley to figure out what to do next…
STORY: Kahn stands, his arms folded. “So… we can’t even pay the toll and just go?”
TUELLER: “It could have gone better, yes.”
TUELLER: “Ryo could have sold me, so it could have gone worse.”
TUELLER: “Though it would have been nice to know why I’m for sale.”
STORY: Calixta stands at a console typing and looks unhappy. “Turning back, we’d have to make four extra jumps. We’d reach the Ark in… six months, maybe. Depends on astrogation and the waits at those relays.”
RYO: Ryo nods. “I suspect it’s because you’re worth a lot more than they were offering to pay us for you.”
TUELLER: “You know what my price is?”
RYO: “We can pay the toll.” He shrugs. “I just thought that we’d opted to help the people here.”
STORY: Calixta, shaking her head. “No bounties worth over 400k, just the usual ones your sister had going for you.”
RYO: “Opening bid was 400k, I believe.”
TUELLER: “We can’t pay. She said the gate’s closed.”
RYO: Ryo frowns. “Perhaps. Or that was just tough negotiating. I find it hard to believe that the Trade Federation would really turn down the right price for us to get through. But perhaps.”
MILLICENT: “So, do we find something else they want or do we break their barricade?”
RYO: “Or do we go around this Captain’s head.”
TUELLER: “We’re out-gunned and you have one and a half fighters here.”
STORY: Kahn and Calixta look at each other, trying to figure out which one of them Tueller’s insulting.
TUELLER: “I’m about two thirds, Kahn’s a third, Cali, you’re a full one.”
TUELLER: “I rounded down. Sorry.”
RYO: “Whatever the number, I believe Mr. Ya’Makasi’s point is that violence presents slim odds for us.”
TUELLER: “Can we just take a moment and… I don’t want to be an egoist, but WHY ARE THEY OFFERING SO MUCH FOR ME?”
TUELLER: “I am, as far as I know, not worth that much.”
RYO: “I think that the key first question is whether our resolve to help these people stands. Though I agree that we might need to worry about the bounty. They could be holding us hostage here in order to . . . take Mr. Ya’Makasi.”
TUELLER: “We need to get through, regardless. We can’t lose all the time going around the blockade.”
MILLICENT: Millie searches the sectornet to see if there are any outstanding bounties or huge offers for Tueller.
TUELLER: “Please FOR THE LOVE OF GOD stop calling me Mr. Ya’Makasi.”
MILLICENT: Millie smiles. “You didn’t seem to mind when I used to do it.”
TUELLER: “That name is a gravity well sucking me down.”
RYO: “My apologies.” He bows his head.
TUELLER: “Worse and worse every day.”
STORY: Only the standard ones Esinam has had on all of you, Millie, and that one is low five digits for all three of you.
TUELLER: “I am changing my name soon.”
TUELLER: “It’s decided.”
MILLICENT: What about anything more oblique, meant only for big fish/high rollers?
MILLICENT: “I’d love to provide some input.” Millie says over her shoulder.
TUELLER: “And not back to Hamish.”
MILLICENT: “Tueller TooTall has a ring to it.”
RYO: “Hamish?”
MILLICENT: “Tueller SomehowTooMuscular is also good.”
RYO: He adjusts his glasses in confusion.
TUELLER: “It was a ruse to get into prison.”
TUELLER: “That name is burned.”
STORY: Millie, FA + Interface please
RYO: “Sounds . . . an interesting directional choice.”
MILLICENT: “Tueller OwesMeABottleOfThatWhiskeyILikeFromLikeThreeYearsAgo”
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 8 + 2 = 10
TUELLER: “I paid you back!”
MILLICENT: “With whiskey I liked less!”
TUELLER: “No, I definitely hooked you up with your substandard whisky of choice.”
TUELLER: “That overcasked gaudy showpiece, I hooked you up proper.”
MILLICENT: “To be continued, I need a moment.”
STORY: Millie, you think to see if you can pick up chatter from the blockade ships, and after about a minute you pick something up – the 400k is an internal Volturnii price for Tueller. Upper management wants him as a bargaining chip for Ambassador Aice, who is… that can’t be right.
STORY: There’s an arrest warrant out for Tueller, across all Ark-affiliated colonies.
MILLICENT: “Huh. You have any unpaid parking tickets we don’t know about, TooTall?”
MILLICENT: “You’ve got an open warrant on all Ark-affiliated worlds.”
MILLICENT: What’s it for?
MILLICENT: And what do they want a bargaining chip for Aice FOR?
RYO: “Congratulations, Mr. . . . Tueller.”
STORY: Having an Ambassador in your pocket is always useful.
STORY: It just says armed and highly dangerous, wanted alive.
TUELLER: “Well, I have robbed and murdered across…” Tueller counts…
MILLICENT: “Weird. There’s no charge attached. Armed and highly dangerous. Wanted alive.”
TUELLER: “At least seven systems that I can think of.”
TUELLER: “And I have a name. Can you see if there are other Ya’Makasi warrants? Are we being rounded up?”
MILLICENT: “Sure, but if it was for all that they would have listed all your various crimes, right? Something to entice the seasoned bounty hunter.”
MILLICENT: Millie searches for Ya’Makasi warrants
RYO: “Well, that does change the calculus here. You all might have been right. That gate is closed to us.”
STORY: Open warrants for Esinam, Musimbwa, Bilbo, and Yetide. Old, now closed warrants for Ruma, Nchekwube, Kojo, Charel, Dayana, and Akilah.
MILLICENT: “Looks like, Esinam, Misimbwa, Bilbo and Yetide have open warrants. Closed for Ruma, Nchekwube, Joko, Charel, Dayana, and Akilah.”
TUELLER: “I…guess I didn’t get a pass.”
MILLICENT: “Did some of your family turn Ark evidence?”
TUELLER: Tueller sits down and rummages for a bottle.
MILLICENT: “Wait, didn’t you?”
TUELLER: “Closed means they’re arrested, not released.”
MILLICENT: “What happened to your deal with Ambassador Aice?”
TUELLER: “Oh man, Lah. They even arrested her.”
TUELLER: “We didn’t…I’m not sure we had a deal. Nothing in writing.”
TUELLER: Tueller laughs bitterly and shakes his head. “I am a shitty businessman.”
TUELLER: “They arrested Lah.”
RYO: “Getting double-crossed hardly makes you a bad business person.”
MILLICENT: Millie looks up if there are any new stories concerning Ambassador Aice
STORY: Nothing interesting, just news about her participation in passing a few budget proposals.
MILLICENT: Nothing weird about those budgets?
STORY: Nah.
MILLICENT: Any news about the Ya’Makasis?
STORY: That’s gonna take a while to comb through, there are a lot of them.
MILLICENT: Okay, I’m going to take a while
RYO: Ryo makes tea — oolong — and gives a cup to Millie as she works.
TUELLER: So the chatter between ships, it’s that they want to take Tueller to have leverage over Aice, because…how? I’m confused and I don’t want to go too far down one way.
STORY: Not to have leverage. To earn a favor. Aice is looking for you.
TUELLER: Okay.
STORY: Millie, most of what you find are just coverage of the ones who have been arrested. No one seems to know where the missing ones are.
STORY: Everyone who’s on that list of closed warrants, and a few dozen lesser members of all three families, have been taken to the Ark for trial.
TUELLER: “Aice wants to take down my family. They deserve it. I helped her do so. It wasn’t easy.”
TUELLER: “Akilah, my sister, was doing even more. We didn’t get any signed immunity deal or anything like that…I guess I thought it was sort of implied?”
TUELLER: “That’s my family talking though. You hint at deals, and its understood, and you don’t betray it even if you never write it down.”
MILLICENT: Do the other Ya’Makasi warrants have charges attached?
STORY: Nope. It’s all hush hush, but that’s not uncommon.
RYO: “It does seem odd, from how you’re describing it. Even without the fear of retaliation. Ambassadors — politicians — double cross people, but not without some advantage. What’s her advantage?”
TUELLER: “I got the impression she’s kind of morally inflexible.”
MILLICENT: Who issued the warrant on Tueller and who issued the warrants on the rest of Ya’Makasis?
STORY: Aice.
RYO: “Hmm. But is she the one that you,” he raises his eyebrows, “broke into prison for?”
TUELLER: “Yes.”
RYO: “Even morally inflexible people tend not to forget debts like that, in my limited experience.”
STORY: Calixta sighs. “So.. never back to the Ark, ever again?”
STORY: “Where should we live? I hear Velasmus is nice this time of year.”
RYO: Ryo wants to look through whatever limited records he has to see if there was a connection between Aice and Chandra.
STORY: Nothing you can find, Ryo. Chandra was friendly with the Odh ambassador but not Aice.
TUELLER: Tueller sighs, and pops the cork off of a bottle of brandy, having gone through the ship’s supply of better whiskey by now. “Guys, this is the destruction of my family. I signed up for it and I should see it through. Even if it destroys me too. We all know I’d deserve it if it happens.”
TUELLER: “You guys should probably get the reward money, though, not these dilettante traders.”
RYO: “Moral inflexibility doesn’t suit you.” Ryo says this flatly.
STORY: “He’s new to it,” says Kahn.
TUELLER: “Shame.” Tueller turns to Calixta, “I was hoping to see if we could like each other again, one day.”
STORY: Calixta starts to respond, then just sits there with her mouth open for a few seconds.
STORY: “You’re not serious.”
TUELLER: “About which part.”
TUELLER: “I do hope you learn to like me again.”
MILLICENT: “I didn’t find anything new, but I’m just tuning back in and everyone’s frowning at Tueller.”
STORY: “Turning yourself in, you clod.”
MILLICENT: “What did you do?”
TUELLER: “Grew up Ya’Makasi.”
TUELLER: “Killed her brother.”
TUELLER: “Killed a bunch of people, really.”
TUELLER: “Some of them didn’t even deserve it.”
MILLICENT: “I meant to. Shut up.”
RYO: “Tueller. Handing yourself over in the naive hope that this is actually really about your family doesn’t help anyone. And Alejo’s death was on Alejo.” He says this and then quickly glances at Calixta before looking down.
RYO: “I’m new. I get that. But there’s no universe in which you should be thinking of turning yourself in, based on what I can see.”
TUELLER: “I agreed to take down the Ya’Makasi with Aice. She told me she’d see my entire family bankrupt and in jail at the end of it.”
MILLICENT: “Shit, you think she’s a completionist?
TUELLER: “Collect the whole set, yes.”
TUELLER: “At the very least, there’s a lot of testifying to do.”
MILLICENT: “Okay, so. Let’s add ‘Figure out whether Ambassador Aice needs you to testify or needs you to rot in jail with your family’ to our list of priorities.”
MILLICENT: “But right now, that’s still under “Stay free” and “Get past this blockade.” Am I right?”
STORY: Calixta tears up, shaking her head. “Nuh uh. No. We’re not going.”
STORY: “Choose somewhere else.”
RYO: Ryo looks at her softly. “Not going where, Calixta?”
STORY: “We’re not giving him over to rot in a cell. No.”
STORY: “I’d rather go back to AC.”
MILLICENT: “Fine, right. But in order to find out what we have to do to get his pretty face off these wanted posters we have to get past this blockade. Preferably without spending six months doing it.”
TUELLER: Tueller just sits there with his bottle of brandy and shakes his head.
RYO: He nods. “I hate to ask, but do we perhaps have too much on our plate to deal with this local problem? I mean, I was feeling as good about being a knight in fucking shining armor as next as the next person, but . . .” He trails off, letting the question rest.
MILLICENT: “It’s all tied together. We need to give these capitalists enough to handle that they won’t focus on Tueller.”
RYO: “If we want to try, the only suggestion that I currently have would be to see if, by some chance, we could go over the Captain’s head to broker the deal I proposed. But I suspect that with Tueller in the mix, that deal isn’t getting off the ground.”
MILLICENT: “Yeah, they’ve already reported this to command.”
TUELLER: “Frankly, I’m surprised they haven’t stormed the ship to take me already.”
TUELLER: “That’s the benefit of dealing with merchants rather than pirates. They’ll use the law to bleed you dry, rather than doing it literally.”
TUELLER: “You know my suggestion. We can’t flee from galactic civilization. The Ark is the center of our business and our lives. And…I am a Ya’Makasi. I participated in our crimes for decades, so much so they deputized me to find new systems to expand to.”
TUELLER: “There’s not a read on this where I’m innocent. And whatever deal Aice had with me, it looks like she found out more about the family and changed her mind.”
TUELLER: “Shit, Akilah.”
TUELLER: “Why would they take her?”
STORY: From Kahn, “I mean…”
STORY: “All your orders came from her, Tueller. How many assassinations did she order?”
RYO: “See, that’s what I’m saying, Tueller. Are you so sure that your read of Aice — I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but you do not seem to have the most accurate read on people always — is right? Is this because she’s just that pure and true? Or is something else at work here?”
RYO: “And if the Volturnii feel like they can gain a ‘favor’ with her, they must think that her moral inflexibility isn’t all that inflexible, right?”
MILLICENT: “More importantly, can we figure this out from here? I say we can’t. We get close enough to the Ark I can make a digital communique secure enough that we can get her on the line and find out what’s going on.”
MILLICENT: “Which leads me to my previous point. We can’t figure any of this out here.”
TUELLER: “Ryo,” Tueller stops himself.
TUELLER: “You apparently know me well enough not to trust my judgment, at least.” Tueller sits back and crosses his arms.
RYO: “When your judgment seems to be leading you to make a sacrifice that has the consequences of this one, yes, I am willing to question you. That hardly means, especially given the strains and stresses you’ve suffered recently, that I either know you or distrust anything about you.”
RYO: “I’m sorry if you’ve grown accustomed to being free from questioning. But I find it hard to believe, given the company you keep. So, perhaps I’ve simply not earned that right, in which case, I apologize for overstepping any boundary.”
TUELLER: Tueller throws up his hands.
STORY: Kahn shakes his head.
TUELLER: “You talk like a fucking lawyer.”
RYO: He shrugs. “Probably should have been one.”
RYO: “That might have actually been useful here.”
TUELLER: “My last lawyer’s in jail.”
MILLICENT: “He’s not wrong, Tueller.”
TUELLER: “So let’s run down our options.”
TUELLER: “One, I get arrested and the long arm of justice works its will over me. Jail, maybe? Maybe just held for testimony, but that seems unlikely at this point.”
TUELLER: “Two, we rabbit.”
TUELLER: “Never enter Ark space again. Maybe try to hook up with my wildcatting relatives and try to stay ahead of the bounties.”
STORY: Calixta leans against the bulkhead, arms crossed. “Two.”
STORY: Kahn looks at her. “Are we voting?”
MILLICENT: “We haven’t listed all the options yet.”
TUELLER: “Three…get to the Ark in a fashion Tee Bee Dee, past greedy well-armed ships that are not attacking us right now only because it’s good business not to. Yet.”
TUELLER: “I’m…not sure if there are other options.”
TUELLER: “Probably because I lack the judgment necessary to come up with them,” Tueller gives a poisonous look to Ryo.
MILLICENT: “I guess there’s four…take the long way round to the Ark and hope the situation crystalizes while we’re in transit.”
RYO: Ryo ignores the look. “When in doubt, taking time can clear the mind.”
MILLICENT: “I hate option one. That’s a no-go for me. Two is a no, too. We have work to do. At least I do. Three sounds fine, but we have to do it. Four is okay, but I worry what will be waiting for us by the time we rejoin the fray. Six months is a long time to be away. Long enough for the situation to harden so that it’s intractable. I vote three.”
STORY: Kahn shakes his head miserably. “Tueller, I hate this. Home is on the Ark. I need to get back.” He looks at the table. “One.”
TUELLER: “Hell, one is my vote, too, Kahn.”
TUELLER: “I’m so sorry and I hope this doesn’t blow back on you anymore than what you’ve already gone through.”
RYO: Ryo shrugs and looks at Millie and Calixta. “This feels like arguing with mercury. You know him, and I’ve clearly just pissed him off. I was all for helping the locals and trying to do something moderately good here. Beyond that, I’m the new guy, so I’m not going to vote. Just try not to get us all killed.” He goes and pours himself a drink. It’s the first time anyone has seen him drink alcohol.
RYO: “Lawyer who’s not a lawyer, out.”
MILLICENT: Millie looks to Calixta.
STORY: “What? I said two.”
MILLICENT: “Fine, we voted. Tueller, you get to hand yourself in, I guess.”
MILLICENT: “I think it’s one of the dumber things you’ve ever done, but I suppose it’s your life.”
MILLICENT: Millie spins around and jumps on a console to make sure none of the rest of them have warrants
STORY: Nope.
TUELLER: Tueller sits for a moment with his eyes closed, and doesn’t say anything.
TUELLER: “I mean, there’s no reason for the Volturnii to get the advantage over Aice. If you can come up with a way to get us closer to the Ark before we turn me in, sure. But this way, you get through the gate. You get to take that deck for a spin.”
STORY: Calixta looks angry. “You’re a fucking asshole.” She storms out.
TUELLER: “I do not understand her at all.”
RYO: Ryo smiles as he takes another drink.
MILLICENT: “We could try a million other things. We could try to lie to their sensors into responding to a fake Ya’Makasi fleet. I bet you know enough specs that we could fool their sensors for long enough to sneak by. We could try remotely blowing some critical systems. We could spoof their market analytics to make them think that if they head a system over they’ll make a small fortune for four days work. Any kind of distraction.”
MILLICENT: “And none of those plans involves handing you over.”
TUELLER: “I rescind my vote. I think Ryo is right. I don’t know shit about shit. I’m just going to go lay down for a little bit. You tell me…whatever it is you want to tell me. I’m so far off my game that I can’t see straight.” Tueller stands up and starts to limp out of the room.
MILLICENT: Millie examines the blockade net and tries to see where they’re vulnerable.
STORY: FA + Interface!
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: josh rolled 7 + 2 = 9
STORY: What are you trying to do?
STORY: Just come up with something, I don’t want to give you a strategy, know what I mean?
STORY: What are you trying?
MILLICENT: I think the Ya’Makasi fleet gambit. Pull them far enough away from the relay that they wouldn’t notice us sneaking by. Send a message about how the Ya’Makasis had heard that they’d had Tueller and wanted him back.
STORY: Everyone who’s part of CJH in any substantial role has either been arrested or is on the lam.
MILLICENT: Fine, market analytics says that a new, hugely popular piece of technology requires an element that’s found in huge quantities the next system over.
STORY: And requires all 12 ships to go get it?
MILLICENT: All 12 captains get independent google alerts. They all think they’re the only ones who received them.
STORY: Ah, ok.
STORY: Your 9 will work for that, but it’s likely it won’t catch all of them. Proceed?
MILLICENT: Yeah
STORY: All right! Millie sends out a mock bounty for this mineral one system over, and over the course of six hours, all but two of the ships depart: one small transport and Ruell’s ship.
STORY: What now?
MILLICENT: Millie gets on the intercom. “I’ve just removed 10 of the ships from this system. There are only 2 defenders left between us and the jump relay. Anyone with any bright ideas report to the bridge.”
STORY: Calixta, who is already there, shrugs. “Ram them?”
MILLICENT: “There’s an idea! Really a bad one, dear, but an idea!”
TUELLER: “We’re in a yacht. Outrun them.”
MILLICENT: “Oh. Can we do that?”
STORY: “We can certainly outrun them to the position for the relay, but I’m not sure how we get the relay itself to hurry up enough that they don’t just shoot us out of the sky.”
STORY: “You don’t know how to send commands to the relay, do you?”
MILLICENT: Is there something in the notes we took about doing that?
TUELLER: “We’ve got the instruction manual right here, don’t we?”
STORY: Assessment + Expertise, Millie
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 3 + 2 = 5
STORY: You think you could brute force it, but the relay would be aware it was being messed with.
STORY: You’re not sure what the consequences of that would be.
RYO: “What if we enlist the locals to help us kick the intruders out of their system?”
MILLICENT: “Not sure I could do that. Going to need a wider window than this. Any ideas?”
STORY: “Kill them?”
STORY: “Say we want to talk and kill all of them instead?”
TUELLER: “I’m not sure we’re there yet, either. But it’d be a fairer fight.”
MILLICENT: “Anyone? Any non-suicidal ideas?”
TUELLER: “Well, if we did, taking me over in chains and then unleashing hell would be the way to go…but…again, I have bad ideas.”
TUELLER: “We’ve got a window. Now we just need to come up with a brilliant plan. So…?”