Zero Divide: Episode #2 "Black Star"

[Shayuri]

Facade absorbs all that, or tries to.

"Okay, here's the situation. Your daughter Mira is hiding out and this alien who's leading us is being blackmailed by the cartel to give her up to them. We have twenty-four hours or they'll kill his wife-equivalent. As far as I know, the only one who can take us to her is him. Since he's also the one who led us out of the station and claimed your pals would be killing us, I don't think he'd going to want to cooperate with them."

"So, beer or no beer, you might want to come with us if you want to see your daughter."

She looks into the car and nods cordially at Ashana and Wedge. "Assuming that won't lead to people getting killed."

"And yes, we all hear a buzzing. Dee thought it sounded like music, then she collapsed. You think you can help her?"

 

[Hammerhead]

Michael's Double

Michael reaches his hand into his pocket, then hesitates. "Information first. Then I'll pay," he says suspiciously. "The price depends on the quality. You better not be trying to rip me off." I'll be able to pay him eventually, once I get some money. Unless I can't find him or I forget.

Bluff +6, taking 10.

The Real Michael

"Damn it," Michael mutters. "I'm with Haven. Let's get out of here. Talos, let's go."

 

[James Heard]

Facade absorbs all that, or tries to.

"Okay, here's the situation. Your daughter Mira is hiding out and this alien who's leading us is being blackmailed by the cartel to give her up to them. We have twenty-four hours or they'll kill his wife-equivalent. As far as I know, the only one who can take us to her is him. Since he's also the one who led us out of the station and claimed your pals would be killing us, I don't think he'd going to want to cooperate with them."

"So, beer or no beer, you might want to come with us if you want to see your daughter."

She looks into the car and nods cordially at Ashana and Wedge. "Assuming that won't lead to people getting killed."

"And yes, we all hear a buzzing. Dee thought it sounded like music, then she collapsed. You think you can help her?"

'No, Mira isn't my daughter, Vanessa is. I really don't know what Mira's involvement is in all of this, but she's not my daughter. And since Ashana and Wedge haven't threatened me except when we had a discussion about Mike or her father, and your guy is admitting that he's involved with criminal gangs, forgive me if I don't give them a lot more weight in the authority department than him. If it helps, they're the ones that insisted against incapacitating everyone and sorting out the discussions later. I know what I can do, and I'm mostly harmless. Some of you, like Dee? Pure psychotic...paranoid..."

"Once I figure out exactly what 'it' is I might be able to do something about it, and maybe get her into some other therapy too...anti-anxiety meds, stuff like that," Alan says.

 

[Shayuri]

"I don't think it matters how much weight you give him, them, us...or anyone. The facts are: Talos knows where to find Mira, and is taking us there. Talos probably won't cooperate with your friends...as goodhearted as they may be. Though I'm open to asking him. But then of course, everyone else pretty much thinks you're scum at the moment, so..."

She shrugs.

"If it was up to me, I'd say all of us, including your people and Talos, need to sit down at a table someplace safe and get EVERYTHING out onto the table. Right now, you know bits, we know bits, Talos knows bits...and we'll never get answers unless those bits all come together. If you and your 'captors' or whatever they are are willing to do that, I'll try to convince the others."

"As for the buzzing, my first theory is that it means all this is just another fake reality, and something's going wrong with whatever's making us sense it. But I don't see anything constructive coming out of trying to prove that theory, so it's probably better to assume it's something we can do something about."

 

[James Heard]

Alan shrugs.

"Look, I've already done my part. You folks can go hang out with your evil galactic criminal organizations if you like. This Talos character can come with me and I'll see if I can't figure out how to save his spouse too. Even if the rest of you don't want to come with me and Ashana you can leave Dee with me and I'll see what I can do to treat her. But this wasn't my idea and I'm really only asking you guys to come around because the nice green lady asked me to, fake reality or not. You guys have numbers on your side, but you've only gotten as far as the Tram on your own."

Alan shakes his head.

"Anyways, good luck if you're not coming with us. Mike's real name is Georgy or something like that, and I'm Doctor Alan Tighe. We're probably all taken from Omega Tau III. If you can get access to a GalNet point that might help you figure out who you all are and jog your memory some. Wedge, do you have a communicator or something that this woman can have so we can get in touch if they change their mind?"

"You want us to take Dee off your hands and get her into a hospital or something? Maybe ask Talos if he wants to try this thing with us instead of the jumpsuit brigade?"

 

[Shayuri]

Facade laughs.

"I'll take that as a convoluted 'yes,' to my proposal. I'll take it to the others and see what they say. You guys want to come too, or just hand me a walkie-talkie?"

 

[James Heard]

"It's a 'I'm offering to help you guys even if I don't like everyone's table manners' because whatever else anyone might think of me I'm still a doctor. You, me, and the people who think I'm scum? We're all sick. Ashana's overruled me helping you guys even if you don't want it, but if any of this is a symptom of a trauma... some sort of injury? Mood swings are part of that. So are brain aneurysms."

Alan shrugs helplessly.

"People dropping dead because they're pissed at me isn't something I think is a good idea, even if they are idiots. Get everyone to a hospital. Get a hold of a HMI and use it to scavenge your memories if you can. Stay away from the cartels. Be safe."

 

[Shayuri]

"Look, I'm all in favor of some of that at least, but right now we have twenty four hours or someone's dead because we didn't do anything to stop it. It's a case of might be dead...that's us...and will be dead...that's her."

"Look, why don't you all just get out of the car and come back with me?"

 

[James Heard]

"Because I don't trust you, I don't trust the people you hang out with, and you're associating with a guy who's being blackmailed by the mob that's looking for my daughter to break her kneecaps, that's why."

Alan sighs and reaches up to his face to rub where non-existent glasses might otherwise rest at the bridge of his nose.

"Look, I get it. You do what you've got to do. I do too. I didn't blackmail the woman though, and I'm not some sort of action hero to go bust down doors and take out criminals with my two-fisted punch to their spleens either. You say 'us', but that's really 'you and the others.' Don't try to play on my sympathies, because I've already offered to help and explained more or less how that's going to go down."

"I can tell you this though: I'm not going to do anything with myself that might lead to me being used as leverage against Vanessa by some galactic criminal cartel."

"I think we're done here, unless you want to bring over Dee for that medical care or someone wants to start shooting?"

 

[Shayuri]

"Alright then. Good luck finding your daughter. You want to leave me a number I can call if we find her first? Shocking as it may seem, we're not planning to hand anyone over to the mob."