Move 24 Recap

Sulen and Mikodez; messages with Ankat about Istradez

Sulen, whose clothing has a couple of pieces of Mikodez' spy tape stuck to it, spends a few hours securing the room Mikodez is in. Mikodez asks them, "How's...how's the person-with-a-suspicious-familial-resemblance-to-me doing?" Sulen says Istradez is in the med bay, and offers to relay a message. Sulen receives a lokwor message from Ankat stating that Istradez is awake and asking after his brother. Sulen informs Mikodez that Istradez is awake, and messages Ankat that Mikodez is safely confined and they will be by to speak with Istradez soon. Ankat acknowledges, adding, "Fire's own fortune to you. I don't envy you your job." Mikodez asks Sulen to tell his brother to rest, and that he will be by soon. He adds, "Make sure he eats if he's hungry, and bring him rose tea, if there's any?" on the theory that cryptic references to roses may provoke an interesting reaction from Ashari, and asks what Sulen's plans for Istradez are. Eyebrows raised, Sulen responds, "You're a prisoner, not his caretaker. And I am not actually in charge of either of you, simply to some degree responsible." They unshackle Mikodez and tell him that someone will bring him to the upcoming team meeting. Mikodez waves goodbye.

Iawa and Sasha

Around 01:00, Iawa and Sasha are both awake again after some much-needed sleep. Sasha finds Iawa in the galley. Sasha explains that she is returning the blanket from Iawa's first aid kit, and that she has two things to say: "Thank you", and, "Would you mind explaining what you thought I was doing? I don't understand your threat assessment at all." Iawa says, "I thought you were kicking Avrayen in the head. Was that... not the case?" They add that they hadn't known he was Shuos, and that they thought perhaps "a virus in his augment had taken over your augment." Sasha says, "I thought he'd bring his arms up when he blocked, and I'd be able to restrain him. You don't need to tell me how badly I fucked that up, or how much worse it could have been. And I don't have an augment." She then asks why Iawa didn't restrain her "properly" or go through her pockets. Iawa reflects that Sasha's explanation "makes them long for an hour alone with some paper, a pen, and a dictionary of logical fallacies," and tells Sasha that they had to improvise restraints and should indeed have searched her.

Sasha offers Iawa some of her collection of cable ties. She points out that the situation could have been much more dire: "There was a minute there when I thought you were hostile Shuos. If I'd been a little bit more alert, I could have dropped through the floor and then flooded the room with carbon dioxide." She suggests that a gag would have prevented her from issuing the grid such a verbal command. Sasha thinks Iawa could use more practice restraining people, but might not be comfortable with Ankat as an instructor. She suggests, "If you want to practice tying people up, you can use me, if you want. I mean, in a practical way. I don't--I understand if you don't trust me. But I do think you should practice with someone."

Iawa agrees to take the cable ties, though they have medical concerns about their use as restraints, and are aware of the dangers of gagging unconscious people. They also agree that more practice would be a good idea: "I think if you wanted to hurt me, you wouldn't need to ask me to tie you up to do that." Thinking about the ways Sasha could hurt them leads them to ask, "Um, if you fall unconscious for a long time, or are otherwise out of touch with the grid. Have you set it up to do something deadly?"

Sasha says she has not: "I don't like single points of failure, and I'm not going to introduce them where I don't have to." She adds, "My levels of grid access are, themselves, a potential liability. I have thought about how to limit the damage, if I'm subjected to coercion somehow."

Team Meeting

Before the meeting Ashari has announced, Sasha checks the ship's logs. She finds that it does store information, but that most data on previous teams has been scrubbed. She arrives in the common room early, and sends Ashari a message requesting that moth intelligence be added to the agenda. Ashari responds, "Done, as item (d)." Alaric arrives with a tablet, a mug of cocoa, and a moth plushie. Sasha observes that persuading the printer to make a plushie that isn't "purple and green" is a task that "takes dedication." Alaric responds, "I used an iridescent material for the wings - like beetles, where the color comes from the structure - but in the end I dug into the definitions database and swapped around the relations between color codes and what pigments it prints." He notes that he should probably change the settings back. Sasha asks Alaric whether he rewrote the chemistry module. Alaric says he simply tricked the printer into thinking it's printing purple and green in certain circumstances: "I left the chemistry alone. The last thing I want is it putting cyanide in the milk or something." Sasha notes that whoever wrote the printer's color routines had strong aesthetic opinions: "I think purple and green was their universal signal for Not Suitable For Children Over Ten? I ran into that when I was printing a sleeping bag."

Sulen arrives, wearing very plain clothing. Ashari shows up a few minutes later, just in time to comment grumpily on the printer's color choices. Iawa and Remi nearly collide in the doorway; Remi apologizes very politely, making Iawa even more uncomfortable. The next to arrive are Virmad and Gerae. Virmad introduces Gerae to the team members he has not met; Gerae is anxious and respectful. Sasha tells him, "Call me Sasha. If you weren't going to anyway." He assents, subdued. His deference makes Sasha worry that Ashari will think she's trying to assert formal authority. She asks how Fluffy is doing. Gerae looks relieved and tells Sasha that Fluffy is napping with a purple-and-green moth toy.

Ashari signals the beginning of the meeting by tapping a dagger on the wall. They say, "Thank you all for showing up without setting off alarms, picking locks, or stealing additional pets. Now, while it seems clear that our higher-ups set us up for failure, it would be remiss of me to allow this team to continue lurching about as we did in this mission. I would like constructive suggestions on how we can improve teamwork before we figure out next steps."

Alaric says, "I probably was not the best option to send to retrieve Misha. While I like to think I'm quite handy with fisticuffs and skullduggery, perhaps we need someone handy-er in case abducting, punching, or shooting is something that will happen routinely in the future. Or past. You know what I mean." Sasha messages him, "thx 4 the support :( ." Aloud, she asks whether the team will continue with the same composition for its next mission. Alaric messages Sasha, "You were busy, I was naturally best choice, problem is with mission planner." He tells the group, "I hope so. Despite the distractions and misunderstanding, we did manage to succeed in rescuing not only our intended target but also someone else entirely." Grimly, Ashari says, "The fact that our immediate supervisor is...suspect is not a great sign. I am personally inclined to lie low rather than reporting directly back, and to recruit 'handy-er' people, as Alaric puts it, for our own security." They add that potential recruits will be vetted carefully, looking pointedly at Gerae.

Alaric says, "Speaking of recruits, there's also the small issue of our ride." Sasha asks whether Alaric has learned the moth's name, hoping to lead the conversation away from the problems with her own decision to delegate Alaric.