Episode 5

Anderson Dawes has refused the Terpsichore's request to help heist the protomolecule, but he wanted their help on another job instead. This job turns out to be delivering holiday supply packages to orphanages. The crew members make the deliveries and have adventures along the way. That's right, it's the Christmas episode.

Starting: Sunday, 2350-12-24
Ending: Sunday, 2350-12-24
(1 afternoon)

2350-12-24 (Sunday)

Santa Dawes

The current mission: Anderson Dawes wants the crew to split into 3 groups and each deliver a pallet of supplies to a local Ceres orphanage.

"In order for them to recognize you as my associates, you'll need to dress up," says Dawes. "But I only have one extra Santa suit, so... you're going to have to split it up."

Kova wears the hat. NoDot wears the shirt. Alfie wears the pants. Lu wears the beard. Nikki wears nothing since she's paired up with Dawes, who's wearing a full Santa suit.

Part 1

Kova and Alfie: The Unusual Flight Simulator

The first group reaches the Hermes Orphanage with no trouble.

"You must be with Dawes?" greets the headmistress Everett Sloane. "I recognized you by your outfits!"

As Sloane unloads their supplies at the loading bay, she describes, "Dawes has been providing us with these holiday packages for the last 4 years. Toys, medicine, snacks, all sorts of stuff." She makes conversation by asking Kova and Alfie what they did before working for Dawes.

"I was a scrapper on Rhea. In the middle of nowhere," replies Kova.

"I'm a pilot," replies Alfie.

With surprise, Sloane tells them they have the perfect skillsets for something she needs repaired. She walks them through the mazelike orphanage, past a real deciduous tree decorated with LED holiday lights and handmade ornaments, into a small room. Inside is a flight simulator made from the hardware of a real freighter pilot bridge.

A 14 year old girl named Sofia is already sitting in the cockpit. She's reluctant to leave the room, claiming "but I've almost beat scenario 5!" Sloane is impressed but still dismisses her.

The simulator is stationary, not dynamic, but apparently the crash couches don't seem to think so. Sloane explains that they buck children out of them all the time. She asks Kova to repair them mechanically to behave like a stationary sim, and Alfie to recalibrate the scenarios.

"You should only need to play through the first two of them to get all of the calibrations set up, but if you want to play the third one, you're welcome. Even seasoned pilots struggle with the third one, so don't feel too bad if you don't solve it."

"Where'd you get all these parts? This is amazing," asks Kova.

"They were donations," Sloane answers with a smile. She leaves them alone to their work.

Kova examines the hardware. It's made of a mishmash of old parts from a variety of ships, but has a working, high-quality juice system and three crash couches. It's very well maintained. Kova notes it's strange to have working juice on a flight simulator, let alone juice 5 times higher quality than the juice on the Terpsichore. Injecting kids with drugs when they don't need them seems potentially bad for their health. She disconnects the juice and repairs the couches.

Alfie starts recalibrating. He breezes through scenarios 1 and 2. That's all he needed to play, but he keeps going for funsies. Scenario 3 is a slightly unusual undocking maneuver, which makes sense why it would trip up a lot of pilots, but he gets through it easily too.

Number and Lu: A Chaotic Intervention

"So what's your deal, Lu?" asks Number/NoDot as they walk their pallet through the streets.

"Um, I'm sorry?" Lu replies.

"What's your deal?"

"That is not a specific enough question."

"Like, obviously you're... very--"

"Strong?"

"--boringly dressed."

NoDot tells Lu she's a little embarrassing to walk around with, and asks about her history with the military. "Why are you keeping it close to your chest? Are you embarrassed? Are you sad?"

Lu doesn't know how she feels. She hasn't talked about it because she hasn't felt it was necessary, since the crew already knows she's ex-military.

"I mean, fair, but it just looks like you might be bottling some things up, because you just look... sad."

"That is my face."

"Not your face, girl. Your whole ensemb."

Lu answers that she tries to carry herself with strength and pride, but hasn't thought about if she's sad.

"Well, you are. I can just confirm it," declares Number. "Did you even think about what you're gonna do when you left the military? Just fuck around in space until we all get shot someday? What if you get shot? Then we're all dead. So you're kind of in the riskiest position on the ship."

"I suppose I have always accepted the fact that I might die, at any point in time," answers Lu. "That's what I did when I joined the military. I agreed to put my life on the line every day. And so, death does not scare me."

"....Yeah."

"Did that answer your question?"

Number's tone is disapproving. "I mean, it did, but in the saddest possible way. You know? There was nothing about living in there."

"Well," Lu says, taken off-guard, "what I do with my life is keep people alive. So..."

"So you are never going to do anything for yourself, ever?"

"Why should I?"

NoDot erupts into laughter. "Because who the fuck else will do things for you if you don't?"

"I don't need anything."

"That's so untrue, girl."

Their words seem affect Lu, who relaxes.

"Like a new shirt, or something?" NoDot offers.

"Well... I wouldn't mind a shirt that's not scrubs."

Lu had only brought 3 sets of scrubs with her when she left Rhea. So the two decide to go shopping. Number redirects their route immediately, saying "I'm not showing up at an orphanage with you looking like that. They're gonna take you in, girl."

They start an intense conversation about what kinds of clothes to get for Lu, and what her aesthetic vibe is. Lu is into the idea of black-on-black, plain t-shirts and v-necks, nicely cut pants, flannels, and a good bomber jacket. Vintage 1990s-chic.

The two find a small boutique and leave their pallet outside. NoDot hacks into the ring camera to try to keep an eye on it while they shop.

("I'm glad that we did go straight to 'we do have to keep an eye on it,' because if it was just 'we leave it outside' I feel there's no way you wouldn't have that be stolen," says Nikki's player.

"Yeah I could've been mean about it," jokes the DM. "This could've been a big long recovery mission."

"Let the recording show that [the DM] nodded in a pleased way when I said that."

"It's not too late.")

NoDot and Lu buy 3 nice outfits made of basic things that can be mixed and matched. Some blacks and whites, some flannels, and a nice belt or two that can splash it up. Also leather shoes with orthopedic insoles. NoDot tries to convince her to buy a nice black ankle boot with a heel. Lu refuses.

They have an involved discussion about the military. NoDot is glad Lu left it because they believe it's a soul-sucking organization that destroys anyone it touches, and serves only to reinforce systems of power and crush the oppressed. Lu admits she's unhappy with the military right now, but she doesn't completely agree with NoDot's distaste for institutions and systems. She still values it for the structure and discipline and family it gave her, even though she's left that family behind now.

The boutique is small, so the lady working the counter overhears their discussion and starts getting riled, agreeing with NoDot's view. "The kid is right! Fuck the military! They're just a bunch of thugs!"

The clothes cost 15,000 credits. NoDot covers it and makes Lu promise to "spend a little time researching the atrocities done by the organization you were committed to. And think critically of the large systems of power of which you were a part, and how they contribute to the death of hundreds of thousands." Lu says "okay."

The conversation was so engaging, it's at this point NoDot finally notices on the ring camera feed that a thug's messing with the pallet. NoDot, Lu, and the boutique lady run outside.

"Hey, are you fucking with my customer's stuff?!" shouts the boutique lady.

"Ey fuck you!" the thug shouts back.

With her strong military muscles, Lu attempts to grapple him, but the wily thug slips out of her grasp. NoDot quickly hacks into his hand terminal and makes it overheat to burn a hole in his clothes. Then they hack into a tv across the street and broadcast it, to embarrass him. "No! This is my worst fear!" says the thug.

While they've been distracted with this guy, a couple other pickpocket-types have run up to the pallet and taken boxes, and are now running away with them. Lu notices and tries to run after them. They disappear around a corner.

Staying back to guard the pallet, NoDot traces the pickpockets' hand terminals and finds their location. Lu races down some alleyway twists and turns. She finds the pickpockets--there's a group of 4 of them, and they clearly look like gangsters. One is holding a big metal pipe. "Get out of here! This is ours now," says another one. Though she's outnumbered, Lu decides to go for it.

A fistfight breaks out. In a badass burst of adrenaline, she grabs the leader's wrist and twists the pipe away. It goes flying 20 feet. But the gangsters throw some hard punches in response, and Lu gets quickly overwhelmed with injuries.

NoDot helps from a distance by hacking into the gangsters' phones. They learn the group is called the Golden Boughs. NoDot sends some fake messages from their boss Leon telling them to stop beating the doctor up, and successfully manages to diffuse the situation. The thieves return the boxes. Lu carries them all the way back to the boutique with an injured limp.

Nikki and Dawes: Getting to Know You

Nikki and Dawes make their way from Takashi to Vine Station. As they ride the subway with their pallet, they have a chat.

"Do you normally make deliveries like this yourself?" Nikki asks with confusion. Dawes answers that yes, he does. When Nikki expresses she's surprised he does it personally when he has an organization to run, Dawes says that he wants people to know there's a face behind the OPA.

He asks Nikki about herself. "I've never met a Kennedy before. How'd you wind up in this situation?"

Nikki tells him she was unhappy with how her whole life was planned out since she was born. She felt trapped and wanted something different.

"So you stole a ship? Made it for the belt?"

"No, I just stole money, which is now gone. But no, it's Alfie's ship. We met on Vesta. I hired him."

Dawes prompts with interest, "So you hired Alfie and the ship, but you're the captain."

She replies that Alfie weirdly doesn't like being in charge. "For a long time there wasn't much to be in charge of. It was just the two of us for a while. Then we got NoDot in, and no one's in charge of NoDot, really."

"I can tell," says Dawes. He next asks her what she knows about the Terpsichore.

"I know that it's Alfie's, I know that it runs, I know that the juice is usually bad... I know we have plants now..."

"Plants?"

"Yeah, there's some kid growing plants on it."

Nikki continues that she thinks she naturally became the captain due to the leadership skills she's been taught her whole life. When Dawes asks about her aspirations now that she's in space, she answers she wants to have an impact somehow. "Then you might have come to the right place," says Dawes. Nikki agrees with a "maybe."

The two spend some time discussing the OPA. Nikki tells Dawes that her feelings are mixed about it. As a concept, the OPA is in a position to do a lot of good. In practice, sections of it have done a lot of not-good. She still hasn't figured out what section of the OPA Dawes is in charge of.

He replies that he's doing his best to make the OPA more equitable and less violent. The ultimate goal is independence for the belt. There are many offshoots and factions that don't seem to support that cause, so he doesn't consider them really part of the OPA. Marco Inaros is one of them.

Nikki expresses skepticism that the best way to change the OPA is from within it. Dawes responds that it's a big name with big influence, already in charge of most of the infrastructure on Ceres, and he'd gain nothing by calling the group something else.

When she asks what Dawes' short-term goals are, he answers he wants to continue to build alliances. Possibly outside Ceres, like Tycho Station and Fred Johnson.

At the end of the discussion, Nikki sighs. "Self-governance is one thing, actual autonomy is another."

"Would you not say that self-governance is a precursor for autonomy? At least if you want to have any success at it."

"Well, it's a step. But if I know anything about Earth, then... There's a lot of resources out here, and that wealth is something they won't give up."

"You're absolutely right. You're as sharp as any Kennedy I've ever met."

The two get off the train to make a connection. Off in the distant crowd, Nikki sees a man she recognizes--her uncle, Vice Admiral Draven Kennedy of the UNN.

"Oh," Nikki reacts. To Dawes she says, "Are you ready to meet another one?" She points him out.

"Are you sure that you're ready to meet another one?" asks Dawes.

"No," Nikki says solidly.

"Then here!" Dawes gives her his Santa beard and hat. Nikki puts them on with reluctance.

Neither Nikki nor Dawes can guess what a Vice Admiral of the UNN is doing here. But with the disguise, they sneak past him without incident. They safely make their connection to the next train.

Part 2

Kova and Alfie: Something's afoot

Scenario 4 of the flight simulator: you're the pilot of the cargo frigate Jasmine. You receive a radio transmission that you're about to be boarded. "If you do not comply," says the radio, "we will not hesitate to turn your ship into swiss cheese."

"Into swiss cheese!" echoes a voice. Around the corner, a 14-year old girl is watching--Sofia, who was playing the sim earlier. Alfie gestures her to join them and lets her take control of the helm.

Sofia knows exactly what to do. She punches the throttle right before the enemy ship boards and cleanly gets away.

"How long have you been playing with this?" asks Kova. "You seem experienced."

Sofia isn't sure. She says this sim is a new one. The old one wasn't quite as real. She thanks Kova for repairing the crash couch so it didn't throw her out of the seat.

"Were you taking that juice this whole time you've been practicing?" asks Alfie.

"I don't always use the juice, but sometimes when we do drills I'll use it."

Alfie asks what she means by drills. Sofia explains hesitantly that this flight sim has more than just freighter scenarios. It asks for maneuvers a regular hauler wouldn't need to know. Scenario 5 is about hiding the ship on an asteroid and not getting caught. She hasn't gotten past that one yet, but Alfie helps her, and the two work together to finish it.

It's clearly an unusual, bespoke flight simulator. Concerned, Alfie leaves Sofia to try scenario 6 and goes to talk to Headmistress Everett Sloane. Kova stays behind, but her robot Pip follows to listen.

Alfie asks what the deal is. Sloane is impressed to hear he beat level 5, as only one student has ever beaten 5 before. She then says the simulator was a donation from a benefactor of the orphanage. She's unwilling to say who. Alfie understands and returns to the sim room.

Without too much trouble, Sofia is finishing scenario 6: you must pilot the ship Hibiscus to intercept and breach another ship's hull. When she's done, Alfie asks Kova to give them a moment alone.

"Have you been talking to anyone about this? Has anyone been in touch with you?" he asks.

"Uhh, no," says Sofia.

"Has this sim always been here?"

"In some form, yeah. This one has been around for a couple years."

"I need you to listen very, very carefully to what I'm going to say," says Alfie seriously. He tells her this piloting skill is a big asset that will take her far, but she must keep it close to her chest. Someone will take advantage of it if they learn. "If anyone tries to talk to you about this, if anyone tries to recruit you... don't."

He gives her his contact info. Freaked out, Sofia leaves.

On their way out of the orphanage, Kova offers to be a listening ear if Alfie ever needs it. He responds with a confused "okay?"

Number and Lu: More chaos, this time at a clinic

Lu is injured.

"Wow, you're fucked," says NoDot outside the boutique.

"All my organs are in place," says Lu.

The two continue on their way to the orphanage. Their path takes them through the red light district. As they pass by an alley, they hear moans of pain and a voice crying, "Help, somebody! Please!"

Without a second thought, Lu stops to help. An injured Earther man is doubled over in the alley. While Lu examines his injuries, his ID falls out of his pocket. His name is Rustin Youssef, a member of the UNN military. "Fuckin OPA thugs beat the shit outta me!" he grunts. "You gotta find a doctor!"

"I am a doctor," Lu declares with pride.

"Hold on," coughs Rustin. "Why do you have a fake beard on?"

"Don't worry about it," says Lu.

She finds space for Rustin on the dolly. NoDot asks a local sex worker where the nearest clinic is, and the two rush him there. On the way, NoDot becomes concerned he might be scamming them. To make sure, they check a security camera from the alleyway to see who attacked him, and learns it was the Golden Boughs again.

NoDot sends a clip from the feed to Zuko. "You know these shitheads?" they ask, to which Zuko responds a short time later, "I'm handling it."

The clinic is a small, clean room with a man sitting behind the reception desk. Lu asks if the clinic can help Rustin, and NoDot asks if they could at least provide a facility so Lu can help him.

"That's a bit... unorthodox.... but we are short-staffed," says the receptionist. "We got an operating table. Do you have any form of proof that you're a doctor?"

Lu doesn't want to show the receptionist her military ID because she's technically a fugitive. Scrambling, NoDot attempts to prove it by pulling up their shirt to show a stitched-up bullet wound scar from Episode 1. "See that? That's my art," Lu says. The receptionist doesn't buy it.

NoDot quickly attempts to make a fake ID on their hand terminal. To stall, Lu starts explaining to the receptionist all of Rustin's injuries in detail. The receptionist says he just works the front desk, he doesn't know any of that stuff, and he definitely still isn't convinced. After a few awkward minutes, NoDot finishes the ID and forwards it to Lu.

"Anyway... here's my ID," says Lu.

The receptionist replies, "Well, that's all I needed to see..." and lets them into the operating room.

It's a fully stocked room. Lu deftly stitches Rustin up. "Wow, you really are a doctor," Rustin says.

"Yeah. You didn't believe me from being a stranger that just said it out of nowhere?" Lu asks.

"I mean it was a little suspicious when you spent like 3 minutes talking to that guy at the front desk before producing an ID."

"I got distracted by your injuries," Lu tries.

"That seems like it would necessitate showing the ID sooner?"

"Hmm.... agree to disagree."

"Okay, well, I guess it's hard to argue with that," concedes Rustin. He asks where Lu learned how to be a doctor.

"The... doctor school in the belt," lies Lu.

"You shouldn't be talking right now, you need to rest," NoDot says to Rustin with a hand on his shoulder. Lu gives him some pain meds and he drifts off.

The cart is unharmed in the clinic lobby. Lu and Number take their leave.

"In the spirit of both of us learning lessons at the end of these little adventures," NoDot says as they walk, "maybe I should've looked before assuming he was going to scam us. Maybe a blind disrespect for all other people sometimes means I don't extend the charity that I ought to. So we both learned something here, we're both growing as people. Happy Christmas."

"I'm proud of you. Happy Christmas," agrees Lu.

They finally make it to their orphanage.

Nikki and Dawes: The dumbest spot check ever

The two get off the train at Europa station. A Star Helix officer stops them and says, "I'm gonna need you to come over here. It appears that you have some stolen cargo."

Dawes looks annoyed. "Are you serious, man? Are you new?"

"Wh... no," claims the officer.

Nikki tells the officer they're just delivering supplies to Picatinny Orphanage. The officer doesn't fully believe her. He says he needs to look at their 'supplies' anyway, and sends the two of them over to a second officer, who asks them why they're hauling such a big package around, and why they're dressed like that.

"So... so this is a Santa Claus outfit," Nikki says. "Santa Claus, like, bring gifts to children--"

"I know who the fuck Santa Claus is, okay?" the officer snaps.

"Yeah, so, the idea is to bring gifts... to the children... for Christmas..."

"Eugh, enough with the children," says the officer, smoking a cigarette. "What are you carrying? Where did you get it?"

Nikki sighs. She describes water, medicine, blankets, and toys.

"Which orphans did you steal this from?" asks the officer once he confirms she's not lying.

"They're going to the orphans. You know, you're doing such a good job. You're so attentive. Your attention to detail is honestly so, so amazing," Nikki attempts to compliment, but he easily picks up on her sarcasm.

"Look, you're walking around in disguises. What am I supposed to think?" he asks.

"Well... in the spirit of Christmas, I think the best of you, and I think you should be thinking the best of me."

The officer seems persuaded. He admits they maybe got off on the wrong foot, but they still need to check all the boxes. Then he immediately tells his fellow officer, "Hey Jack, I'm gonna go get some donuts from the corner store," and walks away.

Nikki and Dawes sit around for 15 minutes waiting. Eventually a third higher-ranking officer comes in and asks what the fuck the first one is doing. "Do you know who that man is?" she exclaims, gesturing to Dawes. She apologizes to him profusely.

"It's okay, I completely understand, Shaddid," Dawes returns.

Donut Officer returns, and Shaddid looks furious. She swipes the donuts out of his hand as Nikki and Dawes make their exit.

The two approach Picatinny Orphanage. Dawes informs Nikki that in the belt, orphanages don't take care of children out of kindness. There's no such thing as free room and board. You live here as a kid, and then you owe the orphanage for the time that you spent, he explains. "They do perform some job placement, and... Well, they're not all bad, but they're really not good."

"How do they enforce collection?" asks Nikki.

"Various ways. Essentially just through wage garnishment. They have a pretty strong control of your identity unless you can get away from them. Obviously it doesn't really give you the leg up in life that you would hope an orphanage would want to provide."

"More of a leg down," Nikki agrees.

"Indeed. But weirdly enough, they're often run by the very people who grew up in them, because it's a job."

"Out of curiosity, where did you get these supplies? No judgment."

"I just paid for them."

"Oh. Why did the guy think you stole it?"

"That guy was a knucklehead."

They successfully finish their delivery to the orphanage.

Session wrap-up

Everyone eventually reconvenes at Dawes' office.

"I don't know about ya'll, but we kinda crushed it," NoDot says.

"What the hell happened to you?" asks Alfie.

Lu and NoDot explain they went on an adventure where they saved lives and grew as people. "I'm gonna go lay down," says Lu. Nikki recommends carrying mace in the future.

Later that night on the ship, Alfie knocks on NoDot's door. "I need you to do something for me," he says.

"Ummmm, sure," expresses NoDot with surprise. "I think this marks the first time you've come to my quarters for a social call?"

Alfie asks them to hack into the system of Hermes Orphanage and try to find records of orphans who've been there, and where they've went, for the last 30 years. Though a little puzzled, and supremely lacking specifics, NoDot agrees to look into it.

Previous: Episode 4

Next: Episode 6