Episode 2

Starting: Saturday, 2350-06-17
Ending: Monday, 2350-06-26

2350-06-17 (Saturday)

The Big Reveal

The morning following Episode 1, Kova assesses the damage to the ship and begins the simplest repairs, mostly able to use the supplies she gathered from her Shuttle. NoDot spends the morning hours streaming. The remainder have gathered in the galley to eat breakfast. Emilio, still barely able to walk after the gunshot wound, rests back down on his makeshift hospital bed, a crash couch, across from the Galley in the passenger couch compartment. [[User:Talula|] tends to him, as he asks to give a brief speech to everyone on the ship. At this point, everyone had convened except for NoDot. While they waited, Alfie asks Emilio for help with a crossword puzzle and pretty soon everyone is trying to solve it.

NoDot arrives after Nikki solves "cranberry", a nine letter fruit that pops when cooked.

First, Emilio thanks Lu for keeping him alive, and suggests to Nikki that the crew would be smart to take her on permanently as crew. He then says "Norville, you’re lucky I got shot or I would’ve caved your fucking skull in. You can thank Alfie for that one. You don’t seem as bad as those other two though. Now give me your fucking hand terminal." Norville complies and he hands it off to NoDot, asking them to double check that the terminal couldn't be tracked by CPM, and also to disclose any information they find on it. He turns to Kova and apologizes that she got wrapped up in this. In one piece herself, she doesn't seem to mind. Seeing it as an excuse to leave Rhea.

Following this, he pauses for a moment, taking a breath, and then reminded the crew of what he said previously: that he's The Mechanic that CPM was looking for. Emilio is (or was?) a real scientist who really worked with Antony Dresden, but this was not him. Nikki asked for his real name, and the man who formerly claimed to be Emilio said that for as long as he can remember, about 8 years old, he was using fake names and assuming identities, and that his only steady moniker was "The Mechanic". This nickname was given to him by the OPA, whom he'd worked for since he was about 14. When describing the meaning of it, he said "I’m a fixer. And… I’ve re-arranged a face or two with a pipe wrench. Or maybe it was a pipe I don’t remember. Anyway it doesn’t matter. Point is, those freaks must have caught wind that I’m not Emilio, and heard it was an OPA mechanic. Only for some reason they thought the OPA was sending an actual mechanic."

Around now, NoDot successfully gains access to Norville's hand terminal. They flash the screen at The Mechanic who immediately notices that it belongs to Mack Silva, not Norville Rogers. Upon interrogation, Mack announces that he is a big millenaboo, a fan of millanime and that he blurted out the name of his favorite character while under duress. He was afraid that it was too late to come clean without fear of punishment. NoDot reveals that they are also a millanime fan, and bond a small amount over the discovery of mutual interests.

Nikki, uninterested in millanime, and also unable to accept that The Mechanic has no name, suggests that we make one up for him. NoDot and Mack run through a list of millanime characters and settle on Zuko after nearly settling on Goku. The Mechanic says he will accept whatever name he is given.

Mack tells the crew that he didn't even want to be in CPM, and that his parents made him do it because this was the kind of a job that men do. NoDot took interest in this revelation, but The Mechanic, now Zuko, re-commandeered the conversation.

"Nikki," he said, "nice ship." She revealed that the ship belonged to Alfie, but Zuko had already surmised this from a previous conversation. Finally, turning to Alfie, he said "Helluva pilot," referring to their initial landing on Rhea, followed by "Not much of a negotiator though." with a grin. "Don't worry. It wasn't the first time I was shot, and hopefully it won't be the last. Because in my profession, the last bullet you take is the one that does you in."

"The way I see it," he said, "there are two ways we can go from here. We can either go back to Vesta, I pay you, and we go our separate ways and forget any of this ever happened. Or, I fill in the remaining details and hopefully we... save the world? I'll still give you the second half of the fee but I can’t promise my pockets will stay so deep. Bossmang miiight cut me off if I keep spending money like this."

The Decision

The crew and Zuko discuss a few things (Expand?) before agreeing that they wouldn't be parting ways, and the best course of action would be to escort him to Ceres and discuss the findings with Dawes.

Final Preparations

First, the remaining repairs must be made, requiring Kova to go into town and trade her spare titanium alternator for a new Bremsstrahlung condenser for the fusion drive. Without this the Terpsichore will likely lose electrical power during the 18 day flight to Ceres. While in Nova Nexus, Alfie and Nikki go to The Atonement Speak Easy nearby, before heading off to a night club at The Hive. Kova has a chat with Vance Watanabe, who has to go look in the back but eventually does turn up with the part she needs and agrees to the deal.

Back on the ship, NoDot invites themself into Kova's new room on the ship, and hacks into her pet robot, duplicating its data to their hand-terminal.

Then she goes out to meet up with Nikki and Alfie at the night club.

Partying like it's the end of the world

Each of them get absolutely hammered on locally sourced fermented mushroom vodka trying to push the uncertainty of the future into the back of their mind. (I forget what they were).

2350-06-18 (Sunday)

Waking up, and feeling it in their bones

The next morning, Kova is already up, has already repaired the seized maneuvering thrusters, and is in the process of making the final repairs to the fusion drive when the three partiers wake up more hungover than they've been in some time.

(Missing a bunch of stuff here)

All Systems Go!

Kova and Lu sit on the Ops deck with NoDot, who standoffishly allows it, but complains to Nikki that they're touching her stuff. Until now, NoDot has been alone on the ops deck and preferred it that way. Kova doesn't listen, and instead monitors the ship diagnostics during lift-off, leading to a brief argument between the two.

Kova gives her heartfelt goodbyes to Rhea with a "Fuck you, stupid rock." Upon standing, she realizes she will need to re-acclimate from the 0.04g of Rhea to the 0.3g thrust gravity of the ship. She seeks bone density drugs from Lu.

Other things to add:

2350-06-19 (Monday)

Movie Night

(They watch a movie. I forget which one.) There are currently 7 people on the ship, and only six seats in the crew cabin. Mack offers his seat to NoDot but she instead refuses, and leaves the room.

2350-06-20 (Tuesday)

Chess by Light

Tuesday rolls around and NoDot spends the day having a discussion while on a 2-hr comm delay. They tells their girlfriend:

• They are having trouble coming to terms with the new social structure on the ship and are having trouble making friends.
  • She tries to comfort NoDot by bonding over shared difficulty finding friendship.
• They hacked into the camera and microphone of Kova's pet robot
  • She tells NoDot that this is an invasion of privacy and that she should just talk to Kova if she wants to be friends
• They says they don't think Kova would want to be friends with them
  • She assures them that she knows that isn't true.
• Their entire adventure with Zuko
  • She is interested in this because NoDot mentioned there is a biochemical aspect to it.

2350-06-26 (Monday)

Movie Night Two: Electric Boogaloo

(I also forget what movie this was)

NoDot works up the confidence to participate this time, giving everyone a bucket of cheese balls and staring at Mack until he gets out of her seat.