Welcome to where time stands still

[astrogator]

Who: Ari Tayrey and Team Mutiny
What: A call has been answered
When: January 16
Where: Ari's cabin
Warnings: Description of physical injury, game-typical horror themes, probably an ethical debate

On the evening of January 15, a text message goes out to every member of the launch team. On the evening of January 16, those who wish to gather to hear some important news.

Starters will be in comments, PM or plurk with any questions. If your character is on the team and you want a separate chat with Ari post-attack, feel free to use this post for it and create your own wildcard toplevel - your character can have visited her earlier or be taking a turn as her bodyguard, because she needs them now.

Comments

TEXT

[astrogator]

[Despite her initial thought to consult Crichton alone about the letter she received, when the time comes Ari finds the sense of urgency too great. One person at a time won't cut it.

The following message goes out to all her close and trusted allies. Those whose loyalties aren't in any doubt. She'll also tell Sparkles in person and be clearer about what she actually means! The message reads:]

Peace & Prosperity

I'm so pleased we could all watch the season finale of For the Company together. Controversial ending, right?

If you're staying with us for season five, meet in my cabin tomorrow evening. I'll have spacer snacks. Episode 1, 'Probability Has Smiled On Us' is meant to be a good one. Invitees only please, no extra guests. The holoprojector needs room.

Lieutenant Tayrey

MEETING

[astrogator]

[ooc: Group discussion, threadjacks welcome unless marked private.]

[Let's hope you weren't really looking forward to watching the holodrama. Ari Tayrey ushers in her team quickly and quietly, before taking up a spot on the sofa. It's a week since she was attacked by Siffleur, and she still looks dreadful. Her face is a mass of bandages and dressings, one eye completely covered up and the other still swollen. There's a faded red welt across her neck. Her uniform covers the rest of the damage, but her movements are stiff and awkward, and she winces in pain as she leans back against her cushion.

Without much preamble, she shares the letter she received the previous day. Despite everything, there's a hopeful little smile on her face before she reads it out. When she's done, she passes it around so that each member of the group can take a good look at the actual document if they so wish.]

I want your thoughts. [Her voice is soft.] On the problems this might cause us, on strategy, on our path forward. I'll be clear. Caution is absolutely necessary here - but inaction is not an option. We might never get another chance like this.

[myagic]

I. Ari - Girl what happen???
[Yeah, Rita's going to just immediately gape at Ari because what the absolute hell. She has enough sense to slip inside the door before shaking her head and outright demanding-]

Okay, first, what the hell happened to you?

II. Meeting
.........Okay, I'm just going to say it. This is seriously suspicious.

II. Meeting

[theotherright]

[ Here we are at an enormous watershed moment, nay a turning point in the workings of the universe, because: ]

I can't disagree.

[not_the_last]

Cassandra looks pale and tight-lipped, though whether that's more to do with Tayrey's injuries or the contents of the letter is hard to say.

"It's clear from the first sentence alone that this person has no regard for us, and either doesn't care if we know it or doesn't think we'll notice. Whatever else they say, and whatever we do in response, has to be taken in light of that."

[myagic]

For her part, Rita's mouth is also pressed in a grim, dissatisfied line, arms crossed as she taps an irritated foot. Oh, she has problems with both the letter and Ari's state, but as for the letter-

"I mean, nobody in their right mind is going to trust someone who thinks this place would be a good museum artifact."

At least they're all agreed on that point, probably.

[neverleave]

"The best we can hope for is that they ignore us. So if we follow through and the barrier falls, we have to be ready to get out right away."

[theotherright]

"This string-- it-it's not described as killing the Captain. Only defanging him. Where does he-- what does this 'friend' expect to do with him when they take the realm?"

He's uneasy about that loose end, no less uneasy than he is about the other details left unspoken.

I. Ari - Girl what happen???

[astrogator]

[She should have expected this. Ari might have been living with this for a week, but some of the others are seeing the damage for the first time. She'd hoped that politeness would keep anyone from asking, but - here we are.]

Peace and prosperity to you too, Citizen Rita! I'll be fine. It happened days ago. We'll talk about it later, I've got something more important to share first.

[myagic]

Wha-

[The unfazed response from Ari actually makes her speechless for a moment, before she finally manages to find the words.]

Don't be stupid! That's clearly not nothing! I'd call whatever happened to you pretty damn important.

[neverleave]

[Natsuno, stone-faced as usual, kicks Rita in the shin. First offense!]

[myagic]

Ow! Wha--what is it?

[She shoots Natsuno a mostly-confused look. Isn't this important???]

[neverleave]

[Without looking at Rita:]

Tayrey, you said you have something important to share?

[astrogator]

[She's taken aback by Rita's words, because all issues of tone aside, how she's interpreting it is that Rita cares what happens to her. Thinks it's important. By this point Ari probably shouldn't be so surprised when this happens, but she always is. Her expression softens.]

Look, I appreciate that. Honestly, it means a lot. But the mission comes first, right?

[myagic]

[Ari's pretty on the money, too, because Rita does care when someone's clearly injured--extremely severely, at that--right in front of her. She doesn't get how Ari can brush it off like it's nothing.

She softens a little too, though she still looks ready to argue--but apparently Natsuno wants her to stop asking about it, so she clicks her tongue and sighs.]

Fine, but you're going to explain after, got it?

ota.

[abhorrently]

"...Following this document is saying you're content to do the same thing to him as he's doing to us."

The words are flat, but there's something in how Fever's pitching her voice that speaks and spikes to danger, to trying to get the entire room to hush without raising the volume. She's been reading over the letter, listening to the discussions, and there's a twist to her expression. Something bitter and scathing.

"I well knew that this was a possibility, but it's another thing to hear it said aloud. Disregarding the obvious problems that we can't guarantee freedom for anyone but Tayrey from these ambiguous words, accepting these terms sounds precisely like agreeing to enslave him for our own goals. Which sends us down to their level."

She remembers someone who spoke like this to her. Asking her to steal an unborn child in the name of progress. That woman's armor was pried from her corpse.

"They don't even see him as a person. Just a power source for this demiplane."

[not_the_last]

"There is a difference," says Cassandra, not coldly but very precisely, "between imprisoning and torturing a random selection of unknown strangers who have done you no offense, and condemning one's captor and torturer to the same as one's only means of gaining freedom. I am willing to debate the ethical acceptability of what is proposed here; I do not accept that it is the same as what he has done and is currently doing."

[abhorrently]

"You're willing to debate it, or you're going to try and see if you can't browbeat me into accepting it? Do be precise, Lady de Rolo."

The title should be respectful, not tossed out like a dart. And yet, here they are.

"Let me put it another way then. After knowing the fucking terror and horror that comes with being reduced to nothing but a battery, after knowing what it feels like to be subject to someone's cruelties with no escape, you would gladly put tighter chains on another conscious being, and consider that it makes you better than him, because you only did it to one person who hurt you personally."

Her eyes do not leave Cassandra's.

"Give him death in whatever way would best soothe your heart. Flay his skin and turn it to boots for your pretty feet. I'll hand you the knives and tan the leather myself. But don't think you're above him, when you're willing to do this."

[myagic]

"Is there even anything to debate here?" Rita cuts in. "I sure as hell don't want Captain Jerk's power under this fishy weirdo's control."

Everyone agrees with that, right? Right??

"In other words...we've failed this time." The probe reached a recipient but not one they want. They have to start over from scratch--if they even can.

[not_the_last]

Cassandra, opening her mouth to reply, stops to let Rita finish speaking.

And nods, slowly. "You're right, of course. Not necessarily that we've failed, but that the possibility of our captor's power in this person's hands may not be an acceptable risk."

DEBATE CONCLUSIONS

[astrogator]

In Ari Tayrey's opinion, one of the faults of prior meetings to discuss rebelling against their captor was that no conclusions were ever reached. People debated and disagreed, and the lack of consensus led to a lack of action. So, true to her word, she lets the group discuss whatever they like, even points she finds unpalatable. When it all seems to have played out, however, she draws them back together.

'We've heard a lot today, some of it speculative, but in the end we can only make decisions based on the information we have, as best we can. Inaction and delay are decisions in themselves.' Decisions that usually get a spacer killed. Tayrey has been trained to prefer a sub-optimal solution to none at all. 'I'm going to ask each of you what your recommended path forward is, as of now. With the understanding that we can't follow everyone's recommendation - but I want to hear them all.' A short pause. 'Don't feel pressured, you can decline to answer, but you do have the opportunity.'

She'll ask them each in turn. The truth is, if they're all very against using the red string, that might not stop her from doing it, but then she really would be acting as an individual, not as their mission commander. Rogue, Fever had said. That. She can't just do nothing.

[ss_buttcrack]

He takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly through his nose. As the second here, it's only fair he chimes in next.

"I don't like this setup. It's too vague, sounds too much like a trap. I don't like putting my trust in someone who won't tell us who they really are or how they just so happen to have the exact tool we needed to incapacitate our captor. It's all a little too convenient. I don't want to use that string, not the way our 'friend' asked us to." Maybe they can find some other use for it, something they can control better. He's going to be putting all his thought into that, trying to form any kind of better plan.

"I get it, we don't want to broadcast to the whole ship what we've got and risk more of us being hurt, but it still leaves a bad taste in mouth to not to tell them anything. I don't know..." He really doesn't know how to reconcile this.

"I say we ask Sparkles what it knows about this string first? See if it can give us any insights. I mean... this isn't a suggestion, mind you, but I can't help but wonder if the string would also affect it since Sparkles and our captor share a connection. I just... think we need to be armed with more information than we have. Desperate, ignorant people don't come to the negotiation table with the same kind of power. We're in real danger of being taken for a ride."

[not_the_last]

"I agree with that," Cassandra says firmly. "If there's any way to gain more information, we need to do that first. But ..."

A deep breath. "If we can't learn anything more -- if a point comes where we're all in agreement that we don't have any way to learn anything more, or where no one can propose any method of doing so -- I think using the string may be worth the risk. With the understanding that we need to be prepared to fight whoever comes, or get out ahead of their arrival if we can."

She squeezes her hands together in her lap. "And if anyone can think of a way to warn everyone else on board that a fight may be coming, even if only very shortly beforehand, I think we owe it to them. Any way at all to give them a fighting chance without destroying our own chance at bringing it about."

[abhorrently]

"At the least, subtly bring up the idea of fighting to people you know can and will. And I do mean subtly, everyone's going to be on high alert still right now." Fever has a look on her face that says she's planning something, or at the least drawing the skeleton of an idea together. "It shouldn't be hard to get them preparing."

"But I'm in agreement on trying to seek any more information before we jump to utilizing it. And if it comes to it...tread with the utmost caution. Give as little as you can to our correspondent."

She would rather burn the thread to a crisp. But it's not her decision to make, and she has a tightness in her chest, making another decision she'll have to live with.

"...In the meantime, I'm going to keep helping clean up the ship, and the rest of you who are capable should as well. It'll keep you out of any suspicion."

And, yeah, they still have to live here for a little while longer.

[astrogator]

This goes against Tayrey's training. Memories of Savitskaya yelling at her that while she was dithering on the simulated bridge and telling her virtual crew to keep gathering more information so she could make decisions, holes were being blown through her ship. Simulation failed. Action is better than inaction.

But others' instincts matter too, and if Tayrey's aren't on such high alert as the others' are, it might be because she'd pay a much higher price to get off this ship than they would. There was a time when a stranger deliberately getting peace and prosperity wrong would have been an affront, an insult she couldn't bear, but that was ground out of her long ago, in this place where only the people she's closest to even understand what the Tradelines really are. She just wants freedom, even if the only way is by uneven contract.

Still. She'll listen to her team, especially as they're building on each other's ideas, not arguing over them. Even if she doesn't like waiting, she's not physically in a position to do anything about it right now. At least that saves her from having to say that under no circumstance is she cleaning up her prison. It makes sense for the others, though, if they want to keep suspicion away and they aren't bothered by the task.

'I invited Sparkles to this meeting,' she says slowly. 'I guess lengthy meetings don't appeal to it, but it's part of our team. Asking its opinion seems a sound idea. I'll do that, if it comes to visit me. Or one of you can. More efficient.' A little sigh. 'I likely won't be up to fighting, personally, if I'm realistic about it, but you know I'll do what I can to support you and to find a way out.'

(And she will - not two days later she'll speak excitedly to as many of them as she can and share the plan she hatched with Flan - but for now, her analysis isn't turning up anything useful.)