Move 24 Recap

Mikodez and Sulen; 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.

Istradez and Sulen

Sulen finds Istradez eating a bland but nourishing meal in the medbay. They have decided against bringing rose tea. Istradez asks where the moth is headed next, adding, "How much trouble am I in regarding...my relative?" Sulen says the destination is "yet to be determined", and continues, "You're not in any trouble regarding your relative, but it would be useful if you could clear up some confusion about why he's here, and why Ashari was told he needs to be kept safe." Istradez answers, sadly and bitterly, "In my time, decades down the line, he's my brother and he's the Shuos hexarch. Which is a very long story. I thought he might have escaped the inevitable corruption that happens to everyone who guns for the seat, but I was wrong. He sent me to die. That's my stake. Maybe he's useful leverage, who knows?" Sulen reflects that the current version of Mikodez seems ill-suited to the job, but perhaps he changed, or "perhaps the rebellion wants to preserve him because he's a conveniently ineffectual hexarch." They decide to say simply, "At least we all survived our first mission. That counts for something, I suppose."

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; accompaniment from Cantata and the mothlings

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. Ashari points out that the moth chooses its own direction: "How open is it to negotiation, do you think? Because we can't be held hostage to its whims." Remi says, "I take your point. I should also point out that the mothlings are going to grow, and they'll have opinions of their own..."

Virmad waves, asking for an explanation of "what's going on with the moth". Sasha explains, "The moth is intelligent. Alaric made contact with it soon after we exited the rift. It wanted us to rescue Remi's mothlings, and it likes music and math puzzles. So far, negotiation with it has been straightforward. We told it that we were from a group of humans with the rebellion logo, not one of the factions. Alaric explained that it had to be quiet and wait for us to retrieve the mothlings, which mostly worked." She adds that she fulfilled her promise to sing with the moth. Virmad finds the information about the moth's intelligence overwhelming: "The moth is intelligent? Is this a new development?" The moth sings a bit of melody, which the mothlings respond to; Remi's expression softens. Sasha tells Virmad that whether it's a new development depends on what he means by "new". Virmad clarifies, with a bit of impatience, "Have they always been intelligent?" Sasha points out, "We just went back in time prior to the invention of the mothdrive and collected a bunch of juveniles, one of which is a fuck of a lot smarter than my brother was at one day old. So for all practical purposes, the answer is yes." Alaric expands, "They've always been intelligent in the same sense that humans have always been intelligent, yes. Although with a sample of only one adult I can't tell you whether they've also been dumb in the way humans have always been dumb." Sasha asks whether moth intelligence was really secret: "It's not one of those facts that everyone is aware of but no one likes to talk about?" Ashari, nettled, says they didn't know. Alaric says that people knew the moths were biological, but not that they were intelligent, or how the mothdrive depends on the calendar: "Lots of propaganda about why the drive justifies the remembrances, not much about why it requires them. The harness suppresses their higher mental functions, allowing them to be steered."

Sasha asks Alaric whether the harness will reactivate when the moth exits the rift. Ashari, whose priorities are more Andan, asks, "How well do the moths understand human notions of hierarchy, in your estimation?" Sasha is unnerved by this reference to Ashari's faction power. Trying to seem relaxed, she says, "We're not entirely sure, but one of the first things the moth asked Alaric is whether we belonged to a faction, so they do know something about the heptarchate." Ashari notes, "Given that they're apparently sentient, and omnipresent at that, I suppose that's not surprising." Remi asks, distressed, how young moths are when they are harnessed. Sulen asks whether the moth really comes from the year 702. Virmad says he knew the moths were alive, but thought this was biotechnology, not enslavement. He asks whether the moth's name is known, and what it wants. Sasha displays a list of questions people have asked about moths in this meeting, and tells Virmad that the moth wants to protect the mothlings. She pushes Alaric to clarify the moth's name and origin time. He reports, "The name's not really pronounceable, unless you're a small orchestra. I think the closest equivalent might be... a particular music style. Let's go with 'Cantata'. The babies don't have ones yet, which I hope is just moth tradition and not just another way we've already traumatized them psychologically." He adds that the moth is indeed from 702, and that he can disable the harness' software quickly and its hardware with a bit more effort. Ashari says, "I would like for you to impress upon the moth our willingness to work with it--with the goal of getting it to be willing to work with us. At minimum, we need it to get us to alternate transportation instead of stranding us in the middle of gate-space. But it would be ideal if we could get it to agree to some kind of partnership." Virmad assents, sounding distressed. Sasha says she'd be delighted to help with the software, hoping this is the response Ashari wants from her. Alaric tells Ashari that the moth "does seem to understand that our environmental needs are very different," so being stranded in gatespace is unlikely, and the team should be able to free the moth and fall back on the invariant drive if necessary. Ashari says, "As long as it understands that we're happy to free it in exchange for continued transportation, that will be a good starting point."

Nodding at Gerae and Remi, Virmad asks, "What about our new friends? Or, more to the point, what about the rebellion? Do we just...go back now? If we have doubts — and I think we do — it seems to me we should resolve them now." Sulen lists doubts: "We don't know why our superiors put together such an ill-suited team, we don't know why they assigned us someone they probably knew was a spy, and we don't know what their intentions are towards the moth creatures." Sasha adds, "We don't know whether we're worried about a single member of our organization or a group of people, and we don't know how deeply the Shuos are involved." Virmad says, "If the Magistrate here hadn’t coincidentally provided Sulen and myself with a way to gain the Administrator's trust, I don’t know how they could possibly have thought we would accomplish our assigned mission, even with the dedication of other members of the crew." He observes that the team's superiors seem either untrustworthy or incompetent: "Add to this the uncertainties that surround the moths and I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the idea of continuing to participate in anything our 'superiors' ask us to do without getting many more, and more direct, answers." Remi asks, "Do you have leverage that doesn't involve turning your superiors in?" Ashari notes that the team's superiors will be expecting them to check in, assuming they were not planning to sacrifice the team and its valuable moth: "I have no intention of going straight back into what might be a trap."

Sulen says, "This does seem very circuitous for a trap. Incompetence fits better than malice, but if they were really that incompetent they wouldn't have lasted this long." They tell Remi, "I'm still not comfortable returning to anywhere that uses the mothdrive with a free moth whose ambitions are unclear. I'd guess our superiors would have the same misgivings. I'm not sure they were hiring your services in good faith." Sasha points out, "The original briefing was to retrieve Remi, not Remi and the magistrate and six baby aliens." She thinks Ashari and the Kel "would have done it more quietly and with less fuss." Aloud, she says, "You can't expect the rebellion to be organized from the top down, or to have consistent lines of authority. That would be a security nightmare, because the second the Shuos got in, they'd roll everything up. There have to be divisions and redundancies. My guess is, we're dealing with a single person or a small group who have chosen to exploit those redundancies to build a personal powerbase." She suggests the goal is a group of people "divided from each other and grateful to them." Sulen agrees, "Good point. If this is the work of a single person, there might even be pettier personal motivations. Sabotaging Ashari's position in the rebellion, perhaps." They reflect that their past activities as an Inquisitor might also have made them a target. Trimming their nails with a dagger, Ashari says, "They're going to regret picking on us." They note that there are "minor rebel outposts at the border" where the team can stop for resupply and recruitment. Alaric suggests, "I do wonder if we need to worry about when these orders and personnel choices originated. It's possible whoever made them intended for us to exceed our orders, knowing what the result may be. Whether or not that's a good thing is orthogonal, of course. It's just something to think about, but not agonize over." He adds that someone spent too much time agonizing over possible simulations.

Sulen asks the someone in question, Mikodez, whether he has considered his situation. Mikodez, who has been fighting not to fall asleep, says, "Oh. Is it time for doing away with witnesses?" Ashari tells Mikodez to make a case for how he can be useful, other than "as a space-frozen hull ornament for our moth friend", in four sentences or less. They ask Sasha for "four sentences on how we can prevent the galloping disaster this foxling made of himself even after his extraction." Mikodez says, "Keep me to pass misinformation against what's his name, Quill, and any of my instructors that come sniffing after me. Or you could always leave me to the moths." He adds that his "relative" might appreciate it if his remaining scraps of bone were flagellated, and that he could crochet "a rose wreath scarf." He wonders what, if anything, Istradez actually revealed about his possible future as a hexarch. Sasha lists three procedural improvements: scanning and cleaning augments, expanding silent alarms to notify the Kel of problems, and planned "additional training" with Iawa. Watching Ashari's dagger, she adds, "Fourth, I need to stop hitting people that I work with." She fears she has destroyed the respect other team members might have for her, but considers this public admission her punishment for mishandling Mikodez.

Virmad suggests, "If we were to trust Miksel"--he's using a condescending low-language diminutive--"to be our eyes on Quill, maybe Yehan would be willing to, ah, keep an eye on his work. Not that the rest of the crew isn’t very capable, but — set a fox to watch a fox, as they say." Ashari approves this suggestion.

Meeting Successes and Failures

Ashari's original agenda was to address problems in teamwork, consider how to rectify them, and choose next steps. In practice, the problem of the moth ends up dominating the meeting. Genuine progress in disentangling the team's ongoing difficulties with trust, communication, and lines of authority would likely have been impossible in a public forum. Ashari does succeed in expressing dominance and unifying the team around a common skepticism of its official superiors. They are also able to engage Remi and Virmad in the construction of future plans, which is likely to tie these two more tightly to the team's goals in the future.