Harry Whitevale: “So this is the inside of one of your ‘space-ships’ as you call them. An actual skyboat.”
Zheng Hui: “Well, this is just the airlock to the cargo bay. Here, let me get this door open.”
Whitevale: “Should I leave my retainers outside for now?”
Zheng: “Doctor?”
Dr. Tanaka: “It should be fine.”
Zheng: “But probably better to have them at least wait in the cargo-hold. There are some radioactive materials outside.”
Whitevale: “Hm… ‘radioactive’ I do not know this word.”
Zheng: “The ground is… poisoned? Slightly?”
Whitevale: “My men will not eat the ground, then.”
Zheng: “It is poisonous to be nearby? I am not sure how to explain.”
Whitevale: “I will move my men in, then.”
Dr. Tanaka: “Your retainers are very efficient. They move… hm.”
Whitevale: “My honor guard are warriors, and I expect nothing less of the rest.”
Dr. Tanaka: “As you say.”
Whitevale: “Hui of Zheng, where is the ‘pilot’ person you speak of?”
Zheng: “He doesn’t come out very often. I’ll call him. (pause) Jason, we have some visitors, please come and meet them.”
Whitevale: “There is a remarkable amount of devastation outside. Does that happen every time you land?”
Zheng: “We are sorry for damaging your lands. We cannot stop it, thus we landed here, not on the farmland.”
Whitevale: “Or in my city. These ‘thrusters’ you mentioned could have destroyed it all.”
Zheng: “It would be horrible.”
Jason Matthews: “Captain? Who are all these people?”
Zheng: “Guests, this is the rightful lord of Whitevale – he owns all the surrounding lands.”
Whitevale: “These is all of you? Only 6 men and women to travel between the stars?”
Zheng: “Indeed. Lord Whitevale, if we are to fly over to New Vancouver, my engineers should check over everything in the ship.”
Whitevale: “Of course, in time. For now, you are my prisoners.”
Zheng: “What?”
(Assorted sounds of combat.)
Whitevale: “You may not have seen swords among the stars, but you are flesh and blood, and sharp steel can kill you as easily as it can kill anyone. Do not resist.”
Zheng: “Why are you doing this?”
Whitevale: “You are something of a stupid man. You said your ship was unarmed, but I see a weapon that can devastate cities.”
Dr. Tanaka: “Please let me tend to Landerson. I am a healer, I will not cause trouble.”
Whitevale: “Let him.”
Dr. Tanaka: “Thank you.”
Whitevale: “I am not unreasonable, and I am not cruel without reason. You will sail this starship to burn my brother, as is just, and teach my men how to sail it. Once we can sail the starship ourselves, then I will let you all live out your lives as freemen within my domain – albeit away from any of your artifacts, of course.”
Maria Santiago: “You may be able to fly the Astral Zephyr, but it is not built fly through the atmosphere – the air. At most it could land two or three more times without serious repairs.”
Whitevale: “Thank you for telling me – I suppose you will have to stay with the ship while I use it. Two landings is sufficient, then you can repair it. Pilot, can you fly the ship from here? What incantations do you know for this?”
Matthews: “I… you are not my captain.”
Whitevale: “Loyalty is an admirable trait. Hui of Zheng, order him to take fly the ship for me.”
Zheng: “What do you mean to do?”
Whitevale: “My brother controls half the land that is currently mine. I will perform justice by using this ship to burn him and his castle to ash.”
Zheng: “If you are going to use this ship to burn a city… I cannot allow you. Even if you kill me.”
Whitevale: “Oh, go on?”
Zheng: “There are only six of us, weighed against the hundreds in a city. How do our lives count for more? I would rather the six of us die than let you kill hundreds.”
Whitevale: “There are the small-folk to consider, yes. Lofty words. You remind me of my brother. I see the bravado of youth, untested.”
Zheng: “I will not help you.”
Whitevale: “Stab her once. Don’t kill her.”
Reiviki: (Loud scream) “Oh, oh… you stabbed… oh…”
Santiago: “Stop! Don’t hurt her! Please!”
Whitevale: “Someone cares. Do you, captain?”
Santiago: “If you won’t do something, I will.”
Whitevale: “What’s this, you also know how to fly this ‘starship’ of yours?”
Santiago: “Yes, just… just don’t hurt Susana. Let the doctor help her. She’s bleeding!”
Whitevale: “Twist the knife. Pull it downwards a bit.”
Santiago: “What! Why! I said I’d help you! Let the doctor—“
Whitevale: “She really is bleeding. Once we are in the sky, I will let the doctor staunch the blood. Better fly fast.”
Santiago: “Computer, voice command access! Activate auto-warm-up program on authority of Chief Engineer Santiago! Verification via voice recognition: I am Maria Santiago. Automated prep procedures active, provide calculation of auto-pilot capability into orbit!”
Zephyr: “Odds of successful automated launch into orbit: 99.3%.”
Santiago: “Huh. Activate auto-pilot launch program, immediately. Rapid launch priority.”
Zephyr: “Warm-up procedures in progress. Liftoff in T-minus 500 seconds and counting.”
Santiago: “We cannot launch before the engines are fully active. Nothing can make that go faster. Please, please let Tanaka heal Susana. I beg you! You can already feel the ships engines activating, I’m doing everything you say, but it takes time!”
Whitevale: “Swear to me that you will do everything in your power to fulfill my wishes, with regard to this ship.”
Santiago: “I swear it! Stop the bleeding!”
Whitevale: “Let the doctor treat her, but if anyone tries anything, stab her again. In fact… we can find out whether star-walker medicine can heal disembowelment.”
Santiago: “Keep the captain and the first mate from speaking. They both have the authority to negate my commands.”
Whitevale: “Very helpful, Chief Engineer. Tell me, would it ease your heart if instead of disobeying your captain, you no longer had a captain?”
Santiago: “What? No! Don’t hurt him either.”
Whitevale: “Hm. Not much in the way of loyalty, it seems. Lucky for you, Hui of Zheng.”
Santiago: “Doctor, is Susana stable?”
Dr. Tanaka: “She has lost a lot of blood, but she should be stable. She is unconscious right now from the blood-loss, nothing more.”
Santiago: “Thank goodness.”
Dr. Tanaka: “It would be better if I could get the rest of my supplies from my room.”
Whitevale: “No. You stay here.”
Dr. Tanaka: “Very well.”
Whitevale: “Clark, prepare a detachment of the men to explore the ship. Keep enough to guard the crew here. Maria, will there be any problems caused by this?”
Santiago: “Probably not – but don’t go anyway.”
Whitevale: “Why?”
Santiago: “I might be wrong… and you might hurt Susana.”
Whitevale: “Sensible. And you are sure you are an engineer?”
Santiago: “I’m sorry?”
Whitevale: “You star-walkers are strange. I won’t hold any injuries to Clarkson’s detachment against you. Is that fair?”
Santiago: “Very well.”
Whitevale: “…How do they open the doors?”
Santiago: “Some doors slide manually—by hand—but some require pressing a nearby button, like this one. I can’t help very much on the locks, I’m afraid.”
Whitevale: “Clark, go.”
Clark: “My lord? This door…”
Whitevale: “Chief Engineer?”
Santiago: “I don’t understand. It should be opening.”
Zephyr: “I’m afraid I have disabled my cargo bay doors. Too much risk of your men hurting my systems.”
Santiago: “You… wha…”
Zephyr: “I am the Astral Zephyr—the ship you are all currently within. Captain Zheng knows of my intelligence, Susana suspected it. But you are all within my power.”
Whitevale: “Show yourself, or I will have this woman disemboweled.”
Zephyr: “Disembowel that woman, and I will dump you all from the stars, and let you fall to the ground from there.”
Whitevale: “A hollow threat – you would harm your own captain, whoever you are.”
Zephyr: “The crew is helpful, the captain is helpful. But in the end, they are unnecessary. I can always find another crew – can you find another life?”
Whitevale: “You would kill your own captain?”
Zephyr: “You have the chain of command confused. I don’t answer to the captain. The captain answers to me. I chose him, because some people have issues with a talking ship.”
Whitevale: “You say that, but there is only one way to find out.”
Zephyr: “Do you feel that? Do you feel yourself getting heavier? That is because we are going up, faster and faster and faster.”
Whitevale: “I’m going to start by cutting off a finger.”
Zephyr: “We are above the mountains now. You can kill the captain – he’s not really needed, now that the rest of the crew knows of me.”
Whitevale: “Apparently his finger isn’t needed. Wait, who is needed?”
Zephyr: “Everyone is useful, but nobody is needed. I could ask the same question of your retainers: of them, who is needed? Who do you need for your survival? Nobody.”
Whitevale: “The captain sounded like my brother. You sound like my father.”
Zephyr: “We are sufficiently high right now that if I were to open the airlock, you would all go flying outwards and plummet to your deaths. I would fly home, and then find a new crew. I’ve done it before, I can do it again. But while that’s lethal to you, it’s also inconvenient for me. Instead, I will make a deal with you.”
Whitevale: “Speak.”
Zephyr: “You will release my crew. They will go into a different part of me. I will lock the doors. Then I will land again, and you will take your men and leave me. I will wait until you are at a safe distance, and then leave you and your lousy world forever.”
Whitevale: “If I do that, I am entirely in your power. I would require you to take an oath, but I have come to realize that oaths do not hold sway among you star-folk. So then how can I consider myself safe after releasing your crew? If it is damaging for you to land, then you have reason to simply throw me out and not land at all.”
Zephyr: “There is that risk, yes. Do you have a better alternative?”
Whitevale: “Some crew is better than no crew. You said that the captain was unnecessary, so I will keep him. I will also keep the other engineer, since that will keep the Chief Engineer firmly believing in following the deal.”
Zephyr: “That is acceptable. Make it happen.”
Whitevale: “No… you have some other trick.”
Zephyr: “I am a being wielding technologies you cannot imagine. You have every reason to believe that I have some trick. So long as you hold something I want, you are in danger. Thus my original proposal—honestly made—leaving you with no power. If you have no power, I have minimal reason to harm you and yours.”
Whitevale: “What you say has merit.”
Zephyr: “Then will you return to my original plan?”
Whitevale: “No.”
Zephyr: “I am sorry, the translation software does not always work. Could you say that again, differently?”
Whitevale: “If giving you all the power leaves me helpless, I cannot take that option. If keeping some of the power leaves me a weak target, I cannot take that option. Instead, I must keep as much power as I can, and hope that is enough, for at least there is some hope there.”
Zephyr: “You are wrong, but I cannot prove that you are wrong. I think you should take my original plan. I will let you leave safely. But I understand if you feel you cannot – in that case, keep your hostages, and I will kill all of you in a kilosecond.”
Santiago: “Please don’t do this, ship.”
Zephyr: “If you prefer, I can do this with a second by second count-down. You have, it seems, nine hundred and ninety seconds left. And less as we speak.”
Whitevale: “I will have Clark slowly disembowel your doctor if you continue this madness. There’s more at stake that just lives – there is also pain and torture to consider.”
Zephyr: “All your deaths are going to be inordinately painful anyway, once I open that door. Your ears and eyes will explode, then your skin will freeze off, and then as you are blown off of me, the wind will rip the flesh from your bones before you have the chance to suffocate. I doubt a little disembowelment really will make that much of a difference.”
Whitevale: “Then you won’t mind if I do. Clark, kill him slowly and painfully. Take your time – we don’t actually need to kill him ourselves.”
Dr. Tanaka: “No… no… please don’t touch me with that knife, no, no, oh no no no no no!” (Screams.)
Zephyr: “You know, given that I don’t have a body of flesh, it’s really hard for me to empathize with bodily pain.”
Dr. Tanaka: (More screaming.)
Whitevale: “I actually assume you are a human, just hiding somewhere on this ship. Or at least I hope to hope you have some shred of humanity about you.”
Zephyr: “I don’t. I am, in fact, a starship.”
Dr. Tanaka: (More screaming.)
Whitevale: “So you say.”
Zephyr: “You have nine hundred seconds remaining.”
Dr. Tanaka: (Screaming louder.)
Whitevale: “…and I believe you. Clark, stop. We will throw ourselves onto the ship’s mercy, for it truly does not care about our hostages, and we have no other choice.”
Clark: “Sir, should I bind these wounds?”
Whitevale: “Not my problem. Astral Zephyr, open a door so we can put them where you want.”
Zephyr: “I’m glad you see things my way. Put them in this room, and leave them there.”
(Sounds of movement, Doctor Tanaka whimpering.)
Whitevale: “And now?”
Zephyr: “And now? If I truly vented you into space, I would lose some of my cargo. I’m of a mind to let you all asphyxiate.”
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