Move 20 Recap

On the Wasp

Galley: Ashari and Virmad; messages with Sulen

Around 05:80, Sulen messages Ashari and suggests confronting the station administrator in person, on the grounds that the mothling and the gun Mikodez printed will be useful for intimidating the station administrator. Ashari answers, "I trust you to read the situation. We'll do it your way." Sulen responds, "I appreciate the trust."

Meanwhile, Ashari asks Virmad whether he learned anything useful from Teo. Virmad says he "would describe Teo as scrupulous in terms of his immediate duties but perhaps doctrinally lax." Ashari observes this could be useful, then tells Virmad about Sulen's plan, adding, "Take Sasha and Ankat with you on the way out, safety in numbers, you know how it goes."

On the Station

Outside Medical: Alaric, Crowned-With-Eyes, Fluffy, Iawa, Istradez, Mikodez, and Sulen; messages with Ashari and Sasha

Sulen sends their messages to Ashari. They also send Sasha an oblique message, instructing her to give the doctored evidence of heresy to Virmad. Meanwhile, Mikodez notices that the mothling Crowned-With-Eyes is making more noise; he asks Alaric why this might be. Alaric points out that moths seem surprisingly social, and probably have ways to communicate that don't involve sound as well. Mikodez then says to Istradez, "Look, Cousin Imsayed, I found the Vraselian pseudo-dragon!" Istradez' eyes are unfocused, and he's slurring his words. He says, "Zehun stopped you from adopting birds already, Miki. I really don't think they're going to approve a dragon." Mikodez wonders whether the "birds" referred to a private Kel detachment. Istradez appears to fall asleep again.

In the Visitors' Quarters: Alaric, Ankat, Crowned-With-Eyes, Fluffy, Iawa, Istradez, Mikodez, Sasha, Sulen, and Virmad

Ankat, Sasha, and Virmad meet their fellow team members outside Medical. Sasha leads the way to the visitors' quarters, humming to the mothling, who responds cheerfully. Sasha clears the visitors' quarters of surveillance and traps the bug on Istradez' lokwor. Ankat stands by the door, keeping an eye out for station personnel.

Sasha prints an air pistol for Sulen and affixes a sticker that will tell the station's recycling program to crush the object. When she offers the pistol to Sulen, they respond, "Wonderful. Now we have two." They set the bag holding the mothling and Mikodez' gun on a table; the mothling flutters out. Sasha asks Alaric to look after the mothling, and examines the weapon Mikodez printed, noting the lack of ammunition. Alaric shepherds the mothling away, observing, "It seems like we're past the point of where guns would be useful." Sasha, who argued this point with Sulen earlier, snaps, "There's a reason we've stopped fucking around with ammunition delivery." She tells Sulen that she is about to destroy Mikodez' gun, and they should take the air pistol. Sulen, who seems highly stressed, answers, "Yes, good, fine. Just get that boy back to the Wasp and then, I strongly advise you, lock him up." Sasha worries about what Ashari will do to Mikodez. Meanwhile, Alaric whistles at the mothling and speculates about constructing a melodic pidgin.

Mikodez asks Alaric, "So when are we going to make Crowned-with---Noodles deliriously happy by reuniting it with its kin? Do we know if this station has full-grown moths of its own?" In response to an irritated comment from Ankat, he then starts packing the materials for Ashari's exhibit. He eventually falls asleep on a stack of supplies; his eyes appear open due to a temporary nictitating-membrane mod.

The Rahal remain on the station, while the rest of the team members return to the Wasp. Virmad says to Sulen, "We should contact the Administrator and inform her that we want to speak with her. Are you all right?" Sulen apologizes and then asks, "Is this what you thought it'd be like? Constant complications and most of the trouble from our own side?" Virmad confesses that he is surprised and disturbed by the lack of common purpose: "At least real heretics have a belief system to structure their work around. We don't even have that." Sulen smiles in relief and replies, "I can certainly relate to all of that. Although now I'm not sure I'd trust a straightforward purpose if it got handed to me. Ready to go lie a lot?"

The Administrator's Office: Administrator Paerani Shan, Crowned-With-Eyes, Sulen, and Virmad

Sulen presses the intercom button for Shan's office, bangs on the door, and gives the bag holding Crowned-With-Eyes to Virmad. Shan is annoyed at the intrusion, but when she recognizes the Rahal, she asks, "Is there some difficulty I can help you with, Magistrates?" Sulen replies, "Only major heresy." They gesture at the mothling in its bag, and slam the data cube with the faked evidence of heretical correspondence and calendrical rot onto Shan's desk. Shan's meditation focus falls over. Sulen continues, "One of your scientists is using alien creatures to destabilize the local calendar. With the collaboration of your magistrate. What we haven't determined yet is your level of complicity." Shan, holding the meditation focus, insists that the station is engaged in legitimate research. Virmad pushes for clarification, finishing, "It is important that we clearly establish whether you are directly complicit in this heretical research or simply incompetent." Shan asks for evidence, to tell her whom to discipline. Sulen answers, "It's on your desk. But I think you know this goes beyond discipline." Shan concedes, clearly despairing of protecting her people. Sulen, who regrets hurting her, tells Shan, "Removing the heretic and his materials from the station needs to be the first priority, before the heresy can spread. Sign Nirai Remi and his 'test subjects' over to our custody and we can unburden you of this situation."

Back on the Wasp

Airlock: Alaric, Ankat, Fluffy, Gerae, Iawa, Istradez, Mikodez, and Sasha; messages to Ashari

Sasha asks the grid to inform Ashari that Avrayen (Mikodez) and Imsayed (Istradez) have been retrieved. She checks the airlock scan and finds that multiple lockpicks are concealed in Fluffy's cage. Alaric observes, "I honestly can't decide if we're not very good at this, or if we're actually really good at it since we're basically on schedule despite all these distractions we keep getting involved with. I'm leaning towards 'really good' though." Sasha, who worries this is a bad omen, asks, "Could you save the assessment till we're actually finished?" She asks Alaric to deliver Fluffy to Gerae.

Gerae's Room: Alaric, Fluffy, and Gerae

Fluffy greets Gerae with joyful trilling. Gerae thanks Alaric for taking care of her, then asks, "Will I be in here for much longer?" Alaric introduces himself and demurs, "To be honest, we're all kind of terrible at communicating with anyone except the mothlings." Gerae asks whether Alaric is from outside the heptarchate, and notes there aren't many visitors. Alaric points out, "It's not exactly a terribly tourism-friendly government. There's plenty of very friendly people at the individual level, but the systematic torture, murder, and torturous murder is a bit off-putting. No offense intended." Gerae says that although he is not personally a model of behavior and some things are "fatally not pleasant", the heptarchate tries to do its best by its citizens. Alaric says, "You've just got far too many decent people around to keep the system in equilibrium, leaving it vulnerable to action-reactions spirals of suppression and revolt. Your social structure's not nearly oppressive enough, either. I mean, families? Oldest source of emotional compromises on the books." He notices he is about to reveal information about the fate of the Liozh, and decides to be quiet for a moment and sit down, rather than looming over Gerae.

Ashari's Office: Ankat, Ashari, Mikodez, and Sasha

Sasha has received a message from Ashari saying, "Please bring the child back to me. I need to give him a spanking." She and Ankat bring Mikodez to Ashari's office. Ashari instructs Sasha to discipline Mikodez while they monitor the Rahal's conversation with the station administrator, adding, "That vicious streak of yours ought to serve you well in dealing with him, but don't break him, he's important." Sasha looks Ashari in the eyes and answers, "I will speak to Avrayen [Mikodez]. But you're the one who's standing in for his parents." Ashari says, almost gently, that the goal is to "put a good scare into him", but nothing further. Sasha asks Ankat to bring Mikodez to her room; he refrains from comment on the overall weirdness of the situation.

Sasha's Bedroom: Mikodez and Sasha

While Mikodez rests on her bed, Sasha stuffs her belongings into her dufflebag and backpack and begins investigating Mikodez' activities on the station. She finds a note from the security guard who talked to him outside Remi's lab, and another from a security guard who talked to Remi's assistant Vana.

Mikodez wakes up and discovers his gold-striped eye mod is stuck. He asks, "Tech Bayan! Are we hiding from something?" Sasha starts recording the conversation; she sends Ashari a link to a version of the file that uses "Avrayen" instead of "Mishka". She tells Mikodez, "We're back on the fucking ship, Mishka. If you plan to start apologizing, now would be the time." Mikodez asks, "How did I get here? Did I go after everything you expected me to find? Was I supposed to believe Imsayed, just because he said so?" When Sasha pushes for an apology, Mikodez babbles about Gerae and slime mold racing. Sasha gives Mikodez a bottle of water and a ration bar, hoping that hydration will resolve the obvious problem with his eye implant. She asks, "What do you imagine is going to happen?" Mikodez distrusts the water and food. While answering Sasha's question with intentional vagueness, he looks at her from under his eyelashes, reminding her of her younger brother Mirek, from whom she is estranged. Sasha commands the grid to replace the bedroom door with a wall, then tells Mikodez, "I am counting the number of times your actions were reported to station security. When I am finished, I will speak to Imsayed. Then I will return, and we will discuss what you have been doing for the last fourteen hours. If Ashari is satisfied with your explanation, then we will discuss whether you may leave this room. I will answer one more question." Mikodez, who wonders whether Sasha is taking part in a Shuos game, asks, "How would you stop a terrible future from happening?" Sasha tells him, "This is my terrible future. I am trying to keep the rest of you alive." Mikodez is intrigued but tries not to show it. He replies, "Even the people you've barely met? Even perfectly generic relatives?" He tells Sasha to pull up a station map and describes most of his activities on the station, omitting only the details of his fight with Istradez and his trip to find a gene scanner. He then begins feigning sleep.

Sasha investigates Mikodez' activities for a while longer, and finds evidence that he accessed the gene scanner.

Medbay and Galley/Common Room: Iawa, Istradez, and Sasha, joined by Ankat

Sasha stashes her personal belongings in a locker in the gym, then goes to the medbay, where she pockets a stimulant pill and notices a box underneath Istradez' float chair. She asks Iawa whether Istradez said anything about what happened in his confrontation with Avrayen (Mikodez). Iawa asks Sasha how much sleep she has had in the last fifty hours, and asks Istradez for permission to tell Sasha what he has said. Sasha tells Iawa, defensively, "I got six or seven hours of sleep the night before we exited the rift, this will be my second stim, and if I don't sleep after that you're in line behind Kaliyan. I don't like tripping over invisible ground squirrels any more than you'd like watching me do it." She takes the box. Meanwhile, Istradez tells Iawa, "'S fine," and closes his eyes again. Ankat enters the medbay and offers to take over watching Istradez. Sasha asks Iawa whether they can continue their discussion over tea. Ankat tells them, "I'll get the patient out of your way, and leave you two to it. If you need an ex-hawk for anything, I'll be in the medical bay." Iawa thanks him.

Sasha fears that Ankat thinks she's asking Iawa to describe Vidona-style strategies for disciplining Mikodez. She tells Iawa, "Avrayen asked me whether what Imsayed [Istradez] told him was true. Do you have any idea what that was?" Iawa delays by heading to the galley and brewing tea. After an internal debate about whether to betray Istradez' confidence and whether Mikodez is dangerous, Iawa tells Sasha that Istradez was at risk due to prior concussions, which he seems not to have mentioned to Ashari. Iawa continues, "He said Avrayen was his brother. Or rather, he blurted it out then immediately tried to hide it again. I don't know why they both want to keep that a secret, but that's the information I have." Iawa then asks, "And in return for that... What's going to happen to Avrayen?" Sasha observes that Avrayen (Mikodez) may not have known Istradez was his brother, and tells Iawa about the gene scanner. She checks Istradez' file, confirming his real name and birth date (a year after Mikodez was born). She then tells Iawa that she doesn't know what will happen to Mikodez: "Ashari said that we should scare him, but not break him. But I don't know what that means." While Iawa thinks, Sasha continues sorting through the box she found underneath Istradez' float chair, and finds Remi's journals. She decides to give the journals to Yehan for analysis.

Iawa reflects on Vidona training: in that context, not quite breaking someone sounds very sinister. Iawa isn't sure whether Sasha meant to imply torture, but decides to prepare a sedative for her just in case, though the potential options after sedating Sasha don't seem good. Iawa tells Sasha, "I want to be there when you talk to Avrayen. I'll bring my first aid kit in case anything happens." Sasha is disturbed that Iawa seems to expect Mikodez to get hurt, but says, "You're right, you don't make contingency plans based on what you want to happen. Should've brought a first-aid kit when my mother crushed my hand. Right. Meet you outside my room, in ten?" Iawa agrees to the meeting and does not inquire about Sasha's hand. Sasha gives Iawa a pen-sized object, saying, "It's a flashlight. In case someone gets hit in the head again, and you want to check their pupils." Iawa wonders whether the flashlight has any other properties.

Collaboration and Realignments

Alaric's assessment that the team is better at communicating with the moths than with each other is, on balance, fair. However, Sulen has successfully persuaded Ashari to let them choose their ground when confronting the administrator, and has inspired Virmad to join forces with them. This represents significant progress toward the team's objectives and cements the alliance of the former Rahal team members. Delivering Fluffy to Gerae is a prerequisite for his recruitment; it is not yet certain whether conversation with Alaric will help or hinder that goal.

Converting Mikodez to the rebellion's cause is more challenging, a challenge only increased by the rest of the team's uncertainty as to his motives. Sasha succeeds in extracting some cooperation from him, and learns important details about his connection to Istradez. However, her interrogation is hampered by her own uneasiness and lack of cultural context. Her assumption that Iawa can be trusted on non-technical matters is also likely to pose future difficulties.